“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
Let’s bow our heads as we pray together.
Our Father, as we reflect now on the words of the Gospel that we have read together, we ask that You would give us attentive hearts, receptive hearts, that by Your Word and Spirit we may, all of us, come to bend our knee to the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. For we ask it in His name, amen.
Do, if you have a Bible, turn back to Luke chapter 2 and to the portion of Scripture that we read. We are going to be thinking about verses 8 through 20 of Luke chapter 2, page 857 in the church Bibles. This is just a brief Christmas Eve homily reflecting on the Christmas story.
I wonder what your Christmas celebrations are going to look like tomorrow. There will, no doubt, be presents. Some of you are opening them tonight, some tomorrow. Maybe there will be a classic Christmas meal that you always prepare and enjoy together. There will, no doubt in many of your homes, be the obligatory board game. In my home we have always watched Her Majesty the Queen addressing her subjects across the Commonwealth on Christmas Day. This year, of course, it will be King Charles’ Christmas address. And in my house, we always watch the two greatest Christmas movies ever made – “Home Alone 1” and “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” Christmas really gets underway in the Strain household when we hear Harry say through the locked kitchen door to Kevin McCallister, “Merry Christmas little fellow! We know you’re in there and you’re all alone!” Now it’s really Christmas! I’ve got to tell you, no matter how often we’ve seen those goofy movies, my two now adult boys and I, howl with laughter till the tears roll down our cheeks at the antics of Harry and Marv. My far more sensible wife, Sheena, usually just laughs at us laughing at the scenes we’ve watched together year after year. But that’s our family Christmas.
Tonight I want to think with you about the first ever family Christmas from Luke’s account that we read just a few moments ago. I’m not thinking about the nativity itself here, the birth of Christ, nor am I thinking mainly about the spiritual pyrotechnics that erupted over the heads of the shepherds out in the fields. I’m thinking about that fascinating moment when the shepherds show up to see the Christ child. Mary and Joseph are staying, perhaps, in a relative’s home. And in walk these shepherds and they all squeeze around the manger to see the baby the angel had told them was their Savior who is Christ the Lord.
I want you to picture that scene with me for a moment. Joseph and Mary have just welcomed their infant son, Jesus, into the world. He is wrapped up tight, sleeping now in a makeshift crib from which cattle had likely been feeding earlier that same day. They are both doubtless completely worn out, though I think we can be sure, like any new parents they would have been full of joy at the safe arrival of their firstborn son. Perhaps they even feel a little relief that despite the gravity of the angelic messages given to them, both of them, 40 weeks earlier, telling them in advance about their son’s divine identity, the baby is the Son of God and His holy mission – He will save His people from their sins, despite all of that, when the event arrived, everything had been very, very ordinary. No more angels. Nothing spectacular happened; nothing supernatural anyway. Just an ordinary delivery of a very ordinary looking healthy baby boy. This was, at this moment, an intimate, happy, family moment.
And into the middle of that intimate, happy, family moment, all of a sudden, unannounced, unexpected, walks this group of smelly, unwashed, rough and ready shepherds arriving directly from watching their flocks out on the hills nearby. And now it’s a party, right? Now there’s a crowd staring down at Mary’s baby lying there in a feeding trough. And before Joseph can get over his astonishment at the intrusion and tell the shepherds to get lost, when they see the baby in the manger, Luke says the shepherds, “made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child.” The shepherds tell Joseph and Mary all about the far nosier, angelic celebration that had erupted over their heads the moment Jesus entered the world. So there were angels at the birth after all, they were just not here at the nativity.
And actually, I’ve always found that fact – that there were angels at the arrival of Jesus Christ into the world, but they weren’t there with Him, they were out in the fields with the shepherds – I’ve always found that fact rather intriguing. The angelic party broke out over the head of the shepherds and not over the heads of Mary and Joseph. The angels are celebrating the birth of the Son of God made flesh. It is the long anticipated coming of the Messiah Himself. He is here at last! But they do not go to where the Messiah is sleeping, where He was born. Isn’t that interesting? I find it fascinating. They go out into the hills overlooking Bethlehem instead. If the traditional sight of the shepherds’ field is reliable, then the shepherds were tending their flocks about two miles outside the city walls of Bethlehem. I can’t help but wonder if perhaps it reflects something of God the Father’s tender care for this exhausted little family, if it reveals something of His Fatherly care for His only begotten Son now made flesh, that the angelic choirs, no matter how sweetly they sang, were required to sing miles out into the countryside above the shepherds and not here in Bethlehem so as not to wake the baby.
Of course whatever other reasons there may have been, the angelic message was given to shepherds. That it was given to shepherds watching their flocks is no mere coincidence. David, in whose city Jesus was born, whose great, great, great, great, great grandson and heir Jesus is, David was himself – do you remember – he was a shepherd who watched over his flocks in these very hills. Jesus was sent into the world to be a Shepherd King like His father, David. In John 10, Jesus will tell His disciples, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” So isn’t it appropriate, isn’t it appropriate that while angels party in heaven, it’s with shepherds that Joseph and Mary now celebrate on earth since the baby who is at the center of it all is the great Shepherd of the sheep Himself.
And then there’s the sign the angel told the shepherds would identify which child is the Savior who is Christ the Lord. The baby, they were told, will be wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. The swaddling cloths would not have distinguished Jesus from any other infant in town, but lying in a manger, well they could be sure there were no other newborns in Bethlehem found like that. But again, if you think about it, what a fitting sign it was for men who work with livestock – the great Shepherd of the sheep, lying where animals feed. Did you know that it was in these same fields that the lambs that were used for sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem, it was in those same fields those lambs were reared. That’s what these shepherds did for a living. The men who tended the lambs for sacrifice, at this moment here in Luke chapter 2, they come now to watch not over their flocks but over the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whose sacrifice atonement was made for the sin of the world. So no doubt, no doubt the angelic celebration was more impressive, more dramatic outwardly at least than this moment here around the crib, around the manger in Bethlehem. “The glory of God,” Luke says, “shone around the shepherds,” the heavenly host, a multitude of angels split the sky with their praises. And their song is full of joy, full of Gospel – “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased.”
And eventually verse 15 says the angels went away. We know from Scripture that their celebration didn’t end. Out of the sight of the shepherds, the praises continued to rise to God in heavenly glory from angelic voices to God’s great throne as the heavenly host adore Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. And no doubt all of that was much noisier, much more outwardly glorious than this first, quiet, intimate, family Christmas in Bethlehem with Joseph and Mary and the shepherds all gathered around the manger late that night.
But that first quiet, intimate, family Christmas was much sweeter and far more wonderful than anything even the angels could fathom. You remember that angels, for all their splendor, could only ever be spectators at what was happening here. They are on the outside looking in, full of wonder no doubt, but looking in as Jesus Christ is born. There’s was a celebration of God’s mighty acts in sending His Son. But ours, ours is a celebration of God’s mighty act in sending His Son for us. Remember what the angel told the shepherds? “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Unto you. Not unto us, we angels, not unto us a child is born, not unto us a Son is given.” Jesus didn’t come for the angels. Angels don’t need saving after all. Angels aren’t sinners. Jesus came for sinners. “Unto you.” He came for sinful shepherds, for sinful Joseph, for sinful Mary, for sinners like me and you. He came for us. Angels can’t say it. Only we can say, “Unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given.” So there’s a sweetness that should mark our celebration as, no doubt, there was that first Christmas all those long years ago in Bethlehem that even angels, even angels can know nothing about because Jesus is ours. He is ours. He is for us. “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.” He is our Good Shepherd. He lays down His life for His sheep. He is for us. He is for you.
No wonder, no wonder Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. No wonder the shepherds returned rejoicing and praising God. Christ has come not for angels; He has come for them. The angels’ party was full of noise and show and grandeur and glory, but this first family celebration was far, far sweeter because they knew Christ has come for them at long last.
What will the character of your Christmas celebration be this year? Will you be a mere onlooker, a spectator at other people’s joy in Christ while you remain a stranger to it because you are a stranger to Him? Or will you come to know what Joseph and Mary and the shepherds came to know – that Jesus was born unto us, for us, for you, a Savior. The Good Shepherd Himself, come to tend and care for His sheep. The Lamb of God Himself, come to die for our forgiveness once and for all. That is reason, that is reason for joy upon joy. So may the Lord enable you to come like the shepherds came to Jesus and there to entrust yourself wholly to Him. And so may the Lord fill your family Christmas with the deepest joy today and in all the days to come. May the Lord make it so. Let us pray.
Our Father, how we adore You for Christ the Good Shepherd of the sheep and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What a gift, an indescribable gift You have given us in Him. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given. Unto you this day a Savior Christ the Lord. Teach us that faith by which we may receive Him and receiving Him this Christmas, fill our hearts with a sweeter joy than any that touch the hearts of angels. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.