Title: There are no extras for Christmas.
There are no extras for Christmas.
Luke 2:8-14
In verse 8, the word “guard” refers to guarding a flock from thieves and wild animals, just as a shepherd stands as a night watcher when grazing sheep. It means “to make a courtyard” or “to make a house in the field”. They must have been very cold and hard.
The good news of Christmas did not begin with those who wore fancy clothes in the royal palace, but with those who worked so hard in the empty fields. It started with people who are like people who have experienced failure now and are standing empty-handed, as if they were standing in an empty field, rather than a good and successful person.
We often think that Jesus' parents could not find an inn, so they gave birth to the baby Jesus in a stable. But there could be no inns in Bethlehem at that time. The word inn in verse 7 does not mean a “inn” today, but rather a guest room in a private house. An empty room for guests. And the manger is not a stable, but a trough of food for the beast. As I said before, in the house structure of Israel, in the house structure in the countryside, people and animals lived in one space for heating. It was such a structure that animals lived in the lower place, and humans lived above the chin as high as the knee. The expression ‘born in a manger’ is intended to refer to such a poor structure of a house.
According to a 2nd-century tradition, the birthplace of the baby Jesus was in a cave. Jeremias claims that the shepherds of the Viennas were the owners of the cave where the baby Jesus was born. Jesus’ parents were exhausted from the long journey and were in a precarious situation, suddenly having to give birth. It must have been a cold and barren place, a place that could be a beast cage or a cave, where they had difficulty finding it.
After World War II, a Witness appeared at the German War Criminal Tribunal, a survivor of a Jewish cemetery in Birna, Poland. According to his testimony, all the Jews in the region were slaughtered, and only those who hid in the cemetery survived. But while she was taking refuge between these tombs, a woman gave birth to her son. At that time, with the help of an 80-year-old gravekeeper, she gave birth safely, and when she heard the first cry of the young child, the old man said this prayer.
“O great one, are you finally sending us the Messiah? Who can be born in the grave but the Messiah?”
It is there that the forces of death threaten to devour life. The birth of true life cannot be stopped by any sword, power, or injustice. Christmas is just such an event. Christmas is not an event, it is an 'event'. In the midst of a new era, a new era, when human history reached its end when the history of mankind was rampant with injustice, the weak and oppressed cries from the fear of death, and the baby Jesus invades from outside history into history. I mean, it's an incident.
When we think of a target, we often think of something extraordinary. But in verse 12, the angel wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger is said to be a sign that a newborn baby gives them.
The savior who brought justice and peace to the world in the society of that time was the Roman emperor. In other words, power was the measure of justice and peace in the world. Money these days, though. However, the sign of the Savior who corresponds to his glorious throne is a newborn baby. The baby Jesus has no authority, no power, no splendid crown. No money, of course. He has only meekness and peace. If the peace of Rome was achieved by force and conquest, the peace of God is the peace that is achieved when God, who is in the highest place, comes to the lowest places as the baby Jesus. This is the peace that has penetrated the shepherds of the poor. Only they could understand: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those with whom you are pleased” (verse 14). Herod in the palace was incomprehensible. Because he only had the peace of Rome, he was trying to kill the baby Jesus, who brought other peace to the world.
In that sense, the shepherds are the main characters, not the Christmas extras. Just as there can be no Christmas without the baby Jesus, the message of Christmas and peace would be empty without the shepherds who spend the night in the empty fields waiting for the dawn.
But today, the church celebrates Christmas every year and celebrates the baby in the manger, but by building and glamorizing tens of billions of buildings, it has become a place that shepherds cannot even get to, and the baby Jesus lying in a manger is treated as a fairy tale. isn't it? The subject disappeared and the object was lost.
It is the same with us today. If we say that everything is filled and finished, we will not wait for the baby Jesus, nor will he be able to come to us. Today, when we are with the shepherds in the empty fields, and with humility we hold our own manger today, the baby Jesus will come to us.
The year is drawing to a close. It seems like it has gone by quickly, and I want to do something over the past year. You may feel that your life is too shameful to stand before the Lord and that you have nothing to offer. Such people may feel that they do not deserve Christmas. But my shortcomings, my weaknesses, and my ugliness may become my manger today. That's why baby Jesus must come to me and Christmas is meaningful.
What I don't think is that it may give you some space to breathe and allow others to see you. Because the people of the world were so prosperous and full, there was no place for Jesus to be born where those incumbents lived, so he had no choice but to be born in the feeder of the beast. The birth of the baby Jesus signifies a total affirmation of those who stand in the empty fields, that is, those who lack something. It is their declaration of victory and a new start.
It is also significant that Christmas is at a time when the days are getting longer and the days are starting to beat the night after the winter solstice. Although it is the end of the year in this world's calendar, for us who are standing in the empty field, Christmas is the beginning. We have a calendar that is different from the world calendar. It is our calendar, starting with the birth of the baby Jesus and observing Easter and Pentecost. For us who stand in the empty fields, Christmas means a new beginning. It is the point at which light began to conquer darkness, and the peace of Jesus began to dominate the peace of Rome. Others have to go to the end of the year and settle the accounts to know whether it is a success or a failure, but we start from the beginning with the news of Christmas, that is, the news of all positives and victory. We don't live believing that we will win later, but we live by declaring victory already with the news of Christmas and celebrating it.
To all of you who are celebrating Christmas today and worshiping, to all of you who look back on the year and confess that you are standing before the Lord and standing in the empty fields, I hope the joy of the birth of the baby Jesus is full. I pray in the name of the Lord that the bright light from the baby Jesus will always burn among you and illuminate your whole being. Congratulations on a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas!