Merry Christmas. The reading for Christmas Eve and Christmas day comes from the gospel of Luke. I encourage all of you to read it and ponder the meaning.
V1-2 Augustus meant one who is divine in Latin. His titles were Divine, Son of God and liberator of the world. Eventually Jesus will rightfully be called all of these titles. We will never reconcile the dating of these verses as the registration and governorship of Quirinius don’t coincide. The issue is not the dating but the fact that God arranged for Jesus to be born in the city in which the people understood the Messiah to come from. This was Bethlehem of Judea Micah 5:2-5. And interestingly enough God used one who thought he was divine to do so-Augustus.
V6 “While they were there” doesn’t mean she jumped off a donkey and gave birth. They may have been there up to a few months before she gave birth.
V7 The word “inn” has been mistranslated. It should read there was no room in the guest room. If Joseph was a descendant of the great King David there is no way his relatives would have sent him to a cave or barn. Honor and hospitality were and are too great in that area of the world to allow such a thing. The guest room on top of the house already was filled with other people and they could not be asked to leave as honor and the rules of hospitality would prevent that so the family stayed in the main part of the house with the owners. These houses had a lower front area to them that housed their few animals at night to keep them safe from theft and to help warm the house. The food bowls (mangers) were carved into the floor of the living quarters which was about three feet above the animal’s living space. This depression was what Jesus was laid in.
V8 Shepherds were in the pastures watching their sheep that night as they always were. The Shepherds were outcasts of society because of the job they held. They were not permitted to enter the Temple or witness to anyone as they worked on the Sabbath. In the Old Testament God was seen as a shepherd of his people. The book of Ezekiel chapter 34 talks of this imagery. In that chapter God would shepherd his people as the leaders had become corrupt and misled the people. David began as a shepherd when god called and anointed him. David was a shepherd of the people. In the intervening time the shepherd had become an outcast but God first announces the birth of his son to them. In the gospel of John chapter 10, Jesus claims that he is the good shepherd come to guide and protect the people. Could it be because a new shepherd had been born that God told the ones in the field? God had sent his only son to be the new shepherd for his people.
V9 “The glory of the Lord shown around them” they were terrified because to see God was to die. No one who saw God could live. Only Moses had been allowed to see the backside of God as He passed by. Moses never saw his face. But now the Glory of the Lord is around the shepherds. Everyone at that time knew the Glory of the Lord was in the Holy of Holies in the Temple and only the High Priest entered its presence once a year on the Day of Atonement. But now Gods glory is out of the Temple and available to everyone because it is residing in His only Son. He no longer lives in a building but rather a person.
V10 The angel comforts the shepherds and informs them that he brings good news to the people. They have no need to fear; God will not destroy them but instead has sent his only Son to save them. The angel calls Jesus by the titles he will be known for. Savior – come to save his people, not from Rome, but from sin (Satan). Messiah – the anointed one, King of the people, but not a political king. Lord – Son of the living God, not just a human chosen by God to lead the people as the other kings of Israel had been and were called the son of god, but the real Son of God (Divinity).
V11 The sign for the shepherds who would seek to find this child would be a baby lying in a manger (in a house manger). Since this was not the typical place to put a baby when the shepherds saw him they would know he was the one. Jesus probably had been placed in the manger as there were so many people in the house that it was a safe out of the way place to keep him.
V13-14 Now along with the angel a “multitude of heavenly host” came. A heavenly host would have been a heavenly army of angels. Imagine an army of angels around you. They said –not sang- Glory to God in the heavens and peace to the people on earth. Ironic that there is an army announcing peace isn’t it? This is the preview of the type of King Jesus will be. His army will not fight politically for themselves but spiritually for peace for everyone.
V15-18 The shepherds decide to go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has been announced to them. I have to say I would have traveled right along with them had I been there and Gods army told me something. They found the child in the manger has the angel had told them they would and they told the people in the house what had happened to them in the field. All of the people in the house were amazed at what the shepherds told them. Remember, shepherds were not looked upon fondly but these people believed their story and found it wonderful.
V19 Mary has a lot to think about and ponder in her heart. An angel appearing to her, her pregnancy without knowing a man, God informing her it would be His son, Josephs dream and now shepherds telling her of their encounter with God because of her son.
V20 The shepherds leave praising God. Had this been a smelly, dirty barn the shepherds would have taken the couple with them and provided for them out of their own means. Instead they leave glorifying God for the gift of His son and His provisions for them.
So who did the shepherds tell about the things that had happened to them and what they had seen? They couldn’t witness in the Temple. They couldn’t witness to the general population as they wouldn’t be believed. They had to have told other shepherds. And the story has to have spread. God first announced the birth of His only Son to a group of outcasts, not the elite in the Temple, not the people in general and not to the present King who was Herod. God announced the birth of His Son to those to whom he had sent Him to: the outcasts, the lowly, and the marginal and through his word, the Bible, to us. We are to be like those shepherds of old, glorifying and praising God for whom he has sent and to whom He has sent His Son – to us.
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