Luke 2:8-20
You may recall that in the Old Testament God would present himself to men as a bright light. Exodus 3 records the story of the brightly burning bush that was not consumed by the fire that burned it. Abraham was astounded by it and when he stepped closer a voice from the bush said, step back, you are on holy ground. Ezekiel says he saw God surrounded by a wonderful brightness and ceaseless fire. David in Psalm 18 writes, "God is surrounded with clouds which are outshone by His brightness." According to Exodus 40, God "rested" by day as a cloud over the Jewish Tabernacle and His fire would hover over at night so all of Israel could see and know that their God was with them.
In the New Testament we find the story of Saul's conversion. God appears to him in such a bright light that the man is blinded. Later his sight returns, his name is changed to Paul and the man who was once killing Jesus-followers started preaching to convert men and women to the Jesus way. That is the power of light, of God, to change us.
The Message translation of Luke 2:8 says, "There were shepherds...God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them." It also says that the shepherds were scared by the light. But next the angels spoke from the light and told them not to be afraid because something fantastic has just happened. The angels said, "Today a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah and the Lord."
The shepherds were Jews and in the Old Testament writings, savior meant, one who delivers people from harm and evil. Messiah meant, anointed by God and anointing was a special process. Lord means both one who is in control and one who is deity.
Imagine being one of the shepherds. You are working your regular night shift and the heavens open with a brilliant light and music show with angels telling you that something huge had just happened over in Bethlehem. Well, rather than wonder if they had dreamed the whole thing, they ran as fast as they could to the place the angels had directed them to go to.
Since they were probably thinking that this is all too wild and too good to be true, they were shocked to find the baby. At that moment they became the very first missionaries. They told everyone what they had heard and seen and that what the angels said turned out to be completely true.
Next we read that Mary didn't understand what was happening. It says in Luke that Mary "pondered" what was happening to her. This is a clue to us that while God is working in us and through us to bring about his purpose and his glory, we might not understand what is happening at the moment it is happening. Like Mary, we need to stay calm, think, and keep trusting.
Let us be the shepherds today. Let us know that we have seen the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord. We have seen the one who changed everything. Now, what do we do? We, "Glorify and praise God for everything we have seen and heard." We leave here singing, "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!"
