During the weeks of this season of preparation I have been writing about occasions in the Christmas story where ordinary people were told not to be afraid. Zechariah, Mary and Joseph received messages from heavenly visitors which caused them to be afraid. But the coming of Christ is no time to be afraid.
Fear does strange things to us. The heart rate goes up, blood pressure is elevated, and the body, sensing danger, produces a blast of hormones, inducing a fight or flight response. Other effects of fear might be hyperventilation, sweating, goosebumps or sleep disturbance.
Some other people were told not to be afraid. They are not identified by name in the Christmas story. Rather, we know them by their occupation. Like 7.4% of people in our population, they were night workers. These men took care of sheep.
If they were like David, the shepherd boy of Bethlehem, they must have been rugged, brave, and resourceful. You may recall how David protected his father’s sheep from predators, killing a lion and a bear. If the men we read about in Luke 2 were like David, we would not attribute fear to them. Yet when an angel appeared, it was a shock to the system. They were terrified.
Angels are all over the place in the story of our Lord’s birth. They appear unexpectedly with good news for the participants in the unfolding events. They are powerful beings who are sent to people as representatives from God. As these nocturnal field workers watched over their flocks, all of a sudden a brightness lit the night with the appearance of a mighty and awesome creature who spoke to them and said, “Do not be afraid.”
They may have been humble, anonymous working men, but they were not stupid. They knew a supernatural manifestation when they saw it! The angel might have surprised and scared them, but he didn’t paralyze them. They overcame fear by realizing this was a message for them and they had better believe it.
They made the message personal: “The Lord has told us.” What did the Lord tell them in the angel’s message? “Today, in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). This is the good news of Christmas. God did not send his Son as a political reformer, educator or philosopher. He sent him to be our Savior, to deliver us from the penalty and power of sin. Like those simple shepherds, we need to make this message personal.
A friend of mine told me how she had done this. She attended a Christmas eve service at a church and heard the pastor bring a simple message on John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” She told me that during the singing of the Christmas carol that followed, she bowed her head in prayer and opened her heart to the Lord Jesus, receiving the promised gift of eternal life. That is the point of Christmas. She made it personal and so can you.
The story continues. They acted on the message: “Let’s go!” We are not told much about their feelings, but we do read about their direct and decisive actions. They were men of action. By obeying the message, they stepped out of obscurity and became internationally famous for what they did. They encouraged each other in obedience: “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about” (Luke 2:15).
They did that. “They hurried off” (they were quick to obey the Lord) “and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16). The angel had told them to look for an unusual sign (v. 12), a feeding trough! The baby he was speaking about, the Messiah, will be lying in a feeding trough for animals. Sure enough, they found him there, as the angel had said.
I believe their fear faded when they determined to make the message personal and act upon it. When the shepherds acted in obedience to God, they found his word to be true. It was “good news that will cause great joy for all the people,” as the angel had said. For us too, if we will believe it and act on it.
Pastor Randy Faulkner