After four hundred years of silence from God since the prophet Malachi, a sense of urgency surrounding the coming of Messiah is palpable.
And then, the cry of a baby, hidden away in a cattle stall. Does anyone realize what has just happened?
Shepherds stay in the fields all night at this time of year, watching over their flocks in the hills outside Bethlehem. Imagine their view. Whether or not they know God, they cannot help feeling close to something greater than themselves while gazing at the infinite expanse of the night sky. Even the word “peace” is not enough to convey their setting.
But without warning:
“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, 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’” (Lk 2:9, ESV).
Humble shepherds are the very first to be first terrified, but then honored by God with this celestial announcement. Why?
Some months later, a group of three very wise seekers of knowledge, led by the appearance of a star that they somehow know will lead them to the newly born king of the Jews, appears in Bethlehem after an arduous journey from the Far East.
Their inquiries come to the ears of King Herod, a traitorous Jew specially chosen by the Romans to spy on and abuse his own people:
“Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him” (Mt 2:7-8).
Worship? Spies and traitors to their own people do not worship leaders among their subjects. They assassinate them.
But here, it is the way of God, as shepherds and seekers walk right up to where the baby Jesus lies, while the spy/traitor has no idea where he is.
And it is the way of God that he warns the seeker/wise men not to reveal where the baby is. They depart quietly, circumventing Herod entirely, and head back to the East having worshiped a foreign King Jesus.
So, who would you say are the characters in this story in unity with God?
Wouldn’t you expect Herod and the leaders of the Jews to be the first to recognize that prophecy of long ago has finally become reality?
Wouldn’t ignorant shepherds be so removed from civilization that they would have no clue? They are mostly ignorant, after all.
And wouldn’t wise kings from very different foreign lands and cultures be the least likely to fall down and worship the King of the Jews?
Go back to the angel’s initial announcement to the shepherds – it was to be good news for all the people!
If we give precedence to Old Testament prophecy, now fulfilled, “all the people” means all the children of Israel. Yet thirty years later the spies among the children of Israel murder Jesus – in abject disunity from God.
But it is poor, illiterate shepherds who drop everything and hasten to Bethlehem in perfect unity with God! Do they just leave their sheep out there unprotected, or do they herd them into the town of Bethlehem?
And it is very wealthy wise men from a totally foreign culture who bring fabulous gifts and fall down on their knees to worship Jesus; who also obey a warning from God; and who, as we shall see next time, provide the gold that Joseph and Mary will need to accomplish their escape from the bloody Herod. Unity with God takes on many different forms!
Jesus comes for all people; he does not wish that any should perish.
And ultimately, he prays to his Father that all who come to believe in him will be joined together in perfect unity.
All the people! Amen. So let it be!