Good News of Great Joy!

The shepherds were watching their flocks by night. That’s all. Just a normal night for a shepherd. Maybe glad to have sheep to watch. Maybe also wishing they could do something for a living that didn’t subject them to the elements quite so much. It was quiet. And dark. Then everything changed in an instant. For them. For the world. The sky was lit up as an angel of the Lord appeared. The word for appeared means “be at hand in an instant.” The angel was not there. Then it was. It wasn’t like the shepherds looked way off in the distance and saw a dim light moving in their direction. 

“Hey, Levi. What’s that coming yonder?” 

“Don’t know, Jake. But it’s headin’ this way.” 

No. They didn’t see the angel approaching. There was no warning whatsoever. The angel was on them in an instant. “The glory of the Lord shone around them.” 

The pictures that men have painted of this scene over the years are almost comical. They often portray the shepherds as rough-hewn burly men, and the angel as a delicate woman with curls and rosy cheeks. Which would make you wonder, who was afraid of whom? Like the shepherds should be saying to the angel, “Don’t be afraid little lady. Us big ol’ shepherds won’t hurt you. You can talk to strangers. It’s Ok.” No. The angel was awesome and the shepherds were terrified. “Filled with great fear,” Luke said. It was the night of nights and the appearance of an angel changed everything. Because he came with news.

The angel said, “Fear not!” Probably because the shepherds were still shaking, maybe hiding their faces on the ground. Then the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy!” It is the good news that is not only the answer to all of our fears but is the source of all our joy. All of our fears, gone. All of our joy, now here. Maybe that was the inspiration for perhaps the most popular Christmas Carol, Isaac Watts’ “Joy to the World.” Remember verse 2? “Joy to the Earth! the Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, Repeat the sounding joy…”

Think about that. This is Biblical language, because fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains are doing what they were created to do: they repeat the sounding joy! It reminds me of what Jesus said as He was entering Jerusalem and the people were praising Him, shouting “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” The Pharisees said, “Hey, Jesus, tell these people to be quiet!” Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” You get that? The rocks would rejoice! When you pick up a rock in your driveway or you find a big one in the woods, do you ever put it up to your ear and listen for it to speak? No. What do rocks say? Nothing. At least nothing that we can hear. So is Jesus saying that those who refuse to sound forth His praises are as dumb as a rock? No, that would be an insult to rocks because they are praising Him. The rocks and the trees and the fields and even the floods. All of creation praises God. 

That’s why Isaac Watts pleads with us, “Let men their songs employ.” Put your life and loves and all your might to work praising God, like heaven and earth does. Why do we sing and speak praises? Because of the angel’s announcement that was good news of great joy: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  

Several years ago I went with a group from church to Boone to work at Operation Christmas Child. Franklin Graham came to the warehouse to speak with all of us and he told a story about a little orphan boy in another country who was invited to come to the church to get a Christmas shoebox. “I don’t want a shoebox,” he said. “I want a Mom and a Dad.” He was told, “Well, we don’t have a Mom and a Dad for you…but we do have a shoebox. Won’t you come and receive your gift?” The little boy went reluctantly and was given a shoebox and when he opened it, he found gifts. But there was also a picture of a young couple, a note from them, and their address. “Hey, why don’t you write to this couple and thank them for the gift?” The boy agreed, sent his letter, and six weeks later they got it and wrote him back. Six weeks later, he got their letter and wrote them back. And six months after the little boy first received a shoebox, he got what he really wanted: the young couple took him home as their adopted son.

There’s good news of GREAT joy today. Christmas is a celebration of the One who came to earth so we could become His sons and His daughters. That’s what we all want. It is certainly what we all need.