I didn’t really write my last post intending to write a whole series. But this morning, I was reading about the shepherds in Luke 2, and I noticed something.
The Christmas story is full of … fear.
- Luke 1:12 – An angel appeared in the temple to Zechariah: “When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.”
- Luke 1:29 – An angel came to Mary and greeted her. “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”
- Luke 1:65 – When Elizabeth gave birth, all the neighbors decided to name the baby Zechariah (I’m glad my neighbors kept such opinions to themselves when our kids were born). And when Zechariah made plain that his name would be John, his muteness was removed. Then “fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea.” (The NIV translates fear as awe, but the idea is the same.)
- Matthew 1:20 – The first words the angel spoke to Joseph in his dream were “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”
- Luke 2:9 – The shepherds also get in on the act: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”
The one thing just about everyone in the Christmas story had in common was fear. Of course, we don’t focus on that very much. We spend a good bit of time at Christmas talking about peace on earth. We give lip service to “good news of great joy,” and we belt out “Joy to the World.”
But if we’re honest, I think we’d have to admit that we live much more of the holiday season in fear than in peace or joy.
Not surprisingly, what we fear is quite varied. Some fear lack — of money, of companionship, of food. Some fear abundance — too much family, too much temptation, too much remembering. Some of us are afraid we won’t get what we want for Christmas, and some fear we will. We are afraid the holidays won’t live up to our expectations. We fear the disappointments and let-down of the post-Christmas quiet. We fear the unknown and the imperfections, all the overwhelming details and the lack of details, too.
It’s Christmas time, and we are a people who are still afraid. So God’s words to those first Christmas players, and to us today, is a repeated refrain. “Do not be afraid.”
- Do not be afraid of what you can see, Zechariah.
- Do not be afraid of what you can’t see, Mary.
- Do not be afraid to believe the impossible, Joseph.
- Do not be afraid to accept the wonderful news, Shepherds.
- Do not be afraid, all people everywhere, of all the things that God is doing among you.
All the things that God is doing among us. They may seem wonderful (like a barren woman giving birth to a son). They may seem uncomfortable and hard (like an unmarried, virgin girl giving birth to a son). They may seem complicated and embarrassing (like a man marrying an already pregnant woman), and they may seem utterly impossible (like the lowest class of society being invited to celebrate the birth of the King). But they did not have to be afraid of all the wonderful things God is doing among them. And neither do we.
God is still speaking these words to us. He has come. He is among us. He is at work. And He is more than sufficient to the tasks He has set out to accomplish.
Do not be afraid.
