Advent Devotional Week 3: Good News of Great Joy

In Luke 2, we read about the nighttime appearance of the angel of the Lord to a group of shepherds: 

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:9-11)

The initial reaction of the shepherds is significant. We might be conditioned to think of angels as cute and cuddly, like the ceramic figurines your grandmother kept in her curio cabinet. In the Bible, however, angels are often quite frightening in their appearance and the acts of judgment God sends them to carry out. We can imagine how disturbing it would be for the night sky to be suddenly torn apart by an unexpected celestial visitor. It’s no wonder they were “filled with great fear.”

But something else would have been terrifying to those shepherds that evening. Luke tells us that the angelic visitor appeared with a great shining of “the glory of the Lord.” This “glory” is the bright, radiant light that attends the appearance of the Almighty (e.g., Exodus 24:16-17, Numbers 20:6). It is a sign of God’s holiness, purity, beauty, and power, and as such, it is often terrifying to human beings. So the Israelites at Mt. Sinai begged Moses to speak to them on the Lord’s behalf because they were frightened to have God come too close (Exodus 20:18-19). Even Ezekiel repeatedly fell on his face when the glory of the Lord came to him (Ezekiel 1:28, 3:23, and 44:4).

All this points us to a very important truth that the shepherds instinctively understood that night: it is not safe for sinners to be in the presence of God. While God created the first humans to live in immediate fellowship with Him, once sin entered the world, they hid themselves from His presence (Genesis 3:8). God cast them out of the Garden of Eden for their own protection, and the way in was blocked off from them. God is so holy and pure that sin cannot survive in his presence, and when He shows up, the responses range from immediate death (Leviticus 10:2, Deuteronomy 18:16) to personal disintegration (Isaiah 6:5, Luke 5:8). In any event, it’s no surprise the glory of the Lord was a source of terror to these unsuspecting shepherds that evening. 

How can the angel tell them to “fear not?” How can he speak to sinners about “good news of great joy?” The answer to that question reveals the marvelous truth of Christmas, that in his great love, the Father was not content to leave his creation estranged from him, disqualified and barred from his presence. Instead, he sent us a “Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Jesus left the presence of the Father to enter our world of sin so that we could one day leave this world of sin and be welcomed into the presence of God (cf. II Corinthians 8:9). 

The birth of the Christ child in the manger was merely the beginning of this great act of redemption. As he grew, he became strong and wise, with the favor of the Lord resting upon him (Luke 2:40). He perfectly obeyed the law of God and thus was the only human being who could experience joy being in the presence of his glory. But instead of enjoying that privilege, Jesus went to the cross for us, and there experienced the judgment and alienation from God that sinners deserve. He took on himself the sins of all His people, and in rising from the dead, he saved us from the terrifying judgment we deserve.

Good news of great joy, indeed! We know more than the shepherds could have imagined: God has sent a savior for “all the people.” Now, we look forward to being restored to the presence of his glory for all eternity (Jude 24). Because of God’s great love for us, the Christmas story begins with the glory of God shining around some shepherds, and it ends with the glory of God shining around his people forever (Revelation 21:23).

©2023 Michael McKinley. Used with permission.