Advent Day 20

". . . 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.”

    ~Luke 2:9b-12

I cannot fathom what this moment felt like. I have no sense of the magnitude of God's glory. At most I imagine awe, emotion, reverence, and maybe a couple tears streaming down the shepherds' faces. But what must this moment have been like to move the shepherds to fear? I know it's an angel of God because I read it on the page, but how could they have known that in the first moment of glory? What must it be like to come face to face with unknown power? If a supernatural force appeared without context? 

Thankfully, God makes Himself known. The angel always starts with words of comfort because our God's message is not one to make us afraid. How often is that an evangelical starting point? To make people afraid of hell, afraid of sin, afraid of God and then preach conversion as the solution to our fears? But the angel at once tells the shepherds not to fear. God's glory is great enough to instill fear, but that glory belongs to a loving God, giving a message of good news and great joy. And this moment is a reflection of our salvation. The weight of our sin before a just God should naturally instill fear, but God gives us the message to fear not because the good news of the gospel is that through Christ we can be reconciled to God and adopted as His beloved children.  

Christ is announced both as savior and child, unexpected from the very beginning, but He's also announced "for all the people." The Messiah was prophesied to the Israelites, but here we learn that He will be for all the people. Kings and servants, Israelites and Gentiles. Jesus's very birth raises up the humble, but long before Peter's vision, the angel shadows the truth that Jesus came for all people and not only for God's chosen nation. Jesus's life and ministry is full of subverted expectations, and yet each one is a blessing too great for us to fully comprehend. It's our subverted expectation of what it means to be God in the first place that allowed us to have a God who felt what it is to be human, who walked our human path and lived our experiences, who was born into lowly circumstances, who never ceased to build relationships with us, and who took on the punishment that we deserved that we might be called His. 

That's the message the shepherds are called to receive though they only understand in part. That's the message the angel gives them, and as he does, he gives them ways to recognize and confirm his words. This is not a story of blind faith. The angel appears before them, tells them the good news, and gives them a sign with which to confirm that news. Faith propelled the shepherds, but affirmation sustained them, turning the intangible into the evidenced. God balances faith and knowledge in His ministry because He made us creatures of faith and reason. Both serve to glorify Him. Belief is necessary but not without reason. After all, why are the shepherds invited to the nativity scene in the first place? Their blessing is to be witnesses that the world might know how the savior of mankind was born into the world.

It is through testimony that we spend this season in anticipation, waiting for our Savior. A Savior who made Himself known to the world by entering into it and Who continues to make Himself known throughout the generations by the testimony of those who bore witness to His life. He invited people in over and over, and He's still inviting us in. We can bear witness, and we can testify to the truth of our Savior as He continues to move in our world.