I have a problem with Christmas. Not with the idea of celebrating Jesus’ birth of course. Nor with the idea of giving gifts to our loved ones. That’s good because it helps us remember that God gave us the greatest gift of all. It’s not even the temptation to eat more than I really need, though that is a problem.
No, I have a problem with presents. More particularly I have a problem deciding which present to open first. Should I choose the most interesting shape? Or should I choose the one with the glossy wrapping? Or should it be the one with the plain brown paper wrapping?
Of course you can see the problem can’t you? The quality of the wrapping may have no relationship to what’s inside. Without looking inside it’s almost impossible to see whether the package is worth opening.
That’s the mistake that so many people make when it comes to Christianity. The package doesn’t look particularly exciting so they never look at what’s inside.
But we shouldn’t be too surprised. After all exactly the same thing happened to Jesus when he began his public ministry. People asked how could this uneducated carpenter from Nazareth be worth listening to.
And you can imagine that the same might have been true when his birth was announced to the shepherds.
We just read one of the prophecies of Isaiah that refer to the coming King. Isaiah was perhaps the most loved book in the first century. Those who were looking forward to God’s salvation saw in it a great hope for their nation.
In fact when they unearthed the Dead sea scrolls last century they discovered a collection of old manuscripts dating back to just before the time of Jesus. And among all the scrolls the most complete of them was an entire copy of Isaiah.
Why was Isaiah so important to them? Well, their land was under occupation. They’d declined to the point where they’d become a fairly insignificant nation, yet their faith in God persisted. The prophecy of Isaiah told them that God had great plans for them. He was going to restore them to their former glory. In that passage we just heard read to us, God promises that they’ll never again be taken over by a foreign army - a promise that clearly he hadn’t yet fulfilled. And then they’re told to prepare the way for the people to return from exile; to look, because their salvation is coming. And the passage ends with the promise that they’ll be called “The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord.”
It’s no wonder, is it, that people loved to hear Isaiah read. Yet they’d been waiting for 700 years and nothing had happened. They were as far from salvation as they’d ever been. But they never gave up hope. We read at the end of Luke 2 of Simeon and Anna who are waiting faithfully in the Temple in Jerusalem for the day when God’s Messiah will appear there.
Yet it must have seemed like a forlorn hope mustn’t it? We human beings find it so hard to wait for God’s timing. But the fact is, it was God who sent this message by the lips of Isaiah. He’d made a promise and he always keeps his promises.
And so one night out on the hills outside Bethlehem a group of insignificant shepherds get the fright of their lives.
They’re sitting around the campfire having a quiet cup of tea, or whatever it is that shepherds drink around a campfire and suddenly there’s this guy standing in front of them surrounded by a bright light. These guys have never seen a light as bright as this. No halogen flood lights in those days!
So you can imagine their fright. But the angel quickly reassures them. Don’t be afraid I’m here to bring you good news.
Now I don’t know how much the shepherds would have known about the prophecy of Isaiah. They may not have picked up on what the angel told them straight away. But we should be able to work out the significance of the angel’s message fairly easily.
First it’s a message of joy for all people. But we’ll come back to that.
Second it’s a message about the Messiah whom Isaiah foretold would come. He’s been born in the city of David - that’s significant. And he’s the Messiah, the Lord. Messiah means the anointed one, the one who, like David was, has been anointed as king even before he receives the crown.
Isaiah had prophesied “See, your Salvation comes; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him." 12They shall be called, ‘The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD’”.
Now if the angels had been announcing a great military leader arriving to lead a rebellion against the Romans they would have been rejoicing. The package would have been worth looking at. But no, see what comes next. “you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” This is no military leader. No, it’s a helpless baby; a new-born; totally vulnerable. That’s an amazing picture isn’t it? The Lord, the creator of the universe who comes as a helpless baby. How could it be? What sort of salvation package comes looking like that - helpless and vulnerable?
But then the story gets even better. Not just one angel but a multitude of angels, saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
You can imagine the shepherds scratching their heads and wondering how a baby can bring peace when the country’s crawling with Roman soldiers.
Yet that’s what the angels announce: “Peace on earth among those whom he favours.”
Now that causes some people to wonder. Does it mean that only those who please God receive his peace? Or does it imply some sort of favouritism by God. Well, in fact neither is the case. The words the angels say could be more accurately translated “Peace among those on whom God’s favour rests.” The message is that God is the one who is acting to bring peace. Those on whom his favour rests is all of us. That’s one reason that he chooses the shepherds, the lowest of the low, to tell of Jesus’ birth. Even lowly shepherds receive God’s favour. That’s the first reason this is a message of joy for all people.
But more important than even that is the peace that he’s talking about. Most often today you’ll hear people referring to the hope of peace between nations, or peace between individuals who’ve been enemies. But the peace the angel speaks of is far more than that. This peace is peace between God and us. Paul highlights this in Romans 5 where he’s talking about the peace we have with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. “10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” This helpless baby will grow up to be the one who ‘pays the price for all our sin’ as the song goes. He’ll one day stand before Pilate as vulnerable and apparently powerless as he was as a new-born baby. But of course the outside of the package can be deceiving can’t it? Pilate warns Jesus during his trial that he has the power to put him to death but Jesus replies that he only has what power God gives him. The truth inside the package is that Jesus has all the power and authority of God, but he’s given it up for the sake of those he’s come to save. He comes as a little baby to demonstrate that fact. He humbles himself and becomes just like one of us so he can make us just like him.
There are some people who look at the Christian package and quite like the bits with tinsel and Christmas wrapping but they’re not quite sure about the bits with the plain brown paper around them. If you’re one of them, let me encourage you to look deeper. To unwrap the parcel, try it out and see whether the message of the angels is for you.
You see the real message of Christmas is this: we no longer need to think of ourselves as unworthy of God’s love. We no longer need to fear to stand before God because Jesus has brought us peace with God. That’s why the angel said he’d come to announce good news of great joy for all the people. That’s why the angelic host praised God; and we echo their cry: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”
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