Shepherd Visitors

The Shepherds worship Jesus

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:8-20)

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There is quite a history of shepherds in the Bible. Faithful Abel was a shepherd. Abraham kept flocks, as well as Isaac, Israel (Jacob), and Israel’s twelve sons. Perhaps the best known shepherd in the Bible is David. When the prophet Samuel went to Jesse’s house in Bethlehem to anoint his youngest son as God’s choice to be the next king of Israel, David was out in the fields tending the sheep.

Though David would become the most faithful and successful king in Israel’s history, he is equally well known as the author of Psalm 23:

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Jesus: The Good Shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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It is neither an accident, nor a coincidence that Jesus was born in the same town as King David. God is perhaps the greatest poet in history, linking historical events, prophesy, and the historical fulfillment of prophesy together through Christ. Though the Holy Scriptures frequently use the metaphor of the people as the sheep and God as the shepherd, there is no passage in Scripture more memorable than Psalm 23. It shows us the proper attitude we all should have toward God that a great king such as David would consider himself a lowly lamb who dutifully follows where God leads as his shepherd. This also shows why David is considered a great king, despite his great wickedness and sins. All of David’s success came from God, and he remembered that his whole life.

Jesus: the Lamb of God

God had promised David that one of his descendants would be the long-awaited savior of the world. Jesus is the fulfillment of that long-awaited promise. Jesus is both the Good Shepherd, who cares for the sheep, and Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who endures the punishment for the sin of the world. God was with David throughout his whole life. From the time he was a lowly shepherd to when he was king of Israel, God cared for David as a shepherd cares for his sheep. And when David committed great wicked sins, God was there to rebuke David, but only to bring him to repentance so that David would know that all his sins were forgiven for the sake of the promised savior (Jesus). That is the kind of a God we have.

The shepherds who were near Bethlehem on the evening when Jesus was born surely knew God’s promises to send a savior. When they heard the message of the angel they hurried into town to see their savior in the flesh. The shepherds believed the Word of God from the angel though the baby Jesus was seemingly a helpless infant, and Mary and Joseph had to place Jesus in a manger because no one had sacrificed their own comfort to make the incarnate God more comfortable for his first night out of the Blessed Virgin’s womb. When the shepherds returned to their fields they praised God that He had kept His promises and had come to earth in our flesh to redeem us from our sins.

Hard to Believe

The Annunciation - from Emmanuel

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in
Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”

“I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke1:26-38)

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When writing about the Annunciation of the incarnation of the Son of God, Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546) quoted St. Barnard who said, “there are here three miracles: that God and man should be joined in this Child; that a mother should remain a virgin; that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her.” Luther then noted, “The last is not the least of the three.”

Martin Luther certainly didn’t mean to say that Mary did something miraculous, but rather that the faith that God gave her to believe this amazing event was at least equal to the miracle of the incarnation. The High Priest, Zechariah, could not believe a slightly lesser miracle when the angel Gabriel brought him the news that he would have a son with his elderly wife (Luke 1:18). Mary, likewise, couldn’t understand how it could be that she would conceive a son as a virgin, but she believed the Word of God spoken through His messenger.

The incarnation of the Son of God into human flesh is truly THE turning point in all of history. That is why we count our years from the culmination of this event, the birth of the baby Jesus. Or I should say, we count our years from the date of Christ’s birth that was calculated to the most likely date when the Gregorian calendar was put together. Newer research suggests that Jesus was actually born in 4 or 3 B.C., but after 1,975 years (or so, as I write this) a few years doesn’t matter to me either way. The point is that we count our years from the birth of Jesus (more or less).

When God became a man with the conception of Jesus it was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Adam and Eve that the woman’s seed would come to crush the wicked serpent which led them into sin and death. It was a promise that God had repeated and reconfirmed throughout history so that faithful people would not lose hope and despair.

The incarnation is such a wonderful, and important event, that it has been attacked by many throughout the succeeding years. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) maintained that “the finite cannot contain the infinite.” He was referring to the bodily presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, but if it isn’t true for the Sacrament, it can’t be true for the incarnation. Fortunately, Zwingli was wrong. Scripture says in Colossians 1:19 that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him (Jesus).” Even from the moment of conception, when Jesus was just a one-celled person, He was still in control of all creation as God. Yet, as an infant, He was still dependent on His mother (and soon-to-be stepfather, Joseph) for protection, nourishment, and other physical care.

Now, when I say that it was a miracle that Mary believed in the Virgin Birth I don’t mean to say that the story is a myth and that it didn’t really happen. Both of the Gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke tell a story that is rich in detail as if it were true and not a myth or fantasy or fiction. If we only listen to the story in Christmas carols or as told to little children then we may think it was a myth. However, note how Matthew tells the story: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’”(Matthew 1:18-20)

It is interesting to note that God did not send the message to Joseph at the same time He told Mary. God let Mary explain the situation to Joseph first. Though Matthew doesn’t tell us all of the discussion between Mary and Joseph you know that they had to have had a heated discussion, and there must have been many tears shed. It is not easy to believe in a miracle which had never happened to that point in history (though some may have claimed that it had). The way that Matthew describes Joseph’s thinking shows that he didn’t believe Mary’s explanation of the miracle. Joseph had determined to divorce Mary, though quietly so as not to expose her to “disgrace.” What had happened to Mary was as far from a “disgrace” as you can get for a sinful human, but it was not easy to believe.

The virgin birth of Jesus is still not easy to believe. In fact, it is impossible to believe. That is what faith is all about. Faith is about believing what seems impossible. This is why unbelievers have the wrong impression that faith is “blind,” not to mention “ignorant” and “foolish.” True faith is a gift from God, and just like Mary’s belief that God would conceive a child in her with her virginity intact, it is always a miracle.

A greater miracle than the virgin birth of Jesus is the fact that God would become a man in order to save His rebellious people from their sins instead of punishing sinners as they deserve. This is truly the core of the Christian faith and the heart of the Gospel. No other god on earth would do such a thing because all other gods are fictitious creations from the mind of men, and no one could imagine a god who would do such a thing. But that is exactly what God did in Jesus Christ. For this we remember the birth of Jesus as the most important turning point in all of history. When Jesus came to us God was accomplishing our salvation as He had first promised the very same day that sin came into the world.

Don’t make me come down there!

From Emmanuel

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” --which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:18-23)

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A couple years ago there was a well-intentioned, but ultimately blasphemous billboard campaign which purported to be some kind of messages from God. They showed a black billboard with white lettering ending in the simple tag, “– God.” It was blasphemous because none of the pithy sayings had any direct reference to Holy Scripture, and they only contained Law and no Gospel, and they frequently contradicted clear teachings of God’s word. Nevertheless, they were sort of amusing in a superficial (though blasphemous) way. One of my favorites said, “Don’t make me come down there. – God” as if God were a parent warning His disobedient children with vain threats.

I don’t know what the billboard writers had in mind because they were a little late with their warning. The first people that God created (Adam and Eve) long ago let that cat out of the bag. Because Adam and Eve brought sin into the world God DID come down here. Fortunately, when God came down here He didn’t bring about the punishment the billboard sponsors were insinuating. When God came down here He didn’t come to judge and condemn us. Instead God came down to rescue and redeem us from our sinfulness.

This is the Gospel message. It is also one reason why our church is named Emmanuel and it is why the windows pictured with this essay are right up front and are a prominent visible feature to all who worship in our church.

The incarnation of God into man is the central event in all of human history. That is why we count our years from the date of Christ’s birth (or as close as could be determined at the time, but that is a story for another blog). God knew before He made people that we would rebel against Him and we would be lost unless He did something to save us. Yet, He went ahead and created the people who would reject His authority and cause Him immense grief and suffering. Why would anyone do that? Only love could cause someone to go through that kind of suffering rather than avoid it. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8)

All man-made gods require something from their followers to prove that they are worthy of favor. This makes these false gods seem very demanding, but it also makes them able to be manipulated by the actions of people. This is why false gods are so attractive to people. Though the false gods can be harsh taskmasters, they can also make it seem to the people as if they can control God. This is what people have been trying to do ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

The true God is not like the false gods. Jesus didn’t come to us to demand anything from us. There is nothing we can give God that doesn’t already belong to Him. We can’t make up for our sinful rebelliousness. Jesus didn’t come to take anything from us. He came to give. Jesus came to live the obedient human life that none of us are capable of doing. Jesus did please God the Father with His obedient life, and then He offered His life in place of ours on the cross. Because of what Jesus did on the cross we are saved from our sins and all who trust in the forgiveness that Jesus won for us will be rescued from death and blessed with eternal life in paradise.

This brings up the one glaring omission in the “Emmanuel” set of windows in the front of our church. There is no cross depicted anywhere in this set of windows. The cross is central to what the church is all about because without Christ’s sacrifice on the cross nothing else would have any meaning at all. On nearly every other set of windows in the church there is at least one cross, and often many crosses are depicted, but not in these. There are plenty of crosses in the chancel of the church, but unfortunately not in the most prominent, and arguably, the most beautiful set of windows in the church. Well, nothing on this earth is perfect, except Jesus Christ. Even the best of these beautiful windows are only dim shadows of the beauty and the love of God that we will experience in God’s heavenly kingdom, but all the windows in our church guide us to look toward Christ for our salvation, and that is where true beauty is found.