"And the angels said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord." Luke ii. 10, 11.
THERE are two principal lessons which we are taught on the great Festival
which we this day celebrate, lowliness and joy. This surely is a day, of
all others, in which is set before us the heavenly excellence and the acceptableness
in God's sight of that state which most men have, or may have, allotted
to them, humble or private life, and cheerfulness in it. If we consult
the writings of historians, philosophers, and poets of this world, we shall
be led to think great men happy; we shall be led to fix our minds and hearts
upon high or conspicuous stations, strange adventures, powerful talents
to cope with them, memorable struggles, and great destinies. We shall consider
that the highest course of life is the mere pursuit, not the enjoyment
of good.
But when we think of this day's Festival, and what we commemorate upon
it, a new and very different scene opens upon us. First, we are reminded
that though this life must ever be a life of toil and effort, yet that,
properly speaking, we have not to seek our highest good. It is found, it
is brought near us, in the descent of the Son of God from His Father's
bosom to this world. It is stored up among us on earth. No longer need
men of ardent minds weary themselves in the pursuit of what they fancy
may be chief goods; no longer have they to wander about and encounter peril
in quest of that unknown blessedness to which their hearts naturally aspire,
as they did in heathen times. The text speaks to them and to all, "Unto
you," it says, "is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord."
Nor, again, need we go in quest of any of those things which this vain
world calls great and noble. Christ altogether dishonoured what the world
esteems, when He took on Himself a rank and station which the world despises.
No lot could be more humble and more ordinary than that which the Son of
God chose for Himself.
So that we have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons—instead
of anxiety within and despondence without, instead of a weary search after
great things,—to be cheerful and joyful; and, again, to be so in the midst
of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which the world passes
over and thinks scorn of.
Let us consider this more at length, as contained in the gracious narrative
of which the text is part.
1. First, what do we read just before the text? that there were certain
shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, and Angels appeared
to them. Why should the heavenly hosts appear to these shepherds? What
was it in them which attracted the attention of the Angels and the Lord
of Angels? Were these shepherds learned, distinguished, or powerful? Were
they especially known for piety and gifts? Nothing is said to make us think
so. Faith, we may safely say, they had, or some of them, for to him that
hath more shall be given; but there is nothing to show that they were holier
and more enlightened than other good men of the time, who waited for the
consolation of Israel. Nay, there is no reason to suppose that they were
better than the common run of men in their circumstances, simple, and fearing
God, but without any great advances in piety, or any very formed habits
of religion. Why then were they chosen? for their poverty's sake and obscurity.
Almighty God looks with a sort of especial love, or (as we may term it)
affection, upon the lowly. Perhaps it is that man, a fallen, dependent,
and destitute creature, is more in his proper place when he is in lowly
circumstances, and that power and riches, though unavoidable in the case
of some, are unnatural appendages to man, as such. Just as there are trades
and callings which are unbecoming, though requisite; and while we profit
by them, and honour those the more who engage in them, yet we feel we are
glad that they are not ours; as we feel grateful and respectful towards
a soldier's profession. yet do not affect it; so in God's sight greatness
is less acceptable than obscurity. It becomes us less.
The shepherds, then, were chosen on account of their lowliness, to be
the first to hear of the Lord's nativity, a secret which none of the princes
of this world knew.
And what a contrast is presented to us when we take into account who
were our Lord's messengers to them! The Angels who excel in strength, these
did His bidding towards the shepherds. Here the highest and the lowest
of God's rational creatures are brought together. A set of poor men, engaged
in a life of hardship, exposed at that very time to the cold and darkness
of the night, watching their flocks, with the view of scaring away beasts
of prey or robbers; they—when they are thinking of nothing but earthly
things, counting over the tale of their sheep, keeping their dogs by their
side, and listening to the noises over the plain, considering the weather
and watching for the day—suddenly are met by far other visitants than they
conceived. We know the contracted range of thought, the minute and ordinary
objects, or rather the one or two objects, to and fro again and again without
variety, which engage the minds of men exposed to such a life of heat,
cold, and wet, hunger and nakedness, hardship and servitude. They cease
to care much for any thing, but go on in a sort of mechanical way, without
heart, and still more without reflection.
To men so circumstanced the Angel appeared, to open their minds, and
to teach them not to be downcast and in bondage because they were low in
the world. He appeared as if to show them that God had chosen the poor
in this world to be heirs of His kingdom, and so to do honour to their
lot. "Fear not," he said, "for behold I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
2. And now comes a second lesson, which I have said may be gained from
the Festival. The Angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to
the shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message. He disclosed
good tidings so much above this world as to equalize high and low, rich
and poor, one with another. He said, "Fear not." This is a mode of address
frequent in Scripture, as you may have observed, as if man needed some
such assurance to support him, especially in God's presence. The Angel
said, "Fear not," when he saw the alarm which his presence caused among
the shepherds. Even a lesser wonder would have reasonably startled them.
Therefore the Angel said, "Fear not." We are naturally afraid of any messenger
from the other world, for we have an uneasy conscience when left to ourselves,
and think that his coming forebodes evil. Besides, we so little realize
the unseen world, that were Angel or spirit to present himself before us
we should be startled by reason of our unbelief, a truth being brought
home to our minds which we never apprehended before. So for one or other
reason the shepherds were sore afraid when the glory of the Lord shone
around about them. And the Angel said, "Fear not." A little religion makes
us afraid; when a little light is poured in upon the conscience, there
is a darkness visible; nothing but sights of woe and terror; the glory
of God alarms while it shines around. His holiness, the range and difficulties
of His commandments, the greatness of His power, the faithfulness of His
word, frighten the sinner, and men seeing him afraid, think religion has
made him so, whereas he is not yet religious at all. They call him religious,
when he is merely conscience-stricken. But religion itself, far from inculcating
alarm and terror, says, in the words of the Angel, "Fear not;" for such
is His mercy, while Almighty God has poured about us His glory, yet it
is a consolatory glory, for it is the light of His glory in the Face of
Jesus Christ [2 Cor. iv. 6.]. Thus the heavenly herald tempered the too
dazzling brightness of the Gospel on that first Christmas. The glory of
God at first alarmed the shepherds, so he added the tidings of good, to
work in them a more wholesome and happy temper. Then they rejoiced.
"Fear not," said the Angel, "for behold I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." And then, when
he had finished his announcement, "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, good will towards men." Such were the
words which the blessed Spirits who minister to Christ and His Saints,
spoke on that gracious night to the shepherds, to rouse them out of their
cold and famished mood into great joy; to teach them that they were objects
of God's love as much as the greatest of men on earth; nay more so, for
to them first He had imparted the news of what that night was happening.
His Son was then born into the world. Such events are told to friends and
intimates, to those whom we love, to those who will sympathize with us,
not to strangers. How could Almighty God be more gracious, and show His
favour more impressively to the lowly and the friendless, than by hastening
(if I may use the term) to confide the great, the joyful secret to the
shepherds keeping watch over their sheep by night?
The Angel then gave the first lesson of mingled humility and joyfulness;
but an infinitely greater one was behind in the event itself, to which
he directed the shepherds, in that birth itself of the Holy Child Jesus.
This he intimated in these words: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger." Doubtless, when they heard the Lord's Christ
was born into the world, they would look for Him in kings' palaces. They
would not be able to fancy that He had become one of themselves, or that
they might approach Him; therefore the Angel thus warned them where to
find Him, not only as a sign, but as a lesson also.
"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
to us." Let us too go with them, to contemplate that second and greater
miracle to which the Angel directed them, the Nativity of Christ. St. Luke
says of the Blessed Virgin, "She brought forth her first-born Son, and
wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger." What a wonderful
sign is this to all the world, and therefore the Angel repeated it to the
shepherds: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying
in a manger." The God of heaven and earth, the Divine Word, who had been
in glory with the Eternal Father from the beginning, He was at this time
born into this world of sin as a little infant. He, as at this time, lay
in His mother's arms, to all appearance helpless and powerless, and was
wrapped by Mary in an infant's bands, and laid to sleep in a manger. The
Son of God Most High, who created the worlds, became flesh, though remaining
what He was before. He became flesh as truly as if He had ceased to be
what He was, and had actually been changed into flesh. He submitted to
be the offspring of Mary, to be taken up in the hands of a mortal, to have
a mother's eye fixed upon Him, and to be cherished at a mother's bosom.
A daughter of man became the Mother of God—to her, indeed, an unspeakable
gift of grace; but in Him what condescension! What an emptying of His glory
to become man! and not only a helpless infant, though that were humiliation
enough, but to inherit all the infirmities and imperfections of our nature
which were possible to a sinless soul. What were His thoughts, if we may
venture to use such language or admit such a reflection concerning the
Infinite, when human feelings, human sorrows, human wants, first became
His? What a mystery is there from first to last in the Son of God becoming
man! Yet in proportion to the mystery is the grace and mercy of it; and
as is the grace, so is the greatness of the fruit of it.
Let us steadily contemplate the mystery, and say whether any consequence
is too great to follow from so marvellous a dispensation; any mystery so
great, any grace so overpowering, as that which is already manifested in
the incarnation and death of the Eternal Son. Were we told that the effect
of it would be to make us as Seraphim, that we were to ascend as high as
He descended low—would that startle us after the Angel's news to the shepherds?
And this indeed is the effect of it, so far as such words may be spoken
without impiety. Men we remain, but not mere men, but gifted with a measure
of all those perfections which Christ has in fulness, partaking each in
his own degree of His Divine Nature so fully, that the only reason (so
to speak) why His saints are not really like Him, is that it is impossible—that
He is the Creator, and they His creatures; yet still so, that they are
all but Divine, all that they can be made without violating the incommunicable
majesty of the Most High. Surely in proportion to His glory is His power
of glorifying; so that to say that through Him we shall be made all
but gods—though it is to say, that we are infinitely below the adorable
Creator—still is to say, and truly, that we shall be higher than every
other being in the world; higher than Angels or Archangels, Cherubim or
Seraphim—that is, not here, or in ourselves, but in heaven and in Christ:—Christ,
already the first-fruits of our race, God and man, having ascended high
above all creatures, and we through His grace tending to the same high
blessedness, having the earnest of His glory given here, and (if we be
found faithful) the fulness of it hereafter.
If all these things be so, surely the lesson of joy which the Incarnation
gives us is as impressive as the lesson of humility. St. Paul gives us
the one lesson in his epistle to the Philippians: "Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation,
and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of
men:" [Phil. ii. 5-7. 1 Pet. i. 8, 9.] and St. Peter gives us the lesson
of joyfulness: "whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see
Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory:
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."
Take these thoughts with you, my brethren, to your homes on this festive
day; let them be with you in your family and social meetings. It is a day
of joy: it is good to be joyful—it is wrong to be otherwise. For one day
we may put off the burden of our polluted consciences, and rejoice in the
perfections of our Saviour Christ, without thinking of ourselves, without
thinking of our own miserable uncleanness; but contemplating His glory,
His righteousness, His purity, His majesty, His overflowing love. We may
rejoice in the Lord, and in all His creatures see Him. We may enjoy His
temporal bounty, and partake the pleasant things of earth with Him in our
thoughts; we may rejoice in our friends for His sake, loving them most
especially because He has loved them.
"God has not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with Him." Let us seek the grace of a cheerful
heart, an even temper, sweetness, gentleness, and brightness of mind, as
walking in His light, and by His grace. Let us pray Him to give us the
spirit of ever-abundant, ever-springing love, which overpowers and sweeps
away the vexations of life by its own richness and strength, and which
above all things unites us to Him who is the fountain and the centre of
all mercy, lovingkindness, and joy.
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Copyright © 2000 by Bob Elder. All rights reserved.
Used with permission. See the Newman website:
http://www.newmanreader.org/index.html
