The shepherds

Why does the angel announce the good news of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds first?

In Luke 1:32, the angel says to Mary: ‘The Lord God will give him (Jesus) the throne of his father David’.

David was a shepherd in Bethlehem around 1000 B.C. In his insignificant task, his trust in God grew. David described the good shepherd in Psalm 23. Jesus said in John 10:11: ‘I am the good shepherd.’

The shepherds of Bethlehem mainly reared sheep for the sacrificial service in Jerusalem. They therefore had to make sure that the sheep were spotless. Now the experts come and discover the true Lamb of God.

The shepherds are the first witnesses that God’s word can be relied upon. It is worth listening to God, even if some things seem illogical at first glance. By addressing the shepherds, God shows that his salvation is for all people.

Sometimes we think that God should speak through people who are better suited for this. But God loves the testimony of ordinary people.  The many small miracles are often more appealing than lofty theological thoughts.

God chooses the afflicted

In Luke 1, verses 28-30, the angel Gabriel says to Mary: ‘Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you! … Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.’

In Mary’s language it was probably: ‘Shalom (peace to you). God has chosen you. The Lord is with you. … Do not be afraid, you afflicted one. God is merciful to you.’

Mary first receives a promise from God. Her name is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam, which means ‘bitterness’ or ‘affliction’.

As she has to register on the tax list in Bethlehem and had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem despite her pregnancy, she could have been an heiress daughter (Genesis 36:8). This means that Mary would have had no brothers and would have been the owner of a family property. Perhaps the parents gave their daughter the name Bitterness because the son they had hoped for, did not come.

It is precisely with a young woman who grows up in difficulties that God wants to write history. The message is: however difficult your life may be, God looks at your heart, not your circumstances (1 Samuel 16:7).

God works through people who are at the end of their rope

In Luke 1:20, the angel Gabriel says to the Jewish priest Zechariah: You will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things (the birth of your son) take place, because you did not believe my words’.

Decades of praying and hoping (verse 13) make Zechariah a realist. He knows that they are too old for a child. The angel’s words are surreal for him and come far too late. Like Sarah, Abraham’s wife, he considers it impossible to have a child. But that is precisely the point. John is a miracle of God. Miracles happen where our possibilities are at an end.

Zechariah becomes silent. This reminds us of the prophet Ezekiel, who also became silent so that his prophetic message would be all the stronger (Ezekiel 3:26-27). God can make something out of everything for his glory (Romans 8:28).

John’s birth at an impossible age is reminiscent of the promise to Abraham: ‘In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3). This is now fulfilled in the birth of the Messiah Jesus, whose forerunner John will be.

God acts illogically. He takes the failed and outcast (Luke 1:25) so that his power becomes all the more visible. Thus God says to Paul: ‘My power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9).

That gives us hope. It is precisely through my inability that God receives his opportunities. During the nine-month retreat, Zechariah finds his prophetic praise (Luke 1:68-79). Storms cause trees to take deeper root.

Christmas begins with an angel

Who are these mysterious beings?

Angels are messengers from heaven. They are often invisible. In 2 Kings 6:17, Elisha asks God to open his servant’s eyes so that he can see the heavenly hosts around them. 

In the spiritual world, there is a battle between the angels and the angels who have fallen away from God. This is what we read in Revelation 12:7 and in the book of Daniel chapter 10.

Angels always open a new chapter in the history of God’s salvation.  God sends the Saviour to earth.

Even today, God speaks through the Bible, through people and through angels. Angels are fellow servants. This means that we do not focus on the angels, but on God. We talk to God and he commissions the angels. An angel will only do what God says.

It is exciting to think that God also wants to use us as his messengers (angels) by encouraging others, building them up and pointing them to God.

Perhaps sometimes an angel has to step in because there is no human messenger available at the crucial moment.

Advent impulses

The story of Jesus begins with an angel. An angel meets the Jewish priest Zechariah. Then he meets Mary and in a dream an angel meets Joseph.

There are many coded statements in the angels’ messages.

When the angel announced to Mary that she would have a child as a virgin, the angel assumed biblical knowledge. Mary is not a naive young woman; she knows the meaning of the individual words.

When Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave birth to a child at the age of 90, God, like the angel to Mary, literally said: ‘No word that comes from God will be without power’ (Genesis 18:14).

It is a reference to the amazing story in Genesis 18, when God appeared to Abraham in human form. There we are told a radical depiction of God’s incarnation: He eats the food that Abraham prepared. This is therefore not a spiritual appearance, but a tangible human being.

If God could become man back then, then he can also limit himself and come into this world in a child. In Jesus, God reveals himself to us in a tangible way.