He's Bringing Us Out of Darkness

[HKHaugan]

He's Bringing Us Out of the Darkness

The traditional reading for Christmas Eve worship obviously centers on the birth of Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-20). The first seven verses give us the political, social, physical and personal context in which His birth took place.

But is it ever mentioned that the bulk of the passage, vs.8-20, concerns shepherds, the shepherds living nearby, watching their flocks at night? How much it speaks to us right where we are. Let's look at this passage more closely.

First, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, shepherds, and what do we know about shepherds? They were the first to hear the proclamation that a Savior had been born. You have to wonder, why shepherds? Several things come to mind.

First, a shepherd does his work alone, day and night. Aloneness is the key here. It's more than being lonely. It's what aloneness does. Without God everything a person does is based on escaping that inner sense of isolation and alienation.

Second, he is considered to be among the lowest class of people. Being alone brings fear and pride as the spirits that shape the attitude directing the thoughts and behavior. When you are not in constant communication with other people you make up your own standards of acceptance and recognition and find yourself more alienated. You have to find reasons to justify your existence. You know your position of weakness and hopelessness where you are the lowest and last to be considered. Every person who sees you looks down at you. No wonder when the light of God's glory shone around them they were terrified.

Third, shepherd and sheep put Jesus' future mission in an immediate visual context. He will be a shepherd to the lonely whose lives are vulnerable to the fears and anxieties that come with living in a dark world with its dark attitudes, its dark power struggles, its dark political and social exploitation. The world into which Jesus came was a night of spiritual poverty on every level and those at the bottom tier of society were chosen to be the first witnesses. Why? Their condition was every man’s condition. No matter what level of society you lived on there was always someone out there ready to use you and abuse you. If people could eventually see themselves as sheep driven by false political and social shepherds they could turn to the Great Shepherd and be free from the chains into which they were born.

Jesus came with a spiritual mission to attack what bound the impoverished hearts on every level of society, namely sin. He exposed the devil as its source, exposed each of us as prisoners of sin and exposed the fear of death which sin fosters in every alone heart. In Jesus there was a new truth, a new way and a new life that freed the alone from the chains of their social station and the attitudes and opinions of others. The whimsical extremes of authority figures, whether the emperor in Rome or the local religious leaders, would be neutralized by a new kind of lord who would be Lord of lords and King of kings living in the heart of those who believed in Him. That's true freedom, true choice, true decision.

So much more could be said but I think you'll get the idea how contemporary this context is. So worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth this Christmas because that is the kind of worship that blesses us and Him. Merry Christmas to all the sheep/shepherd types out there who know themselves and the real Shepherd who is the way, the truth and the life.