December 25, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Many will say to Me on that Day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’.” (Matthew 7. 22-23)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As I have mentioned previously, “that Day” points directly to the time when God will send His Messiah to earth as Judge, Ruler, King and Redeemer. It is on “that Day” that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is indeed Lord of lords. All the people on earth will be gathered to the heavenly threshing floor where the wheat will be separated from the chaff. It is that image we must include alongside that of the sheep and the goats. There will be a tremendous effort exerted to separate the true believers in Jesus as the Christ from those who true do not believe and those who only partially believe (with their lips and not their hearts.) Woe to those who are not of the true believers. Their fate is that which is bound to the world and what they had made of the miracle of creation called the earth. It will be a wasteland. The devastation of fighting for what they believed was their own truth instead of “the truth” will be extensive. Billions will die of war, disease, disaster and famine. All of that is the result of their choice to live as unrighteous people ignoring the wisdom, the challenge and charge of God to be His people and profess Him as their one True God. Even as believers, we ought to feel the angst of their unbelief and the unfathomable darkness they are committing themselves to. We will know many of those in that number who will be like those pounding on the door of the Ark when the flood waters rose with rain from forty days and forty nights. Some will be friends, neighbors, colleagues, classmates and yes- even family. On “that Day” there will be weeping on both sides of the line of demarcation. The dividing line will be measured by the intent of our belief as well as in whom we believe. How hard it will be for those who merely thought “Saying the word” was sufficient. They missed and ignored “doing the word” and “being the word.”

We see the foreshadowing of this reality in the birth narrative of Jesus born in Bethlehem. I have no doubt that Jesus was born in the early morning hours following the Sabbath. Mary and Joseph had arrived at the family caravansary of Joseph’s house just before the Sabbath had begun on Friday afternoon. Obviously, the timing was not the best. The crowds gathered across the countryside near and far not only because of the census declared by Augustus of Rome but because of the season of Passover declared by God which would soon turn toward Pentecost fifty days later. As no work could be done on the Sabbath in honor of the Sabbath, Mary and Joseph were relegated to the hewn out stable in the back of the caravansary. They were not alone. There would be other family members not able to be housed in the living accommodations or the inn. There would be other descendants of David and Judah who had gathered there, too. But, together they would celebrate Shabat and give thanks to the Lord for His provision of deliverance out of the hands of Egypt fifteen hundred years previous. Far from a silent night, it was a holy night of worship and praise. The Sabbath would come and go. Mary’s discomfort would grow. She would be tended to by any number of women and young girls because of the crowd. Perhaps there were others relegated to the stable grounds that were with child. It would be easy to see the separation of men from the women and the children gathered in between with the animals. Even then the anxious talk filled the air of politics, harvest, work and the threat of despair which loomed around all their corners. But, there was no conversation about the coming of the Messiah that day. The hope had been announced the night before “next year in Jerusalem.” Strange that their “next year” was about to arrive in the early morning hours of the following day. For now, there were gossips and naysayers, rebels and insurrectionists, bold talk for those who were actually less bold but safe in the company of family, friends and distant relatives. Then there were “those” women for whom “that Day” was about to come. “That Day” was the day of deliverance pressing in against them to be born in Bethlehem. Wombs being stretched. Vital organs pushed in every direction. Shifrah and Puah would not have been in great number so those who were mothers themselves would be pressed into service. There was no privacy in a stable, especially not in a crowded stable. Distance, however, was created as much as possible; easier by day than by night as families gathered like the flocks in the fields. Fathers shepherded their families together away from the stable and the inns by day. But, the need for warmth would draw them all in together at night. The responsibility was shared for one another to tend and care for each and especially for those in need. It was in this environment that Mary and Joseph, and perhaps others, found themselves in the early hours before the sun rose on the third day.

It happened. For the shepherds tending their own flocks by night on the plains of Bethlehem gathering them together to share in the protection and provision of each other and the fires, the heavens exploded. Like a myriad of stars being born, the light of heaven rained down on earth. The dozing shepherds were caught in their midnight naps. Unaware of what was happening, they feared the worst. What would that be? It was the day of judgment, the day of the Lord who would come to judge the quick and the dead. It was the coming of the Messiah, Warrior and King, to claim and vindicate Israel against all oppressors. They turned their face to the ground to protect their eyes from the blast of light which was the glory of the Lord as it shone all around them. Some may have run for their lives while others trembled or felt paralyzed in fear. I find it interesting in the memory found in Luke that while the shepherds were greatly affected the sheep were not. They remained calm, serene and sedate. They huddled close together as if knowing the Great Shepherd was there. The dividing happened. Those who heard the angels proclamation banded together to go and see what had been foretold to them. It was in that moment that Jesus was born. The Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, came into the world. In the darkest and coldest hour just before the dawn, the babe descended from the ranks of Bethlehem’s David and from the height of Heaven was born. Maybe He wasn’t the only one born in those hours. We learn from Matthew of the edict of Herod, the unjewish King of Judea, two years later when the Magi arrive looking for “He who was born King of the Jews” that all males born in Bethlehem two years of age or younger were to be killed. As surely as Ahab had sacrificed the young to Molech, so Herod brought death to those born in Bethlehem. Do not think for a moment that they only killed two year olds in Bethlehem. They would have hunted down all those who were of the house of David and Judah who were born in Bethlehem on “that Day.” It was a day of reckoning.

But, on “this Day,” two years before “that Day,” life was beginning anew. And into the midst of it all as the sun began to rise above the eastern horizon, long before Magi would come from the east, shepherds stepped on to the scene. They had been asking “Where is the baby that was born?” They may have come across many babies born that night, that morning or in that time. Still their search continued until they found the one which the Angel of the Lord described. Lo, when they entered into the caravansary of Joseph’s family, they saw the One for whom they searched. There was a baby wrapped in blue swaddling cloth lying in a manger. It was a hollow in the ledge of a cave carved out of stone from which animals were fed. For the moment, it contained the Bread of the World come down from Heaven like manna to those in the wilderness of Sin. All eyes watched as the shepherds made their way through the gate. The families parted like the waters of the Red Sea as Moses lifted up the staff which God had blessed with power and might. The shepherds’ crooks gently nudged out a path as they would when they walked through the flocks of sheep in the fields. Finally, they drew near to the baby. They saw first, Mary, then Joseph, then again the baby for whom they searched. Immediately they began to tell of what had been revealed to them. Their words separated the crowd as those who believed and those who questioned began to talk amongst themselves. Having reached the object of their intention, the shepherds left that place with the sun to their backs and returned to their flocks to begin their own separation of those who would be bound for Jerusalem in the coming year as sacrifices to bring in the Lord’s favor and invoke His forgiveness for the sins of the people and the nation. Their words survive to this day as on that day when they declared “Lord, Lord.” And though Jesus could not say a word at that time, they will hear it on “that Day” when they will stand as the called of earth shall gather “Well done, My good and faithful servants.”

Mighty ones of God, we are meant to be those shepherds and rejoicing in the Word of the Lord which is for us and sadly against others. It is against them not because He chose to be but because they chose to be against Him in spirit and in truth.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain this eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.