The Key to Humanity Restored

No one’s indifferent about Jesus.  There’s no middle ground.  When people actually experience Jesus their response leads them to strong emotion.  It leads to contagious joy – or rage, of course. 

And the angel gives them a sign:  “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 

Suddenly army of heaven appears with the angel, praising God saying,
  “Glory to God in the highest,
     and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Ironic that an army proclaims peace, wouldn’t you say?  The Kingdom of God really does do things differently. 

When the army of angels went back to heaven, the shepherds look at each other.  “Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 

So they hurry off and find the sign: Mary and Joseph, and the baby, lying in the manger.  And they can’t help it: they spread the word about what the angel told them about this child, and everyone who hears it is amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

You see, when God acts redemptively in history, he isn’t performing random acts of kindness.  He tells us what he’s doing.  The baby is born; that is the sign.  And the angel tells us what it means: he’s the Saviour, Christ the Lord. 

The shepherds return, glorifying and praising God for everything they have seen and heard, which is just as they had been told.

They praise God.  That’s the vertical.  And the shepherds can’t stop praising God.  Everything happens just as they are told. 

They talk about it.  That’s the horizontal.  Everywhere they go the shepherds tell people what they have heard about this child.  Everyone who hears it is amazed.  The shepherds spread the news about the things that are told them.  

When we hear the story of the gospel, its truth strikes chord within our souls.  Something stirs within us.  We think God might be real after all. 

It’s hard to pray at first.  It seems so unnatural.  It’s hard to sing at first because we don’t know the songs, and we’re more conscious of the people around us than the God before us. 

But we give it a go.  Pretty soon we don’t care what the others around us are doing.  We pray.  We praise.  We begin to change inside, and we like it.  Pretty soon others notice. 

When we experience Christ, like the shepherds we can’t help but talk about it.  It has the ring of truth.  And the truth grows inside.  Let it grow enough and it will begin to leak out of you. 

                  People who heard the shepherds’ report were amazed.  Their response exemplifies the                         awe that should fill anyone who hears Jesus’ story. 

Darrell Bock

This baby born in this feeding trough is a king.  He is the key to a humanity restored to God.  This is the message of Christmas.