To Know the Christ at Christmas – Sunday, December 21, 1980
As dusk turned to darkness on that silent night long ago, the inns of the day were overcrowded. The small towns teemed with travelers and animals, and people plodded down the dusty roads through Bethlehem. For most of them this day and night would be no cause for celebration. In days to come, if they remembered at all, they would note with distaste that they were forced to travel here to pay their taxes to their Roman overlords. Worldly cares hung heavily upon this people as the quiet night came on.
But for a handful of humble shepherds in the nearby rocky hills and for a group of searching scholars in a far-off land, this would be a night never to be forgotten.
Why were these few so privileged and not the others? The question is important for each of us as we approach this Christmas; for we could find ourselves in either group.
The Reverend Peter Marshall expressed it eloquently when once he prayed, “Forbid it Lord that we should celebrate without understanding what we celebrate, or like our counterparts so long ago, fail to see the star or to hear the song of glorious promise.”1
The question is, shall we spend Christmas like those long ago taxpayers or like the shepherds and the magi?
If we would share the feelings of the shepherds we must be like them. They were humble men, aware of the earth and its seasons.
They were kindly men of true compassion, ready to face hardship. They had a deep respect for God and heaven, so much so that they were “sore afraid” when first the angels came. But they quickly changed their fear to faith when told about the newborn king.
And what of those who traveled from the east to find the one they knew as “King of the Jews?” So different in appearance from the shepherds yet so similar in heart were they whom Matthew calls “wise men.” Not clever, crafty, self-important, puffed up in their scholarship—they were more than learned, they were wise. As they offered up their gifts they whispered simply, “We are come to worship him.”
Let us, upon this Christmas time, resolve to seek and search and see the signs that God has left for us to find Him. Let us approach Him reverently and kneel as though beside the manger to offer up a silent prayer of thanks to Him for sending us His Son. Then we will hear the angels and feel the peace he promised. We will know the Christ at Christmas.
1 Peter Marshall, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, Christmas Prayer, 1947, private printing, no copyright or printing information available.
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December 21, 1980
Broadcast Number 2,679