THE THREE-FOLD RESPONSE TO CHRISTMAS
LUKE 2:1-20
Introduction:
When Pope Julius I, in the year 353, authorized December 25th to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus; who would have ever thought that it would become what it is today. When Professor Charles Follen, in 1832, lit candles on the first Christmas tree in America; who would have ever thought that the decorations would become as elaborate as they are today.
It’s been a long time since 1832, and even longer since 353, and things have changed a great deal. It’s been longer still since that dark night brightened by a special star in which Jesus was born. Yet, on this Christmas morning we have another opportunity to pause again and, in the midst of all the excitement, extravagance, elaborate decorations and expensive gifts, to reflect on the event of Christmas and the person whose birth we celebrate.
But this historical scene we’ve just created illustrates perfectly for us just how difficult it actually is to reflect on Christmas; because as much as things have changed since that first great Christmas, or the year 353, or the year 1832, things have also remained very much the same. The story is the same, the reason is the same, the hero is always the same, and the outcome never changes – the story is so reassuringly familiar, isn’t it? But this is precisely where the challenge lies…
See friends, during the Advent season, and especially on Christmas day, familiarity is a particular challenge for us as Christians. We need to bear in mind that for some, the Christmas story has been regularly heard since childhood. I’d imagine that, for most of us gathered here today, the Christmas story is one that we could retell in our sleep. We’ve probably seen the nativity scene so many times that we could position the stable just so, place the shepherds, wise-men and angels in all the right spots and still leave room for Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus.
It’s true; annual rehearsals have made it all the more difficult to wonder at the miracle that is Christmas, to ponder deeply the truth of that first great Christmas and to render to God the appropriate praise and glory in giving him thanks for it.
As the late American writer, E.B. White, once said: “To perceive Christmas through all its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.” Because with every year that passes our familiarity with the story grows.
So this morning we face that same challenge again – and the question is: how do we overcome that sense of stale familiarity? How do we learn to listen in a fresh way to an ancient story? How can we position ourselves to allow the beauty of Christmas to once again surprise and amaze us?
Well, perhaps the best place to begin is to critically reflect on the way we respond to the historical fact of Christmas, in other words, the actual birth of Jesus Christ. Perhaps we should bravely look inward and ask ourselves what our response to Christmas truly is… and perhaps then we should compare it to the response of those who were present at that first and wonderful Christmas.
Now I won’t presume to know what your response to Christmas is, I cannot look into your heart and nor can you into mine. However, we do have the incredible privilege of considering the testimony of God’s Word and, when we do so carefully, we are able to look into the scenes of the story and then notice the response of those who were present at the birth we celebrate today. Presumably, once we know how that original audience responded, we can ask ourselves bravely whether our response is the same as theirs – as it should be.
So this is exactly what we’ll do this morning. We’re going to spend some time reflecting on the “three-fold response to Christmas” that we see presented for us in our earlier Gospel reading and ask ourselves at each point whether or not this too is our response to Christmas.
Now you may be wondering why I refer to a three-fold response to Christmas… Well, when we read this text from the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel carefully, one of the things we notice is that there are three different responses made by three characters, or groups of characters, in the story. And when we are able to hold these three different responses together as one three-fold response, and cultivate this in our own lives, we will find ourselves in a place where we would be able to hear again the Christmas story with a fresh sense of wonder and amazement.
The first response is precisely that of wonder and amazement, and this response we see in those who had gathered around and witnessed this miracle; the second response is that of pondering and treasuring, and this response we will see in Mary as she struggled to make sense of it all; and the third response is that of praising and glorifying God, which we will see in the shepherds as they return to their pastures having seen all that they heard from the angels to be true.
Message:
We begin by reflecting on the first response, which we see in the crowd that had gathered around the manger, that of wonder and amazement.
1. Wonder & Amazement…
In verse 18 of our reading we read that “all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them.” And we can almost imagine the scene playing off before us. The shepherds having just heard what the angels had announced to them rushed off to Bethlehem to see if it was true, they arrive at the manger and find that it is indeed as the angels had told them and so they begin to tell everybody that had gathered there the story of how they came to know of Jesus’ birth.
Until that moment the crowd had simply witnessed another birth and gathered around to see if they could help and offer words of congratulations – this would have been the done thing after all. The small close-knit communities of that day would have been used to rallying in support for a birth, which was never easy without all the medical interventions we know today. The older women would have immediately taken control, settled Mary down and made sure she had all she needed, perhaps even shown her how to feed her new-born son. The younger women would have crowded around curiously wanting to see this new little boy and learn what childbirth was all about. The men would have no doubt given Joseph a few slaps on the back congratulating him on the fact that it was a son – little did they know that he was the Son not just a son.
And then the shepherds arrived and told the unsuspecting crowd who this new little baby was, that was not just a son, but in fact, the Son. And the response of the crowd, they wondered at what they heard.
Now before we think that this wondering might refer to a type of uncertainty about whether or not the shepherds should be trusted, a Greek lesson would probably be in order. I Know, I know, it’s Christmas day and no one’s really in the mood for an academic lesson in an ancient lesson, but believe me, this changes the way we read the text…
See friends, the Greek word used here, which our English translations render as “wondered” is that of ‘ethaumasan’, which means literally, to stand in amazement and marvel, more often than not this word is used in reference to a miracle. And, of course, the birth of Christ is nothing short of an absolute miracle!
So when the crowd had heard the message of the shepherds the stood in utter amazement because they now looked at this birth with a brand new set of eyes, a totally different perspective. This was no longer a simple birth, through the testimony of the shepherds, the crowd came to see that this was a miracle playing off right before their eyes and so they stood in wonder.
Now friends, the challenging question that we must bravely ask ourselves at this point is this: when we hear the testimony of the shepherds, do we join with the crowd gathered there in utter wonder and amazement?
For if we do not, perhaps it is illustrative of the fact that we may have forgotten just how marvellous a miracle it is that Jesus was born in the first place. That God the Son set aside his rightful place in glory for a season, in order to take upon himself our weak human nature so that he might redeem us and save those whom he loves – everyone!
Pause for a brief moment and consider the wonder of that statement: that God became flesh; was born for us; became a poor and helpless infant for our sake… isn’t it astounding?
The great 16th century Church Reformer, Martin Luther, once said: “The mystery of the humanity of Christ - that He sunk Himself into our flesh - is beyond all human understanding.” This is the miracle we celebrate at Christmas friends, the miracle that God was born for us, surely this demands a response of wonder and amazement.
2. Treasuring…
The second response we’ll reflect on this morning is that which we see in Mary as this event unfolds: that is the response of pondering and treasuring.
In verse 19 we read that “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
Can you imagine what this teenage mother must have felt on that night? The words of the Angel announcing this miraculous birth echoing in her mind; the memory of her cousin Elizabeth’s baby leaping in the womb when she told her about the boy she would soon bring into this world; the overwhelming sense of responsibility at the fact that God chose her; the anxiety of thinking that the love of her life might abandon her – and then the quiet joy at the fact that he did not; surrounded by a crowd of people who stare in wonder and amazement at the little newborn boy she holds as though he is the saviour of the world – of course she knows that he is, the Angel told her so, but now that she holds this little child of her own in her arms, feeding him herself, she finds it hard to believe, can it really be that she’s feeding God? Then the shepherd arrive with their fantastic story of angels singing in the night sky and telling them about this birth – confirming to all around what Mary and Joseph knew to be true.
What a situation for a teenager to be in…
And so, with all these things running through her mind, playing off before her, she quietly sits back, takes it all in, almost soaking up the atmosphere; and she begins to ponder these things in her heart, treasuring the moment.
From the astonished sense of wonder and amazement shared by the crowd we almost graduate to the contemplative, grateful pondering and treasuring of a humble young mother. This is the second response we encounter in our reading from Luke, and what a wonderful response it is!
Now you may be slightly surprised that I said we ‘almost graduated’ from the response of wonder and amazement to that of pondering and treasuring, as though this second response is better than the first… it’s not… and I don’t mean to create that impression. All these response are equally meaningful and valuable. But the reason why I chose that word is in order to highlight the relationship between these two responses, that being that the one should naturally lead to the other – that the former should result in the latter – and that this second response is a type of proof that the first response was authentic and real.
Why do I say this? Well, again, when we look carefully at the original Greek text we will see that the first response (wonder and amazement) is written in the present perfect tense; it happens right here, right now, and then it’s gone. Whereas this second response (pondering and treasuring) is written in more of an ancient equivalent of a type of indefinite future tense; it’s as though this response is an ongoing thing hat begins at a point and then never ends. One might imagine that Luke is trying to tell his readers that Mary began pondering and treasuring this great event in that moment, but that she never stopped doing so for the rest of her life – she always went on pondering and treasuring the wonderful miracle that was the first Christmas.
One Greek scholar and commentator suggests that the wonder of those gathered was a transient, momentary thing, while the treasuring and pondering of Mary was an abiding habit.
Friends, will we be brave enough to ask if this is our response too? Do we go on after Christmas pondering and treasuring the wondrous truth of the fact that God was made man for us – that he took upon himself our form and stature? Or does the wonder and amazement simply fade into a distant memory by the time Boxing Day comes round? Surely the great and marvellous truth of Jesus birth, the incarnation of God, is worthy of cultivating an ongoing habit of pondering and treasuring in our lives. Surely this second response should become part of our response to Christmas…
The famous English poet, John Donne, once wrote:
“T’ was much,
that man was
made like God before;
But that God should
be like man
much more.”
It is indeed much, much more. And worthy of our ongoing pondering and treasuring!
3. Praising & Glorifying…
The third and final response we will reflect on briefly this morning is that of the shepherds who, after seeing that all had been as the angels told them, returned to their pastures praising and glorifying God (as we’re told in verse 20).
Now in order for us to fully appreciate the beauty of the shepherds’ response we need to ask a potentially silly question with an apparently obvious answer… That being: What were the shepherds praising and glorifying God for? Now I need to warn you, this question only appears silly and obvious. See we make a mistake when we assume too quickly that the shepherds simply praised and glorified God for the fact of Jesus’ birth – this, of course, was part of it, but only part.
The praising and glorifying of the shepherds in the text of Luke assumes a very strong undertone of thanksgiving and we need to understand why the shepherds were so incredibly thankful for their experience if we want to appreciate the true meaning of responding to Christmas by praising and glorifying God.
One of the most fascinating things about the nativity story is that each Gospel writer puts a slightly different spin on it by virtue of the characters that they include and exclude. For example, in Matthew’s Gospel it’s the Magi who come to the stable and announce that they had seen a star – he intends to emphasise the kingship of Jesus. Mark, on the other hand, skips all visits to Bethlehem and moves straight ahead to Jesus’ adult life – he intends to emphasize the ministry of Jesus as the reason for his birth.
Luke’s Gospel is the only one that mentions the shepherds, the message that the angels brought to them, and the fact that they announced this to the people gathered at Bethlehem. Why? Why is Luke the only one that mentions them?
Well, Luke had a special affinity for the outcast, the poor, the ill and the altogether unacceptable – and this is precisely who the shepherds were. In our day and age we’ve tended to romanticize the shepherds as these wonderfully pious men, devoted to their work and praised for it. When in actual fact they were often looked down on as some of the lowest in the social order. Because of their work they were unable to keep to the regular hours of prayer at the temples or synagogues, they couldn’t keep to all the strict rules of washing before meals etc. and the list goes on.
The simple truth is that, when it comes to choosing a group of folk to announce this birth to, God could not have chosen a more unlikely, unexpected and (frankly) unacceptable bunch than the shepherds – and the shepherds would have known it too. Yet this is precisely what God did, and Luke wanted to emphasize this, the fact that God chooses the most unlikely, most unworthy people to do his work. These were the shepherds.
It is in light of this that the thanksgiving praise and glory which the shepherds respond in takes on a whole new level of meaning – for they were desperately aware of just how fortunate they were that God had chosen to reveal this great miracle to them. They were painfully aware that they did not deserve this privilege, they did not have the right to know of it, they were completely and utterly unworthy to receive it, yet they did.
John Gill, and 18th century theologian, reflected on the response of these shepherds when he wrote that they were clearly “[giving] God thanks that they should be acquainted with this great and marvellous event [at all]”. This was the nature of their response; they were praising and glorifying God in gratitude because they knew just how undeserving they were to receive this blessing of Christmas in the first place.
Friends, do we share in their gratitude? Or have we reached a point where we almost expect that Christmas should have happened? That God owed it to the world that he should be born for us; do we assume this? Or are we as painfully, and gratefully, aware of how undeserving we were as those early shepherds?
Perhaps our response would be marked by a greater sense of praising and glorifying God if we were to be more grateful for the fact that he came at all and that we were made aware of it, for we certainly did not deserve it. This is the third response that should be found in us: one of grateful praising and glorifying songs to God. If the first responds leads naturally to the second, then both first and second should end in the third.
Conclusion:
Allow me to conclude our reflection for this morning by telling you a short story…
Long ago, there ruled a wise and good king, who loved his people dearly. He longed to know how they lived, what hardships they faced and how they coped – so that he could better provide for them. So he often dressed in common clothes, and went to the homes of the poor. No one he visited ever suspected that he was their king. Then one day he visited a very poor and elderly man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food that the poor man ate and spent a few hours with him. He spoke cheerful, kind words and then greeted him with a kiss before leaving.
A couple of days later he visited the poor man again and this time he disclosed his identity, saying, "I am your king!" Now the king thought that the man would ask for a gift or favor, which he would be only too glad to give, but the elderly man asked for nothing. Instead he said, "You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, cold place. You ate the course food that I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you may have given extravagant gifts, but to me you have given yourself… that is more than I deserve!"
Friends, the wonder of Christmas is that this king from long ago is our King, Jesus Christ, who came into our dark and cold world because he so desperately loves us. How will we respond to the great miracle? May it be a response similar to that of those who were there first, one of wonder and amazement, one of deep pondering and treasuring and one of grateful praising and glorifying. Let us ask God to evoke this response within each one of us. AMEN.
