Fearful Messengers of Peace
For the exhortation, on this Christmas Eve, I wanted to draw us back out into the field that night that Christ was born.
Like so many nights before, those shepherds were watching the same sheep on those same hills, everything just like it had been night after night, year after year. There was no less ordinary, forgettable stage on earth than this one... And then, suddenly, “there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host…” The armies of God marched down through the stars, and (as Jon Hoglund reminded us last week) when angels show up in the Bible, people are not amused or even relieved, but afraid.
It was an angel, after all, who put all the firstborn children to death in Egypt. It was an angel who slaughtered 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night. The shepherds knew how deadly angels could be.
So what did this army of fearful, dangerous wonders say? We’ve been rehearsing this at home with our velcro Advent calendar: “This is the angel who proclaimed, ‘Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy… Unto you is born… a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’” And then a second angel, “This is the angel who sang, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’”
God sent down the frightening forces of heaven not to wipe out sin, like he could have, like he one day will — no, on this night, he sent out his armies not to fight, but to sing. And through their thunderous song, to bring us peace.
God was sending his own Son across enemy lines to bring some of those enemies home, and not as prisoners of war, but as blood-bought children — “those with whom he is pleased,” the angels say, like a father with a precious son or daughter.
The world has plastered that word — peace — everywhere and on everything this past month (greeting cards, gift wrap, decorations, clothing), but how few have known the actual reality?
They pretend to know something like peace for a few brief moments around the tree, under lights, around a table, over some presents, all while the awful war rages all around them — the spiritual forces of evil trying to destroy them. While the awful war still rages within them — the passions of the flesh waging war against their souls. While God’s terrible, righteous wrath looms over them. They wave their tiny flags of “peace” in a house burning to the ground.
But you’ve tasted the real thing. In Christ, you’ve sailed out into an ocean of peace, and the peace is so wide, so long, so deep, that you’ll never find the shore.
1 Peter 1:8-9,
“Though you have not seen this Jesus, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
You’ve found your peace with God. In this baby, born in a manger, your war with God has ended. The armies of heaven that were once lined up against you to crush you are now singing over you and fighting for you.
So, my exhortation for us, church, is that we listen to the blazing, dangerous choir in the sky and savor our harmony with heaven, a love Jesus bled and died to give us as a gift. And then let’s run and tell everyone we know about the treasure we’ve found in this field.