Now
there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping
watch over their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the
Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to
them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy
which will be to all people. For
there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord. And this will be the sign to
you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And
on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke
2:8-14
The
selection of two or three peasants as receivers of the message, the time at
which it was given, and the place, are all significant. It was no unmeaning
fact that the ‘glory of the Lord’ shone lambent round the shepherds, and held
them and the angel standing beside them in its circle of light. No longer
within the secret shrine, but out in the open field, the symbol of the Divine
Presence glowed through the darkness; for that birth hallowed common life, and
brought the glory of God into familiar intercourse with its secularities and
smallnesses. The appearance to these humble men as they ‘sat simply chatting in
a rustic row‘ symbolized the destination of the Gospel for all ranks and
classes.
No wonder that the sudden
light and music of the multitude of the heavenly host’ flashed and echoed round
the group on the hillside. The true picture is not given when we think of that
angel choir as floating in heaven. They stood in their serried ranks round the
shepherds and their fellows on the solid earth, and ‘the night was filled with
music,’ not from overhead, but from every side. Crowding forms became all at
once visible within the encircling ‘glory,’ on every face wondering gladness
and eager sympathy with men, from every lip praise. Angels can speak with the tongues
of men when their theme is their Lord become man, and their auditors are men.
They hymn the blessed results of that birth, the mystery of which they knew
more completely than they were yet allowed to tell.
As was natural for them,
their praise is first evoked by the result of the Incarnation in the highest
heavens. It will bring ‘glory to God’ there; for by it new aspects of His
nature are revealed to those clear-eyed and immortal spirits who for unnumbered
ages have known His power, His holiness, His benignity to unfallen creatures,
but now experience the wonder which more properly belongs to more limited
intelligences, when they behold that depth of condescending Love stooping to be
born. Even they think more loftily of God, and more of man’s possibilities and
worth, when they cluster round the manger, and see who lies there.
‘On earth peace.’ The
song drops from the contemplation of the heavenly consequences to celebrate the
results on earth, and gathers them all into one pregnant word, ‘Peace.’ What a
scene of strife, discord, and unrest earth must seem to those calm spirits! And
how vain and petty the struggles must look, like the bustle of an anthill!
Christ’s work is to bring peace into all human relations, those with God, with
men, with circumstances, and to calm the discords of souls at war with
themselves. Every one of these relations is marred by sin, and nothing less
thorough than a power which removes it can rectify them. That birth was the
coming into humanity of Him who brings peace with God, with ourselves, with one
another. The ringing music of that angel chant has died away, but its promise
abides.
Note the conduct of the
shepherds, as a type of the natural impulse and imperative duty of all possessors
of God’s truth. Such a story as they had to tell would burn its way to
utterance in the most reticent and shyest. But have Christians a less wonderful
message to deliver, or a less needful one? If the spectators of the cradle
could not be silent, how impossible it ought to be for the witnesses of the
Cross to lock their lips!
The antithesis to this
barren wonder is the beautiful picture of the Virgin’s demeanor. She ‘kept all
these sayings, and pondered them in her heart.’ What deep thoughts the mother
of the Lord had, were hers alone. But we have the same duty to the truth, and
it will never disclose its inmost sweetness to us, nor take so sovereign a grip
of our very selves as to mould our lives, unless we too treasure it in our
hearts, and by patient brooding on it understand its hidden harmonies, and
spread our souls out to receive its transforming power. If we hide His word in
our hearts, and often in secret draw out our treasure to count and weigh it, we
shall be able to speak out of a full heart, and like these shepherds, to
rejoice that we have seen even as it was spoken unto us.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
Expositions
of Holy Scripture
Sing,
choirs of angels, sing in exultation;
O
sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory
to God, all glory in the highest;
O
come, let us adore Him,
O
come, let us adore Him,
O
come, let us adore Him,
Christ
the Lord.
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