We are in the fourth week of Advent and are awaiting the arrival of Jesus later in the week. The four Advent candles are lit and we will light the center candle, the one representing Jesus, on Christmas Eve. We are expecting the arrival of Jesus – Emmanuel, “God with us.” That’s what we are doing now for the next several days – waiting in quiet expectation.
Rather than the hustle and bustle of the season, the next several days would more appropriately be a time of reflection and anticipation. After all, the Savior of the world is about to take on human form, becoming fully man in addition to already being fully divine. It is the plan that He will arrive to eventually be the sacrifice for the sins of everyone – past, present and future – the ultimate sacrifice that will provide a way for mankind to be eternally reunited with God.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Luke, the author of the Gospel bearing his name. The good doctor was very detailed and set out to provide an orderly account of everything that had happened from the beginning, including a genealogy that outlined Mary’s heritage all the way back to the beginning of mankind.
It is through Luke’s writings that we hear the Christmas story in all its glorious detail. We start with Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and his work in the temple. We witness Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and hear about John jumping joyfully in his mother’s womb at the approach of Mary and the unborn Savior of the world .
We witness the angels in the fields announcing the birth of our Savior and the travels of the Wise Men, or Magi, coming to pay honor to the baby Jesus. Interestingly, we don’t really know how many Magi made the trip. Some theologians think there may have been as many as 300 kings and important dignitaries who made the journey to see Jesus. But only three are mentioned in the Scripture – who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Many of our Christmas carols are a result of Luke’s information about the birth. We have “Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel…” while we await the arrival of Jesus. Of course, we all have heard about “We Three Kings…”, about the Magi, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing…” as a result of the appearance of angels to the shepherds in the fields and even “Silent Night.” While these were written by inspired people, they came many years later.
In fact, most folks don’t know that there are four songs in the Gospel of Luke that we tend to overlook. We have Mary’s song, Luke 1:t46-56) the Magnificat, that was sung after arriving at the house of Elizabeth to announce Mary’s own pregnancy as news was brought to her by the angel. And Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus (Luke 1:67-79) that was sung giving praise and honor to God after, for the first time since being struck mute, he announced that the name of his son would be John, even though nobody in the family had held that name before.
Next we have the Angel’s Song (Luke 2:13-14) that announced the arrival of the baby Jesus to the shepherds in the fields that we have all heard about since our childhood. Finally, we have a lesser known song sung by Simeon (Luke 2:29-32). Simeon had been promised by God that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. At the temple, when Jesus was presented, Simeon correctly identified Him as the Messiah and sung in gratitude to God for allowing him the honor of seeing the baby Jesus, the salvation of the world.
These four songs make up a very important part of the Christmas story and have inspired many of our standard songs that we have heard from our earliest recollections. Luke was diligent in his recording of these events so they can still be shared today, more than 2000 years later, carrying on the Christmas traditions we have come to know and love.
Our verse for tonight is the beginning of the story of Jesus. Luke, who wanted to make sure that he was incredibly accurate in his Gospel, tells the world, in Luke 1:26-33, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
This is the birth that we await with quiet expectation. My encouragement this evening is that we will all take a few moments to reflect on the beginning of the master plan that God put together to send Jesus into the world. My prayer is that we will also use this opportunity to make sure that we continue to tell the Christmas story, in all its glory, to our youngest generations. Merry Christmas! Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…