Everyone’s waiting for something. For the Christian, we eagerly await the second coming of our Savior. During this season of Advent -- the expectant anticipation of our Lord’s second coming in our celebration of His first arrival -- we are once more stopped in our tracks, jolted out of the everyday mundane with “Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy, which is for all people!”
As we continue our journey through Advent, we are diving into this message from the angel to the shepherds. Why shouldn’t we fear? What is the good news? What makes it so joyful? Did he really mean for all people?
All The People
“ . . . I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” (Luke 2:10) This sounds very good. Everyone wants good news and great joy. But does everyone honestly want to have to share their joy? With dirty people? With loud, rude people? With shy, inhibited people? With rich and proud “stuck up” people? Can’t groups simply stick with their “own kind”?
Consider one of Jesus’ most famous sermons; actually, it was simply a reading he did at the synagogue in the beginning of his ministry. It is recorded later on in the Gospel of Luke (chapter 4, verses 18-19). What he said was shocking, even though the prophet Isaiah had said it centuries before.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
In learning about the Messiah, the people of Israel had heard about how he would come, and what he would be like. But no one imagined that these philosophical, ideological truths would have to “play out” in their daily lives. Those lazy poor people were getting the same blessing from God that the hard-working Hebrews were. The prisoners who were crooked and threatening would get let out. Those annoying blind people who sat by the side of the road and begged would want to move around in society like they were “normal.” The oppressed who, perhaps, were getting ripped off by the faithful synagogue-goers, would get help, too. This baby Messiah about whom the angels sang gave equal salvation status to all—rich and poor alike.
This is one of the keys to the joy that is promised. New York City has quite an advantage when it comes to “all the people.” There is probably someone (or more than one) from almost every “people group” on the earth. While peoples’ cultures and ways of doing things can be quite different, there is a great grown up joy in fellowshipping, and especially worshipping with brothers and sisters from “all the people.” It is a happy foretaste of what the “new heaven and the new earth” will look like (c.f. Revelation 21:1). Everyone will bow before the throne of Christ, the lion and the lamb. Perhaps the angels that sang this to the shepherds could already see this great conclusion to God’s work.