This is good news!
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you generally have a positive outlook on life or are you a “what can go wrong will go wrong” kind of person? I like to think of myself as an optimist. Personally, I think life is more joyful if you expect the best of people and assume things will generally turn out O.K. in the end. Now perhaps you pessimists are thinking to yourselves that is naïve and you think I am setting myself up for disappointment. I understand why you might think that way, you are after all pessimist but also, the world has done a good job reinforcing your pessimism.
The “evening news” has almost become synonymous with “bad news”. I can’t remember a time when Lester Holt interrupted my regularly scheduled programming to tell me the polar ice caps were re-freezing, or the economy was rebounding, or murder rates were declining. I would like to accuse Lester and his fellow journalists of being a bunch of pessimists, but the truth is they are being a bunch of realists. God warned us this was going to happen. God said, in the last days “2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”[1] God said there will be “wars and rumors of wars”. “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will famines and earthquakes in various places.”[2] Lester and his fellow journalist are simply reporting what God told us was going to happen. We can’t blame Lester for simply reporting the news. We are so used to news being bad that even optimists say things like “no news is good news”.
No news is good news. That is probably what the shepherds in our gospel lesson used to think. Being a shepherd was a difficult and dangerous job. Most of the news they received was about missing sheep, or animal attacks, or approaching thieves. The church didn’t have much good news to share with a shepherd. Instead, the church just told them about all the things they had done wrong and how their faults and failures had angered their God. No one ever expects good news to come from a government and Rome was no exception. When the shepherds heard the news about a decree from Caesar Augustus that “a census should be taken”[3] so that he could raise taxes, the shepherds probably thought to themselves, “of course Caesar is going to raise our taxes.”
As far as the shepherds living out in the fields nearby were concerned, no news was good news. So, when one of heaven’s heralds announced that he had some news to share with them “they were terrified”[4]. They likely expected the angel was sent to share with them a message of fire and brimstone.
You understand why the shepherds were terrified to hear the angel’s news, don’t you. Lester Holt isn’t the only one reporting bad news. There is a reporter embedded deep within our souls, we call this reporter our conscience. Your conscience is constantly reminding you of your failures and faults. If your conscience is anything like mine, then it likes to do most of its reporting late at night when the day’s distractions can’t interrupt. My conscience likes to have my undivided attention when it digs up the sins of my youth. My conscience like to know I am paying attention when it lists the litany of ways have sinned against my God and against my fellow man. Each night my conscience likes to tuck me in with a blanket of guilt. I don’t know if your conscience is like mine, but mine has taught me expecting a message of fire and brimstone from one of heaven’s heralds isn’t pessimism, its realism.
I wonder if that is part of the reason why we are so apprehensive about worship and bible study. I wonder if we are just so nervous to hear what God is going to say to people like us that we avoid it and tell ourselves, “no news is good news”. The shepherds would have likely tried to avoid the news the angel had to share with them if the angel had not stopped them. “10 The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid’ (literally “don’t run away”). ‘I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.’”
The angel’s news was different than the news the shepherds were used to getting. First and foremost, the angel said the news was “good”[5]. The angel’s good news was not political, social, or economic in nature. The angel’s good news was a birth announcement. Now, typically news about a newborn baby is good news, but this was not your typical birth announcement. The angel explained the baby, whose birth he had been sent to announce, was “the Messiah, the Lord”[6] For thousands of years God had promised His people that he would send the Messiah; a champion who would deliver them from their enemy, set them free from their slavery, and lead them to a new and better life. All of God’s people knew about God’s promise and the shepherds, like the rest of God’s people, were anxiously waiting for the day God would send the Messiah. But, for the last 500 years there had been no news about the Messiah, no doubt the pessimist started to fear God had forgotten about His promise, and the optimist were clinging to hope. The angel told the shepherds, “I’ve got news for you. The pessimist can put away their fear and the optimist can stop hoping because the Messiah, the Lord; the people’s champion is wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger not far from where we are.”
What a pleasant surprise this good news must have been. How nice for those shepherds to receive some good news for a change. But the angel wasn’t done. The angel explained to the shepherds that the news he had been sent to share with them wasn’t just good news; it was gooder news than had ever been shared before, in fact it was the goodest of all news. The angel announced this news would give God’s people “great joy”. You see, the baby was not born to be a political activist or social reformer or financial advisor, rather, the angel explained “today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.”[7] The baby was not born simply to help us deal with the bad news in the world around us. The baby was born to deal with the bad news inside us. God knows all the things your conscience has accused you of as well as those things your conscience is too calloused to report on. God knows about every bad thing you have ever thought, said, or done. But God did not look away from the bad things you have done and think to Himself, “no news is good news”. No, God saw that you were bad news and decided He would do something about it. He decided He would send His Son to be your Savior; to live a good life in your place and then on the cross God decided that He would take the bad off you and put it on His Son and God decided to take the good off His Son and put it on you. The enemy from which you have been delivered is the devil. The slavery from which you have been set free is sin. The new and better life to which you are being led is heaven. So now when your conscience tries to hold a press conference and badger you about the sins of your youth or harass you about the many ways you have sinned against your God or fellow man, you can simply point to the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger and say, “there is my Savior. He has paid for my bad and declared me to be good. Because of Him I am not covered with guilt, rather I have great joy.”
The shepherds were filled with great joy because the Messiah had come to be their Savior from sin. There was just one more piece of news the angel had to share with them. The angel said the news he had just shared with them was “for all the people”. I imagine the angel had to repeat that last part. “I said this news is for ALL the people!” Those poor shepherds weren’t used to getting good news. They probably didn’t know what to do. But when the great company of heavenly host appeared and started shouting the good news for all to hear it seems the shepherds figured out that this good news was meant to be shared. So “they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger” [8]and then they “spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.”[9]
The good news of great joy is meant to be shared with all the people. 2,000 years ago, an angel shared it with some shepherds. Tonight, I have shared it with you. Who are you going to share it with? A family member, friend, neighbor, classmate, coworker? Do you think any of those people would like to hear some good news for a change; do you think any of them would rather be filled with joy than covered with guilt? If so, then share this news with them. Tell them about the Messiah sent to save them from their sin. Tell them about Jesus.
I don’t mean to sound like a pessimist but, as long as there are sinners in the world, Lester Holt will always have plenty of bad news to share. But, after hearing what the angel had to say to the shepherds, we can also optimistically say, “some news is good news”. In fact, we can realistically say, news of our Savior’s birth is good news of great joy for all people. Amen.
[1] 2 Timothy 3:2-4
[2] Matthew 24:6-7
[3] Luke 2:1
[4] Luke 2:9
[5] εὐαγγελίζω: to communicate good news concerning something (in the NT a particular reference to the gospel message about Jesus)—‘to tell the good news, to announce the gospel.’
[6] Luke 2:11
[7] Luke 2:11
[8] Luke 2:16
[9] Luke 2:17