“Oh come all ye faithless, joyless and defeated…”

Around the time that Jesus was born, a lot of people in Israel must have been asking themselves what had happened to the line of David. Wasn’t there meant to be a great ruler, descended from this almost mythical king of Israel’s heydays? Yet, in the time they were living in, the line of David seems to have faded into the cloth of the common folk. One was even a carpenter in Judea in a town called Nazereth.
It was perhaps a time when thoughts of a mighty ruler from among their own ranks might not have been far from their minds, the nation being under foreign rule and paying tribute to a heathen king.

It was a really humble beginning for him. Even in those days, babies were not normally born in stables among the animals. Even these days, stables smell of dung and damp animal fur. What mother would enjoy washing her newborn son in any thing that had been even near such an unwashed environment? Where did Joseph rush to in the middle of the night to find clean water? Wasn’t there anything more than cloths in those days to clothe newborn in?
And yet, when He was born, he was already the most significant being in the universe. He came to establish a kingdom that had no end. It wasn’t as if he started from scratch, His message was “The Kingdom of God is at hand!”, not “Get it while the introductory offer is still on!” Through Him, the Kingdom came to earth, accompanied by as yet never seen signs and wonders, an accomplished deal that would spread in the hearts of man. The only reason we could be in on it is that He stood in for us for what we did at the beginning of time.



“Sing choirs of angels…”

The angels who brought the news of Jesus’ birth the shepherds weren’t really a professional choir. They were more like God's armed forces...

What was God’s command to the angel who brought the good news to the shepherds? Wouldn’t news have spread faster and have been a bit more credible if the angel had gone to the equivalent of a news agency in those days? or better yet, to the rulers at their seats of power? Wasn't it a bit inconsiderate of God to blast some poor superstitious farmhands with the most momentous piece of information in history? If God had set the scene for Jesus birth so humbly to start with, why now send the glorious host of heaven to declare this act?

I like to think that there might not have been a direct command to the angels. Rather, maybe the angels just realized that this was a big event. This was THE big event. Actually, it was the fullness of time…
It might therefore not have been a very sedate messenger who reported the news! First he had to calm down the shepherds. OK, an angel appearing in the glory God gave him might frighten anyone, but… And then he says, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
(Luke 2:10 – a rather sedate fullstop there at the end of a line proclaiming great joy…!).

I think the angel was not exactly as composed as that. Rather, realizing that this was the fullness of time, the event everything in history has been aiming at ever since man fell, realizing the import of this God's most unprecedented historical act, he would have hardly been able to contain himself...