ON THE
REVELATION OF JESUS TO SHEPHERDS
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven,
the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see
this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Christmastide is probably the most
joyful time of the year for Christians, and so it should be. St. Luke certainly writes his account of the
nativity and the events around it so that a reader can be filled with joy. It is perfectly fine, even right and proper
that we should approach the season that way, and the angel which first appeared
to the shepherds told them, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Isaiah, in his prophecies of the
nativity proclaimed the same message, Thou
hast increased the nation, thou hast multiplied their joy: they joy before thee
according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. Isaiah prefaces this with reminders of a
people in great need of something to rejoice over – The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
The Jews had known many oppressors –
the Syrians, the Assyrians and at the time of the Nativity, the Romans and the
governors they installed. However,
Isaiah says, God will break the yoke of
his burden, and the staff of his shoulder and the rod of his oppressor. And in language which reaches the pinnacle of
Biblical poetry, the prophet tells his people that their deliverer will be an
ideal king – For unto us a child is
born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder;
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, The
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon
the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with
judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever.
What an extraordinary being Isaiah
predicts – a king utterly eclipsing any that have gone before. How strange, then, that when the king comes
among us it is in such humble circumstances.
How strange, that the angel tells a group of simple shepherds the great
news of the king’s arrival. How strange
that his glory is proclaimed by a host of angels, singing for the shepherds, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will towards men.
How strange – and how completely
like our God. Those things He wants us
to know He makes known to us in such ways that deeper meanings lie within what
is obvious.
This king is to be everybody’s king
and in that it is so appropriate that shepherds are the first to be given the
news, rather than nobles or people of power.
This king reaches out to each and every one of us and we are all invited
to come to sit at his side, no matter how poor and lowly we may think ourselves
to be. On the contrary, if we think more
highly of ourselves than we should think, this king teaches us that that will
erect a barrier between us and Him.
Barriers are what this king seeks to
break down, barriers between God and God’s created. For
unto you is born this day in the city of
Now, as we saw from the passage from
Isaiah, the Jews were a people living under oppression, often spoken of as
living in darkness. But that was not the
darkness from which this saviour comes to offer rescue. He provides rescue from a far greater
darkness than physical oppression, the darkness of sin. That is the real cause of joy in this
season. The nativity gives rise to the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and any soul which receives that Gospel receives the
light. A person without the Gospel walks
in darkness and in great danger, particularly if that person deliberately
rejects the Gospel.
As Isaiah says of this kingdom, it
shall be established with judgement and
with justice. Those words imply, or
rather they tell us quite directly, that we have a serious part to play in
reaching the side of our Saviour. We
cannot go on living in the way of sin and expect to escape the justice of God.
The light of Christmas is a brilliant
light, a wondrous light, full of the glory of God. Yet we cannot overlook something which takes
place in that very same season. Friday
was the octave day of Christmas, a day on which we remember the circumcision of
our Lord, in accordance with Jewish law.
His parents make Him obedient to that law by taking Him to be
circumcised, and in doing so we witness the first shedding of our Lord’s
precious blood. This act amounted to
nothing less than the consecration of manhood to God, a covenant with God
through sacrifice, which, although an apparently minor sacrifice was not
without pain, especially in those days long before anaesthetic.
If the circumcision was the first
shedding of Christ’s blood, we all know it was not the last. By the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous, says
When a man gives his life to Christ,
it must be in the same sacrificial spirit of the circumcision. A genuine commitment must involve the same
willingness to bear pain in the course of serving Jesus, whether it be physical
or psychological pain. We must be
prepared to abandon lower, sometimes sensually pleasurable principles to those
higher principles which may at first appear to be austere. That is the kind of sacrifice which benefits
the soul. We should remember when we
consider such sacrifice, especially if we are inclined to balk at it, that the
word is derived from two Latin words, sacrum
and facio and the compound meaning is
to make holy.
The Feast of the Circumcision falls
on the day which marks the beginning of the New Year in the secular
calendar. People speak of it in terms of
a new beginning. Resolutions are made –
to lose weight, to give up smoking, to get filthy stinking rich and so on. That is all very fine, but if such
resolutions lack the element of sacrifice found in the Circumcision of Jesus,
they are empty and doomed gestures. They
are sentimental ideas arising from a love of self, not from a love of God.
Many of us, I know, include in our
New Year’s resolutions, some which are overtly Christian in their
objectives. We will come to church more
often, pray more, be kinder to those around us, go on a pilgrimage and so on. We imagine the light of Christmas opening a
new dawn, just as it did for the shepherds and for a time at least, we glorify
and praise God for all that He has done for us.
The question is, will we allow the
light of Christmas to fade along with all the depth of meaning of
Christmastide.
I remarked earlier on the strange
choice of those shepherds to receive the news of the Nativity from the angels
and I mentioned how God-like such a choice actually is. It is a sign that the new born king is a king
for everyone. No one is excluded fro
access to His kingdom just because they are of low estate.
But there is far more meaning than
that in the involvement of the shepherds.
It is nothing less than a pointer to the mission of our Lord in His
Incarnation. He is indeed a king who
will lead a great army, an army of unprecedented size. It is a host into which we have all been
joined through the Sacrament of Baptism.
Jesus describes Himself as the shepherd of this host, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep,
and am known of mine. John 10:14, and He describes Himself as the way into
the host, I am the door of the sheep.
John 10:7.
When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
written on our hearts, we will know and accept without question the meaning of
that statement. The light of Christmas
will then never fade. The shedding of
His precious blood, both in the Circumcision and upon the Cross will be the
dearest thing we can ever imagine, and our thanks will be heartfelt. I am
the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
The obedience of the Circumcision
carried through to the Cross, As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep. These are the thoughts which
should come to us when we hear the Christmas story of the angels singing to the
shepherds on that hillside above the stable in
May God bless each and every one of
us this year, with safe residence in the fold of the Good Shepherd. May He grant us the hearts of those
shepherds, to welcome Him in. May He
give us the voices of those shepherds to glorify and praise Him for all that we
see and hear, for all that we take to heart to make us hear the voice of Jesus
Christ and follow Him.
Sunday After
Christmas,
Peter Jardine+