Luke 2 commentary

LUKE 2 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
The Birth of Jesus
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree
that a census should be taken of the entire
Roman world.
BARNES, "In those days - About the time of the birth of John and of Christ.
A decree - A law commanding a thing to be done.
Caesar Augustus - This was the Roman emperor. His first name was Octavianus.
He was the nephew of Julius Caesar, and obtained the empire after his death. He
took the name “Augustus - i. e., august,” or honorable - as a compliment to his own
greatness; and from him the month “August,” which was before called “Sextilis,”
received its name.
That all the world - There has been much difficulty respecting this passage,
from the fact that no such taxing of “all the world” is mentioned by ancient writers. It
should have been rendered “the whole land” - that is, the whole land of Palestine. The
“whole land” is mentioned to show that it was not “Judea” only, but that it included
also “Galilee,” the place where Joseph and Mary dwelt. That the passage refers only
to the land of Palestine, and not to the whole world, or to all the Roman empire, is
clear from the following considerations:
1. The fact that no such taxing is mentioned as pertaining to any other country.
2. The account of Luke demands only that it should be understood of Palestine, or
the country where the Saviour was born.
3. The words “world” and “whole world” are not unfrequently used in this limited
sense as confined to a single country.
See Mat_4:8, where Satan is said to have shown to Christ all the kingdoms of “the
world,” that is, of the land of Judea. See also Jos_2:3; Luk_4:25 (Greek); Luk_21:26;
Act_11:28.
Should be taxed - Our word “tax” means to levy and raise money for the use of
the government. This is not the meaning of the original word here. It means rather to
“enroll,” or take a “list” of the citizens, with their employments, the amount of their
property, etc., equivalent to what was meant by census. Judea was at that time
tributary to Rome. It paid taxes to the Roman emperor; and, though Herod was
“king,” yet he held his appointment under the Roman emperor, and was subject in
most matters to him. Farther, as this “enrollment” was merely to ascertain the
numbers and property of the Jews, it is probable that they were very willing to be
enrolled in this manner; and hence we hear that they went willingly, without tumult -
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contrary to the common way when they were “to be taxed.”
CLARKE, "Caesar Augustus - This was Caius Caesar Octavianus Augustus,
who was proclaimed emperor of Rome in the 29th year before our Lord, and died a.d.
14.
That all the world should be taxed - Πασαν την οικουµενην, the whole of that
empire. It is agreed, on all hands, that this cannot mean the whole world, as in the
common translation; for this very sufficient reason, that the Romans had not the
dominion of the whole earth, and therefore could have no right to raise levies or taxes
in those places to which their dominion did not extend. Οικουµενη signifies properly
the inhabited part of the earth, from οικεω, to dwell, or inhabit. Polybius makes use
of the very words in this text to point out the extent of the Roman government, lib. vi.
c. 48; and Plutarch uses the word in exactly the same sense, Pomp. p. 635. See the
passages in Wetstein. Therefore the whole that could be meant here, can be no more
than that a general Census of the inhabitants and their effects had been made in the
reign of Augustus, through all the Roman dominions.
But as there is no general census mentioned in any historian as having taken place
at this time, the meaning of οικουµενη must be farther restrained, and applied solely
to the land of Judea. This signification it certainly has in this same evangelist, Luk_
21:26. Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are
coming on the earth, τᇽ οικουµενᇽ this land. The whole discourse relates to the
calamities that were coming, not upon the whole world, nor the whole of the Roman
empire, but on the land of Judea, see Luk_21:21. Then let them that are in Judea flee
to the mountains. Out of Judea, therefore, there would be safety; and only those who
should be with child, or giving suck, in those days, are considered as peculiarly
unhappy, because they could not flee away from that land on which the scourge was
to fall: for the wrath, or punishment, shall be, says our Lord, εν τሩ λαሩ τουτሩ, On This
Very People, viz. the Jews, Luk_21:23. It appears that St. Luke used this word in this
sense in conformity to the Septuagint, who have applied it in precisely the same way,
Isa_13:11; Isa_14:26; Isa_24:1. And from this we may learn, that the word οικουµενη
had been long used as a term by which the land of Judea was commonly expressed.
ᅯ γη, which signifies the earth, or world in general, is frequently restrained to this
sense, being often used by the evangelists and others for all the country of Judea. See
Luk_4:25; Jos_2:3.
It is probable that the reason why this enrolment, or census, is said to have been
throughout the whole Jewish nation, was to distinguish it from that partial one,
made ten years after, mentioned Act_5:37, which does not appear to have extended
beyond the estates of Archelaus, and which gave birth to the insurrection excited by
Judas of Galilee. See Josephus, Ant. book xx. c. 3.
GILL, "And it came to pass in those days,.... When John the Baptist was born,
and Christ was conceived, and his mother pregnant with him, and the time of his
birth drew on. The Ethiopic version reads, "in that day"; as if it was the same day in
which John was circumcised, and Zacharias delivered the above song of praise: that
there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus; second emperor of Rome; the name
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Caesar was common to all the emperors, as Pharaoh to the Egyptians, and afterwards
Ptolemy. His name Augustus, was not his original surname, but Thurinus; and was
given him, after he became Caesar, to express his grandeur, majesty, and reverence;
and that by the advice of Munatius Plancus, when others would have had him called
Romulus, as if he was the founder of the city of Rome (z): by him a decree was made
and published,
that all the world should be taxed; or "registered", or "enrolled"; for this was
not levying a tax, or imposing tribute upon them, but a taking an account of the
names of persons, and of their estates; and which might be, in order to lay a tax upon
them, as afterwards was: for the payment of a tax, there was no need of the
appearance of women and children; and so the Arabic version renders it, "that the
names the whole habitable world might be described, or written down": such an
enrolment had been determined on by Augustus, when at Tarracon in Spain, twenty
seven years before; but he was diverted from it by some disturbances in the empire,
so that it was deferred to this time, in which there was a remarkable interposition of
divine providence; for had this enrolment been made then, in all likelihood it had not
been done now, and Joseph and Mary would not have had occasion to have come to
Bethlehem: but so it must be; and thus were things ordered by an infinite, and all
wise providence to effect it: nor did this enrolment reach to all the parts of the known
world, but only to the Roman empire; which, because it was so very large as it was,
and in the boasting language of the Romans was so called, as, Ptolemy Evergetes (a)
calls his kingdom, κοσµος, "the world". Though some think only the land of Judea is
meant, which is called the earth, in Luk_21:26 and "all the world", in Act_11:28 but
the other sense seems more agreeable; and so the Syriac version renders it, "that all
the people of his empire might be enrolled": and the Persic version, "that they should
enrol all the subjects of his kingdom"; and is justified by the use of the phrase for the
Roman empire, in several passages of Scripture, Rom_1:8. Now at the time of this
enrolment, and under this august emperor, and when the whole world was in a
profound peace, was the Messiah born, the King of kings, and the only potentate; the
Shiloh, the peaceable and prosperous, the Prince of Peace, and Lord of life and glory;
and that, in order to redeem men from that worse subjection and bondage they were
in to sin, Satan, the law, and death, than they were to the Roman emperor. The Jews
say (b), the son of David shall not come, until the kingdom (of Edom, or Rome, as
some copies read, in others it is erased) shall be extended over all Israel, nine
months, according to Mic_5:3. The gloss on it is, that is, "all the world", in which the
Israelites are scattered,
HENRY, “The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son,
made of a woman, and made under the law; and it was foretold that he should be
born at Bethlehem. Now here we have an account of the time, place, and manner of
it.
I. The time when our Lord Jesus was born. Several things may be gathered out of
these verses which intimate to us that it was the proper time.
1. He was born at the time when the fourth monarchy was in its height, just when
it was become, more than any of the three before it, a universal monarchy. He was
born in the days of Augustus Caesar, when the Roman empire extended itself further
than ever before or since, including Parthia one way, and Britain another way; so that
it was then called Terraram orbis imperium - The empire of the whole earth; and
here that empire is called all the world (Luk_2:1), for there was scarcely any part of
the civilized world, but what was dependent on it. Now this was the time when the
Messiah was to be born, according to Daniel's prophecy (Dan_2:44): In the days of
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these kings, the kings of the fourth monarchy, shall the God of heaven set up a
kingdom which shall never be destroyed.
JAMISON, "Luk_2:1-7. Birth of Christ.
Caesar Augustus — the first of the Roman emperors.
all the world — so the vast Roman Empire was termed.
taxed — enrolled, or register themselves.
CALVIN, "Luke relates how it happened, that Christ was born in the city of
Bethlehem, as his mother was living at a distance from her home, when she was
approaching to her confinement. And first he sets aside the idea of human
contrivance, (123) by saying, that Joseph and Mary had left home, and came to
that place to make the return according to their family and tribe. If intentionally
and on purpose (124) they had changed their residence that Mary might bring
forth her child in Bethlehem, we would have looked only at the human beings
concerned. But as they have no other design than to obey the edict of Augustus,
we readily acknowledge, that they were led like blind persons, by the hand of
God, to the place where Christ must be born. This may appear to be accidental,
as everything else, which does not proceed from a direct human intention, is
ascribed by irreligious men to Fortune. But we must not attend merely to the
events themselves. We must remember also the prediction which was uttered by
the prophet many centuries before. A comparison will clearly show it to have
been accomplished by the wonderful Providence of God, that a registration was
then enacted by Augustus Caesar, and that Joseph and Mary set out from home,
so as to arrive in Bethlehem at the very point of time.
Thus we see that the holy servants of God, even though they wander from their
design, unconscious where they are going, still keep the right path, because God
directs their steps. Nor is the Providence of God less wonderful in employing the
mandate of a tyrant to draw Mary from home, that the prophecy may be
fulfilled. God had marked out by his prophet — as we shall afterwards see — the
place where he determined that his Son should be born. If Mary had not been
constrained to do otherwise, she would have chosen to bring forth her child at
home. Augustus orders a registration to take place in Judea, and each person to
give his name, that they may afterwards pay an annual tax, which they were
formerly accustomed to pay to God. Thus an ungodly man takes forcible
possession of that which God was accustomed to demand from his people. It was,
in effect, reducing the Jews to entire subjection, and forbidding them to be
thenceforth reckoned as the people of God.
Matters have been brought, in this way, to the last extremity, and the Jews
appear to be cut off and alienated for ever from the covenant of God. At that
very time does God suddenly, and contrary to universal expectation, afford a
remedy. What is more, he employs that wicked tyranny for the redemption of his
people. For the governor, (or whoever was employed by Caesar for the purpose,)
while he executes the commission entrusted to him, is, unknown to himself,
God’s herald, to call Mary to the place which God had appointed. And certainly
Luke’s whole narrative may well lead believers to acknowledge, that Christ was
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led by the hand of God “ from his mother’s belly,” (Psalms 22:10.) Nor is it of
small consequence (125) to the certainty of faith to know, that Mary was drawn
suddenly, and contrary to her own intention, to Bethlehem, that “out of it might
come forth” (Micah 5:2) the Redeemer, as he had been formerly promised.
1.The whole world This figure of speech (126) (by which the whole is taken for a
part, or a part for the whole) was in constant use among the Roman authors, and
ought not to be reckoned harsh. That this registration might be more tolerable
and less odious, it was extended equally, I have no doubt, to all the provinces;
though the rate of taxation may have been different. I consider this first
registration to mean, that the Jews, being completely subdued, were then loaded
with a new and unwonted yoke. Others read it, that this registration was first
made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria; (127) but there is no probability in
that view. The tax was, indeed, annual; but the registration did not take place
every year. The meaning is, that the Jews were far more heavily oppressed than
they had formerly been.
There is a diversity as to the name of the Proconsul. Some call him Cyrenius,
( Κυρήνιος,) and others, Quirinus or Quirinius But there is nothing strange in
this;for we know that the Greeks, when they translate Latin names, almost
always make some change in the pronunciation. But a far greater difficulty
springs up in another direction. Josephus says that, while Archelaus was a
prisoner at Vienna, (Ant. 17:13. 2,) Quirinus came as Proconsul, with
instructions to annex Judea to the province of Syria, (xviii. 1.1.) Now, historians
are agreed, that Archelaus reigned nine years after the death of his father Herod.
It would therefore appear, that there was an interval of about thirteen years
between the birth of Christ and this registration; for almost all assent to the
account given by Epiphanius, that Christ was born in the thirty-third year of
Herod: that is, four years before his death.
Another circumstance not a little perplexing is, that the same Josephus speaks of
this registration as having happened in the thirty-seventh year after the victory
at Actium, (128) (Ant. 18:2. 1.) If this be true, Augustus lived, at the utmost, not
more than seven years after this event; which makes a deduction of eight or nine
years from his age: for it is plain from the third chapter of Luke’s Gospel, that
he was at that time only in his fifteenth year. But, as the age of Christ is too well
known to be called in question, it is highly probable that, in this and many other
passages of Josephus’s History, his recollection had failed him. Historians are
agreed that Quirinus was Consul nineteen years, or thereby, before the victory
over Antony, which gave Augustus the entire command of the empire: and so he
must have been sent into the province at a very advanced age. Besides, the same
Josephus enumerates four governors of Judea within eight years; while he
acknowledges that the fifth was governor for fifteen years. That was Valerius
Gratus, who was succeeded by Pontius Pilate.
Another solution may be offered. It might be found impracticable to effect the
registration immediately after the edict had been issued: for Josephus relates,
that Coponius was sent with an army to reduce the Jews to subjection, (Ant.
18:2.2) from which it may easily be inferred, that the registration was prevented,
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for a time, by popular tumult. The words of Luke bear this sense, that, about the
time of our Lord’s birth, an edict came out to have the people registered, but that
the registration could not take place till after a change of the kingdom, when
Judea had been annexed to another province. This clause is accordingly added
by way of correction. This first registration was made when Cyrenius was
governor of Syria That is, it was then first carried into effect. (129)
But the whole question is not yet answered: for, while Herod was king of Judea,
what purpose did it serve to register a people who paid no tribute to the Roman
Empire? I reply: there is no absurdity in supposing that Augustus, by way of
accustoming the Jews to the yoke, (for their obstinacy was abundantly well-
known,) chose to have them registered, even under the reign of Herod. (130) Nor
did Herod’s peculiar authority as king make it inconsistent that the Jews should
pay to the Roman Empire a stipulated sum for each man under the name of a
tax: for we know that Herod, though he was called a king, held nothing more
than a borrowed power, and was little better than a slave. On what authority
Eusebius states that this registration took place by an order of the Roman
Senate, I know not.
LIGHTFOOT, "[From Caesar Augustus.] The New Testament mentions nothing
of the Roman government, but as now reduced under a monarchical form. When
that head, which had been mortally wounded in the expulsion of the Tarquins,
was healed and restored again in the Caesars, "all the world wondered," saith
St. John, Revelation 13:3; and well they might, to see monarchy, that had for so
many hundred years been antiquated and quite dead, should now flourish again
more vigorously and splendidly than ever.
But whence the epoch or beginning of this government should take its date is
something difficult to determine. The foundations of it, as they were laid by
Julius Caesar, so did they seem overturned and erased again in the death he met
with in the senate-house. It was again restored, and indeed perfected by
Augustus; but to what year of Augustus should we reckon it? I would lay it in his
one-and-thirtieth, the very year wherein our Saviour was born. Of this year Dion
Cassius, lib. lv, speaks thus:
"The third decennium [or term of ten years] having now run out, and a fourth
beginning, he, being forced to it, undertook the government." Observe the force
of the word forced to it: then was Augustus constrained or compelled to take the
empire upon him. The senate, the people, and (as it should seem) the whole
republic, with one consent, submitting themselves entirely to a monarchical form
of government, did even constrain the emperor Augustus, (who for some time
stiffly refused it,) to take the reins into his hands.
I am not ignorant that the computation of Augustus' reign might reasonably
enough commence from his battle and victory at Actium; nor do the Gemarists
count amiss, when they tell us that "the Roman empire took its beginning in the
days of Cleopatra." And you may, if you please, call that a monarchical
government, in opposition to the triumvirate, which at that battle breathed its
last. But that, certainly, was the pure and absolute monarchy, which the senate
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and the commonwealth did agree and consent together to set up.
[Should be taxed.] The Vulgar and other Latin copies read, should be described;
which, according to the letter, might be understood of the setting out the whole
bounds of the empire, according to its various and distinct provinces. Only that
Aethicus tells us, this had been done before; whose words, since they concern so
great and noble a monument of antiquity, may not prove tedious to the reader to
be transcribed in this place:
"Julius Caesar, the first inventor of the Bissextile account, a man singularly
instructed in all divine and human affairs, in the time of his consulship, by a
decree of the senate, procured, that the whole Roman jurisdiction should be
measured out by men of greatest skill, and most seen in all the attainments of
philosophy. So that Julius Caesar and M. Antony being consuls, the world began
to be measured.
"That is, from the consulship of Caesar above mentioned to the consulship of
Augustus the third time, and Crassus, the space of one-and-twenty years, five
months, and eight days, all the East was surveyed by Zenodoxus.
"From the consulship likewise of Julius Caesar and M. Antony to the consulship
of Saturninus and Cinna, the space of two-and-thirty years, one month, and ten
days, the South was measured out by Polyclitus; so that in two-and-thirty years'
time, the whole world was surveyed, and a report of it given in unto the senate."
Thus he: though something obscurely in the accounts of consuls, as also in his
silence about the West; which things I must not stand to inquire into at this time.
This only we may observe, that Julius Caesar was consul with Antony, AUC 710;
and that the survey of the Roman empire, being two-and-thirty years in
finishing, ended AUC 742; that is, twelve years before the nativity of our
Saviour.
Let us in the meantime guess what course was taken in this survey: I. It is very
probable they drew out some geographical tables, wherein all the countries were
delineated, and laid down before them in one view. II. That these tables or maps
were illustrated by commentaries, in which were set down the description of the
countries, the names of places, the account of distances, and whatever might be
necessary to a complete knowledge of the whole bounds of that empire. That
some such thing was done by Augustus' own hand, so far as concerned Italy,
seems hinted by a passage in Pliny; In which thing, we must tell beforehand, that
we intend to follow Augustus, and the description he made of all Italy, dividing it
unto eleven countries.
And now, after this survey of lands and regions, what could be wanting to the
full knowledge of the empire, but a strict account of the people, their patrimony,
and estates? and this was Augustus' care to do.
"He took upon him the government both of their manners and laws, and both
perpetual: by which right, though without the title of censor, he laid a tax upon
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the people three times; the first and third with his colleague, the second alone."
The first with his colleague, M. Agrippa; the third, with his colleague Tiberius;
the second, by himself alone; and this was the tax our evangelist makes mention
of in this place.
BARCLAY, "JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM (Luke 2:1-7)
2:1-7 In these days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should
be taken of all the world. The census first took place when Quirinius was
governor of Syria; and everyone went to enroll himself, each man to his own
town. So Joseph went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judaea, to
David's town, which is called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and
the line of David, to enrol himself with Mary who was betrothed to him and she
was with child. When they arrived there her time to bear the child was
completed; and she bore her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the
place where they had meant to lodge.
In the Roman Empire periodical censuses were taken with the double object of
assessing taxation and of discovering those who were liable for compulsory
military service. The Jews were exempt from military service, and, therefore, in
Palestine a census would be predominantly for taxation purposes. Regarding
these censuses, we have definite information as to what happened in Egypt; and
almost certainly what happened in Egypt happened in Syria, too, and Judaea
was part of the province of Syria. The information we have comes from actual
census documents written on papyrus and then discovered in the dust-heaps of
Egyptian towns and villages and in the sands of the desert.
Such censuses were taken every fourteen years. And from A.D. 20 until about
A.D. 270 we possess actual documents from every census taken. If the fourteen-
year cycle held good in Syria this census must have been in 8 B.C. and that was
the year in which Jesus was born. It may be that Luke has made one slight
mistake. Quirinius did not actually become governor of Syria until A.D. 6; but he
held an official post previously in those regions from 10 B.C. until 7 B.C. and it
was during that first period that this census must have been taken.
Critics used to question the fact that every man had to go to his own city to be
enrolled; but here is an actual government edict from Egypt:
"Gaius Vibius Maximus, Prefect of Egypt orders: 'Seeing that the
time has come for the house-to-house census, it is necessary to
compel all those who for any cause whatsoever are residing
outside their districts to return to their own homes, that they
may both carry out the regular order of the census, and may also
diligently attend to the cultivation of their allotments.'"
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If that was the case in Egypt, it may well be that in Judaea, where the old tribal
ancestries still held good, men had to go to the headquarters of their tribe. Here
is an instance where further knowledge has shown the accuracy of the New
Testament.
The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was 80 miles. The accommodation for
travellers was most primitive. The eastern khan was like a series of stalls opening
off a common courtyard. Travellers brought their own food; all that the
innkeeper provided was fodder for the animals and a fire to cook. The town was
crowded and there was no room for Joseph and Mary. So it was in the common
courtyard that Mary's child was born. Swaddling clothes consisted of a square of
cloth with a long bandage-like strip coming diagonally off from one corner. The
child was first wrapped in the square of cloth and then the long strip was wound
round and round about him. The word translated "manger" means a place
where animals feed; and therefore it can be either the stable or the manger
which is meant.
That there was no room in the inn was symbolic of what was to happen to Jesus.
The only place where there was room for him was on a cross. He sought an entry
to the over-crowded hearts of men; he could not find it; and still his search--and
his rejection--go on.
COFFMAN, "This chapter details the birth of Christ (Luke 2:1-7), the
annunciation to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20), ceremonies of the law of Moses
observed on behalf of Jesus (Luke 2:21-24), the prophecy of Simeon (Luke
2:25-35), the thanksgiving of Anna (Luke 2:36-39), episode when Jesus was
twelve years old (Luke 2:40-51), and a one-sentence summary of some eighteen
years of Jesus' life (Luke 2:52).
Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled. (Luke 2:1)
Augustus ... "This is the title given by the Roman Senate on January 17,27 B.C.,
to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (63 B.C.-14 A.D.)."[1]
All the world ... was "a technical term used freely to refer to the Roman
Empire,"[2] which was indeed, at that time, the whole civilized world.
Should be enrolled ... Critical allegations denying that such enrollments were
made have been proved false. As Barclay said:
Such censuses were taken every fourteen years; and from 20 A.D. to 270 A.D., we
possess actual documents from every census taken ... Here is an instance where
further knowledge has shown the accuracy of the New Testament.[3]
[1] Encyclopedia Britannica, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 686.
[2] Ray Summers, Commentary on Luke (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher,
1974), p. 36.
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[3] William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,
1953), p. 15. 47
COKE, "Luke 2:1. And it came to pass, &c.— At that time an edict was
published by Caesar Augustus, that all the provinces of the Roman empire
should be registered or enrolled,—as in the margin of our English version.
Heylin. This was the enrolment of the census, first practised by Servius Tullus,
the sixth king of Rome, who ordained, that the Roman people, at certain seasons,
should upon oath give an account of their names, qualities, employments, wives,
children, servants, estates, and places of abode. By this institution, Servius
designed to put those who had the administration of public affairs in a condition
to understand the strength of every particular part of the community; that is,
what men and money might be raised from it; and, according to those
assessments or estimates, men and money were levied afterwards, as occasion
required.
Our version extends this enrolment to all the world; that is, agreeable to Dr.
Heylin's explanation, to all the province's of the Roman empire; but it seems
most probable, according to Dr. Lardner's ingenious observations, that the word
' Οικουμενη is to be taken in a more limited sense,—as it is plainly, chap. Luke
21:26 and in other places,—for the land of Israel only. The Evangelist observes,
that the emperor's edict extended to the whole land, to shew that Galilee,
Joseph's country, was comprehended in it. That this was an enrolment of the
inhabitants of Palestine only is probable, because no historian whatever says that
Augustus made a general enrolment of the empire: whereas, if any such had
happened, they would scarcely have failed to gratify their readers with an
account of the numbers of the persons, &c. that being a particular which every
one must have been curious to know. But their silence concerning a particular
enrolment of the land of Israel only, is not surprising, as there must have
beensurveys of provinces, which the Greek and Roman historians now extant
had no occasion to notice. There is frequent mention of the census at our Lord's
nativity, in the most early apologies of the fathers; and as some of these apologies
were addressed to the Roman emperors themselves, such appeals to a public fact
imply that it was a thing well known; and would be, if need were, a sufficient
confirmation of this fact. At this time Augustus was much incensed against
Herod, and probably ordered this census as a token of his displeasure, and as an
intimation that he intended soon to lay the Jews under a tax: Herod, perhaps,
regaining the emperor's favour, prevailed with him to suspend his intention; and
this possibly, together with the disgracefulness of the thing, may have been one
reason why the census was passed over in silence by Nicholas of Damascus, one
of Herod's servants and flatterers, in the history that he wroteof his affairs. It
might likewise be the reason why Josephus, who copied from Nicholas, omitted
the mention of it, or at best represented it simply by the taking of an oath, rather
than by the offensive name of a census, (see Antiq. lib. 17. 100: 2 sect. 6.)
supposing it to have been at this enrolment that the oath which Josephus speaks
of was imposed, which the whole Jewish nation, except six thousand Pharisees,
took, to be faithful to Caesar and the interests of the king. Now, that this oath
was imposed at the time of the enrolment, appears probable, because the events
10

which followed it are the same which happened aftertheenrolment.The Pharisees
who refused to swear, from the imagination that the law, Deuteronomy 17:15
forbad them, were fined; but the wife of Pheroras paid the fine for them; and
they in return predicted that God had determined to put an end to Herod's
government, and that the kingdom should be transferred to her family;
proceeding farther to characterize the new king by the expression, that "all
things should be in his power," a characteristic of the Messiah. The disturbances
which happened in Jerusalem after this, and the slaughter made in Herod's
family, were all on account of the birth of this new king. The persons who
predicted the birth of this king were the Pharisees, according to Josephus: in the
Gospel they are called the chief priests and scribes, who, from the ancient
prophesies, informed Herod that his rival king was to be born in Bethlehem.
Indeed the whole affair is but slightly handled by Josephus; but it must be
remembered, that Josephus, being a Jew, would consult the reputation of his
country; and being also an enemy to Christianity, it cannot be supposed that he
would relate at large such particulars as had any strong tendency to support it.
The reader desirous of entering more fully into this subject, will meet with ample
satisfaction in B. 2. 100: 1 of Lardner's Credibility; where the point is discussed
with equal learning and accuracy. It maybe proper just to add, that this affair of
the taxing is mentioned by St. Luke, not so much to mark the time of Christ's
birth, as to prove two things; first, that he was born in Bethlehem; secondly, that
his parents were at that time known to be branches of the royal family of David.
The importance of ascertaining these points arose hence, that they were fixed by
the prophets as express characters of the Messiah; Hath not the scripture said
that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where
David was? John 7:42. By the particular destination of Providence, therefore,
while Joseph and Mary were attending the enrolment at Bethlehem, Mary
brought forth her Son.
BENSON, "Luke 2:1. And it came to pass in those days — That is, about the
time in which John the Baptist was born, and Christ conceived, in the manner
related in the preceding chapter; there went out a decree from Cesar Augustus,
the Roman emperor, that all the world should be taxed — the word οικουμενη,
here rendered world, “means strictly the inhabited part of the earth, and
therefore, πασα η οικουμενη, all the world, in the common acceptation of the
phrase. But it is well known that this expression was, in ancient times, frequently
employed to denote the Roman empire. It was probably a title first assumed
through arrogance, afterward given by others through flattery, and at last
appropriated by general use to this signification. That it has a more extensive
meaning in this place is not pretended by any. But there are some who, on the
contrary, would confine it still further, making it denote no more than Judea and
its appendages. Of this opinion are several of the learned; Beausobre, Doddridge,
Lardner, Pearce, and others. In support of it they have produced some passages
in which this phrase, or expressions equivalent, appear to have no larger
signification. But, admitting their explanation of the passages they produce, they
are not parallel to the example in hand. Such hyperboles are indeed current, not
only in the language of the evangelists, but in every language. In those cases,
however, wherein they are introduced, there rarely fails to be something, either
in what is spoken or in the occasion of speaking, which serves to explain the
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trope. For example: the term, a country, in English, denotes properly a region, or
tract of land, inhabited by a people living under the same government. By this,
which is the common acceptation, we should say that England is a country. Yet
the term is often used without any ambiguity in a more limited sense. Thus an
inhabitant of a country town or parish says to one of his neighbours, speaking of
two persons of their acquaintance, ‘All the country says they are soon to be
married;’ yet so far is he from meaning by the phrase, all the country, all the
people of England, that he is sensible not a thousandth part of them know that
such persons exist. He means no more than all the neighbourhood. Nor is he in
the smallest danger, by speaking thus, of being misunderstood by any hearer.
But if he should say, ‘The parliament has laid a tax on saddle-horses, throughout
all the country,’ nobody could imagine that less than England was intended by
the term country, in this application. Here the term must be considered as it
stands related to parliament; in other words, it must be that which, in the style of
the legislature, would be named the country. In like manner, though it might not
be extraordinary that a Jew, addressing himself to Jews, and speaking of their
own people only, should employ such an hyperbole as, all the world, for all
Judea; it would be exceedingly unnatural in him to use the same terms, applied
in the same manner, in relating the resolves and decrees of the Roman emperor,
to whom all Judea would be very far from appearing all the world, or even a
considerable part of it. Add to this, that the Syriac interpreter (as also all the
other ancient interpreters) understood the words in the same manner: all the
people in his (the emperor’s) dominions.” — Campbell. The chief, if not the only
objection to this sense of the expression is, the silence of historians. But what
Grotius observes, greatly lessens the force of that objection; “I do not so
understand the evangelist,” says he, “as if a census were made through the whole
Roman world, at one and the same time; but when Augustus wished thoroughly
to know the whole power of the Roman empire, he appointed a census to be
made through all the kingdoms and provinces subject to it, at one time in one
part, and at another in another. Thus Dion, επεμψεν αλλους αλλη, τα τε των
ιδιωτων και τα των πολεων απογραψομενους, he sent some persons one way and
some another, who might take an account of the property, as well of private
persons as of cities. Of the census made through Gaul by order of Augustus,
Claudius, in an oration which is preserved at Ancyra, the abbreviator of Livy,
and Dio, have made mention.”
Should be taxed — Greek, απογραφεσθαι, enrolled: that is, that all the
inhabitants, male and female, of every town in the Roman empire, with their
families and estates, should be registered. Many of the modern translations,
particularly those into Italian, French, and English, have rendered the word
taxed: and as registers were commonly made with a view to taxing, it may, no
doubt, in many cases, be so rendered with sufficient propriety: but, “as in this
place there is some difficulty, it is better to adhere strictly to the import of the
words. For though it was commonly for the purpose of taxing that a register was
made, it was not always, or necessarily so; and in the present case we have
ground to believe that there was no immediate view to taxation, at least with
respect to Judea. Herod, called the Great, was then alive, and king of the
country, and though in subordination to the Romans, of whom he may justly be
said to have held his crown, yet, as they allowed him all the honours of royalty,
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there is no ground to think that, either in his lifetime, or before the banishment
of his son Archelaus, the Romans levied any toll or tribute from the people of
Judea. Nay, we have the testimony of Josephus, that they did not till after the
expulsion of Archelaus, when the country was annexed to Syria, and so became
part of a Roman province.” — Campbell. The reader will observe, such a census,
or account, as that here spoken of, “used to be taken of the citizens of Rome
every fifth year, and they had officers on purpose appointed for it, called
censors. Their business was to take an account, and make a register, of all the
Roman citizens, their wives and children, with the age, qualities, trades, offices,
and estates of them all. Augustus first extended this to the provinces. He was
then at work on the composure of such a book, containing such a survey and
description of the whole Roman empire, as that which our Doomsday-book doth
of England. In order whereto, his decree for this survey was made to extend to
the depending kingdoms, as well as the provinces of the empire: — however,
taxes were only paid by the people of the provinces to the Romans; and those of
the dependant kingdoms to their own proper princes, who paid their tributes to
the Roman emperors. Three times during his reign he caused the like description
to be made. The second is that which St. Luke refers to. The decree concerning it
was issued out three years before that in which Christ was born. So long had the
taking of this survey been carrying on through Syria, Cœlo-Syria, Phœnicia, and
Judea, before it came to Bethlehem. No payment of any tax was made (on this
survey) till the twelfth year after. Till then Herod, and after him Archelaus his
son, reigned in Judea. But when Archelaus was deposed, and Judea put under
the command of a Roman procurator, then first were taxes paid to the Romans
for that country.” — Prideaux.
BI, "A decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed
There is no grand reason, you see, given why Mary and Joseph should go to Judaea.
The angel who is said to have announced the coming birth does not appear again to
tell them that they must travel, since otherwise the Son of David will not be
connected with His ancestral dwelling-place. They go because every one else is going.
A decree of the Caesar obliges the man to register himself in the village, whatever it
is, to which he belongs. It may be an awkward contrivance, as a modern writer says it
is, to make the conception of royalty fit with the facts. Assuredly the critic, or any
ingenious man in this day, could have invented a better tale. And if forgers of that
day had, as he supposes, an unlimited command of supernatural incidents, these
poor peasants might have been transported by any kind of celestial machinery to the
spot in which they were required to be. Nor can we doubt that a Frenchman now, or
an Oriental then, would have introduced such an event with becoming pomp. If it
was part of the scheme that the birth should be humble, he would have taken pains
that we should observe that part of it. There would have been starts of surprise,
exclamations at the stooping of the Highest of all to the lowest place. Here is nothing
of the kind. Events, the belief of which has affected all the art and speculation of the
most civilized nations in the modem world, are recorded in fewer words, with less
effort, than an ordinary historian, or the writer of a newspaper, would deem suitable
to the account of the most trivial transaction. Such marvellous associations have
clung for centuries to these verses, that it is hard to realize how absolutely naked they
are of all ornament. We are obliged to read them again and again to assure ourselves
that they really do set forth what we call the great miracle of the world. If, on the
other hand, the mind of the evangelist was possessed by the conviction that he was
not recording a miracle which had interrupted the course of history, but was telling
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of a Divine act which explained the course of history and restored the order of
human life, one can very well account for his calmness; if that conviction was a true
one, we might account for the impression which his brief sentences have made on
later ages. That the poll-tax of the first emperors should be the instrument of
bringing forth the King before whom the Caesars were to bow, would then seem one
of those incidents in the drama of the universe which discover a God who is not
suddenly interfering to untie knots that are too difficult for human hands, but who is
directing all the course of the action, from the beginning to the catastrophe; not
crushing the wills of the persons in the drama, but leading them on, by methods
which we cannot see or conjecture, to fill their places in it. And the birth in the
manger would be felt, not as an embellishment of the narrative, but as a part of the
revelation. The King, who proves His title and His Divinity by stooping to the lowest
condition of His subjects, is brought into direct contrast with him who had risen by
intrigues, proscriptions, and the overthrow of an ancient order, to be hailed as the
Deliverer and highest God of the earth. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
The child and the emperor
Was that infant at Bethlehem no more than a subject of the Roman emperor? Was
Christianity the mere product of these outward favouring circumstances? Not so. It is
true that from these circumstances the fulness of time took its shape and colour.
Without that shelter it would not have been, humanly speaking, what now it is. But
the spark of life itself was independent of any local or national state. The very
characteristic of the life of Christ is that which soared above any such local limit.
Therefore it is that He was born, apart from all the stir and turmoil of the world, in a
humble stall, in a dark cavern, in a narrow street of an obscure mountain village.
Therefore it is that He lived for thirty years in the secluded basin of the unknown,
unconsecrated Nazareth; that He passed away without attracting a single word of
notice from any contemporary poet or philosopher of that great court, which has
made the reign of Caesar Augustus proverbial to all time as the “Augustan age.” Born
under the empire, there was in Jesus Christ nothing imperial, except the greatness of
His birth. Born under the Roman sway, there was nothing in Him Roman except the
world-wide dominion of His Spirit. From Caesar Augustus comes out a decree that all
the world should be taxed, subdued, civilized, united. All honour to him for it! All
vigilance, all exertion, all prudence, be ours to watch and seize all the opportunities
that are given to us. But it is from God that there come these flashes of life and light,
of goodness and of genius, which belong to no age, but which find their likeness in
that Divine Child, which was born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. This, then, is the double principle of which the birth of Christ is the most
striking example; external circumstances are something, but they are not everything
The inward life is the essential thing; but for its successful growth it needs external
circumstance. There are a thousand ways in which this double lesson is forced upon
us, but the most striking illustration is still to be found in the contrast of the same
double relation to the circumstances of world, century, country, or Church in which
we live. And, on the other hand, there is our own separate existence and character
with its own work to do—its own special nourishment from God. (Dean Stanley.)
A political era associated with high religious experiences
It was remarkable that the birth of Christ should take place in connection with the
process of a great political engagement. Whilst men were moving from all quarters,
in response to the decree of Caesar Augustus, the angels of heaven were gathering
14

around the world’s greatest event. We need historical landmarks to help our memory
of the best things. Blessed is that nation whose political eras are associated with the
highest religious experiences. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Historical difficulties of the census
Great as are the historic difficulties in which this census is involved, there seem to be
good independent grounds for believing that it may have been originally ordered by
Sextius Saturinus, that it was begun by Publeius Sulpicius Quirinus, when he was for
the first time legate of Syria; and that it was completed during his second term of
office. In deference to Jewish prejudices, any infringement of which was the certain
signal for violent tumults and insurrections, it was not carried out in the ordinary
Roman manner, at each person’s place of residence, but, according to Jewish custom,
at the town to which their family originally belonged. The Jews still clung to their
genealogies and to the memory of long-extinct tribal relations; and though the
journey was a weary and distasteful one, the mind of Joseph may well have been
consoled by the remembrance of that heroic descent which would now be
authoritatively recognized, and by the glow of those Messianic hopes to which the
marvellous circumstances of which he was almost the sole depositary would give a
tenfold intensity. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
The empire of Rome and the stable at Bethlehem
I. 1. Consider the decree that went forth from the emperor. How important it must
have appeared to the Roman authorities!
2. Consider also the scene that night at Bethlehem. Little knew the people who
were filling that inn whom they were turning out!
II. 1. Learn that God is working in all the events of life, great or small; bringing out of
them issues very different from the issues intended by the actors in those events.
Emperors are but officials in God’s Temple, and their decrees are but means by
which He carries out His.
2. Learn that God’s work does not appeal to the outward senses. It is born at
lowly Bethlehem rather than in powerful Rome or in self-righteous Jerusalem.
Yet it lasts to eternity.
3. Learn also how the work of Christ in us is like His work in the world. He has to
be born in each one of us. (Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
God overrules
Augustus, while sending forth his edicts to the utmost limits of the East, little knew
that on his part he was obeying the decrees of the King of kings. God had foretold
that the Saviour should be born in Bethlehem. In order that this might be
accomplished He made use of Augustus, and through this prince the order was given
for the census of the whole people. At the sight of those wars and revolutions that
upset the world you feel inclined to imagine that God no longer governs the world or
those in it. You are mistaken, God permits that these awful catastrophes should take
place, just for the salvation and perfection of this or that person whom the world
knows not. (De Boylesve.)
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God’s time arrives
I. DIVINE POWER IN THE INCARNATION. II. WISDOM
(1) in the time;
(2) place;
(3) circumstances.
III. FAITHFULNESS.
IV. HOLINESS. Hiding His wonders from unbelievers.
V. Love (Joh_3:16). (Van Doren.)
1. Caesar Augustus. Son of Octavius and Aria; licentious and treacherous.
Superstitious—oft borne to the temple before day, for prayer. Generous, vain,
ambitious, warlike, another Louis XIV. Cruel—three hundred senators and two
hundred knights murdered with his consent. Defeated at sea, he dragged
Neptune’s statue into the sea. His daughter Julia, by her infamy, embittered his
last days. Reigned 44 years, died aged 76. A long and splendid reign. In Augustus,
see man’s nothingness, amid earthly splendour. In Mary, see highest destiny,
amid earthly meanness. (Van Doren.)
The birth of Jesus Christ
There is a fine propriety in celebrating once a year the nativity. Our ignorance of the
date is no valid objection. We do not hesitate to date our letters and documents Anno
Domini 1887, although in doing so we commit an error of at least four years, and
perhaps six. The all-important thing here is not the time of the nativity, but the fact
of the nativity. And, if one day in every week the Church of Immanuel celebrates the
resurrection of her Lord, is it unbecoming that she should one day in every year
celebrate that nativity without which there had never been either resurrection or
redemption, or even the Church herself? And now let us attend to the story of the
birth of Immanuel. More than seven centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, the
prophet Micah gave utterance to the following remarkable prophecy:
Thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah,
Which art little to be among the thousands of Judah,
Out of thee shall One come forth unto me
Who is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.
That same Almighty God who, through the restlessness of a Persian monarch, had
rescued from annihilation the national stock from which His Anointed was to spring,
prepared a birthplace for His Anointed through the edict of a Roman emperor. For,
when the fulness of the time had come, and the Christ was to be born, Caesar
Augustus issued a decree that all the world should be enrolled. And thus a minute
prophecy, a thousand times imperilled in the course of seven centuries, was at last
minutely accomplished. Oh, who does not feel that a God is here? Who can resist the
16

conviction that this God has had from the beginning His purposes, and actually
controls every movement of every human will? Yet there is no reason for supposing
that Augustus Caesar, in issuing his decree for a universal census, was conscious that
in so doing he was preparing the way for the accomplishment of an ancient
prediction. A Roman, he cared nothing for the Hebrews. A pagan, he knew nothing of
Messianic prophecies. His issuing a decree of enrolment was nothing unnatural or
extraordinary; it was one of the commonest acts of a political ruler, and he himself
was one of the most methodical of men. Yet who can doubt that Caesar Augustus, in
issuing this decree, was accomplishing a predetermined purpose of the Ancient of
Days? Nevertheless, nothing is clearer than this: Caesar Augustus, in publishing this
edict, and Joseph and Mary, in visiting Bethlehem in accordance with its
requirements, acted as perfectly free, voluntary beings. Now, I have not alluded to
this matter for the purpose of attempting to solve a frequently propounded
problem—namely, the reconciliation of Divine sovereignty and human freedom.
Considered practically in its matter-of-fact aspect, this subject presents no difficulty.
It is only when we pry into that domain of infinite problems which God has not
opened to us that we become bewildered and lost. Duty, not metaphysics, is our rule
for life. Let me conclude with three reflections.
I. THE BIRTH AT BETHLEHEM CONSECRATED AND GLORIFIED ALL
INFANCY. AS Athena was fabled to have sprung full-grown and panoplied from the
cloven brow of Zeus, so the Christ and Son of God might have descended into
humanity an unborn, adult Adam; for the distance between babe and man is
infinitely less than the distance between man and God. But, no; He descended into
humanity through the avenue of birth and babyhood, coming, like any other infant,
under the law of growth, and so consecrating all life from cradle to grave, hallowing
birth as well as death. The birth at Bethlehem made babyhood a sacred thing. And so
the very infancy of Jesus is a gospel.
II. THE TREATMENT OF THE HOLY FAMILY AT BETHLEHEM’S INN WAS A
PROPHECY OF THE WORLD’S TREATMENT OF JESUS CHRIST EVER SINCE. It
is, I repeat, a picture of the world’s treatment of Jesus Christ ever since. It does not
repulse Him; it simply has no room for Him. The world seizes the inn; Christianity
must put up with a stable. (G. D Boardman.)
2 (This was the first census that took place
while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
BARNES, "And this taxing was first made ... - This verse has given as much
perplexity, perhaps, as any one in the New Testament. The difficulty consists in the
fact that “Cyrenius,” or “Quirinius,” was not governor of Syria until 12 or 15 years
after the birth of Jesus. Jesus was born during the reign of Herod. At that time
“Varus” was president of Syria. Herod was succeeded by “Archelaus,” who reigned
17

eight or nine years; and after he was removed, Judea was annexed to the province of
Syria, and Cyrenius was sent as the governor (Josephus, “Ant.,” b. xvii. 5). The
difficulty has been to reconcile this account with that in Luke. Various attempts have
been made to do this. The one that seems most satisfactory is that proposed by Dr.
Lardner. According to his view, the passage here means, “This was the “first” census
of Cyrenius, governor of Syria.” It is called the “first” to distinguish it from one
“afterward” taken by Cyrenius, Act_5:37. It is said to be the census taken by
“Cyrenius; governor of Syria; “not that he was “then” governor, but that it was taken
by him who was afterward familiarly known as governor. “Cyrenius, governor of
Syria,” was the name by which the man was known when Luke wrote his gospel, and
it was not improper to say that the taxing was made by Cyrenius, the governor of
Syria,” though he might not have been actually governor for many years afterward.
Thus, Herodian says that to Marcus “the emperor” were born several daughters and
two sons,” though several of those children were born to him “before” he was
emperor. Thus, it is not improper to say that General Washington saved Braddock’s
army, or was engaged in the old French war, though he was not actually made
“general” until many years afterward. According to this Augustus sent Cyrenius, an
active, enterprising man, to take the census. At that time he was a Roman senator.
Afterward, he was made governor of the same country, and received the title which
Luke gives him.
Syria - The region of country north of Palestine, and lying between the
Mediterranean and the Euphrates. “Syria,” called in the Hebrew “Aram,” from a son
of Shem Gen_10:22, in its largest acceptation extended from the Mediterranean and
the river Cydnus to the Euphrates, and from Mount Taurus on the north to Arabia
and the border of Egypt on the south. It was divided into “Syria Palestina,” including
Canaan and Phoenicia; “Coele-Syria,” the tract of country lying between two ridges of
Mount Lebanon and Upper Syria. The last was known as “Syria” in the restricted
sense, or as the term was commonly used.
The leading features in the physical aspect of Syria consist of the great
mountainous chains of Lebanon, or Libanus and Anti-Libanus, extending from north
to south, and the great desert lying on the southeast and east. The valleys are of great
fertility, and yield abundance of grain, vines, mulberries, tobacco, olives, excellent
fruits, as oranges, figs, pistachios, etc. The climate in the inhabited parts is
exceedingly fine. Syria is inhabited by various descriptions of people, but Turks and
Greeks form the basis of the population in the cities. The only tribes that can be
considered as unique to Syria are the tenants of the heights of Lebanon. The most
remarkable of these are the Druses and Maronites. The general language is Arabic;
the soldiers and officers of government speak Turkish. Of the old Syriac language no
traces now exist.
CLARKE, "This taxing was first made when Cyrenius, etc. - The next
difficulty in this text is found in this verse, which may be translated, Now this first
enrolment was made when Quirinus was governor of Syria.
It is easily proved, and has been proved often, that Caius Sulpicius Quirinus, the
person mentioned in the text, was not governor of Syria, till ten or twelve years after
the birth of our Lord.
St. Matthew says that our Lord was born in the reign of Herod, Luk_2:1, at which
time Quintilius Varus was president of Syria, (Joseph. Ant. book xvii. c. 5, sect. 2),
who was preceded in that office by Sentius Saturninus. Cyrenius, or Quirinus, was
not sent into Syria till Archelaus was removed from the government of Judea; and
Archelaus had reigned there between nine and ten years after the death of Herod; so
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that it is impossible that the census mentioned by the evangelist could have been
made in the presidency of Quirinus.
Several learned men have produced solutions of this difficulty; and, indeed, there
are various ways of solving it, which may be seen at length in Lardner, vol. i. p.
248-329. One or other of the two following appears to me to be the true meaning of
the text.
1. When Augustus published this decree, it is supposed that Quirinus, who was a
very active man, and a person in whom the emperor confided, was sent into
Syria and Judea with extraordinary powers, to make the census here
mentioned; though, at that time, he was not governor of Syria, for Quintilius
Varus was then president; and that when he came, ten or twelve years after,
into the presidency of Syria, there was another census made, to both of which
St. Luke alludes, when he says, This was the first assessment of Cyrenius,
governor of Syria; for so Dr. Lardner translates the words. The passage, thus
translated, does not say that this assessment was made when Cyrenius was
governor of Syria, which would not have been the truth, but that this was the
first assessment which Cyrenius, who was (i.e. afterwards) governor of Syria,
made; for after he became governor, he made a second. Lardner defends this
opinion in a very satisfactory and masterly manner. See vol. i. p. 317. etc.
2. The second way of solving this difficulty is by translating the words thus: This
enrolment was made Before Cyrenius was governor of Syria; or, before that of
Cyrenius. This sense the word πρωτος appears to have, Joh_1:30 : ᆇτι πρωτος
µου ην, for he was Before me. Joh_15:18 : The world hated me Before (πρωτον)
it hated you. See also 2Sa_19:43. Instead of πρωτη, some critics read προ της,
This enrolment was made Before That of Cyrenius. Michaelis; and some other
eminent and learned men, have been of this opinion: but their conjecture is not
supported by any MS. yet discovered; nor, indeed, is there any occasion for it.
As the words in the evangelist are very ambiguous, the second solution appears
to me to be the best.
GILL, "And this taxing was first made,.... Or "this was the first enrolment, or
taxing" in the Jewish nation; for there was another afterwards, when Judas the
Galilean arose, and drew many after him, Act_5:38.
When Cyrenius was governor of Syria; or "of Cyrenius" "governor of Syria";
that is, it was the first that he was, concerned in; who not now, but afterwards was
governor of Syria; and because he had been so before Luke wrote this history, and
this being a title of honour, and what might distinguish him from others of that
name, it is given him; for as Tertullian says (c), Sentius Saturninus was now governor
of Syria, when Cyrenius was sent into Judea, to make this register, or taxing; and
which is manifestly distinguished from that, which was made during his being
governor of Syria, when Archelaus was banished from Judea, ten or eleven years
after Herod's death; which Josephus (d) gives an account of, and Luke refers to, in
Act_5:37. Moreover, the words will bear to be rendered thus, "and this tax, or
enrolment, was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria"; πρωτη, being used for
προτερα, as in Joh_1:15. This Cyrenius is the same whom the Romans call Quirinius,
and Quirinus; a governor of Syria had great power in Judea, to which it was annexed,
when Cyrenius was governor there. It is reported of R. Gamaliel, that he went to take
19

a licence, ‫בסוריא‬ ‫,מהגמון‬ "from a governor of Syria" (e); i.e. to intercalate the year: and
Syria was in many things like to the land of Judea, particularly as to tithes, and the
keeping of the seventh year (f),
HENRY , “2. He was born when Judea was become a province of the empire, and
tributary to it; as appears evidently by this, that when all the Roman empire was
taxed, the Jews were taxed among the rest. Jerusalem was taken by Pompey the
Roman general, about sixty years before this, who granted the government of the
church to Hyrcanus, but not the government of the state; by degrees it was more and
more reduced, till now at length it was quite subdued; for Judea was ruled by
Cyrenius the Roman governor of Syria (Luk_2:2): the Roman writers call him
Sulpitius Quirinus. Now just at this juncture, the Messiah was to be born, for so was
dying Jacob's prophecy, that Shiloh should come when the sceptre was departed
from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet, Gen_49:10. This was the first
taxing that was made in Judea, the first badge of their servitude; therefore now
Shiloh must come, to set up his kingdom.
3. There is another circumstance, as to the time, implied in this general enrolment
of all the subjects of the empire, which is, that there was now universal peace in the
empire. The temple of Janus was now shut, which it never used to be if any wars were
on foot; and now it was fit for the Prince of peace to be born, in whose days swords
should be beaten into plough-shares.
II. The place where our Lord Jesus was born is very observable. He was born at
Bethlehem; so it was foretold (Mic_5:2), the scribes so understood it (Mat_2:5, Mat_
2:6), so did the common people, Joh_7:42. The name of the place was significant.
Bethlehem signifies the house of bread; a proper place for him to be born in who is
the Bread of life, the Bread that came down from heaven. But that was not all;
Bethlehem was the city of David, where he was born, and therefore there he must be
born who was the Son of David. Zion was also called the city of David (2Sa_5:7), yet
Christ was not born there; for Bethlehem was that city of David where he was born in
meanness, to be a shepherd; and this our Saviour, when he humbled himself, chose
for the place of his birth; not Zion, where he ruled in power and prosperity, that was
to be a type of the church of Christ, that mount Zion. Now when the virgin Mary was
with child, and near her time, Providence so ordered it that, by order from the
emperor, all the subjects of the Roman empire were to be taxed; that is, they were to
give in their names to the proper officers, and they were to be registered and
enrolled, according to their families, which is the proper signification of the word
here used; their being taxed was but secondary. It is supposed that they made
profession of subjection to the Roman empire, either by some set form of words, or
at least by payment of some small tribute, a penny suppose, in token of their
allegiance, like a man's atturning tenant. Thus are they vassals upon record, and may
thank themselves.
JAMISON, "first ... when Cyrenius, etc. — a very perplexing verse, inasmuch
as Cyrenius, or Quirinus, appears not to have been governor of Syria for about ten
years after the birth of Christ, and the “taxing” under his administration was what led
to the insurrection mentioned in Act_5:37. That there was a taxing, however, of the
whole Roman Empire under Augustus, is now admitted by all; and candid critics,
even of skeptical tendency, are ready to allow that there is not likely to be any real
inaccuracy in the statement of our Evangelist. Many superior scholars would render
the words thus, “This registration was previous to Cyrenius being governor of
20

Syria” - as the word “first” is rendered in Joh_1:15; Joh_15:18. In this case, of course,
the difficulty vanishes. But it is perhaps better to suppose, with others, that the
registration may have been ordered with a view to the taxation, about the time of our
Lord’s birth, though the taxing itself - an obnoxious measure in Palestine - was not
carried out till the time of Quirinus.
LIGHTFOOT, "[This taxing was first made, &c.] Not the first taxing under
Augustus, but the first that was made under Cyrenius: for there was another
taxing under him, upon the occasion of which the sedition was raised by Judas
the Gaulonite. Of this tax of ours, Dion Cassius seems to make mention, the times
agreeing well enough, though the agreement in other things is more hardly
reducible:--
"He began a tax upon those that dwelt in Italy, and were worth two hundred
sesterces; sparing the poorer sort, and those that lived beyond the countries of
Italy, to avoid tumults."
If those that lived out of Italy were not taxed, how does this agree with the tax
which our evangelist speaks of? unless you will distinguish, that in one sense they
were not taxed, that is, as to their estates they were not to pay any thing: but in
another sense they were, that is, as to taking account of their names, that they
might swear their allegiance and subjection to the Roman empire. As to this, let
the more learned judge.
COFFMAN, "The second census under Quirinius was in 6 A.D. (Acts 5:37); and
the words "the first" in this passage refer to the census fourteen years earlier in
8 B.C., but which was delayed in Palestine until the time coinciding with the
birth of Christ in 6 B.C. Quirinius was twice governor and presided over both.
Robertson said:
Luke is now shown to be wholly correct in his statement that Quirinius was twice
governor, and that the first census took place during the first period. A series of
inscriptions in Asia Minor show that Quirinius was governor of Syria in 10-7
B.C., and again in 6 A.D.[4]
Regarding some of the inscriptions mentioned by Robertson, these included
those which were found in the autobiography of Augustus Caesar inscribed on
the inner walls of the ruined temple of Augustus at Ankara. These were
published in the New York Times in 1929; and these refer to the two censuses,
even giving the numbers of those enrolled and naming Quirinius in both as
governor of Syria. Luke is therefore quite accurate in his record.
ENDNOTE:
[4] A. T. Robertson, A Harmony of the Gospels (New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1922), p. 266.
COKE, "Luke 2:2. And this taxing, &c.— Dr. Lardner translates this verse, This
21

was the first enrolment of Cyrenius, governor of Syria; which is also favoured by
the Vulgate. Dr. Lardner supposes, that Cyrenius came, in the latter end of
Herod's reign, to tax Judea by order of Augustus; and that it is called Cyrenius's
first enrolment to distinguish it from that which he made after Archelaus was
banished; and on the supposition of two enrolments made by Cyrenius, the
distinction was proper, the latter being the most remarkable, as it gave rise to the
sedition of Judas the Galilean. Dr. Lardner supposes further, that St. Luke gives
Cyrenius the title of an office which he did not bear till afterwards—the
governor of Syria; as we say Cato the censor, to distinguish him from others of
the same name,—even in a period of his life before he obtained that office. The
interpretation which Valerius, Prideaux, Bishop Chandler, and others have
espoused, deserves likewise to be mentioned. It is as follows: Now this enrolment
was first performed, or took effect, when Cyrenius was governor of Syria: so the
word εγενετο is used in various passages. See ch. Luke 1:20. Matthew 5:18. The
enrolment was made in Herod's time, but the taxation according to the
enrolment not till Cyrenius was governor of Syria. Perizonius, Bos, Heylin, and
others render the passage. This taxation was made before Cyrenius was governor
of Syria. They suppose that πρωτη is used by St. Paul for προτερα; which sense
it has sometimes. See ch. Luke 17:25. John 1:15; John 15:18. Some one or other
of these interpretations must be espoused; the first appears to be most natural
and judicious; for, as St. Luke affirms that Jesus was conceived in the days of
Herod king of Judea, ch. Luke 1:5; Luke 1:26 by consequence, according to St.
Luke himself, the enrolment under which he was born must have happened in
Herod's reign, or soon after; whereas the taxation under Cyrenius did not
happen till after Archelaus was banished: but Archelaus, according to Josephus,
reigned ten years; it is evident therefore that St. Luke cannot be supposed to
connect Cyrenius's government of Syria with the birth of Jesus, which he has
fixed to the end of Herod's reign.
BENSON, "Luke 2:2. And this taxing (rather this enrolling) was first made when
Cyrenius was governor of Syria — According to the Jewish historian, Josephus,
Cyrenius was not governor of Syria till ten or twelve years after our Saviour’s
birth, after Archelaus was deposed, and the country brought under a Roman
procurator; yet, according to our translation of Luke here, he was governor
before the death of Herod, the father and predecessor of Archelaus, and in the
same year when Christ was born. Now as, on the one hand, it cannot be supposed
that a writer so accurate as Luke (were he considered only as a common
historian) should make so gross a mistake as to confound the enrolment in the
reign of Herod with that taxation under Cyrenius, which happened many years
after; so, on the other hand, it is hard to conceive that Josephus should be
mistaken in an affair of so public a nature, so important, and so recent when he
wrote his history. To remove this difficulty, 1st, Some have supposed a
corruption of the original text in Luke; and that, instead of Cyrenius, it ought to
be read Saturninus, who, according to Josephus, was prefect of Syria within a
year or two before Herod’s death. 2d, Others have thought it probable, that the
original name in Luke was Quintilius; since Quintilius Varus succeeded
Saturninus, and was in the province of Syria when Herod died. But all the Greek
manuscripts remonstrate against both these solutions. Therefore, 3d, Mr.
Whiston and Dr. Prideaux suppose, that the words of the preceding verse, In
22

those days there went out a decree, &c., refer to the time of making the census;
and the subsequent words, This enrolment was first made, &c., to the time of
levying the tax. “When Judea,” says the latter, “was put under a Roman
procurator, then taxes were first paid to the Romans — and Publius Sulpicius
Quirinius, who is in Greek called Cyrenius, was governor of Syria: so that there
were two distinct particular actions in this matter, done at two distinct and
different times: the first was making the survey, and the second the levying the
tax thereupon. And the first verse here is to be understood of the former, and the
second only of the latter. And this reconciles that evangelist with Josephus; for it
is manifest from that author, that Cyrenius was not governor of Syria, or any tax
levied on Judea, till Archelaus was deposed. And therefore the making of the
description cannot be that which was done while Cyrenius was governor of
Syria; — but the levying the tax thereon certainly was.” In accordance with this
interpretation of the passage, Dr. Campbell reads the verse, This first register
took effect when Cyrenius was president of Syria, observing that, by this
translation of the words, divers objections are obviated. “The register,” says he,
“whatever was the intention of it, was made in Herod’s time, but had then little
or no consequences. When, after the banishment of Archelaus, Judea was
annexed to Syria, and converted into a province, the register of the inhabitants
formerly taken served as a directory for laying on the census, to which the
country was then subjected. Not but that there must have happened considerable
changes on the people during that period. But the errors which these changes
might occasion, could, with proper attention, be easily rectified. And thus it
might be justly said, that an enrolment which had been made several years
before, did not take effect, or produce consequences worthy of notice, till then.”
Dr. Hammond and Dr. Lardner, however, give what many think a still easier
solution of this difficulty, rendering the words thus: This was the first enrolment
of Cyrenius, governor of Syria, supposing that Cyrenius (afterward governor of
Syria, and at the time Luke wrote well known by that title) was employed in
making the first enrolment of the inhabitants of Judea in the reign of Herod; to
which purpose Dr. Hammond quotes Suidas as relating, on the authority of an
ancient author, that “Cesar Augustus, desiring to know the strength and state of
his dominions, sent twenty chosen men, one into one part, another into another,
to take this account; and that Publius Sulpicius Quirinius had Syria for his
province.” The reader will of course adopt the interpretation which he judges
most probable.
3 And everyone went to their own town to
register.
BARNES, "And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city - The
Roman census was an institution of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome. From the
account which Dionysius of Halicarnassus gives of it; we may at once see its nature.
23

“He ordered all the citizens of Rome to register their estates according to their
value in money, taking an oath, in a form he prescribed, to deliver a faithful account
according to the best of their knowledge, specifying the names of their parents, their
own age, the names of their wives and children, adding also what quarter of the city,
or what town in the country, they lived in.” Ant. Rom. l. iv. c. 15. p. 212. Edit. Huds.
A Roman census appears to have consisted of these two parts:
1. The account which the people were obliged to give in of their names, quality,
employments, wives, children, servants, and estates; and
2. The value set upon the estates by the censors, and the proportion in which they
adjudged them to contribute to the defense and support of the state, either in
men or money, or both: and this seems to have been the design of the census or
enrolment in the text.
This census was probably similar to that made in England in the reign of William
the Conqueror, which is contained in what is termed Domesday Book, now in the
Chapter House, Westminster, and dated 1086.
GILL, "And all went to be taxed,.... Throughout Judea, Galilee, and Syria; men,
women, and children,
every one into his own city; where he was born, and had any estate, and to which
he belonged.
COFFMAN, "Here again we must take notice of the carping allegations that
Luke erred in supposing that the enrollments were taken in the native cities of
the citizens. Barclay called attention to the existence of a document of the Roman
government with instructions pertaining to this great periodical census and with
the edict.
It is necessary to compel all those, who for any cause whatsoever are residing
outside their own districts to return to their own homes, that they may both
carry out the regular order of the census, and may also diligently attend the
cultivation of their allotments.[5]
In the light of such documentation, Gilmour's imaginative comment that "It is
improbable that any Roman census would require a man to report to the home
of his ancestors"[6] appears contrary to established fact. Whether or not
documented proof is available in every instance, Luke has been repeatedly
proved to be far more dependable than any writer from the non-Christian
community of that period.
[5] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 15.
[6] S. MacLean Gilmour, The Interpreter's Bible (New York: Abingdon Press,
1952, Vol. VIII, p. 50.
COKE, "Luke 2:3. And all went to be taxed— When the census was made in any
country under the dominion of the Romans, the inhabitants were obligedto
attend in the cities to which they belonged. See Livy, lib. 42. 100: 10. The reason
was, that without a precaution of this kind, the census would have been
24

excessively tedious, and people who were abroad might have been omitted, or set
down among the inhabitants of other cities, where they would not have been
found afterwards; or they might have been enrolled twice, which would have
bred confusion in the registers. Herod, who, it is probable, executed the census in
his own dominions by the appointment of Augustus, seems to have made a small
alteration in the mode of it; for instead of ordering the people to appear, as
usual, in the cities where they resided, or to whose jurisdictions the places of
their abode belonged, he ordered them to appear according to their families;
perhaps, because it was the ordinary way of classing the Jewish people, or
because he desired to know the number and strength of the dependants of the
great families in his dominions. But on whatever account the alteration was
made, it appears to have been owing to a providential interposition; for
otherwise Christ might not have been born at Bethlehem, his mother and
reputed father having long resided at Nazareth, and having no other cause for
changing their situation when Mary was so near her time, unless on some such
necessity. We may just observe further, that this obedience of the Jews to the
decree of Caesar, is a plain proof that they were now dependant on the Romans,
and that the sceptre was departing from Judah. See Lightfoot's Harmony, and
compare Genesis 49:10 and Numbers 24.
BENSON, "Luke 2:3. And all went to be taxed, (enrolled,) every one to his
city — “When the census was made in any country, the inhabitants were obliged
to attend in the cities to which they belonged, Livy, 50. 42. c. 10. The reason was,
without a precaution of this kind, the census would have been excessively
tedious, and people who were abroad might have been omitted, or registered
among the inhabitants of other cities, where they would not have been found
afterward, or they might have been enrolled twice, which would have produced
confusion in the registers.” In the dominions of Herod, however, probably by his
order, a small alteration seems to have been made in the method of executing the
census. For instead of the people being directed to appear, as usual, in the cities
where they resided, or to whose jurisdiction the places of their abode belonged,
they were ordered to appeal according to their families; every one in his native
city, or the place where his paternal inheritance lay, to be there enrolled; a
circumstance wisely ordered by Providence to verify the truth of ancient
prophecies; for thus the parents of Christ were providentiatly brought to
Bethlehem, the place where the Messiah was to be born, without leaving any
room to suspect them of artifice and design. And thus, also, by their coming to be
registered among the subjects of the Roman empire, the subjection of the Jews to
the Romans was very remarkably manifested.
BURKITT, "The conclusion of the former chapter acquainted us with the birth
of John the Baptist; the beginning of ths chapter relates the birth of our Saviour
Jesus Christ, and the remarkable circumstances which did attend it.
And here we have observable, 1. The place where he was born, not at Nazareth,
but at Bethlehem, according to the prediction of the prophet Micah, Micah 5:2.
"And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes
of Judah, for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel."
25

We may suppose, that the blessed virgin little thought of changing her place, but
to have been delivered of her holy burden at Nazareth, where it was conceived.
Her house at Nazareth was honoured by the presence of the angel; yea, by the
overshadowing of the Holy Ghost: that house therefore, we may suppose, was
most satisfactory to the virgin's desire. But he that made choice of the womb
where his son should be conceived, it was fit he should also choose the place
where his son should be born. And this place, many hundred years before the
nativity, was foretold should be Bethlehem.
Observe, 2. How remarkable the providence of God was in bringing the virgin
up from Nazareth the Bethlehem, that Christ, as it was prophesied of him, might
be born there. Augustus, the Roman emperor, to whom the nation of the Jews
was now become tributary, puts forth a decree, that all the Roman empire should
have their names and families enrolled, in order to their being taxed. This edict
required, that every family should repair to that city to which they did belong, to
be enrolled and taxed there.
Accordingly, Joseph and Mary, being of the house and lineage of David, have
recourse to Bethlehem, the city of David, where, according to the prophecy, the
Messias was to be born.
Here note, how the wisdom of God overrules the actions of men, for higher or
nobler ends than what they aimed at. The emperor's aim was by this edict to fill
his coffers. God's end was to fulfil his prophecies.
Observe, 3. How readily Joseph and Mary yielded obedience to the edict and
decree of this heathen emperor. It was no less than four days journey from
Nazareth to Bethlehem: how just an excuse might the virgin have pleaded for her
absence! What woman ever undertook so hazardous a journey, that was so near
her delivery? And Joseph, no doubt, was sufficiently unwilling to draw her forth
into so manifest a hazard.
But as the emperor's command was peremptory, so their obedience was
exemplary. We must not plead difficulty for withdrawing our obedience to
supreme commands. How did our blessed Saviour, even in the womb of his
mother, yield homage to civil rulers and governors!
The first lesson which Christ's example taught the world, was loyalty and
obedience to the supreme magistrate.
Observe, 4. After many weary steps, the holy virgin comes to Bethlehem, where
every house is taken up by reason of the great confluence of people that came to
be taxed; and there is no room for Christ but in a stable: the stable is our Lord's
palace, the manger is his cradle.
Oh, how can we be abased low enough for him that thus neglected himself for us!
What an early indication was this, that our Lord's kingdom was not of this
world!
26

Yet some observe a mystery in all this: an inn is domus publici juris, not a
private house, but open and free for all passengers, and a stable is the
commonest place in the inn; to mind us, that he who was born there, would be a
common Saviour to high and low, noble and base, rich and poor, Jew and
Gentile; called therefore so often the Son of man; the design of his birth being
the benefit of mankind.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of
Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the
town of David, because he belonged to the house
and line of David.
BARNES, "The city of David - Bethlehem, called the city of David because it
was the place of his birth. See the notes at Mat_2:1.
Because he was of the house - Of the family.
And lineage - The “lineage” denotes that he was descended from David as his
father or ancestor. In taking a Jewish census, families were kept distinct; hence, all
went to the “place” where their family had resided. Joseph was of the “family” of
David, and hence he went up to the city of David. It is not improbable that he might
also have had a small paternal estate in Bethlehem that rendered his presence there
more desirable.
GILL, "And Joseph also went up from Galilee,.... Where he now lived, and
worked at the trade of a carpenter; having for some reasons, and by one providence
or another, removed hither from his native place:
out of the city of Nazareth; which was in Galilee, where he and Mary lived; and
where he had espoused her, and she had conceived of the Holy Ghost:
into Judea; which lay higher than Galilee, and therefore he is said to go up to it:
unto the city of David; not what was built by him, but where he was born and
lived; see 1Sa_17:12.
which is called Bethlehem: the place where, according to Mic_5:2 the Messiah
was to be born, and was born; and which signifies "the house of bread": a very fit
place for Christ, the bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world,
to appear first in. This place was, as a Jewish chronologer says (g), a "parsa" and half,
or six miles from Jerusalem; though another of their writers, an historian and
traveller (h), says, it was two "parsas", or eight miles; but Justin Martyr (i) says, it
was but thirty five furlongs distant from it, which is not five miles; hither Joseph
came from Galilee,
because he was of the house and lineage of David; he was of his family, and
27

lineally descended from him, though he was so poor and mean; and this is the reason
of his coming to Bethlehem, David's city,
HENRY, "According to this decree, the Jews (who were now nice in
distinguishing their tribes and families) provided that in their enrolments particular
care should be had to preserve the memory of them. Thus foolishly are they solicitous
to save the shadow, when they had lost the substance.
That which Augustus designed was either to gratify his pride in knowing the
numbers of his people, and proclaiming it to the world, or he did it in policy, to
strengthen his interest, and make his government appear the more formidable; but
Providence had another reach in it. All the world shall be at the trouble of being
enrolled, only that Joseph and Mary may. This brought them up from Nazareth in
Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, because they were of the stock and lineage of David
(Luk_2:4, Luk_2:5); and perhaps, being poor and low, they thought the royalty of
their extraction rather than a burden and expense to them than a matter of pride.
Because it is difficult to suppose that every Jew (women as well as men) was obliged
to repair to the city of which their ancestors were, and there be enrolled, now, at a
time when they kept not to the bounds of their tribes, as formerly, it may be offered
as a conjecture that this great exactness was used only with the family of David,
concerning which, it is probable, the emperor gave particular orders, it having been
the royal family, and still talked of as designed to be so, that he might know its
number and strength. Divers ends of Providence were served by this.
1. Hereby the virgin Mary was brought, great with child, to Bethlehem, to be
delivered there, according to the prediction; whereas she had designed to lie in at
Nazareth. See how man purposes and God disposes; and how Providence orders all
things for the fulfilling of the scripture, and makes use of the projects men have for
serving their own purposes, quite beyond their intention, to serve his.
2. Hereby it appeared that Jesus Christ was of the seed of David; for what brings
his mother to Bethlehem now, but because she was of the stock and lineage of
David? This was a material thing to be proved, and required such an authentic proof
as this. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, two of the earliest advocates for the Christian
religion, appeal to these rolls or records of the Roman empire, for the proof of
Christ's being born of the house of David.
3. Hereby it appeared that he was made under the law; for he became a subject of
the Roman empire as soon as he was born, a servant of rulers, Isa_49:7. Many
suppose that, being born during the time of the taxing, he was enrolled as well as his
father and mother, that it might appear how he made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the form of a servant. Instead of having kings tributaries to him,
when he came into the world he was himself a tributary.
JAMISON, "Not only does Joseph, who was of the royal line, go to Bethlehem
(1Sa_16:1), but Mary too - not from choice surely in her condition, but, probably, for
personal enrollment, as herself an heiress.
LIGHTFOOT, "[Because he was of the house and lineage of David.] We read in
the evangelists of two families, that were of the stock and line of David; and the
Talmudic authors mention a third. The family of Jacob the father of Joseph, the
family of Eli the father of Mary, and the family of Hillel the president of the
Sanhedrim, "who was of the seed of David, of Shephatiah the son of Abital."
I do not say that all these met at this time in Bethlehem: [It is indeed remarked of
28

Joseph, that he was "of the house of David"; partly because he was to be
reputed, though he was not the real father of Christ; and partly also, that the
occasion might be related that brought Mary to Bethlehem, where the Messiah
was to be born.] But it may be considered whether Cyrenius, being now to take
an estimate of the people, might not, on purpose and out of policy, summon
together all that were of David's stock, from whence he might have heard the
Jews' Messiah was to spring, to judge whether some danger might not arise form
thence.
COFFMAN, "Luke's design in this chapter was to show how it came about that
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, despite the fact of Joseph and Mary's residence in
Nazareth, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Micah 5:2. The only reason cited by
Luke for this journey to Bethlehem was the decree of Caesar and the necessity
for Joseph's obedience to it. However, it does not appear to be certain that Mary
was required to make this journey. Clarke stated that "It was not necessary for
Mary to have gone to Bethlehem";[7] that is, it was not necessarily a requirement
of Caesar's decree that she should have gone. The priority of the decree as the
reason for the journey is plain, for it was the only reason Luke mentioned; but
there were doubtless other considerations also. Childers too believed that
"Neither Roman nor Jewish law required Mary to accompany Joseph for this
registration."[8] He assigned, as reasons why she did so, (1) the fact of their love
for each other, (2) Mary's desire that Joseph should be with her for her delivery,
and especially (3) the leading of the Holy Spirit; nor may we leave out of sight
the presumption that Mary knew of Micah's prophecy and, guided by God's
Spirit, moved toward fulfillment of it. Elizabeth had already identified Mary's
unborn Son as the Messiah (1:43). However, her faith might not have been
sufficiently strong to have caused her to go to Bethlehem without the occasion of
Caesar's decree.
There is a possibility, at least, that under the circumstances they had decided to
move to Bethlehem. Some elements of the sacred accounts, such as their
remaining in the area after Jesus' birth, "indicate that when Joseph and Mary
went to Bethlehem, they were considering it a permanent move."[9]
Harmonizing with this suggestion is the fact that after going to Egypt, they
intended to return to "the land of Israel"; but upon learning that another Herod
was on the throne, and in obedience to God's warning in a dream, they went
instead to Galilee (Matthew 2:21-23). Summers pointed out that "Bethlehem was
the historical headquarters of the stonemason's guild,"[10] an association that
included "tektons" of at least three classes of workers. These were carpenters,
stonemasons, and certain kinds of farmers. Luke omitted a number of events
related by Matthew, not only because they were already well known from the
"many" sources used by all the Gospels, but because they did not fit into the
particular design of his Gospel. Here, the big point is that the fulfillment of the
prophecy of Christ's birth in Bethlehem was accomplished by the pagan lord of
the empire, Augustus Caesar, whose census was the immediate cause of it.
Bethlehem ... means "place of bread," and it was appropriate that the Bread of
Life should have been born there, and that the Son of David should have been
born in the village so intimately associated with the history of David the
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shepherd king of Israel.
[7] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: Carlton and
Porter, 1829), Vol. V, p. 369.
[8] Charles L. Childers, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City, Missouri:
Beacon Hill Press, 1964), p. 445.
[9] Ray Summers, op. cit., p. 37.
[10] Ibid.
COKE, "Luke 2:4-5. And Joseph also went up— Herod's order for the taxation
being, as we observed on the last verse, that every one should repair to the city of
his people to be enrolled, Joseph and Mary, the descendants of David, went from
Nazareth, the place of their abode, to Bethlehem, the city where David and his
ancestors were born: 1 Samuel 20:6; 1 Samuel 20:29. Accordingly Boaz, David's
great-grandfather, calls it the city of his people; Ruth 3:11. See on Matthew 2:1.
Joseph is said to be of the house and lineage of David, which Dr. Doddridge
renders, of the family and household of David; supposing with Grotius, that it
refers to the divisions of the tribes into families and households. Compare
Numbers 1:18; Numbers 1:54. In this sense of the words, after having told us
that Joseph was of the house of David, it would have been very unnecessary to
add, he was also of his family; but it was not improper to say, that he was of his
family and household. It may seem strange that Mary, in her condition, should
have undertaken so long a journey: perhaps the order of the census required
that the wife as well as the husband should be present; or, the persons to be
taxed being classed in the roll according to their lineage, Mary might judge it
proper on this occasion to claim her descent from David, in order to her being
publicly acknowledged as one of his posterity; and the rather as she knew herself
to be miraculously with child of the Messiah. However, all this was done by the
divine direction; for, questionless, whatever the emperor's commands were, such
a case as Mary's must have been admitted as a full excuse for her not complying
with it.
BENSON, "Luke 2:4. And Joseph also went up from Galilee — Being thus
obliged by the emperor’s decree; out of the city of Nazareth — Where he then
dwelt; into Judea — Properly so called; unto the city of David, called
Bethlehem — The town where his ancestors had formerly been settled; because
he was of the house, &c., of David — Notwithstanding, he was now reduced so
low as to follow the trade of a carpenter. To be enrolled with Mary — Who also
was a descendant of David: his espoused wife — The propriety of this expression
appears from Matthew 1:25, where we are told that Joseph knew not his wife till
she had brought forth her firstborn son. Being great with child — It may seem
strange that Mary, in this condition, should undertake so great a journey.
Perhaps the order for the census required that the wives, as well as their
husbands, should be present. Or, the persons to be registered being classed in the
roll, according to their lineage, Mary might judge it proper on this occasion to
claim her descent from David, in order to her being publicly acknowledged as
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one of his posterity, and the rather as she knew herself to be miraculously with
child of the Messiah.
5 He went there to register with Mary, who was
pledged to be married to him and was expecting
a child.
CLARKE, "With Mary his espoused wife - There was no necessity for Mary
to have gone to Bethlehem, as Joseph’s presence could have answered the end
proposed in the census as well without Mary as with her; but God so ordered it, that
the prophecy of Micah should be thus fulfilled, and that Jesus should be born in the
city of David; Mic_5:2.
GILL, "To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,.... Whom also he had
married, though he had not known her in a carnal way; she came along with him to
be taxed and enrolled also, because she was of the same family of David, and
belonged to the same city:
being great with child; very near her time, and yet, though in such circumstances,
was obliged by this edict, to come to Bethlehem; and the providence in it was, that
she might give birth there, and so the prophecy in Mic_5:2 have its accomplishment:
this was an instance, and an example, of obedience to civil magistrates.
JAMISON, "espoused wife — now, without doubt, taken home to him, as
related in Mat_1:18; Mat_25:6.
6 While they were there, the time came for the
baby to be born,
GILL, "And so it was, that while they were there,.... At Bethlehem, waiting to
be called and enrolled in their turn,
the days were accomplished that she should be delivered; her reckoning
was up, the nine months of her going with child were ended, and her full time to
bring forth was come.
HENRY, “while they were there, the days were accomplished that she
should be delivered — Mary had up to this time been living at the wrong place for
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Messiah’s birth. A little longer stay at Nazareth, and the prophecy would have failed.
But lo! with no intention certainly on her part, much less of Caesar Augustus, to fulfil
the prophecy, she is brought from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and at that nick of time
her period arrives, and her Babe is born (Psa_118:23). “Every creature walks
blindfold; only He that dwells in light knows whether they go” [Bishop Hall].
COFFMAN, "This was the central event in world history, apparently of the most
ordinary significance to anyone who might have been aware of it, but actually
the pivot upon which the future of mankind turned, the cornerstone and
foundation of all mortal hopes.
Her firstborn son ... "This means that there were other children born to Mary
after this. If Luke had believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary he most likely
would have used "only born" ([@monogene]) rather than "firstborn"
([@prototokon])."[11] Both Mark and Matthew named four sons called
"brothers" of Jesus; and there was utterly no indication by either sacred writer
that "brothers" was to be construed otherwise than in the ordinary sense.
(Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). This writer feels no compulsion toward
accommodation with the superstitions that arose with reference to Mary's
perpetual virginity. Strong agreement is felt with Childer's comment:
Commentators who accept the Roman Catholic view that Mary had no other
children deny that the term firstborn indicates later births by her; but it seems
clear to this writer that they are denying fact to support doctrine.[12]
And while it is true that, in a technical sense, "firstborn" does not prove there
were other births, it certainly does not deny the fact; and, coupled with the
repeated mention of Jesus' "brethren" in the Gospels, it is conclusive.
Allegations to the contrary are founded upon a mistaken premise that the state of
virginity is holier than the state of matrimony, declared by an apostle to be:
"honorable in all."
Wrapped him in swaddling clothes ... Barclay has given the only description of
these that this writer has ever seen, as follows:
Swaddling clothes were like this - they consisted of a square of cloth with a long,
bandage-like strip coming diagonally off one corner. The child was first wrapped
in the square of cloth, and then the long strip was wound round and round about
him.[13]
And laid him in a manger ... The word here denotes "not' only a manger but, by
metonymy, the stall or `crib' (Proverbs 14:4) containing the manger."[14] One
cannot fail to be impressed with the intimations of Christ's final sufferings which
appear in things related to his birth. In his death, they wrapped him in
"bandages" much like swaddling clothes; and he was nailed to the "tree" much
like the manger made from a scooped-out log. He who was to bear the sins of all
men, in accepting a share of man's mortality, was even in his birth associated
with emblems of suffering. Just as there was no room in the inn, there was no
room for him in the world which slew him.
There was no room in the inn ... The limited capacity of ancient inns, the influx
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of others for the enrollment, and the normal fluctuations in every business were
probably among the conditions that made it impossible for the holy parents to
have found better accommodations; but, over and beyond all this, it was the will
of God that the Saviour of all people should have been born in such humble
circumstances.
No room for the Son of God! What a commentary is this upon the situation of
Adam's rebellious race when the Dayspring from on High visited our sinful
world! The King had indeed come to visit his children, but what unworthy hosts
they proved to be!
Just what day of the week, month, or year did this occur? It is simply impossible
to tell, there being, in fact, some question of exactly what year it was. The
comment of the incomparable Adam Clarke is worthy of repeating in this
context. He said:
Fabricus gives a catalogue of no less than 136 opinions concerning the YEAR of
Christ's birth; and, as to his BIRTHDAY, it has been placed by Christian sects
and learned men in every month of the year!; ... but the Latin Church, supreme
in power and infallible in judgment, placed it on the 25th of December, the very
day on which the ancient Romans celebrated the feast of their goddess
Bruma![15]
Regardless of human curiosity and preoccupation of scholars with this question,
"we should take our cue from the obvious lack of divine interest in the
question."[16]
[11] Herschel H. Hobbs, An Exposition of the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Baker Book House, 1966), p. 50..
[12] Charles L. Childers, op. cit., p. 446.
[13] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 16.
[14] W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Old
Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1940), Vol. II, p. 35.
[15] Adam Clarke, op. cit., p. 370.
BENSON, "Luke 2:6-7. And while they were there, the days were accomplished,
&c. — Whatever views Mary might have in going up to Bethlehem, her going
there was doubtless by the direction of Divine Providence, in order that the
Messiah might be born in that city, agreeably to the prophecy of Micah 5:2. And
she brought forth her firstborn son — τον υιον αυτης τον πρωτοτοκον, her son,
the firstborn; that excellent and glorious person, who was the firstborn of every
creature, and the heir of all things. See note on Matthew 1:25. And wrapped him
in swaddling-clothes — By her doing this herself, it is thought her labour was
without the usual pangs of childbearing. And laid him in a manger — Though
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the word φατνη, here used, sometimes signifies a stall, yet it is certain it more
frequently signifies a manger, and certainly the manger was the most proper
part of the stall in which the infant could be laid. As to the notion of Bishop
Pearce, that not a manger is here meant, but a bag of coarse cloth, like those out
of which the horses of our troopers are fed when encamped; and that this bag
was fastened to the wall, or some other part, not of a stable, but of the guest-
chamber, or room for the reception of strangers, where Joseph and Mary were
lodged; this odd notion is amply confuted by Dr. Campbell in a very long note on
this passage. Tradition informs us that the stable, in which the holy family was
lodged, was, according to the custom of the country, hollowed out of a rock, and
consequently the coldness of it, at least by night, must have greatly added to its
other inconveniences. Because there was no room for them in the inn — The
concourse of people at Bethlehem being very great on this occasion. It seems
there was but one principal inn at Bethlehem, now but a small village, and that
when Joseph came thither it was full, so that he and Mary were obliged to lodge
in a stable, fitted up as a receptacle for poor travellers, in which they, and the
animals that brought them, were meanly accommodated under the same roof.
Now also there is seldom room for Christ in an inn. It will not be improper to
observe, on this humiliating circumstance of our Lord’s birth in a stable, how,
“through the whole course of his life, he despised the things most esteemed by
men. For though he was the Son of God, when he became man he chose to be
born of parents in the meanest condition of life. Though he was heir of all things,
he chose to be born in an inn, nay, in the stable of an inn, where, instead of a
cradle, he was laid in a manger. The angels reported the good news of his birth,
not to the rabbis and great men, but to shepherds, who, being plain honest
people, were unquestionably good witnesses of what they heard and saw. When
he grew up he wrought with his father as a carpenter. And afterward, while he
executed the duties of his ministry, he was so poor that he had not a place where
to lay his head, but lived on the bounty of his friends. Thus, by going before men
in the thorny path of poverty and affliction, he has taught them to be contented
with their lot in this life, however humble it may be.”
7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She
wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a
manger, because there was no guest room
available for them.
BARNES, "Her first-born son - Whether Mary had any other children or not
has been a matter of controversy. The obvious meaning of the Bible is that she had;
and if this be the case, the word “firstborn” is here to be taken in its common
signification.
Swaddling clothes - When a child among the Hebrews was born, it was washed
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in water, rubbed in salt, and then wrapped in swaddling clothes; that is, not
garments regularly made, as with us, but bands or blankets that confined the limbs
closely, Eze_16:4. There was nothing special in the manner in which the infant Jesus
was treated.
Laid him in a manger - The word rendered “inn” in this verse means simply a
place of halting, a lodging-place; in modern terms, a khan or caravanserai
(Robinson’s “Biblical Research in Palestine,” iii. 431). The word rendered “manger”
means simply a crib or place where cattle were fed. “Inns,” in our sense of the term,
were anciently unknown in the East, and now they are not common. Hospitality was
generally practiced, so that a traveler had little difficulty in obtaining shelter and food
when necessary. As traveling became more frequent, however, khans or
caravanserais were erected for public use - large structures where the traveler might
freely repair and find lodging for himself and his beast, he himself providing food
and forage. Many such khans were placed at regular intervals in Persia. To such a
place it was, though already crowded, that Joseph and Mary resorted at Bethlehem.
Instead of finding a place in the “inn,” or the part of the caravanserai where the
travelers themselves found a place of repose, they were obliged to be contented in
one of the stalls or recesses appropriated to the beasts on which they rode.
The following description of an Eastern inn or caravanserai, by Dr. Kitto, will well
illustrate this passage: “It presents an external appearance which suggests to a
European traveler the idea of a fortress, being an extensive square pile of strong and
lofty walls, mostly of brick upon a basement of stone, with a grand archway entrance.
This leads ...to a large open area, with a well in the middle, and surrounded on three
or four sides with a kind of piazza raised upon a platform 3 or 4 feet high, in the wall
behind which are small doors leading to the cells or oblong chambers which form the
lodgings. The cell, with the space on the platform in front of it, forms the domain of
each individual traveler, where he is completely secluded, as the apparent piazza is
not open, but is composed of the front arches of each compartment. There is,
however, in the center of one or more of the sides a large arched hall quite open in
front ... The cells are completely unfurnished, and have generally no light but from
the door, and the traveler is generally seen in the recess in front of his apartment
except during the heat of the day ... Many of these caravanserais have no stables, the
cattle of the travelers being accommodated in the open area; but in the more
complete establishments ...there are ...spacious stables, formed of covered avenues
extending between the back wall of the lodging apartments and the outer wall of the
whole building, the entrance being at one or more of the corners of the inner
quadrangle.
The stable is on the same level with the court, and thus below the level of the
tenements which stand on the raised platform. Nevertheless, this platform is allowed
to project behind into the stable, so as to form a bench ... It also often happens that
not only this bench exists in the stable, forming a more or less narrow platform along
its extent, but also recesses corresponding to these “in front” of the cells toward the
open area, and formed, in fact, by the side-walls of these cells being allowed to
project behind to the boundary of the platform. These, though small and shallow,
form convenient retreats for servants and muleteers in bad weather ... Such a recess
we conceive that Joseph and Mary occupied, with their ass or mule - if they had one,
as they perhaps had tethered - in front ... It might be rendered quite private by a
cloth being stretched across the lower part.”
It may be remarked that the fact that Joseph and Mary were in that place, and
under a necessity of taking up their lodgings there, was in itself no proof of poverty; it
was a simple matter of necessity there was “no room” at the inn. Yet it is worthy of
our consideration that Jesus was born “poor.” He did not inherit a princely estate. He
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was not cradled, as many are, in a palace. He had no rich friends. He had virtuous,
pious parents, of more value to a child than many riches. And in this we are shown
that it is no dishonor to be poor. Happy is that child who, whether his parents be rich
or poor, has a pious father and mother. It is no matter if he has not as much wealth,
as fine clothes, or as splendid a house as another. It is enough for him to be as
“Jesus” was, and God will bless him.
No room at the inn - Many people assembled to be enrolled, and the tavern was
filled before Joseph and Mary arrived.
CLARKE, "Laid him in a manger - Wetstein has shown, from a multitude of
instances, that φατνη means not merely the manger, but the whole stable, and this I
think is its proper meaning in this place. The Latins use praesepe, a manger, in the
same sense. So Virgil, Aen. vii. p. 275.
Stabant ter centum nitidi in praesepibus altis
“Three hundred sleek horses stood in lofty stables.”
Many have thought that this was a full proof of the meanness and poverty of the
holy family, that they were obliged to take up their lodging in a stable; but such
people overlook the reason given by the inspired penman, because there was no room
for them in the inn. As multitudes were going now to be enrolled, all the lodgings in
the inn had been occupied before Joseph and Mary arrived. An honest man who had
worked diligently at his business, under the peculiar blessing of God, as Joseph
undoubtedly had, could not have been so destitute of money as not to be able to
procure himself and wife a comfortable lodging for a night; and, had he been so ill
fitted for the journey as some unwarrantably imagine, we may take it for granted he
would not have brought his wife with him, who was in such a state as not to be
exposed to any inconveniences of this kind without imminent danger.
There was no room for them in the inn - In ancient times, inns were as
respectable as they were useful, being fitted up for the reception of travelers alone: -
now, they are frequently haunts for the idle and the profligate, the drunkard and the
infidel; - in short, for any kind of guests except Jesus and his genuine followers. To
this day there is little room for such in most inns; nor indeed have they, in general,
any business in such places. As the Hindoos travel in large companies to holy places
and to festivals, it often happens that the inns (suraies) are so crowded that there is
not room for one half of them: some lie at the door, others in the porch. These inns,
or lodging-houses, are kept by Mohammedans, and Mussulmans obtain prepared
food at them; but the Hindoos purchase rice, etc., and cook it, paying about a
halfpenny a night for their lodging. Ward’s Customs.
GILL, "And she brought forth her firstborn son,.... At Bethlehem, as was
predicted; and the Jews themselves own, that the Messiah is already born, and born
at Bethlehem. They have a tradition, that an Arabian should say to a Jew (k).
"Lo! the king Messiah is born; he said to him, what is his name? Menachem: he asked
him, what is his father's name? he replied to him, Hezekiah; he said unto him, from
whence is he? he answered, from the palace of the king of Bethlehem.
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Which is elsewhere (l) reported, with some little variation; the Arabian said to the
Jew,
"the Redeemer of the Jews is born; he said unto him, what is his name? he replied,
Menachem is his name: and what is his father's name? he answered, Hezekiah: he
said unto him, and where do they dwell? he replied, in Birath Arba, in Bethlehem.
And the Jewish chronologer affirms (m), that "Jesus the Nazarene, was born at
Bethlehem Judah, a "parsa" and a half from Jerusalem.
And even the author of the blasphemous book of the life of Christ owns (n), that
"Bethlehem Judah was the place of his nativity.
Jesus is called Mary's firstborn, because she had none before him; though she might
not have any after him; for the first that opened the matrix, was called the firstborn,
though none followed after, and was holy to the Lord, Exo_13:2. Christ, as to his
human nature; was Mary's firstborn; and as to his divine nature, God's firstborn:
and wrapped him in swaddling clothes; which shows, that he was in all things
made like unto us, sin only excepted. This is one of the first things done to a new
born infant, after that it is washed, and its navel cut; see Eze_16:4 and which Mary
did herself, having neither midwife nor nurse with her; from whence it has been
concluded, that the birth of Jesus was easy, and that she brought him forth without
pain, and not in that sorrow women usually do,
and laid him in a manger. The Persic version serves for a comment; "she put him
into the middle of the manger, in the place in which they gave food to beasts; because
in the place whither they came, they had no cradle": this shows the meanness of our
Lord's birth, and into what a low estate he came; and that now, as afterwards, though
Lord of all, yet had not where to lay his head in a proper place; and expresses his
amazing grace, in that he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor: and the reason of
his being here laid was,
because there was no room for them in the inn. It seems that Joseph had no
house of his own to go into, nor any relation and friend to receive him: and it may be,
both his own father and Mary's father were dead, and therefore were obliged to put
up at an inn; and in this there was no room for them, because of the multitude that
were come thither to be enrolled: and this shows their poverty and meanness, and
the little account that was made of them; for had they been rich, and made any
considerable figure, they would have been regarded, and room made for them;
especially since Mary was in the circumstances she was; and it was brutish in them to
turn them into a stable, when such was her case,
HENRY, "III. The circumstances of his birth, which were very mean, and under
all possible marks of contempt. He was indeed a first-born son; but it was a poor
honour to be the first-born of such a poor woman as Mary was, who had no
inheritance to which he might be entitled as first-born, but what was in nativity.
1. He was under some abasements in common with other children; he was
wrapped in swaddling clothes, as other children are when they are new-born, as if he
could be bound, or needed to be kept straight. He that makes darkness a swaddling
band for the sea was himself wrapped in swaddling bands, Job_38:9. The
everlasting Father became a child of time, and men said to him whose out-goings
were of old from everlasting, We know this man, whence he is, Joh_7:27. The
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Ancient of days became an infant of a span long.
2. He was under some abasements peculiar to himself.
(1.) He was born at an inn. That son of David that was the glory of his father's
house had no inheritance that he could command, no not in the city of David, no nor
a friend that would accommodate his mother in distress with lodgings to be brought
to bed in. Christ was born in an inn, to intimate that he came into the world but to
sojourn here for awhile, as in an inn, and to teach us to do likewise. An inn receives
all comers, and so does Christ. He hangs out the banner of love for his sign, and
whoever comes to him, he will in no wise cast out; only, unlike other inns, he
welcomes those that come without money and without price. All is on free cost.
(2.) He was born in a stable; so some think the word signifies which we translate a
manger, a place for cattle to stand to be fed in. Because there was no room in the inn,
and for want of conveniences, nay for want of necessaries, he was laid in a manger,
instead of a cradle. The word which we render swaddling clothes some derive from a
word that signifies to rend, or tear, and these infer that he was so far from having a
good suit of child-bed linen, that his very swaddles were ragged and torn. His being
born in a stable and laid in a manger was an instance, [1.] Of the poverty of his
parents. Had they been rich, room would have been made for them; but, being poor,
they must shift as they could. [2.] Of the corruption and degeneracy of manners in
that age; that a woman in reputation for virtue and honour should be used so
barbarously. If there had been any common humanity among them, they would not
have turned a woman in travail into a stable. [3.] It was an instance of the
humiliation of our Lord Jesus. We were become by sin like an out-cast infant,
helpless and forlorn; and such a one Christ was. Thus he would answer the type of
Moses, the great prophet and lawgiver of the Old Testament, who was in his infancy
cast out in an ark of bulrushes, as Christ in a manger. Christ would hereby put a
contempt upon all worldly glory, and teach us to slight it. Since his own received him
not, let us not think it strange if they receive us not.
JAMISON, "first-born — So Mat_1:25; yet the law, in speaking of the first-born,
regardeth not whether any were born after or no, but only that none were born
before [Lightfoot].
wrapt him ... laid him — The mother herself did so. Had she then none to help
her? It would seem so (2Co_8:9).
a manger — the manger, the bench to which the horses’ heads were tied, on
which their food could rest [Webster and Wilkinson].
no room in the inn — a square erection, open inside, where travelers put up, and
whose rear parts were used as stables. The ancient tradition, that our Lord was born
in a grotto or cave, is quite consistent with this, the country being rocky. In Mary’s
condition the journey would be a slow one, and ere they arrived, the inn would be
fully occupied - affecting anticipation of the reception He was throughout to meet
with (Joh_1:11).
Wrapt in His swaddling - bands,
And in His manger laid,
The hope and glory of all lands
Is come to the world’s aid.
No peaceful home upon His cradle smiled,
Guests rudely went and came where slept the royal Child.
- Keble
38

But some “guests went and came” not “rudely,” but reverently. God sent visitors of
His own to pay court to the new-born King.
CALVIN, "7.Because there was no room for them in the inn We see here not
only the great poverty of Joseph, but the cruel tyranny which admitted of no
excuse, but compelled Joseph to bring his wife along with him, at an
inconvenient season, when she was near the time of her delivery. Indeed, it is
probable that those who were the descendants of the royal family were treated
more harshly and disdainfully than the rest. Joseph was not so devoid of feeling
as to have no concern about his wife’s delivery. He would gladly have avoided
this necessity: but, as that is impossible, he is forced to yield, (131) and
commends himself to God. We see, at the same time, what sort of beginning the
life of the Son of God had, and in what cradle (132) he was placed. Such was his
condition at his birth, because he had taken upon him our flesh for this purpose,
that he might, “empty himself” (Philippians 2:7) on our account. When he was
thrown into a stable, and placed in a manger, and a lodging refused him among
men, it was that heaven might be opened to us, not as a temporary lodging, (133)
but as our eternal country and inheritance, and that angels might receive us into
their abode.
LIGHTFOOT, "[There was no room for them in the inn.] From hence it
appears, that neither Joseph nor his father Jacob had any house of their own
here, no, nor Eli neither, wherein to entertain his daughter Mary ready to lie in.
And yet we find that two years after the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary his
wife lived in a hired house till they fled into Egypt.
"A certain Arabian said to a certain Jew, 'The Redeemer of the Jews is born.'
Saith the Jew to him, 'What is his name?' 'Menahem,' saith the other. 'And what
the name of his father?' 'Hezekiah.' 'But where dwell they?' 'In Birath Arba in
Bethlehem Judah.'" He shall deserve many thanks that will but tell us what this
Birath Arba is. The Gloss tells us no other than that this "Birath Arba was a
place in Bethlehem"; which any one knows from the words themselves. But
what, or what kind of place was it? Birah indeed is a palace or castle: but what
should Arba be? A man had better hold his tongue than conjecture vainly and to
no purpose...
GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, "No Room
And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the
inn.—Luk_2:7.
There are not many texts in the Bible with which Christians, from the highest to
the lowest, from the very aged to the young child who can but just speak, are
more familiar than they are with this. We learn more or less about our Lord’s
cradle almost as soon as we are out of our own cradles. That one part of the
gospel history we know, even when the rest has quite slipped out of our minds.
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Christ’s mother and Joseph had been living at their home at Nazareth when,
according to St. Luke’s Gospel, orders were given for one of those censuses, or
enrolments of the people, which were sometimes used in ancient days as a basis
for the imposition of a poll-tax. In such cases, people were enrolled according to
their ancestry and the region from which they originally came; and thus it was
that “Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa,
to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and
family of David; to enrol himself with Mary who was betrothed to him, being
great with child.”
The little town—it was no more than what we should call a village—was
crowded with people, many of whom had come for the same purpose and
claimed the same exalted lineage; the inn or guest-chamber—there was rarely
more than one in such small places—was already crowded; this carpenter and
his young bride were people of no particular importance and needed no special
consideration, still less did the unborn Child; and so, as there was no room for
them among the human guests, they had to find shelter in the stable hard by,
among the beasts.
It used to be brought as an objection against the trustworthiness of St. Luke’s
Gospel that there was no evidence other than his that such an enrolment was
known at that time or in that region. Why the evidence of this ancient document
should be regarded as less valuable than that of another on such a point did not
appear; but at any rate it no longer matters. Within the last few years records
have been discovered, on fragments of papyrus found in the rubbish-heaps of old
Egyptian towns, which prove conclusively that such enrolments did take place in
that time and region; and of this objection we shall doubtless hear no more.1
[Note: 1 Bishop W. E. Collins, Hours of Insight, 112.]
I
No Room in the Inn
1. The story of the Nativity is not only very beautiful, as surely all will be willing
to confess; it is historically true, a thing that some, even quite recently, have
shown themselves eager to deny. Of course, to the faithful soul the whole story is
convincing. The man who has seen the heavens opening in mercy and hope above
his dark and sin-bound life finds no difficulty in believing that the glory of the
Lord broke forth before men’s very eyes what time the Saviour of the world
began His earthly life. The man who year after year has been led by the Light of
the World across the wastes and through the dark places of life does not ask the
astronomers to give him permission to believe in the Star of Bethlehem. But
apart from such a gracious predisposition to receive this lovely story, we find
touches in it that a master of fiction, much less a simple, plain-minded man,
could surely never have given to it. There are points in the story that would
never have occurred to the weaver of a tale. And notable amongst them is St.
Luke’s simple statement that Mary in the hour of her need was shut out from
such comfort and shelter as the inn at Bethlehem might have afforded. The
Gospels were written by those who believed in Jesus as the Son of God. St. Luke
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was writing of the Nativity of his Lord, the birthday of the King of kings. And he
pictures Him in that hour at the mercy of untoward circumstance. He is born in
a stable and cradled in a manger. He could not have had a lowlier, a less kingly
entrance into the world than that. There seems to be but one explanation of these
apparently unpropitious details of the story, and that is that they are true.
One of the most absent-minded people I ever knew was a more or less
distinguished ecclesiastic at whose house I used to visit as a child. He had won
some fame in his youth as a poet, and he was, when I remember him, a preacher
of some force; but he could not be depended upon in that capacity. Whatever he
was interested in at the moment he preached about, and he had the power of
being interested in very dreary things. His sermons were like reveries; indeed,
his whole rendering of the service was that of a man who was reading a book to
himself and often finding it unexpectedly beautiful and interesting. The result
was sometimes startling, because one felt as if one had never heard the familiar
words before. I remember his reading the account of the Nativity in a
wonderfully feeling manner, “because there was no room for them in the inn.” I
do not know how the effect was communicated; it was delivered with a half-
mournful, half-incredulous smile. If those who refused them admittance had only
known what they were doing.1 [Note: A. C. Benson, Along the Road, 286.]
2. To us, the first thought that would be suggested by being relegated to the
stable would be that of humiliation: it would be degrading to be sent out amongst
the beasts; and the second thought would be that of privation: it would be hard
to be condemned to no better accommodation than that. But that idea would
scarcely have occurred to travellers in those lands. In those lands, the inn or
guest-chamber will be a large room or shed built of rough stones and mud, or a
cave partly dug out of the earth, with an earthen floor, more like an English cow-
house than anything else; and the stable may either be actually a part of the
same cave or building, or a similar one close at hand. Anyhow, the
accommodation is much the same, and you camp on the cleanest spot you can
find of the earthen or stony floor, and make yourself comfortable as best you
can; so that—and this is the important point to keep in mind—the real difference
between the inn and the stable was rather in the company than in the
accommodation. In some ways the stable had its advantages. It was perhaps
quieter, it was certainly more secluded; possibly it was not less comfortable with
the oxen and the asses than it would have been in the inn; certainly the manger—
a mere recess about half-way up the wall, where the fodder was stored—made a
safer crib for the Holy Babe than the crowded floor of the guest-chamber, with
hardly an inch to spare anywhere. Yes, nature did its best for Him, and He found
a shelter amongst the beasts when men cast Him out; but that does not alter the
fact that when the Lord of Glory came to be born on this earth, not even a
common guest-chamber could find room for Him. He was born in the stable and
cradled in a manger, “because there was no room for him in the inn.”
When I was travelling in Armenia and Kurdistan some three years ago, it befell
me more than once or twice to have to spend the night in the stable, “because
there was no room in the inn”; and the difference in actual accommodation was
not so great as you might have supposed. The East Syrian people amongst whom
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I was travelling part of the time are very closely allied in race to the inhabitants
of Palestine in the time of our Lord, and the customs are much the same still.1
[Note: Bishop W. E. Collins, Hours of Insight, 114.]
I never felt the full pathos of the scene of the birth of Jesus till, standing one day
in a room of an old inn in the market-town of Eisleben, in Central Germany, I
was told that on that very spot, four centuries ago, amidst the noise of a market-
day and the bustle of a public-house, the wife of the poor miner, Hans Luther,
who happened to be there on business, being surprised like Mary with sudden
distress, brought forth in sorrow and poverty the child who was to become
Martin Luther, the hero of the Reformation, and the maker of modern Europe.2
[Note: J. Stalker, The Life of Jesus Christ, 12.]
3. The birth in the manger because there was no room in the inn was natural.
The fact that the child who was born was He whom Christendom celebrates does
not make the indifference of Bethlehem a peculiar crime. The men of that time
were not different from us all. They did not know. God, who taught through this
His Son that, when we give alms, we should not sound a trumpet before us, gave
His great gift with the like simplicity. When He gave His Son, He sent no heralds.
The men to whom He came were busy with the cares which have always busied
men. They were like ourselves, eager over what have always been recognized as
great questions—questions about taxation, national independence, a world
empire, and singularly careless as to where the children are born.
We need to make room amid the crowding thoughts for the coming of the Lord
of life and light. And some day, when we have done it, there will be a country
which has a national religion, because there will be a country which believes in
the Incarnation. It will realize something more of the mighty mystery that flesh
and blood are the temple of the Holy Spirit. It will realize how our souls, which
come hither to tabernacle in flesh a little time, give us kindred with the Christ
who was born among us. And we shall make room amid our crowding and eager
thoughts for Him to come in us.1 [Note: A. C. Welch.]
4. The birth in the manger was of His own ordering. It was the Divine Babe’s will
to be born in such a place as that, and therefore He so ordered matters that His
parents should not come to the inn till it was full, and that there should be no
other place but that stable where they should lodge. It was not chance, God
forbid! It was the will of the unborn Infant Himself. For He it is who ordereth all
things in heaven and earth. He would be born in the city of David, because He
was the Son of David, the King of Israel, and was to fulfil all the prophecies; He
would not be born in royal state or comfort as the Son of David might be
expected to be, because He was to save us by suffering and humility.
Whilst our Lord Jesus Christ was yet in the bosom of the Father, before He took
our nature, He was free from all liability of suffering, and was under no call to
suffer for men, except the importunate call of His own everlasting love; yet after
He took our nature, and became the man Jesus Christ, He actually stood Himself
within the righteous liability of suffering, not indeed on account of any flaw in
His spotless holiness, but as a participator of that flesh which lay under the
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sentence of sorrow and death; and being now engulfed in the horrible pit along
with all the others, He could only deliver them by being first delivered Himself,
and thus opening a passage for them to follow Him by; as a man who casts
himself into an enclosed dungeon which has no outlet in order to save a number
of others whom he sees immured there, and when he is in, forces a passage
through the wall, by dashing himself against it, to the great injury of his person.
His coming into the dungeon is a voluntary act, but after he is there, he is liable
to the discomforts of the dungeon by necessity, until he breaks through.1 [Note:
Thomas Erskine, The Brazen Serpent, 263.]
II
No Room in the World
1. What was true of the Lord’s entrance upon life was true of all His later life
also. There never was one amongst the sons of men who was so truly human as
He; for in us humanity is marred and blurred by so much that is weak and low
and base, and not truly human at all; but He who was the most truly Man of all
men was all His life a stranger among men: “He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.” It was not that He was in any sense a recluse, or that He
shrank from human society; indeed, it was all the other way—He yearned for
companionship. The very first act of His public life was to draw to His side a
little company of friends who were like-minded with Himself, and they were His
companions ever after. Within this circle there were some who were specially
dear to Him; and when He was about to face the darker agony of life He always
invited them to accompany Him, and threw Himself on their sympathy. He was
at home at the wedding feast and in the house of Simon the Pharisee and at the
table of Levi the publican, and many another; indeed, when His enemies were
casting about for some accusation against Him, they did not accuse Him of being
inhuman like the ascetic John the Baptist, but called Him rather “a man
gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.” And yet, all
His life He was alone; He was despised and rejected of men. He was occupied in
“business” that—so men chose to think—they had no interest in; and so—they
had no room for Him. When He had preached at Nazareth, where He was
brought up, they arose and thrust Him out of the city. At Capernaum, when they
saw the mighty works that He did on them that were diseased, they came and
besought Him to depart out of their coasts. He passed through Samaria, and the
Samaritans would not receive Him. Wherever He went He was a homeless
wanderer. “The foxes have holes,” He said, “and the birds of the air have nests;
but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” And the solitude was all the
greater as the end drew near. Jerusalem would have none of Him; one of His
own little company covenanted to betray Him. He went into the Garden that He
might face all that was coming and be ready for it, taking the three to watch and
pray with Him; but in the last resort not even they could help Him: He must
needs tread the winepress alone. And so the rulers compassed His destruction,
and the Romans scourged Him and delivered Him to be crucified, and at length
He hung there upon the cross, isolated between heaven and earth, naked,
forsaken and alone. Truly, while He was on earth there was no room for Him.
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A marvellous great world it is, and there is room in it for many things; room for
wealth, ambition, pride, show, pleasure; room for trade, society, dissipation;
room for powers, kingdoms, armies, and their wars; but for Him there is the
smallest room possible; room in the stable but not in the inn. There He begins to
breathe, and at that point introduces Himself into His human life as a resident of
our world—the greatest and most blessed event, humble as the guise of it may be,
that has ever transpired among mortals. If it be a wonder to men’s eyes and ears,
a wonder even to science itself, when the naming air-stone pitches into our world,
as a stranger newly arrived out of parts unknown in the sky, what shall we think
of the more transcendent fact, that the Eternal Son of God is born into the
world; that, proceeding forth from the Father, not being of our system or sphere,
not of the world, He has come as a Holy Thing into it—God manifest in the flesh,
the Word made flesh, a new Divine Man, closeted in humanity, there to abide
and work until He has restored the race itself to God? Nor is this wonderful
annunciation any the less welcome, or any the less worthy to be celebrated by the
hallelujahs of angels and men, that the glorious visitant begins to breathe in a
stall. Was there not a certain propriety in such a beginning, considered as the
first chapter and symbol of His whole history, as the Saviour and Redeemer of
mankind?1 [Note: H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation, 2.]
2. What does the world offer in place of a room in the inn?
(1) We build Him stately material temples.—We expend boundless treasure in
their erection. Art joins hands with architecture, and the structure becomes a
poem. Lily-work crowns the majestic pillar. Subdued light, and exquisite line,
and tender colour add their riches to the finished pile. And the soul cries out,
“Here is a house for Thee, O Man of Nazareth, Lord of glory! Here is the home I
have built for Thee.” And if the soul would only listen there comes back the
pained response, “Where is the place of My rest? saith the Lord.” “The Most
High dwelleth not in temples made with hands,” “I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” The Lord of glory
seeks the warm inn of the soul, and we offer Him a manger of stone.
(2) Or, in place of the home which He seeks, we build Him a fane of stately
ritual.—We spend infinite pains in designing dainty and picturesque
ceremonials. We devise reverent and dignified movements. We invent an
elaborate and impressive symbolism. We engage the ministry of noble music for
the expression of our praise, and we swing the fragrant censer for the expression
of our prayer. Or perhaps we discard the colour and the glow. We banish
everything that is elaborate and ornate. We use no flowers, either in reality or in
symbol. We reduce our ritualism to a simple posture. Our music is rendered
without pride or ostentation. Everything is plain, prosaic and unadorned. We
have a ritual without glitter, and we have movements without romance. But
whether our ceremony be one or the other, the soul virtually says, “Here is a
ritualistic house I have built for Thee, O Christ! Take up Thine abode in the
dwelling which I have provided.” And if the soul would only listen it would hear
the Lord’s reply, “My son, give me thine heart.” He seeks the inn of the soul; we
offer Him a ritualistic manger.
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(3) Or again, we build Him the massive house of a stately creed.—The building is
solid and comprehensive. All its parts are firm and well defined, and they are
mortised with passionate zeal and devotion. We are proud of its constitution. The
creed is all the more beautiful that it is now so venerable and hoary. The
weather-stains of centuries only add to its significance and glory. There it stands,
venerable, majestic, apparently indestructible, “Here is a credal home for Thee,
O Lord! I am jealous for the honour of Thy house. I will contend earnestly for
every stone in the holy fabric! Here is a home for Thee, O King.” And if the soul
would reverently and quietly listen this would be the response it would hear,
“When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” That is what
the Lord is seeking. He seeks not my credal statements but my personal faith. He
solicits not my creed but my person, not my words but my heart. And so do we
offer Him all these substitutes in the place of the dwelling He seeks. And if these
are all we have to offer, “the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” We
offer Him the hospitality of a big outer creed, but “there is no room in the inn.”1
[Note: J. H. Jowett.]
Creed is the railway carriage; it won’t take you on your journey unless you have
the engine, which is active religion.2 [Note: George Frederic Watts, iii. 326.]
Some people seem to think that if they can pack the gospel away into a sound
and orthodox creed it is perfectly safe. It is a sort of canned fruit of Christianity,
hermetically sealed and correctly labelled which will keep for years without
decay. An extravagant reliance has been placed, therefore, on confessions of faith
as the preservatives of a pure gospel. But the heart is greater than the creed; and
if the heart is wrong it will very soon corrupt the creed and interline it with its
own heresies. Hence the wise injunction of the Apostle, “Holding the mystery of
the faith in a pure conscience.”3 [Note: A. J. Gordon: A Biography, 289.]
3. How may the world find room for Him?
(1) By finding room for His truth and the love of it. The world’s attitude towards
the birth of every great truth is focused in a single phrase in the simple story of
the first Christmas, the greatest birthday since time began. Mary laid the infant
Christ in a manger—“because there was no room for them in the inn.” Right
must ever fight its way against the world. Truth must ever walk alone in its
Gethsemane. Justice must bravely face its Calvary if it would still live in triumph
after all efforts to slay it. Love must ever, in the end, burst forth in its splendour
from the dark clouds of hate and discord that seek to obscure it. These great
truths must be born in the manger of poverty, or pain, or trial, or suffering,
finding no room in the inn until at last by entering it in triumph they honour the
inn that never honoured them in their hours of need, of struggle or of darkness.
It requires sterling courage to live on the uplands of truth, battling bravely for
the right, undismayed by coldness, undaunted by contempt, unmoved by
criticism, serenely confident even in the darkest hours, that right, justice and
truth must win in the end.
Every great truth in all the ages has had to battle for recognition. If it be real it is
worth the struggle. Out of the struggle comes new strength for the victor.
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Trampled grass grows the greenest. Hardship and trial and restriction and
opposition mean new vitality to character. In potting plants, it is well not to have
the pot too large, for the more crowded the roots the more the plant will bloom.
It is true, in a larger sense, of life. The world has ever misunderstood and battled
against its thinkers, its leaders, its reformers, its heroes.1 [Note: W. G. Jordan,
The Crown of Individuality, 33.]
A happy man seems to be a solecism; it is a man’s business to suffer, to battle,
and to work.2 [Note: Carlyle, in Life of Lord Houghton, ii. 478.]
Even the spectacle of man’s repeated and pathetic failure to live up to his own
ideal is “inspiring and consoling” to this onlooker, since, in spite of long ages of
ill-success, the race is not discouraged, but continues to strive as if for assured
victory, rendering obedience, however imperfect, to the inner voice that speaks
of duty owed to ourselves, to our neighbour, to our God; and it is “inspiring and
consoling” that traces of the same struggle can be discerned in the poor sentient
beings, our inferiors. “Let it be enough for faith that the whole creation groans
in mortal frailty, strives with unconquerable constancy: Surely not all in vain.”3
[Note: J. A. Hammerton, Stevensoniana, 215.]
(2) We find room for Him when we find room for His little ones.
A few days ago there was performed in the hall of Lincoln’s Inn, London, a
mystery play called “Eager Heart.” The story is briefly this. Eager Heart is a
poor maiden living in a wayside cottage, who has heard that the king is going to
pass that way, and that he will take up his quarters for a night somewhere in the
neighbourhood. With all diligence she prepares the best room in her cottage for
his reception, hoping that she may be the favoured one whom he will honour
with a visit. Her two sisters, Eager Fame and Eager Sense, deride her
expectations, and assure her that the king would never condescend to enter so
humble an abode, and that he will, as a matter of course, seek hospitality with
some of the great folk in that part of the country. She, however, has a strong
premonition that her hopes are not ill-founded, and goes on with her
preparations. When all is ready, a knock is heard at the door, and a poor woman
with an infant at her breast begs the charity of a night’s lodging. Eager Heart,
sad and disappointed, yet feeling that she cannot refuse such a request, gives up
to the distressed wayfarers the room which she had prepared for the king; and
then goes forth into the night in the hopes of meeting him and at least expressing
her goodwill to have entertained him had it been possible. On her way she meets
a company of shepherds, who tell her they have seen a vision of angels, who have
assured them that the king has already come, and is in the village. And as they
return, they are joined by another pilgrim band, of eastern princes, who are
making their way, guided by a heavenly light, to pay their homage to their
sovereign lord. Needless to say, it is to the cottage of Eager Heart herself that
they are guided. The infant is Himself the King, and the homeless woman is the
Queen Mother.1 [Note: H. Lucas, At the Parting of the Ways, 79.]
4. The world will find room for Him at last. Has it not found room for Him
already? Has He not made room for Himself—He for whom the inn of
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Bethlehem had none? Through half the world men remember continually that
coming. Amid the trivial associations of each Christmas, amid the kindlier
thoughts which are native to the time, there is not wholly lost the sense of Him
who in His greatness made these days solemn and sweet and grand, who made
their kindlier thoughts become more natural. God, they remember, bowed
Himself to become man for man’s redemption. And He who dwelt among them in
more than common lowliness now fills the thoughts and inspires the hopes of
thousands who find through Him surer foothold for life, and through Him can
face death.
Little Hettie had a model village, and she never tired of, setting it up.
“What kind of a town is that, Hettie?” asked her father.
“O, a Christian town,” Hettie answered, quickly.
“Suppose we make it a heathen town,” her father suggested.
“What must we take out?”
“The church,” said Hettie, taking it to one side.
“Is that all?”
“I suppose so.”
“No, indeed,” her father said. “The public school must go. Take the public
library out also.”
“Anything else?” Hettie asked, sadly,
“Isn’t that a hospital over there?”
“But, father, don’t they have hospitals?”
“Not in heathen countries. It was Christ who taught us to care for the sick and
the old.”
“Then I must take out the Old Ladies’ Home,” said Hettie, very soberly.
“Yes, and that Orphans’ Home at the other end of the town.”
“Why, father,” Hettie exclaimed, “then there’s not one good thing left! I would
not live in such a town for anything.”
Does having room for Jesus make so much difference?1 [Note: A. P. Hodgson,
Thoughts for the King’s Children, 220.]
III
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No Room in our Lives
The difficulty with us to-day is just what it was when Christ trod this earth; and
the real reason why He means so little to many of us is that there is no room for
Him in our lives.
The only place in which He can make His home to-day is the inn of the soul, the
secret rooms of the personal life. We sometimes sing, in one of the most tender
and gracious of our hymns, “O make our hearts Thy dwelling-place,” and that is
just what the Lord is willing and waiting to do. “O make our hearts Thine inn!”
But when He moves towards us He finds the inn already thronged.
You may talk as you please about the things that have “put you off,” as we say,
and made you less keen about religion and its claims than you once were—the
tendency of the Higher Criticism, or the results of the comparative study of
religions, or the New Theology, or the Athanasian Creed, or the futility of our
ordinary church-life, or the worldliness of professing Christians, or the divisions
of Christendom. All these things have some importance; but you know perfectly
well, and it has recently been set before us with extraordinary force and vigour,
that if the Lord Jesus Christ were but to appear in the smoking-room one day
when religious questions were being discussed so freely, all these things would
dwindle into absolute insignificance, and the one vital question for you and for
me would be whether we really loved Him enough to take up His cross and live
out our lives manfully for His sake. Well, you may not interview Him in the
smoking-room, but you can see Him just as clearly as ever you could if you will
only give yourself a chance. He is as near as ever He was, as dear as ever He was,
and the one question is whether we will give ourselves the chance of seeing Him.1
[Note: Bishop W. E. Collins, Hours of Insight, 117.]
Yea, in the night, my soul, my daughter,
Cry,—clinging Heaven by the hems;
And lo! Christ walking on the water
Not of Gennesareth, but Thames.
1. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” This is the house our Redeemer
seeks, the wonderful inn of the soul. Let us go and look inside that inn, for it has
many rooms, housing many varied interests, and we may exclude the Lord from
them all. Let us walk through a few of the rooms.
(1) There is first of all the room of the mind, the busy realm of the
understanding. Try to imagine the multitude of thoughts that throng that room
in a single day. From waking moment to the return of sleep they crowd its busy
floors. There they are, thoughts innumerable, hurrying, jostling, coming, going!
And yet in all the restless, tumultuous assembly, with the floor never empty, the
Lord may have no place. “God is not in all his thoughts.” There is no room in the
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inn.
One forenoon a stranger entered a publishing establishment in a Russian city—I
think in Moscow. He was dressed in very plain, homely garb. He quietly drew a
manuscript out of his pocket, and requested that it be published. But the
publisher, taking in his homely appearance with a quick glance of his shrewd,
practised eye, answered him very curtly, refusing his request He said, “It’s no
use looking at your sketch. I really cannot be bothered. We have hundreds of
such things in hand, and have really not time to deal with yours, even though you
were in a position to guarantee the cost—which I very much doubt.”
The stranger rolled up his manuscript, saying he must have been labouring
under some misapprehension, as he had been told that the public liked to read
what he wrote.
“The public like to read what you write?” repeated the publisher, eyeing the
rugged figure before him. “Who are you? What is your name?” The stranger
quietly said, “My name is Leo Tolstoi,” as he buttoned his coat over the rejected
manuscript. Instantly the astonished publisher was on the other side of the
counter, with most humble apology, begging the privilege of publishing the
manuscript. But the famous, eccentric genius quietly withdrew, with the coveted
paper in his inner pocket.
There standeth One in your midst whom ye acknowledge not. And He does not
tell us who He is, in the manner of the offended Russian Count. He tells us
plainly that He is here, looking keenly, listening alertly, noting all. The Christ of
the manger is in our midst. Even though not acknowledged perhaps, yet He is
not unknown; He is not unrecognized. No one ever yet refused Christ admittance
in ignorance of what he was doing, not really knowing whom he was crowding
out. He may have failed to realize the seriousness of what he was doing, and the
wonder of Him who was knocking; quite likely. But he knew that he was refusing
entrance to Him who should be admitted. There is always a quiet, inner
messenger making that unmistakably clear.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, The Crowded
Inn, 25.]
(2) And here is another room, the room of personal affection and desire. It is the
room where love lives and sings. And it is the room where love droops and
sickens and dies. It is the room where impulse is born and where it grows or
faints. It is the room where secret longing moves shyly about, and only
occasionally shows itself at the window. It is the busy chamber of the emotions.
And the Lord yearns to enter this carefully guarded room to make His home in
the realm of waking and brooding affection. Is there any room for Him?
That wondrous Christ is standing to-day at some heart-door pleading for
entrance. Is it yours? You attend the church service, and give a tacit
acknowledgment to the claims of Christianity, and prefer life in a land that owes
its prosperity and safety to this pleading One. Yet He is standing outside of the
door of your heart. Is he? He is, if He has not been let inside. The talented
Holman Hunt, in his famous picture of Christ knocking at the door, reminds us
49

that that door opens only from within. If you have not opened it, it is shut; and
He without, knocking! strange!2 [Note: Ibid., 27.]
Strangely the wondrous story doth begin
Of that which came to pass on Christmas Day—
“The new-born babe within a manger lay
Because there was no room inside the inn.”
No room for Him who came to conquer sin
And bid distress and mourning flee away!
So in the stable He was fain to stay
Whilst revelry and riot reigned within.
And still the same old tale is told again:
The world is full of greed and gain and glee,
And has no room for God because of them.
Lord, though my heart be filled with joy and pain,
Grant that it ne’er may find no room for Thee,
Like that benighted inn at Bethlehem!1 [Note: Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler,
Verses, Wise or Otherwise, 196.]
(3) Let us pass into another room in the inn—the room of the imagination. It is
the radiant chamber of ideals and fancies and visions and dreams. In this room
we may find Prospect Window and the Window of Hope. It is here that we look
out upon the morrow. And it is here that life’s wishes and plans may be found.
The Lord delights to abide in that bright chamber of purpose and dream. Is
there any room?
It is a popular impression of Bushnell that he was the subject of his imagination,
and that it ran away with him in the treatment of themes which required only
severe thought. The impression is a double mistake; theology does not call for
severe thought alone, but for the imagination also and the seeing and
interpreting eye that usually goes with it. It is not a vagrant and irresponsible
faculty, but an inner eye, whose vision is to be trusted like that of the outer; it
has in itself the quality of thought, and is not a mere picture-making gift.
Bushnell trained his imagination to work on certain definite lines, and for a
definite end; namely, to bring out the spiritual meaning hidden within the
external form.2 [Note: T. T. Munger, Horace Bushnell, 383.]
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(4) Not far from this room there is another—the chamber of mirth. It is here that
the genius of merriment dwells, and here you may find the sunny presences of
wit and humour. Here are quip and jest and jollity. Here is where bridal joy is
found, and where the song of the vineyard is born. Will the Master turn into this
room or will He avoid it? No; He even longs for a place in the happy crowd! Is
there any room for Him in this hall of mirth, or is He crowded out?
I remember that Charles Kingsley used to say, “I wonder if there is a family in
all England where there is more laughter than there is in mine.” And the Lord
was an abiding guest at Charles Kingsley’s table. Take Him into your
conversation. He will come in like sunshine. There are some things that will just
disappear at His coming as owls and bats vanish at the dawn. Our conversation
will lose its meanness, and its suspicions, and its jealousies, and all
uncharitableness. Our Christmas speech will itself be a home of light.1 [Note: J.
H. Jowett.]
2. Why is it that we keep Him out of our lives?
(1) We are too much occupied with our ordinary affairs. There are men upon
whom work has grown by little and little, so slowly that they hardly realize how;
perhaps it has not all been of their own seeking; certainly it has not all been the
result of selfish ambition; sometimes it seems to be the result of a tendency which
they could hardly resist. Anyhow, there can be no question as to the result of it
all; little by little devotion, meditation and prayer seem not so much to have been
given up as to have dried up of themselves out of the life. And the worst of it is
that the occupations do not seem to have gained in the process. Like Pharaoh’s
lean kine, they have swallowed up everything else, but instead of being better,
they are worse; the work is done more mechanically, and less freshly; more
severely, but less wholeheartedly.
One feels how natural it was that the small, weary company which crept in
footsore by the north gate should have been ignored. They were quite humble
people; they did not even belong to the village; they were among the last comers,
for they have travelled from the distant north, and Mary in these days is not the
swiftest of travellers. The village is crowded, for all have come to be enrolled.
The interest is keen, for the matter involves questions of taxation, questions of
national independence, questions of a world empire. It is not to be wondered at
that none notices the group which creeps in when the sun is nigh setting, and,
because the inn is full, finds what poor shelter it can. The world lost the honour
of providing a place where its Redeemer might be born, because it was very busy
over important things.2 [Note: A. C. Welch.]
An inn—what an appropriate figure of the soul of man as it is by nature! What a
multiplicity and what a prodigious variety of thoughts are always coming and
going in the soul—the passengers these which throng the inn, and some of whom
are so fugitive that they do not even take up their abode there for the night! And
what distraction, discomposure, and noise do these outgoing and incoming
thoughts produce, so that perhaps scarcely ever in the day is our mind collected
51

and calm, except just for the few moments spent in private prayer before we lie
down and when we rise—the hurry and confusion this, produced by the constant
arrivals at, and departures from, an inn.1 [Note: E. M. Goulburn, The Pursuit of
Holiness, 281.]
(2) Our life is sometimes already filled with the thronging multitude of our cares.
We can be so full of care as to be quite careless about Him. We can have so much
to worry about that we have no time to think about Christ. “The cares of this
world choke the word,” and the Speaker of the word is forgotten. Yes, we may
entertain so many cares that the Lord cannot get in at the door. And yet all the
time the gracious promise is waiting: Cast all your care on Him, for He careth
for you.
And what, then, is the cure for worry? Can you ask? If you will but make room
for Him in your heart and keep Him there, your worry will vanish, even as in the
Pilgrim’s Progress Christian’s load fell off when he lifted his eyes to the Cross of
Christ. With Him there to share every thought, you will find that many of the
difficulties will smooth themselves out forthwith; and as you learn to leave in His
hands the things which are His business, not yours, so will all worry become by
His grace a thing of the past.
Doubtless your cross was chosen for you by our Lord and Master just for its
weight. To me there is always a wonderful beauty and consolation in the fact, so
simply told in the narrative of the Passion, that His cross proved too heavy for
Him. He has never since that hour suffered any one of His own to bear a cross
unaided, nor yet too heavy.2 [Note: Archbishop Magee, in Life by J. C.
Macdonnell, i. 268.]
(3) Our pleasures keep Christ out of our lives. A merely sensational life can make
us numb to all that is spiritual; and the unseen world becomes non-existent to
our souls. That is an awful law of life. We may so dwell in the pleasures of the
senses that all the deeper things are as though they were dead, and buried in
forgotten graves.
One would certainly think that the Lord of glory could not be crowded out of a
wedding, that solemn and sacred experience in human life. But He can! Of
course we may mention His name, but the naming is too often only a
conventional courtesy, while the Lord Himself is relegated to the yard. We may
be engrossed with the sensations of the event, with the glittering externals, with
the dresses and the orange-blossoms, while the holy Christ, upon whom the
lasting joy and peace and blessedness of the wedded pair will utterly depend, is
absolutely forgotten.
(4) And again, there are those who have no room for Him because of their sin:
and this is the most real and all-pervading obstacle of all. A sinful habit, using
the word in its largest sense, of pride or envy, covetousness or gluttony, and not
only of particular sinful acts, is by far the worst obstacle to keep the Saviour out,
and that because it at once deadens and deceives us. Far be it from me, for
instance, to deny that doubts are sometimes purely intellectual; but I say
52

deliberately that I have rarely talked with a man, or a woman either, about
religious doubts without finding, when they come to speak quite freely, that the
difficulty was, in part at any rate, a moral one. When I look into my own heart, I
see the same thing; my own doubts have been based on moral difficulties far
more largely than I was willing to admit to myself at the time, or even than I
knew at the time; and I believe that most of us would have to make the same
confession.1 [Note: W. E. Collins, Hours of Insight, 121.]
Christ’s crowding-out power is tremendous. That explains why He is so crowded
out. When allowed freely in He crowds everything out that would crowd Him
out. He crowds out sin. By the blood drawn from His own side He washes it out.
By the soft-burning but intense fire of His heart He burns it out. By the purity of
His own wondrous presence, recognized as Lord, He reveals its horrid ugliness,
and compels us, by the holy compulsion of love, to keep it out.2 [Note: S. D.
Gordon, The Crowded Inn, 58.]
There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the Yule tale was begun.
53

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam,
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home:
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.
This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than the Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
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To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.1 [Note: G. K. Chesterton, The House of Christmas.]
COKE, "Luke 2:7. And she brought forth her first-born son— The words might
be rendered literally, she brought forth her son the first-born. The word first-
born is sometimes used to signify that which is of superior excellence; and if it be
applied to Christ in that sense, it will denote his superiority to all the sons of
Adam, as well as to Adam himself. Dr. Doddridge observes, that the blessed
virgin was so miraculously strengthened by God in her hour of extremity, as to
be able to perform herself the necessary offices for her new-born infant. The vast
concourse of people coming from all parts to be registered in the city belonging
to their respective families, must inevitably have exposed those who came latest
to the inconveniences mentioned in the text. The probability of this circumstance
will appear greater, when we consider, that it is no uncommon thing, in the east
and other countries, for travellers to lie in the same apartment with their camels,
horses, &c. Even in Europe, particularly in Germany, many inns may be met
with, where the stable is the first room you come into, and there the veturini or
carriers usually lodge with their beasts. Tradition informs us, that the stable in
which the holy family was lodged was, according to frequent usage in that
country, hollowed out of a rock; and consequently the coldness of it, at least by
night, must have greatly added to its other inconveniences. It is asserted by the
best civilians and historians, that at such public enrolments as that referred to in
this chapter, it was customaryto register children of all ages, as well as their
parents. This circumstance must have afforded the greatest proof to ascertain
the place of Christ's birth; for it was customary to suspend the tables on which
the enrolment was taken, in some public place; and we find Justin, Tertullian,
and Chrysostom appealing to the tables extant in their days, as really containing
the name of Jesus. Upon this humiliating circumstance of our Saviour's birth in
a stable, we may observe, how much the blessed Jesus, through the whole course
of his life, despised the thingsmost esteemed by men; for though he was the Son
of God, when he became man he chose to be born of parents in the meanest
condition of life; though he was heir of all things, he chose to be born in an inn;
nay, in the stable of an inn, where, instead of a cradle he was laid in a manger.
The angels reported the good news of his birth; not to the rabbies and great men,
but to shepherds, who, being plain honest people, were unquestionably good
witnesses of what they heard and saw. When he grew up, he probably wrought
with his father as a carpenter; and afterwards, while he executed the duties of his
ministry, he was so poor, that he had not a place where to lay his head, but lived
on the bounty of his friends. Thus, by going before men in the thorny path of
poverty and affliction, he has taught them to be contented with their lot in life,
however mean and humble.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the
55

fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at
night.
BARNES, "The same country - Round about Bethlehem.
Shepherds - Men who tended flocks of sheep.
Abiding in the field - Remaining out of doors, under the open sky, with their
flocks. This was commonly done. The climate was mild, and, to keep their flocks from
straying, they spent the night with them. It is also a fact that the Jews sent out their
flocks into the mountainous and desert regions during the summer months, and took
them up in the latter part of October or the first of November, when the cold weather
commenced. While away in these deserts and mountainous regions, it was proper
that there should be someone to attend them to keep them from straying, and from
the ravages of wolves and other wild beasts. It is probable from this that our Saviour
was born before the 25th of December, or before what we call “Christmas.” At that
time it is cold, and especially in the high and mountainous regions about Bethlehem.
But the exact time of his birth is unknown; there is no way to ascertain it. By different
learned men it has been fixed at each month in the year. Nor is it of consequence to
“know” the time; if it were, God would have preserved the record of it. Matters of
moment are clearly revealed; those which “he” regards as of no importance are
concealed.
Keeping watch ... - More literally, “tending their flocks “by turns” through the
night watches.”
CLARKE, "There were - shepherds abiding in the field - There is no
intimation here that these shepherds were exposed to the open air. They dwelt in the
fields where they had their sheep penned up; but they undoubtedly had tents or
booths under which they dwelt.
Keeping watch - by night - Or, as in the margin, keeping the watches of the
night, i.e. each one keeping a watch (which ordinarily consisted of three hours) in his
turn. The reason why they watched them in the field appears to have been, either to
preserve the sheep from beasts of prey, such as wolves, foxes, etc., or from
freebooting banditti, with which all the land of Judea was at that time much infested.
It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts, about the
passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain: during the
time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As the passover
occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan,
which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were
kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. And as these
shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that
October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on
the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could he have been
born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very
ground the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by
night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this
disputed point. See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot.
The time in which Christ was born has been considered a subject of great
56

importance among Christians. However, the matter has been considered of no
moment by Him who inspired the evangelists; as not one hint is dropped on the
subject, by which it might be possible even to guess nearly to the time, except the
chronological fact mentioned above. A late writer makes the following remark: “The
first Christians placed the baptism of Christ about the beginning of the fifteenth year
of Tiberius; and thence reckoning back thirty years, they placed his birth in the forty-
third year of the Julian period, the forty-second of Augustus, and the twenty-eighth
after the victory at Actium. This opinion obtained till a.d. 527, when Dionysius
Exiguus invented the vulgar account. Learned and pious men have trifled egregiously
on this subject, making that of importance which the Holy Spirit, by his silence, has
plainly informed them is of none. Fabricius gives a catalogue of no less than 136
different opinions concerning the Year of Christ’s birth: and as to his birth Day, that
has been placed by Christian sects and learned men in every month in the year. The
Egyptians placed it in January - Wagenseil, in February - Bochart, in March - some,
mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus, in April - others, in May - Epiphanius speaks of
some who placed it in June - and of others who supposed it to have been in July -
Wagenseil, who was not sure of February, fixed it probably in August - Lightfoot, on
the 15th of September - Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius, in October - others, in
November - but the Latin Church, supreme in power, and infallible in judgment,
placed it on the 25th of December, the very day on which the ancient Romans
celebrated the feast of their goddess Bruma.” See more in Robinson’s Notes on
Claude’s Essay, vol. i. p. 275, etc. Pope Julius I. was the person who made this
alteration, and it appears to have been done for this reason: the sun now began his
return towards the northern tropic, ending the winter, lengthening the short days,
and introducing the spring. All this was probably deemed emblematical of the rising
of the Sun of righteousness on the darkness of this world, and causing the day-spring
from on high to visit mankind.
GILL, "And there were in the same country shepherds,.... For Bethlehem
was a place of pasture: near to Ephrata, the same with Bethlehem, were the fields of
the wood, Psa_132:6 and the tower of Edar or the tower of the flock, Gen_35:21 and
here David kept his father's sheep, 1Sa_17:15 so that we need not wonder to hear of
shepherds here,
abiding in the field, watching over their flock by night: from whence it
appears, that Christ was born in the night; and the (o) Jews say, that the future
redemption shall be in the night; and Jerom says (p), it is a tradition of the Jews, that
Christ will come in the middle of the night, as was the passover in Egypt: it is not
likely that he was born, as is commonly received, at the latter end of December, in the
depth of winter; since at this time, shepherds were out in the fields, where they
lodged all night, watching their flocks: they were diligent men, that looked well to
their flocks, and watched them by night, as well as by day, to preserve them from
beasts of prey; they were, as it is in the Greek text, "keeping the watches of the night
over their flock." The night was divided into four watches, the even, midnight, cock
crowing, and morning; and these kept them, as the Arabic version adds, alternately,
some kept the flock one watch, and some another, while the rest slept in the tent, or
tower, that was built in the fields for that purpose. There were two sorts of cattle with
the Jews; there was one sort which they called ‫,מדבריות‬ "the cattle of the wilderness",
that lay in the fields; and another sort which they called ‫,בייתות‬ "the cattle of the
house", that were brought up at home: concerning both which, they have this rule
(q),
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"they do not water nor slay the cattle of the wilderness, but they water and slay the
cattle of the house: these are the cattle of the house, that lie in the city; the cattle of
the wilderness, are they that lie in the pastures.
On which, one of their commentators (r) observes,
"these lie in the pastures, which are in the villages, all the days of cold and heat, and
do not go into the cities, until the rains descend.
The first rain is in the month Marchesvan, which answers to the latter part of our
October, and the former part of November; and of this sort, seem to be the flocks
those shepherds were keeping by night, the time not being yet come, of their being
brought into the city: from whence it appears, that Christ must be born before the
middle of October, since the first rain was not yet come; concerning this, the Gemara
(s) is more large,
"the Rabbins teach, that these are they of the wilderness, or fields, and these are they
of the house; they of the field are they that go out on the passover, and feed in the
pastures, and come in at the first rain; and these are they of the house, all that go out
and feed without the border, and come and lie within the border (fixed for a sabbath
day's journey): Rabbi says, those, and those are of the house; but these are they that
are of the field, all they that go out and feed in the pastures, and do not come in to
remain, neither in the days of the sun, nor in the days of the rains.
To the shepherds, the first notice of Christ's birth was given; not to the princes and
chief priests, and learned men at Jerusalem, but to weak, mean, and illiterate men;
whom God is pleased to choose and call, and reveal his secrets to; when he hides
them from the wise and prudent, to their confusion, and the glory of his grace: and
this was a presage of what the kingdom of Christ would be, and by, and to whom, the
Gospel would be preached,
HENRY, "The meanest circumstances of Christ's humiliation were all along
attended with some discoveries of his glory, to balance them, and take off the offence
of them; for even when he humbled himself God did in some measure exalt him and
give him earnests of his future exaltation. When we saw him wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a manger, we were tempted to say, “Surely this cannot be the Son
of God.” But see his birth attended, as it is here, with a choir of angels, and we shall
say, “Surely this cannot be the Son of God.” But see his birth attended, as it is here,
with a choir of angels, and we shall say, “Surely it can be no other than the Son of
God, concerning whom it was said, when he was brought into the world, Let all the
angels of God worship him,” Heb_1:6.
We had in Matthew an account of the notice given of the arrival of this
ambassador, this prince from heaven, to the wise men, who were Gentiles, by a star;
here we are told of the notice given of it to the shepherds, who were Jews, by an
angel: to each God chose to speak in the language they were most conversant with.
I. See here how the shepherds were employed; they were abiding in the fields
adjoining to Bethlehem, and keeping watch over their flocks by night, Luk_2:8. The
angel was not sent to the chief priests or the elders (they were not prepared to receive
these tidings), but to a company of poor shepherds, who were like Jacob, plain men
dwelling in tents, not like Esau, cunning hunters. The patriarchs were shepherds.
Moses and David particularly were called from keeping sheep to rule God's people;
and by this instance God would show that he had still a favour for those of that
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innocent employment. Tidings were brought to Moses of the deliverance of Israel out
of Egypt, when he was keeping sheep, and to these shepherds, who, it is probable,
were devout pious men, the tidings were brought of a greater salvation. Observe, 1.
They were not sleeping in their beds, when this news was brought them (though
many had very acceptable intelligence from heaven in slumbering upon the bed), but
abiding in the fields, and watching. Those that would hear from God must stir up
themselves. They were broad awake, and therefore could not be deceived in what
they saw and heard, so as those may be who are half asleep. 2. They were employed
now, not in acts of devotion, but in the business of their calling; they were keeping
watch over their flock, to secure them from thieves and beasts of prey, it being
probably in the summer time, when they kept their cattle out all night, as we do now,
and did not house them. Note, We are not out of the way of divine visits when we are
sensibly employed in an honest calling, and abide with God in it.
JAMISON, "Luk_2:8-20. Angelic annunciation to the shepherds - Their visit to
the newborn Babe.
abiding in the fields — staying there, probably in huts or tents.
watch ... by night — or, night watches, taking their turn of watching. From about
passover time in April until autumn, the flocks pastured constantly in the open fields,
the shepherds lodging there all that time. (From this it seems plain that the period of
the year usually assigned to our Lord’s birth is too late). Were these shepherds
chosen to have the first sight of the blessed Babe without any respect of their own
state of mind? That, at least, is not God’s way. “No doubt, like Simeon (Luk_2:25),
they were among the waiters for the Consolation of Israel” [Olshausen]; and, if the
simplicity of their rustic minds, their quiet occupation, the stillness of the midnight
hours, and the amplitude of the deep blue vault above them for the heavenly music
which was to fill their ear, pointed them out as fit recipients for the first tidings of an
Infant Savior, the congenial meditations and conversations by which, we may
suppose, they would beguile the tedious hours would perfect their preparation for the
unexpected visit. Thus was Nathanael engaged, all alone but not unseen, under the
fig tree, in unconscious preparation for his first interview with Jesus. (See on Joh_
1:48). So was the rapt seer on his lonely rock “in the spirit on the Lord’s Day,” little
thinking that this was his preparation for hearing behind him the trumpet voice of
the Son of man (Rev_1:10, etc.). But if the shepherds in His immediate neighborhood
had the first, the sages from afar had the next sight of the new-born King. Even so
still, simplicity first, science next, finds its way to Christ, whom
In quiet ever and in shade
Shepherds and Sage may find -
They, who have bowed untaught to Nature’s sway,
And they, who follow Truth along her star-pav’d way.
- Keble
CALVIN, "8.And there were shepherds It would have been to no purpose that
Christ was born in Bethlehem, if it had not been made known to the world. But
the method of doing so, which is described by Luke, appears to the view of men
very unsuitable. First, Christ is revealed but to a few witnesses, and that too
amidst the darkness of night. Again, though God had, at his command, many
honorable and distinguished witnesses, he passed by them, and chose shepherds,
persons of humble rank, and of no account among men. Here the reason and
wisdom of the flesh must prove to be foolishness; and we must acknowledge, that
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“the foolishness of God” (1 Corinthians 1:25) excels all the wisdom that exists, or
appears to exist, in the world. But this too was a part of the “emptying of
himself,” (Philippians 2:6 :) not that any part of Christ’s glory should be taken
away by it, but that it should lie in concealment for a time. Again, as Paul
reminds us, that the gospel is mean according to the flesh, “that our faith should
stand” in the power of the Spirit, not in the “lofty (142) words of human
wisdom,” or in any worldly splendor, (143) (1 Corinthians 2:4;) so this
inestimable “treasure” has been deposited by God, from the beginning, “in
earthen vessels,” (2 Corinthians 4:7,) that he might more fully try the obedience
of our faith. If then we desire to come to Christ, let us not be ashamed to follow
those whom the Lord, in order to cast down the pride of the world, has taken,
from among the dung (144) of cattle, to be our instructors.
LIGHTFOOT, "[And there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock, &c.]
These are the sheep of the wilderness; viz. those which go out to pasture about
the time of the Passover, and are fed in the fields, and return home upon the first
rain.
"Which is the first rain? It begins on the third of the month Marchesvan. The
middle rain is on the seventh: the last on the seventeenth. So R. Meier: but R.
Judah saith, On the seventh, seventeenth, and one-and-twentieth."
The spring coming on, they drove their beasts into wildernesses or champaign
grounds, where they fed them the whole summer, keeping watch over them night
and day, that they might not be impaired either by thieves or ravenous beasts.
They had for this purpose their tower to watch in, or else certain small cottages
erected for this very end, as we have observed elsewhere. Now in the month
Marchesvan, which is part of our October and part of November, the winter
coming on, they betook themselves home again with the flocks and the herds.
BARCLAY, "SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS (Luke 2:8-20)
2:8-20 In this country there were shepherds who were in the fields, keeping
watch over their flock by night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the
glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were much afraid. The angel
said to them. "Do not be afraid; for--look you--I am bringing you good news of
great joy, which will be to every people, for today a Saviour has been born for
you, in David's town, who is Christ the Lord. You will recognize him by this sign.
You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger." And
suddenly with the angel there was a crowd of heaven's host, praising God and
saying, "In the highest heights glory to God; and on earth peace to the men
whose welfare he ever seeks." When the angels had left them and gone away to
heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Come! Let us go across, to Bethlehem
and let us see this thing which has happened which the Lord has made known to
us." So they hurried on and they discovered Mary and Joseph, and the babe
lying in a manger. When they had seen him they told everyone about the word
which had been spoken to them about this child; and all who heard were amazed
at what was told them by the shepherds. But Mary stored up these things in her
memory and in her heart kept wondering what they meant. So the shepherds
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returned glorifying and praising God for all that they had seen just as it had
been told to them.
It is a wonderful thing that the story should tell that the first announcement of
God came to some shepherds. Shepherds were despised by the orthodox good
people of the day. They were quite unable to keep the details of the ceremonial
law; they could not observe all the meticulous hand-washings and rules and
regulations. Their flocks made far too constant demands on them; and so the
orthodox looked down on them. It was to simple men of the fields that God's
message first came.
But these were in all likelihood very special shepherds. We have already seen
how in the Temple, morning and evening, an unblemished lamb was offered as a
sacrifice to God. To see that the supply of perfect offerings was always available
the Temple authorities had their own private sheep flocks; and we know that
these flocks were pastured near Bethlehem. It is most likely that these shepherds
were in charge of the flocks from which the Temple offerings were chosen. It is a
lovely thought that the shepherds who looked after the Temple lambs were the
first to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
We have already seen that when a boy was born, the local musicians congregated
at the house to greet him with simple music. Jesus was born in a stable in
Bethlehem and therefore that ceremony could not be carried out. It is a lovely
thought that the minstrelsy of heaven took the place of the minstrelsy of earth,
and angels sang the songs for Jesus that the earthly singers could not sing.
All through these readings we must have been thinking of the rough simplicity of
the birth of the Son of God. We might have expected that, if he had to be born
into this world at all, it would be in a palace or a mansion. There was a
European monarch who worried his court by often disappearing and walking
incognito amongst his people. When he was asked not to do so for security's sake,
he answered, "I cannot rule my people unless I know how they live." It is the
great thought of the Christian faith that we have a God who knows the life we
live because he too lived it and claimed no special advantage over common men.
COFFMAN, "ANNUNCIATION TO THE SHEPHERDS
And there were shepherds ... Their names are unknown, but they were
appropriate representatives of Adam's race; and, as these words stand, they have
a far more significant meaning than if personal names of these laborers had been
supplied.
Abiding in the field ... The fact of the shepherd being outdoors suggests the
temporal and transitory nature of the human family's status on earth. In the
larger context of man's earthly tenure, the shepherds were better representatives
of mankind than dwellers in strong houses might have been. In a sense, all men
are "in the field," subject to all limitations of earth life, and remaining but a
brief span of time.
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By night ... Appropriately, Jesus was born at night; for there was a darker night
symbolized by that event. The scepter had about departed from Judah; the
savage Idumean was on the throne of David; pagan darkness engulfed the world;
and the lord of the whole world was the first of the Caesars, Augustus, whose
successors would drown the world in blood, debauch the government, and usher
in the age of darkness. Beyond the confines of the ancient empire, the long and
shameful gloom had settled over all the world; all nations sat in darkness.
O what a night was that which wrapped The heathen world in gloom! O what a
Sun which rose this day Triumphant from the tomb.[17]
O what a night it was for all When Mary found no room To wrap her Babe but
in a stall Encircled by the gloom.
- (second stanza by James Burton Coffman)
ENDNOTE:
[17] Anna L. Barbauld, hymn, "Again the Lord of Light and Life" Great Songs
of the Church (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1937), No. 328.
COKE, "Luke 2:8. Keeping watch, &c.— Literally, Watching the watches of the
night; which intimates their taking it by turns to watch, according to the usual
divisions of the night; and as it is not probable that they exposed their flocks to
the coldness of winter-nights in that climate, where, as Dr. Shaw has shewn, they
were very unwholesome,—(see his Travels, p. 379.) it may be strongly argued
from this circumstance, that those who have fixed upon December for the birth
of Christ, have been mistaken in the time of it. But see more on this head in the
note on Luke 2:1
BENSON, "Luke 2:8. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in
the field — Here we see, that as Abraham and David, to whom the promise of the
Messiah was first made, were shepherds, so the completion of this promise was
first revealed to shepherds. Keeping watch over their flocks by night — Which it
was necessary they should do, to guard against the wolves and other beasts of
prey, common there. The original words, φυλασσοντες φυλακας της νυκτος, may
be more literally rendered, watching the watches of the night. These watches
were four; the first is mentioned, Lamentations 2:19; the second and third, Luke
12:38; and the fourth, Matthew 14:25; being the morning watch. It seems there
was a considerable number of the shepherds together here, for the expression
implies that they watched by turns according to these divisions of the night. “As
it is not probable,” says Dr. Doddridge, “that they exposed their flocks to the
coldness of winter nights in that climate, where, as Dr. Shaw (Trav., p. 379) has
shown, they were so very unwholesome, it may be strongly argued from this
circumstance that those who have fixed upon December for the birth of Christ
have been mistaken in the time of it.” The birth of Christ has been placed in
every month of the year. The Egyptians placed it in January — Wagenseil, in
February — Bochart, in March — some mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, in
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April — others, in May — Epiphanius speaks of some who placed it in June —
and others who supposed it to have been in July — Wagenseil, who was not sure
of February, fixed it probably in August — Lightfoot, on the 15th of
September — Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius, in October — others, in
November. But the Latin Church, being infallible in judgment, and supreme in
power, has settled the matter by declaring that he was born on the 25th of
December. See Labbæi, Concil. Fabricii, Bibliot. Antiq., cap. 10. It is happy for
us that the particular day and hour, or even year, in which he was born is not
necessary to be ascertained in order to our salvation; nor at all material to true
religion. It is sufficient for us to know that he was born, was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, assumed our nature, and in consequence thereof is become an
all-sufficient Saviour and Redeemer, in whom whosoever believeth, with a right
faith, shall not perish, but have eternal life
BURKITT, "Here we have the promulgation and first publishing of our
Saviour's birth to the world: The angel said unto the shepherds, I bring you glad
tidings, a Saviour is born.
Where observe, 1. The messenger employed by God to publish the joyful news of
a Saviour's birth; the holy angels, heavenly messengers employed about a
heavenly work: it is worth our notice, how serviceable the angels were to Christ
upon all occasions, when he was here upon earth; an angel declares his
conception; a host of angels publish his birth; in his temptation, an angel
strengthens him; in his agony, an angel comforts him; at his resurrection, an
angel rolls away the stone from the door of the sepulchre; at his ascension, the
angels attend him up to heaven; and at his second coming to judge the world, he
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. And great reason there is,
that the angels should be thus officious in their attendances upon Christ, who is a
head of confirmation to them, as he was a head of redemption to fallen man.
Observe, 2. The persons to whom this joyful message of a Saviour's birth is first
brought, and they are the shepherds; The angel said unto the shepherds, Fear
not.
1. Because Christ, the great shepherd of his church, was come into the world.
2. Because he was of old promised unto shepherds, the old patriarchs, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, who by their occupation were shepherds.
Observe, 3. The time when these shepherds had the honour of this revelation; it
was not when they were asleep on their beds of idleness and sloth, but when they
were lying abroad, and watching their flocks.
The blessings of heaven usually meet us in the way of an honest and industrious
diligence; whereas the idle are fit for nothing but temptation to work upon. If
these shepherds had been snoring in their beds, they had no more seen angels,
nor yet heard the news of a Saviour, than their neighbours.
Observe, 4. The nature and quality of the message which the angel brought; it
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was a message of joy, a message of great joy, a message of great joy unto all
people.
For here was born a Son, that Son a Prince, that Prince a Saviour, that Saviour
not a particular Saviour of the Jews only, but an universal Saviour, whose
salvation is to the ends of the earth. Well might the angel call it a message, or
glad tidings of great joy unto all people!
Observe, 5. The ground and occasion of this joy, the foundation of all this good
news, which was proclaimed in the ears of a lost world; and that was, the birth of
a Saviour; Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord.
Hence learn, 1. That the incarnation and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his
manifestation in our flesh and nature, was and is matter of exceeding joy and
rejoicing unto all people.
2. That the great end and design of our Lord's incarnation and coming into the
world, was to be the Saviour of lost sinners; "Unto you is born a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord."
SBC, "Whilst there is a striking contrast, between the Divine dignity of our Lord and
the lowly earthly circumstances of His birth, there is at the same time a no less
striking harmony between the events, and dispositions, and persons attending it. The
time, the place, the tidings, the listeners, are all in unison. The shepherds were upon
historic ground. On those same slopes, on those same hillsides, David of old had fed
his father’s flocks; and it was from those same fields that he went forth at God’s
command to change his shepherd’s crook for the royal sceptre; and his lowly dress
for the purple of a king. When the angels came to earth, they came to the peaceful
hillsides, where the dew was upon the grass, and the flock was sleeping in the fold;
and there to humble and prepared hearts they gave their message and revealed their
glory.
I. And that humble shepherds were the first to receive the glad tidings is as
instructive as it is strange. It shows us plainly that there is no respect of persons with
God; that in His eye the loftiest and the lowliest are as one; that in the blessings of
the everlasting Gospel there is no difference between the monarch on the throne, and
the beggar on the dunghill.
II. Not only was the message of the angel given to shepherds, it was given to them
whilst they were pursuing their work. Idle men do not receive visions. Industry
rather than idleness qualifies for the blessing of God. These were not the kind of men
to start at shadows. They were strong, sturdy men, holding a position of danger and
difficulty, and yet their humble hearts were waiting upon the Lord.
III. The shepherds at first were "sore afraid." "Flesh and blood were not made to
inherit the kingdom of heaven," and thus the "mercifulness of God is seen in the very
commonplaces of life." The shaded light, the veiled heaven, the hidden glory, testify
as much to His goodness as the open vision and the third-heaven revelation. But the
fear of the shepherds soon gave place to action; they took the proper attitude to the
Divine announcement, they instantly believed it. How different this journey of the
shepherds to the manger, from the hasting of the disciples afterwards to the tomb!
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These men went "to see the thing which had come to pass," but when Peter and John
ran to the sepulchre it was to see if it had come to pass; and the one journey was
marked by confidence and truthfulness, while the other was all impatience and haste.
H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 285.
Luke 2:8-11
The Great Joy of Christmas.
When we hear an angel from heaven declaring good tidings of great joy, which should
be to all people, the heart is straightway set on remembering how wondrous true this
declaration of his has proved already; set on considering how infallibly true it will
prove to the end. The fountain head of the river of our bliss is the manger at
Bethlehem. Every separate stream of our rejoicing is to be traced back thither. The
source and beginning of it all is in the Infant Saviour, wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger, and why?
I. Because He is the pledge of God’s forgiveness and of God’s love towards man. We
were before at emnity with God. We lay under a curse. The sentence of death had
been passed on all our race. Behold the beginning of the undoing of the curse, the
dawn of light and life to a dead and benighted world. All saving mysteries were
contained in Christ’s Incarnation—somewhat as a forest may be said to be contained
in an acorn. And hence first it is that Christmas is the season of our greatest joy.
II. Immediately out of this flows our gratitude as a Church. For do let us consider
what was the condition of the world till Christ was born. On one nation only, and that
the smallest, had the dew of the Divine blessing as yet descended. What had we been
in this far land, but for the substance of the angels’ message to the shepherds?
III. As individuals, we find here our personal grounds of gratitude and rejoicing: for
Christ’s coming into the world it was which hallowed every relationship, and blessed
every age and estate. By His precepts, His example, His grace, He has guided us
through life’s mazy path; planted in us high principles of action and the very divinest
motives; sanctified affliction, and sweetened sorrow, and beatified poverty, and made
infancy most precious, and old age most honourable.
IV. Then, lastly, consider how entirely from the coming of Christ in the flesh it comes
to pass that the mourner learns to dry his tears. This privilege of Christian faith and
hope was unknown to the heathen. But now the daystar arises in the darkest season
of bereavement, and (as on summer nights) there is a token of the morning almost
before the hour of sunset has quite passed away. And if the progress of decay in
ourselves, and the prospect of death is not very terrible—whence is it, but because as
on this day was born to us a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord? In Him we know that
we are more than conquerors. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me."
J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 11.
BI, "In the same country shepherds
The shepherds and the Magi at the cradle of Christ
(with Mat_2:1-12).
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I. THE SHEPHERD COMES FIRST TO THE CRADLE OF CHRIST, BUT THE SAGE
COMES TOO; THE JEW FIRST, BUT ALSO THE GENTILE. Here we have—
1. A prophecy that, as in His cradle the Lord Jesus received “in a figure” the
homage of the entire world, so at last, in happy, glorious fact, He will receive the
adoration of all kindreds and tribes, drawing all men unto Himself by virtue of
His cross.
2. A consolation, viz., that even the poorest, the simplest, the least gifted and
accomplished, find a welcome from Him, and may Lake rank among the very first
in His kingdom.
3. A lesson—that whatever may be the distinctions which obtain among us
elsewhere, we are all one in the service of Christ, and should use our several gifts
for each other’s good,—the shepherd singing his song to the sage, and the sage
telling the story of his star to the wondering shepherd.
II. WE MAY LEARN FROM THE STORY THAT IT IS NOT SO MUCH IN THE
NUMBER AND MAGNITUDE OF OUR GIFTS, AS IN THE USE WE MAKE OF
THEM, THAT OUR TRUE WELFARE AND HAPPINESS CONSIST. The shepherds,
ignorant men, condemned to a life of hard toil and scanty fare, tied and bound by the
claims of their craft, with few opportunities for joining in the public worship of the
Temple, or for listening to the instructions of the Rabbis. Yet, at the bidding of the
angel, they leave their flocks, and hasten to Bethlehem to verify the good tidings. The
wise men from the East had, in some sort, even fewer advantages and aids than the
shepherds. No direct message from heaven was vouchsafed to them. They see a new
sign in the sky. They believe that it foretells the advent of some great one upon the
earth. How hard it must have been for them to leave the luxuries and honours, and,
above all, the scientific pursuits of the Persian palace, in order to encounter the toils
and perks of a long and hazardous journey, on the mere chance of finding their
conclusion verified! What a noble faith in their scientific inductions, or in the inward
leading of God, is implied in their encountering so great a risk or so slight a chance of
being bettered by it!
III. If it be true that our place in Christ’s service and regard depends on our fidelity
in using our gifts rather than on the abundance of our gifts, IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT
THE ONLY GENUINE FIDELITY IS THAT WHICH LEADS US FORWARD AND
UPWARD. The sages and the shepherds were men who looked before as well as after,
men who knew little and were aware of it, or men who knew much and yet accounted
that much but little compared with what God had to teach. Let us be followers of
them, ever looking for more truth while we walk by the truth we know. And, walking
in the light we have, it will grow larger and purer; using the gifts we possess, more
will be added unto us. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The shepherds
1. The time, the place, the tidings, the listeners, are all in unison. The shepherds
were on historic ground. On those same slopes, on those same hill-sides, David of
old had fed his father’s flocks, and it was from those same fields that he went
forth at God’s command to exchange his shepherd’s crook for the royal sceptre,
and his lowly dress for the purple of a king. It was on these fields, rich with
precious memories, that the shepherds lay. It was night, and the sky was
cloudless. Hill and dale slept under the beauty of the clear moon, and the quiet
flocks were gathered to the shelter of the fold. To such a scene came the first
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tidings of the world’s peace. Not to man’s busy haunts, where even in the hush of
night the cry of sorrow is heard, and the trouble in man’s heart goes on, but to
those peaceful folds, sleeping in the bosom of the voiceless hills. The home of
peace is not in the world’s great centres, but among the shaggy woods and grassy
vales and solemn hills. And when the angels came with their messages of peace to
earth they came to such a scene as that. They did not choose the Temple in
Jerusalem, and from its lofty pinnacle flash their glory on a slumbering city—that
would have been at variance with the character of their message, and discordant
with the unostentatious spirit of their King.
2. And that humble shepherds were the first to receive the glad tidings is as
instructive as it is strange. The event itself was unparalleled, and the simple
announcement of it was destined, like a stone cast into the still lake, to extend its
influence in ever-widening circles; yet it was to men lowly and obscure, without
worldly place or power of any kind, that the first proclamation was made. In the
world’s view it would have been deemed an utter waste to brighten the sky with
angels, and pour down from the steeps of glory cataracts of tumultuous song, for
a few poor shepherds. But no consideration speaks more real comfort to our
hearts than this. It shows us plainly that there is no respect of persons with God;
that in His eye the loftiest and the lowliest are as one.
3. But not only was the message of the angels given to shepherds, it was given to
them while they were pursuing their work. Idle men do not receive visions. It is
not in the working up of spiritual ecstasy, but in the sober and honest discharge
of life’s duties, that we are most likely to find God and be found of Him.
4. The shepherds were “sore afraid.” But their fear soon gave place to action.
When the angels had gone away, they said one to another, “Let us now go even
unto Bethlehem and see”—not if the thing is come to pass, but—“this thing which
is come to pass.” They did not arise and go because they doubted, but because
they believed. Ah! it was a grand journey of faith—this of the shepherds from the
sheep-folds to the manger, worthy to be inserted in the eleventh of Hebrews.
What is our attitude towards the Divine announcements?
5. Having seen the Infant Saviour, they immediately made known their story,
first to Mary, who kept all these things and pondered them in her heart, and then
to the busy crowd of travellers bustling about the inn. No sooner had they found
Christ for themselves, than they made it known abroad that they had found Him.
6. But we do not part company with them here. We are told in the twentieth verse
that they “returned”—returned to their ordinary work, to their flocks and folds, to
those vales and hills from which they had come, now for ever bright to them with
something of the angels’ glory, and there, in their own quiet life, they “fought the
good fight, and kept the faith.” God does not call every man to be an apostle. He
wants preachers in private as well as in public. He wants the glad tidings to be
told in sheepfolds, and in markets, and in shops, as much as in places set apart
for the proclamation. And if for you the world has been transfigured, and
common things have received the impress of heaven by the vision of God’s
salvation, then in the place where your daily lot is cast, in the sphere of your
common duties and labours, stand forth a witness for righteousness and for God,
preach tile gospel of peace and salvation to the sin-stricken, sorrow-laden men
and women all around you. (H. Wonnacott.)
This angel is the first evangelist
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He is a type of what gospel-preaching should be.
1. His message is good news. The gospel not a threat nor a law, but news of
salvation.
2. To all the people—not merely to an elect few. To all classes—not merely to the
intelligent and refined.
3. The cause of this joy proclaimed is the advent of Christ, i.e., the Messiah, the
Anointed One, the great High Priest who makes atonement for the past sins of
His people; a Saviour because He saves His people from their sins themselves.
4. The attestation of His Divinity (Luk_2:12). The evidence of His Divinity is His
love—the fact that He is placed under all the limitations of humanity Php_2:5-8).
5. Notice also the first approach of the Divine message always produces fear in
the heart (verse 9), and the message of the gospel to the affrighted heart is ever
the same, “Fear not.”
6. The convert becomes at once a preacher to others (verse 17).
7. The shepherds publish. Mary ponders. Both the active and the meditative
temperament have a place in the Church of Christ. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
Highest and lowest brought together
The shepherds were chosen on account of their obscurity and lowliness to be the first
to hear of the Lord’s nativity, a secret which none of the princes of this world knew.
And what a contrast is presented to us when we take into the account who were the
messengers to them. The angels who excel in strength, these did God’s bidding
towards the shepherds. Here the highest and lowest of God’s rational creatures are
brought together. The angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the
shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message. (J. H. Newman.)
Finding the Lord in daily duties
The wise woman of Medina went long pilgrimages to find the Lord, but in vain; and,
despairing, she returned to her daily duties, and when there engaged she found the
Lord she had elsewhere sought in vain. (See Trench’s Poems.)
Dignity bestowed on those following their daily calling
Moses received his credentials as the legate of the Almighty and the lawgiver of a new
nation while keeping the flocks of Jethro. Gideon threshed wheat by the wine-press
when the angel brought him his commission, and the enemies of Israel fled before
“the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” Saul going to seek his father’s asses found a
kingdom for himself; and Samuel waited to anoint David while they fetched him from
“those few sheep in the wilderness.” Elisha was ploughing when “Elijah passed by”
and cast the mantle of prophecy upon him, and Amos among the herdmen of Tekoa
saw God’s judgments upon Philistia and Tyre. It was while Zacharias “executed the
priest’s office before God in the order of his course” that the angel Gabriel brought
him “joy and gladness,” and all mankind the earnest of a new and glorious
dispensation—and the first mortals that ever heard “the sons of God shouting for joy”
were a band of shepherds watching their flocks on the Judean hills. (Amelia S. Barr.)
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Joy often follows fear
Learn in the first place from this that a scene that may open in darkness and fright
may end in the greatest prosperity and advantage. These shepherds were alarmed
and startled; but how soon their consternation ended in exultation and jubilee. Those
shepherds may in their time have had many a fierce combat with wolves, and seen
many strange appearances of eclipse, or aurora, or star-shooting. But those
shepherds never saw so exciting a night as that night when the angel came. And so it
often is that a scene of trouble and darkness ends in angelic tones of mercy and of
blessing. That commercial disaster that you thought would ruin you for ever, made
for you a fortune. Jacob’s loss of Joseph opened for him the granaries of Egypt for his
famine-struck family. Saul, by being unhorsed, becomes the trumpet-tongued apostle
to the Gentiles. The ship splitting in the breakers of Melita sends up with every
fragment on which the two hundred and seventy-six passengers escape to the beach
the annunciation that God will deliver His ambassadors. The British tax on tea was
the first chapter in the Declaration of American Independence. Famine in Ireland
roused that nation to the culture of other kinds of product. Out of pestilence and
plague the hand of medical science produced miracles of healing. It was through
bereavement you were led to Christ. The Hebrew children cast into the furnace were
only closeted with the Son of God walking beside them, the flames only lighting up
the splendour of His countenance. And at midnight, while you were watching your
flocks of cares, and sorrows, and disappointments, the angel of God’s deliverance
flashed upon your soul, crying, “Fear not. Behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy which shall be to all people.” If I should go through this audience to-day, I would
find that it was through great dark-hess that you came to light, through defeat that
you came to victory, through falling down that you rose up, and that your greatest
misfortunes, and trials, and disasters have been your grandest illumination. (Dr.
Talmage.)
The shepherd’s an honourable calling
Hunters and warriors make a great figure in the world; but he that feeds the sheep is
more honourably employed than he who pursues the lion. The attendance of man
upon these innocent creatures, which God hath ordained for his use, is an
employment which succeeded to the life of Paradise. The holy patriarchs and
servants of God were taught to prefer the occupation of shepherds. Their riches
consisted in flocks and herds; and it was their pleasure, as well as their labour, to
wait upon them in tents, amidst the various and beautiful scenery of the mountains,
the groves, the fields, and streams of water O happy state of health, innocence, plenty
and pleasure—plenty without luxury, and pleasure without corruption! How far
preferable to that artificial state of life; into which we have been brought by over-
strained refinement in civilization, and commerce too much extended; when
corruption of manners, unnatural, and consequently unhealthy, modes of living,
perplexity of law, consumption of property, and other kindred evils, conspire to
render life so vain and unsatisfactory, that many throw it away in despair, as not
worth having. A false glare of tinselled happiness is found amongst the rich and
great, with such distressing want and misery amongst the poor, as nature knows
nothing of, and which can arise only from the false principles and selfish views and
expedients of a weak and degenerate policy. (Wm. Jones.)
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Several of the most gracious Divine manifestations, and most interesting discoveries,
concerning the Messiah, were made under the Old Testament, to men who followed
this occupation, as, e.g., to Abraham, Moses, David. In like manner, a singular
honour was now preparing for the shepherds of Bethlehem, who, from the reception
they gave the heavenly message, and the part they afterwards acted, appear to have
been believing and holy men, whom Divine grace had taught and prepared to
welcome a coming Saviour. (James Foote, M. A.)
Tending flocks by night
It is only in the cool months that sheep feed through the day. In the greater part of
the year they are led out to pasture only towards sunset, returning home in the
morning, or if they be led out in the morning they lie during the hot hours in the
shade of some tree or rock, or in the rude shelter of bushes prepared for them (Son_
1:7). They are taken into the warmth of caves or under other cover during the coldest
part of winter; the lambs are born between January and the beginning of March, and
need to be kept with the ewes in the field, that the mothers may get nutriment
enough to support the poor weak creatures, which cannot be taken to and from the
pasturage, but must remain on it. That many of them die is inevitable, in spite of the
shepherd’s utmost care, for snow and frost on the uplands, and heavy rain on the
plains, are very fatal to them. Nor is their guardian less to be pitied. He cannot leave
them day or night, and often has no shelter. At times, when on his weary watch, he
may be able to gather branches enough to make a comparatively dry spot on which to
stand in the wild weather, but this is not always the case. I have heard of the skin
peeling completely from a poor man’s feet from continued exposure. By night, as we
have seen, he has often, in outlying places, to sleep on whatever brush he may gather;
his sheepskin coat, or an old rug or coverlet, his only protection Perhaps it fared thus
with the shepherds of Bethlehem, eighteen hundred years ago, when they were
“abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” (C. Geikie, D. D.)
Attend to your own business
The business of these shepherds that night was staying out of doors to watch their
sheep. It was while they were attending to their business that they had a visit from
the angels. If they had been at home, or out at a party, or even in a prayer-meeting,
when they ought to have been in that sheep-field on the Bethlehem hillside, they
would have missed a sight of the angel of the Lord. If they had been playing on harps
at a sacred concert, or ornamenting pottery for a synagogue fair, or even carrying an
offering up to the temple at Jerusalem, when sheep-watching was their duty, they
would not have heard that song of the angels, or seen the glory of the Lord round
about them, or received first of all the good tidings for a lost race. The best place in
all the world to be is at the post of duty. Nowhere else can such blessings, temporal or
spiritual, be fairly looked for. If the Lord has a good gift or a glad message to one of
His children, He sends it to the place where the child ought to be found. If the child is
not there, he fails of getting what he might have had to rejoice over. Day or not—
night and day, be where you belong. If your duty calls you to stay at home, stay there,
and never suppose that you can have a bigger blessing anywhere else. If your duty
calls you to be on a steamer, or a railway car, out in the streets or the fields, at a party
or a prayer-meeting, in a store or a factory, at a concert or a church-service, in the
home of a friend to give counsel or cheer, or in a dwelling of poverty to administer
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relief, be there, at whatever cost or risk is demanded, and understand that it is safest
and best for you to be there only. (Sunday School Times.)
Shepherds fit persons to receive the gospel message
The news of Christ’s birth is a message for an angel to deliver, and it had been news
for the best prince on earth to receive. Yet it fell not out amiss that they to whom it
first came were shepherds; the news fitted them well. It well agreed to tell shepherds
of the yearning of a strange Lamb, such a Lamb as should “take away the sins of the
world;” such a Lamb as they might “send to the Ruler of the world for a present”—
Isaiah’s Lamb. Or, if ye will, to tell shepherds of the birth of a Shepherd. Ezekiel’s
Shepherd: “Behold, I will raise you a Shepherd,” “the Chief Shepherd” (1Pe_5:4);
“the Great Shepherd” (Heb_13:20); “the Good Shepherd that gave His life for His
flock” (Joh_10:11). And so it was not unfit news for thepersons to whom it came. (Bp.
Lancelot Andrewes.)
The annunciation to the shepherds
Who the angel was, we are not told. Quite probably it was the same angel who had
already made annunciation to Zacharias in the temple, to Mary at Nazareth, to
Joseph in his slumber—even the same Gabriel, Strength of God, who, five centuries
before, had made annunciation to the exile by the Ulai. The glory of the Lord which
shone round about these shepherds was doubtless that same miraculous effulgence
in which Deity had been wont in the earlier ages to enshrine Himself, and which the
rabbins called the Shechinah. Diversified as well as extraordinary were the
appearances of that Shechinah in ancient days. It had gleamed as a flaming sword,
turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life; it had flickered as a lambent
flame in the brier-bush of Horeb; it had hung as a stupendous canopy over the
mountain of the law; it had hovered as a glittering cloud above the cherubim
overshadowing the mercy-seat; it had marshalled the hosts of Israel for forty years,
towering like a pillar of cloud by day and like a pillar of fire by night; it had filled the
temple of Solomon, flooding it with a brightness so intense that the priests could not
enter to minister; it was to be the radiant cloud which should enfold out of sight the
ascending Lord; it will be the great white throne on which that ascended Lord will
descend when He returns in the pomp of His second advent. But never had it served
a purpose so august and blissful as on this most memorable of nights when, after
centuries of eclipse, it suddenly reappeared and shone around the astonished
shepherds. Well might the effulgent cloud now return, as though in glad homage to
the Incarnation; for on this night is born He who is to be His own Church’s true pillar
of fire-cloud, to marshal her through sea and wilderness into the true promised land.
Oh, since the day was as the night when Jesus Christ died, let us be grateful that the
night was as the day when Jesus Christ was born. But where shall we find this mighty
Deliverer? How shall we know Him when we see Him? The sign is twofold. The first
sign is this: “Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.” The Christ of God
might have descended an archangel, glittering with celestial emblazonry. And it is a
sign as powerful as simple. Had He descended otherwise, we might not have believed
so easily in the reality of the Incarnation. We might have said that He was an angel.
But when we behold Him a helpless little Babe, we feel that the Incarnation was no
acting—no phantom. We feel that Deity has in very truth come down within our
sphere, linking His fortunes with ours, taking our life, like ourselves, at its germ as
well as at its fruit, sharing with us the cradle as well as the grave, the swaddling
clothes of Mary of Bethlehem as well as the burial linen of Joseph of Arimathea. But
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the angel gives a second sign: “Lying in a manger.” Not, then, in choice apartments of
an inn, not in sumptuous nurseries of the opulent, not in palaces of royalty, was the
King of kings and Lord of lords to be cradled; but in a crib, amid the beasts of the
stall. And this was to be one of the secrets of his kinghood. In fact, all society is built
up from below. “The roof is most, dependent upon the foundation than the
foundation upon the roof. Nearly all, if not quite all, the movements which have
changed the thinking and determined the new courses of the world have been
upward, not downward. The great revolutionists have generally been cradled in
mangers, and gone through rough discipline in early life. Civilization is debtor to
lowly cradles, and unknown mothers hold a heavy account against the world.”—“Ecce
Deus,” by Joseph Parker, D.D. (G. D. Boardman.)
By night
Wherefore at night this Babe of Glory was born that He might turn the night into
day. (Bishop Hacker.)
Philosophy discovered by humble men
The heathen make much ado, and relate it not without admiration, by what mean
and almost despised persons the deep knowledge of philosophy was first found out
and brought to light. As Protagoras earning his living by bearing burdens of wood;
and Cleanthes no better than a Gibeonite, fain to draw water for his liberty.
Chrysippus and Epictetus mere vassals to great men for their maintenance, yet these
had the honour to find out the riches of knowledge for the recompense of their
poverty; but the day shall come that these philosophers will wonder that they found
out no more than they did, and be astonished that silly shepherds were first deputed
to find out one thing more needful than all the world beside, even Jesus Christ.
Tiberius propounded his mind to the Senate of Rome, that Christ, the great Prophet
in Jewry, should be had in the same honour with the other gods which they
worshipped. (Bishop Hacker.)
The Good Shepherd that giveth His life for His sheep, would first be manifested to
those good shepherds that watched over their sheep. (Bishop Hacker.)
Surely these shepherds had heavenly meditations in their minds, and were most
religiously prepared, when His ambassador of heaven did approach unto them. And
you, my beloved, I speak to one with another, if that innocency and harmlessness
were in you that was in them, you would think many a time that a Divine beam did
shine upon your soul, and that you had your conversation with angels. (Bishop
Hacker.)
The first to see Christ at His final advent
There are two sorts of persons noted for finding out Christ more eminently than
others, the shepherds before all others after He was born, and Mary Magdalen the
first of all men and women, as far as we read, after His resurrection. The shepherds
were vouchsafed their blessing, because they watched by night, a hard task if you
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consider the time of the year; and Mary was so prosperous because she rose very
early in the morning to seek her Lord. It is hard to say whether ever she slept one
wink for care and grief, since the Passion of our Saviour; and God knows who shall be
the first that finds Him at His second coming in Glory, when He shall come also like a
thief in the night; but whosoever he be, this I am sure of, he must be none of them
that sleep in gluttony(that are heavy with surfeiting and drunkenness, with
chambering and wantonness, he must watch or be fit to waken to find the Lord.
(Bishop Hacker.)
A watchful shepherd
Suffer not your eyelids to shut, but sift and shake your own heart; examine yourself,
remember what a blessing it is to be a watchful shepherd, that an angel of comfort
may come and sing salvation unto you. (Bishop Hacker.)
A flock to look after
To include you all, every man and woman in the application, suppose you are
nobody’s keeper but your own; why be watchful and prudent over the safety of your
own soul; and when I have spoke that word, your soul, I perceive instantly that you
have a whole flock to look to, and it is all your own, the affections and passions Of
your mind, them I mean; it you bridle their lust and wantonness, if they do you
reasonable service, you have a rich flock, sheep that shall stand upon the right hand
of God: if they usurp and fill you full of uncleanness, they are a flock of goats, that
shall be condemned unto the left. What says Cato of our affections? They are to be
governed like a flock of sheep, you may rule them altogether so long as they follow
and keep good order, but single one out alone, and it will be unruly and offend you;
as who should say all our affections must be sanctified to God, the whole flock; let
one passion have leave to straggle and all will follow it to destruction. Let the
watchfulness of the heart especially be fixed upon this flock, the desires, the passions
over all that issues out of the soul (Bishop Hacker.)
1. The Lord did put on this glorious apparel, even a robe of light to express the
Majesty of His Son, who was born to save the world.
2. This lightsome apparition about the shepherds, a type of the light and
perspicuousness which is genuine and proper to the gospel.
3. The dark night was brightened with a shining cloud at our Saviour’s nativity, to
signify that He should be a light of consolation to them that sate in the dark night
of persecution and misery. The most obscure things shall be made manifest unto
His light, and the thoughts of all hearts shall be revealed unto Him.
4. No sooner was the world blest with the birth of this holy Child, God and Man,
but the angels put on white apparel, the air grows clear and bright, darkness is
dispelled; therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and walk as children of
the light; the earth Should be more innocently walked on to and fro, because
Christ hath trod upon it; our bodies kept clean in chastity, because He hath
assumed our nature and blessed it.
5. A glimpse of some celestial light did sparkle at His birth to set our teeth on
edge to enjoy Him who is Light of lights, very God of very God, and to dwell with
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Him in that city which hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it,
for the Glory of God did enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. I conclude
with St. Paul (Col_1:12). (Bishop Hacker.)
MACLAREN, "SHEPHERDS AND ANGELS
The central portion of this passage is, of course, the angels’ message and song, the
former of which proclaims the transcendent fact of the Incarnation, and the latter
hymns its blessed results. But, subsidiary to these, the silent vision which preceded
them and the visit to Bethlehem which followed are to be noted. Taken together, they
cast varying gleams on the great fact of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Why should there be a miraculous announcement at all, and why should it be to these
shepherds? It seems to have had no effect beyond a narrow circle and for a time. It
was apparently utterly forgotten when, thirty years after, the carpenter’s Son began
His ministry. Could such an event have passed from memory, and left no ripple on
the surface? Does not the resultlessness cast suspicion on the truthfulness of the
narrative? Not if we duly give weight to the few who knew of the wonder; to the
length of time that elapsed, during which the shepherds and their auditors probably
died; to their humble position, and to the short remembrance of extraordinary events
which have no immediate consequences. Joseph and Mary were strangers in
Bethlehem. Christ never visited it, so far as we know. The fading of the impression
cannot be called strange, for it accords with natural tendencies; but the record of so
great an event, which was entirely ineffectual as regards future acceptance of Christ’s
claims, is so unlike legend that it vouches for the truth of the narrative. An apparent
stumbling-block is left, because the story is true.
Why then, the announcement at all, since it was of so little use? Because it was of
some; but still more, because it was fitting that such angel voices should attend such
an event, whether men gave heed to them or not; and because, recorded, their song
has helped a world to understand the nature and meaning of that birth. The glory
died off the hillside quickly, and the music of the song scarcely lingered longer in the
ears of its first hearers; but its notes echo still in all lands, and every generation turns
to them with wonder and hope.
The selection of two or three peasants as receivers of the message, the time at which
it was given, and the place, are all significant. It was no unmeaning fact that the ‘glory
of the Lord’ shone lambent round the shepherds, and held them and the angel
standing beside them in its circle of light. No longer within the secret shrine, but out
in the open field, the symbol of the Divine Presence glowed through the darkness; for
that birth hallowed common life, and brought the glory of God into familiar
intercourse with its secularities and smallnesses. The appearance to these humble
men as they ‘sat simply chatting in a rustic row ‘symbolised the destination of the
Gospel for all ranks and classes.
The angel speaks by the side of the shepherds, not from above. His gentle
encouragement ‘Fear not!’ not only soothes their present terror, but has a wider
meaning. The dread of the Unseen, which lies coiled like a sleeping snake in all
hearts, is utterly taken away by the Incarnation. All messages from that realm are
thenceforward ‘tidings of great joy,’ and love and desire may pass into it, as all men
shall one day pass, and both enterings may be peaceful and confident. Nothing
harmful can come out of the darkness, from which Jesus has come, into which He
has passed, and which He fills.
The great announcement, the mightiest, most wonderful word that had ever passed
angels’ immortal lips, is characterised as ‘great joy’ to ‘all the people,’ in which
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designation two things are to be noted-the nature and the limitation of the message.
In how many ways the Incarnation was to be the fountain of purest gladness was but
little discerned, either by the heavenly messenger or the shepherds. The ages since
have been partially learning it, but not till the ‘glorified joy’ of heaven swells
redeemed hearts will all its sorrow-dispelling power be experimentally known. Base
joys may be basely sought, but His creatures’ gladness is dear to God, and if sought in
God’s way, is a worthy object of their efforts.
The world-wide sweep of the Incarnation does not appear here, but only its first
destination for Israel. This is manifest in the phrase ‘all the people,’ in the mention of
‘the city of David’ and in the emphatic ‘you,’ in contradistinction both from the
messenger, who announced what he did not share, and Gentiles, to whom the
blessing was not to pass till Israel had determined its attitude to it.
The titles of the Infant tell something of the wonder of the birth, but do not unfold its
overwhelming mystery. Magnificent as they are, they fall far short of ‘The Word was
made flesh.’ They keep within the circle of Jewish expectation, and announce that the
hopes of centuries are fulfilled. There is something very grand in the accumulation of
titles, each greater than the preceding, and all culminating in that final ‘Lord.’ Handel
has gloriously given the spirit of it in the crash of triumph with which that last word
is pealed out in his oratorio. ‘Saviour’ means far more than the shepherds knew; for it
declares the Child to be the deliverer from all evil, both of sin and sorrow, and the
endower with all good, both of righteousness and blessedness. The ‘Christ’ claims
that He is the fulfiller of prophecy, perfectly endowed by divine anointing for His
office of prophet, priest, and king-the consummate flower of ancient revelation,
greater than Moses the law-giver, than Solomon the king, than Jonah the prophet.
‘The Lord’ is scarcely to be taken as the ascription of divinity, but rather as a
prophecy of authority and dominion, implying reverence, but not unveiling the
deepest secret of the entrance of the divine Son into humanity. That remained
unrevealed, for the time was not yet ripe.
There would be few children of a day old in a little place like Bethlehem, and none
but one lying in a manger. The fact of the birth, which could be verified by sight,
would confirm the message in its outward aspect, and thereby lead to belief in the
angel’s disclosure of its inward character. The ‘sign’ attested the veracity of the
messenger, and therefore the truth of all his word-both of that part of it capable of
verification by sight and that part apprehensible by faith.
No wonder that the sudden light and music of the multitude of the heavenly host’
flashed and echoed round the group on the hillside. The true picture is not given
when we think of that angel choir as floating in heaven. They stood in their serried
ranks round the shepherds and their fellows on the solid earth, and ‘the night was
filled with music,’ not from overhead, but from every side. Crowding forms became
all at once visible within the encircling ‘glory,’ on every face wondering gladness and
eager sympathy with men, from every lip praise. Angels can speak with the tongues of
men when their theme is their Lord become man, and their auditors are men. They
hymn the blessed results of that birth, the mystery of which they knew more
completely than they were yet allowed to tell.
As was natural for them, their praise is first evoked by the result of the Incarnation in
the highest heavens. It will bring ‘glory to God’ there; for by it new aspects of His
nature are revealed to those clear-eyed and immortal spirits who for unnumbered
ages have known His power, His holiness, His benignity to unfallen creatures, but
now experience the wonder which more properly belongs to more limited
intelligences, when they behold that depth of condescending Love stooping to be
born. Even they think more loftily of God, and more of man’s possibilities and worth,
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when they cluster round the manger, and see who lies there.
‘On earth peace.’ The song drops from the contemplation of the heavenly
consequences to celebrate the results on earth, and gathers them all into one
pregnant word, ‘Peace.’ What a scene of strife, discord, and unrest earth must seem
to those calm spirits! And how vain and petty the struggles must look, like the bustle
of an ant-hill! Christ’s work is to bring peace into all human relations, those with
God, with men, with circumstances, and to calm the discords of souls at war with
themselves. Every one of these relations is marred by sin, and nothing less thorough
than a power which removes it can rectify them. That birth was the coming into
humanity of Him who brings peace with God, with ourselves, with one another.
Shame on Christendom that nineteen centuries have passed, and men yet think the
cessation of war is only a ‘pious imagination’! The ringing music of that angel chant
has died away, but its promise abides.
The symmetry of the song is best preserved, as I humbly venture to think, by the old
reading as in the Authorised Version. The other, represented by the Revised Version,
seems to make the second clause drag somewhat, with two designations of the region
of peace. The Incarnation brings God’s ‘good will’ to dwell among men. In Christ,
God is well pleased; and from Him incarnate, streams of divine complacent love pour
out to freshen and fertilise the earth.
The disappearance of the heavenly choristers does not seem to have been so sudden
as their appearance. They ‘went away from them into heaven,’ as if leisurely, and so
that their ascending brightness was long visible as they rose, and attestation was
thereby given to the reality of the vision. The sleeping village was close by, and as
soon as the last gleam of the departing light had faded in the depths of heaven, the
shepherds went ‘with haste,’ untimely as was the hour. They would not have much
difficulty in finding the inn and the manger. Note that they do not tell their story till
the sight has confirmed the angel message. Their silence was not from doubt; for they
say, before they had seen the child, that ‘this thing’ is ‘come to pass,’ and are quite
sure that the Lord has told it them. But they wait for the evidence which shall assure
others of their truthfulness.
There are three attitudes of mind towards God’s revelation set forth in living
examples in the closing verses of the passage. Note the conduct of the shepherds, as a
type of the natural impulse and imperative duty of all possessors of God’s truth. Such
a story as they had to tell would burn its way to utterance in the most reticent and
shyest. But have Christians a less wonderful message to deliver, or a less needful one?
If the spectators of the cradle could not be silent, how impossible it ought to be for
the witnesses of the Cross to lock their lips!
The hearers of the story did what, alas! too many of us do with the Gospel. ‘They
wondered,’ and stopped there. A feeble ripple of astonishment ruffled the surface of
their souls for a moment; but like the streaks on the sea made by a catspaw of wind, it
soon died out, and the depths were unaffected by it.
The antithesis to this barren wonder is the beautiful picture of the Virgin’s
demeanour. She ‘kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart.’ What deep
thoughts the mother of the Lord had, were hers alone. But we have the same duty to
the truth, and it will never disclose its inmost sweetness to us, nor take so sovereign a
grip of our very selves as to mould our lives, unless we too treasure it in our hearts,
and by patient brooding on it understand its hidden harmonies, and spread our souls
out to receive its transforming power. A non-meditative religion is a shallow religion.
But if we hide His word in our hearts, and often in secret draw out our treasure to
count and weigh it, we shall be able to speak out of a full heart, and like these
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shepherds, to rejoice that we have seen even as it was spoken unto us.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and
the glory of the Lord shone around them, and
they were terrified.
BARNES, "The glory of the Lord - This is the same as a “great” glory - that is, a
splendid appearance or “light.” The word “glory” is often the same as light, 1Co_
15:41; Luk_9:31; Act_22:11. The words “Lord” and “God” are often used to denote
“greatness” or “intensity.” Thus, “trees of God” mean great trees; “hills of God,” high
or lofty hills, etc. So “the glory of the Lord” here means an exceedingly great or bright
luminous appearance perhaps not unlike what Paul saw on the way to Damascus.
CLARKE, "The angel of the Lord came upon them - Or, stood over them,
επεστη. It is likely that the angel appeared in the air at some little distance above
them, and that from him the rays of the glory of the Lord shone round about them, as
the rays of light are projected from the sun.
They were sore afraid - Terrified with the appearance of so glorious a being,
and probably fearing that he was a messenger of justice, coming to denounce Divine
judgments, or punish them immediately, for sins with which their consciences would
not fail, on such an occasion, to reproach them.
GILL, "And lo, the angel of the Lord,.... It may be Gabriel, who had brought the
tidings of the conception of the Messiah to the virgin, and now the birth of him to the
shepherds:
came upon them; on a sudden, unexpectedly, at once, and stood by them, as some
versions read; or rather, stood over them, over their heads, just above them; so that
he was easily and perfectly seen by them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; or a very glorious and
extraordinary light shone with surprising lustre and brightness all around them; by
which light, they could discern the illustrious form of the angel that was over them:
and they were sore afraid; at the sight of such a personage, and at such unusual
light and glory about them: they were not used to such appearances, and were awed
with the majesty of God, of which these were symbols, and were conscious to
themselves of their own sinfulness and frailty.
HENRY, "II. How they were surprised with the appearance of the angel (Luk_
2:9): Behold, an angel of the Lord came upon them, of a sudden, epestē - stood over
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them; most probably, in the air over their heads, as coming immediately from
heaven. We read it, the angel, as if it were the same that appeared once and again in
the chapter before, the angel Gabriel, that was caused to fly swiftly; but that is not
certain. The angel's coming upon them intimates that they little thought of such a
thing, or expected it; for it is in a preventing way that gracious visits are made us
from heaven, or ever we are aware. That they might be sure it was an angel from
heaven, they saw and heard the glory of the Lord round about them; such as made
the night as bright as day, such a glory as used to attend God's appearance, a
heavenly glory, or an exceedingly great glory, such as they could not bear the
dazzling lustre of. This made them sore afraid, put them into great consternation, as
fearing some evil tidings. While we are conscious to ourselves of so much guilt, we
have reason to fear lest every express from heaven should be a messenger of wrath.
JAMISON, "glory of the Lord — “the brightness or glory which is represented
as encompassing all heavenly visions” [Olshausen].
sore afraid — So it ever was (Dan_10:7, Dan_10:8; Luk_1:12; Rev_1:17). Men
have never felt easy with the invisible world laid suddenly open to their gaze. It was
never meant to be permanent; a momentary purpose was all it was intended to serve.
CALVIN, "9.And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them He says, that the
glory of the Lord (145) shone around the shepherds, by which they perceived
him to be an angel. (146) For it would have been of little avail to be told by an
angel what is related by Luke, if God had not testified, by some outward sign,
that what they heard proceeded from Him. The angel appeared, not in an
ordinary form, or without majesty, but surrounded with the brightness of
heavenly glory, to affect powerfully the minds of the shepherds, that they might
receive the discourse which was addressed to them, as coming from the mouth of
God himself. Hence the fear, of which Luke shortly afterwards speaks, by which
God usually humbles the hearts of men, (as I have formerly explained,) and
disposes them to receive his word with reverence.
COFFMAN, "The angels appearing to Zacharias and to Mary, already recorded
by Luke, do not seem to have been accompanied by the "glory" mentioned here.
In this instance, it was necessary for the shepherds to be able to see. A similar
glory was seen by Paul in the appearance to him of Jesus on the Damascus road.
The fear of the shepherds was like that which always accompanied such a
visitation.
BENSON, "Luke 2:9-12. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them —
επεστη αυτοις, stood over them, that is, appeared in a visible form, standing in
the air over their heads; and the glory of the Lord shone round about them —
Not only a great light, but such a glorious splendour as used to represent the
presence of God, and was often attended with a host of angels, as here, Luke
2:13. And they were sore afraid — At so uncommon and so awful an appearance.
And the angel said — In the mildest and most condescending manner; Fear
not — Thus the angel Gabriel had encouraged Zacharias and Mary, Luke 1:12;
Luke 1:30. As if he had said, The design of my appearing to you hath nothing
terrible in it, but the contrary: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy — The original expression here is peculiar, ευαγγελιζομαι υμιν χαραν
μεγαλην, I evangelize unto you great joy. So the Vulgate. Or, I announce unto
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you good tidings, which shall be matter of great joy, and that not only to you,
and the Jewish nation in general, but to all people, to the whole human race: for
unto you, and all mankind, is born this day, this welcome, blessed day, a
Saviour — That Isaiah , 1 st, A Deliverer from ignorance and folly, from guilt,
condemnation, and wrath, from depravity and weakness, in which the whole
human race are involved through the fall of their first parents and their own
actual transgressions; in other words, from sin, and all its consequences: 2d, A
Restorer (so σωτηρ also means) to the favour and image of God, and communion
with him, lost by the same fall: and, 3d, A Preserver, (as the same word also
implies,) namely, unto eternal life; one as willing as able to keep such as
perseveringly believe in him, through faith, unto final salvation; to keep them
from falling, and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. Who is Christ — The Messiah, the divinely — appointed Prophet,
Priest, and King of his people; their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption; and who is sufficiently qualified to sustain these unspeakably
important offices and characters, because he is the Lord, God as well as man,
God manifest in the flesh, the Lord that in the beginning laid the foundations of
the earth, &c., Hebrews 1:10; and without whom was not any thing made that
was made, John 1:3; Colossians 1:16. The message refers to Isaiah 9:6, Unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given. And this shall be a sign unto you — The
angel gives them a sign for the confirmation of their faith in this important
matter. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, &c. — Doubtless
they would expect to be told that they should find him, though a babe, dressed
up in fine robes, and lying in state, in the best house of the town, with a
numerous train of attendants: no, you will find him lying in a manger. And
surely they might know him by this token, for what other babe could be found in
so mean a condition? For the shepherds to have found the Messiah lying in a
manger, might have scandalized them. It was therefore very proper that the
angel should forewarn them of this circumstance, and make it the signal whereby
they should distinguish him. When Christ was here on earth, he distinguished
himself, and made himself remarkable, by nothing so much as the instances of
his humiliation.
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.
I bring you good news that will cause great joy
for all the people.
CLARKE, "Behold, I bring you good tidings - I am not come to declare the
judgments of the Lord, but his merciful loving-kindness, the subject being a matter of
great joy. He then declares his message. Unto you - to the Jews first, and then to the
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human race. Some modern MSS. with the utmost impropriety read ᅧµιν, us, as if
angels were included in this glorious work of redemption; but St. Paul says, he took
not upon him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, i.e. the nature of
Abraham and his posterity, the human nature; therefore the good news is to you, -
and not to yourselves exclusively, for it is to all people, to all the inhabitants of this
land, and to the inhabitants of the whole earth.
GILL, "And the angel said unto them; fear not,.... For he was not a messenger
of bad, but of good tidings:
for behold, I bring you good tidings; tidings, that were both wonderful and
amazing, and therefore a "behold" is prefixed to them, as well as to excite to
attention; and which were good news, and glad tidings, for such the birth of Christ of
a virgin is: in which the good will and amazing love of Cod to man are displayed, and
the promises, and prophecies relating to him fulfilled; and the work of man's
salvation, his peace, pardon, righteousness, &c. about to be accomplished, and so
matter of great joy: not carnal, but spiritual; not feigned, but real; not temporary, but
lasting; even such as cannot be taken away, nor intermeddled with; and not small,
but great, even joy unspeakable, and full of glory:
which shall be to all people; not to every individual of mankind; not to Herod
and his courtiers, who were troubled at it; nor to the greater part of the Jewish
nation, who when he came to them, received him not, but rejected him as the
Messiah; particularly not to the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, who when they
saw him, said, this is the heir, let's kill him, and seize on the inheritance; but to all
that were waiting for him, and were looking for redemption in Israel; to all sensible
sinners who rejoice at his birth, and in his salvation; see Isa_9:3 to all the chosen
people of God, whether Jews or Gentiles, whom God has taken to be his covenant
people, and has given to his Son, as such, to redeem and save; to these the
incarnation of Christ, with all the benefits resulting from it, is the cause of great joy,
when they are made a willing people in the day of Christ's power.
HENRY, "III. What the message was which the angel had to deliver to the
shepherds, Luk_2:10-12. 1. He gives a supersedeas to their fears: “Fear not, for we
have nothing to say to you that needs be a terror to you; you need not fear your
enemies, and should not fear your friends.” 2. He furnishes them with abundant
matter for joy: “Behold, I evangelize to you great joy; I solemnly declare it, and you
have reason to bid it welcome, for it shall bring joy to all people, and not to the
people of the Jews only; that unto you is born this day, at this time, a Saviour, the
Saviour that has been so long expected, which is Christ the Lord, in the city of
David,” Luk_2:11. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed; he is the Lord,
Lord of all; he is a sovereign prince; nay, he is God, for the Lord, in the Old
Testament, answers to Jehovah. He is a Saviour, and he will be a Saviour to those
only that accept him for their Lord. “The Saviour is born, he is born this day; and,
since it is matter of great joy to all people, it is not to be kept secret, you may
proclaim it, may tell it to whom you please. He is born in the place where it was
foretold he should be born, in the city of David; and he is born to you; to you Jews
he is sent in the first place, to bless you, to you shepherds, though poor and mean in
the world.” This refers to Isa_9:6, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. To
you men, not to us angels; he took not on him the nature of angels. This is matter of
joy indeed to all people, great joy. Long-looked for is come at last. Let heaven and
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earth rejoice before this Lord, for he cometh. 3. He gives them a sign for the
confirming of their faith in this matter. “How shall we find out this child in
Bethlehem, which is now full of the descendants from David?” “You will find him by
this token: he is lying in a manger, where surely never any new-born infant was laid
before.” They expected to be told, “You shall find him, though a babe, dressed up in
robes, and lying in the best house in the town, lying in state, with a numerous train of
attendants in rich liveries.” “No, you will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes, and
laid in a manger.” When Christ was here upon earth, he distinguished himself, and
made himself remarkable, by nothing so much as the instances of his humiliation.
JAMISON, "to all people — “to the whole people,” that is, of Israel; to be by
them afterwards opened up to the whole world. (See on Luk_2:14).
CALVIN, "10.Fear not The design of this exhortation is to alleviate their fear.
For, though it is profitable for the minds of men to be struck with awe, that they
may learn to “give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name,” (Psalms 29:2;)
yet they have need, at the same time, of consolation, that they may not be
altogether overwhelmed. For the majesty of God could not but swallow up the
whole world, if there were not some mildness to mitigate the terror which it
brings. And so the reprobate fall down lifeless at the sight of God, because he
appears to them in no other character than that of a judge. But to revive the
minds of the shepherds, the angel declares that he was sent to them for a
different purpose, to announce to them the mercy of God. When men hear this
single word, that God is reconciled to them, it not only raises up those who are
fallen down, but restores those who were ruined, and recalls them from death to
life.
The angel opens his discourse by saying, that he announces great joy; and next
assigns the ground or matter of joy, that a Savior is born These words show us,
first, that, until men have peace with God, and are reconciled to him through the
grace of Christ, all the joy that they experience is deceitful, and of short
duration. (147) Ungodly men frequently indulge in frantic and intoxicating
mirth; but if there be none to make peace between them and God, the hidden
stings of conscience must produce fearful torment. Besides, to whatever extent
they may flatter themselves in luxurious indulgence, their own lusts are so many
tormentors. The commencement of solid joy is, to perceive the fatherly love of
God toward us, which alone gives tranquillity to our minds. And this “joy,” in
which, Paul tells us, “the kingdom of God” consists, is “in the Holy Spirit,”
(Romans 14:17.) By calling it great joy, he shows us, not only that we ought,
above all things, to rejoice in the salvation brought us by Christ, but that this
blessing is so great and boundless, as fully to compensate for all the pains,
distresses, and anxieties of the present life. Let us learn to be so delighted with
Christ alone, that the perception of his grace may overcome, and at length
remove from us, all the distresses of the flesh. (148)
Which shall be to all the people Though the angel addresses the shepherds alone,
yet he plainly states, that the message of salvation which he brings is of wider
extent, so that not only they, in their private capacity, may hear it, but that
others may also hear. Now let it be understood, that this joy was common to all
people, because, it was indiscriminately offered to all. For God had promised
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Christ, not to one person or to another, but to the whole seed of Abraham. If the
Jews were deprived, for the most part, of the joy that was offered to them, it
arose from their unbelief; just as, at the present day, God invites all
indiscriminately to salvation through the Gospel, but the ingratitude of the world
is the reason why this grace, which is equally offered to all, is enjoyed by few.
Although this joy is confined to a few persons, yet, with respect to God, it is said
to be common. When the angel says that this joy shall be to all the people, he
speaks of the chosen people only; but now that, the middle wall of partition”
(Ephesians 2:14) has been thrown down, the same message has reference to the
whole human race. (149) For Christ proclaims peace, not only, to them that are
nigh, “but to them that are, far off,” (Ephesians 2:17,) to “strangers” (Ephesians
2:12) equally with citizens. But as the peculiar covenant with the Jews lasted till
the resurrection of Christ, so the angel separates them from the rest of the
nations.
COFFMAN, "Be not afraid ... Fear has ever been the bane of human existence
on earth, ever since the fall from Eden. Man is born with only two fears, that of
falling and that of a loud noise; but, to these, his experience quickly adds many
more, and his fertile imagination countless others. The calming of mortal fears
has frequently engaged God's concern, as in this instance through his angels.
To all people ... The good news announced by the angels was not merely for
Israel, but for Gentiles and all men. It is not correct to view the universalism of
Luke's Gospel as being due to any conscious choice on his part, selecting only the
material that would convey this; because in this very episode we have Luke the
Gentile recording the first announcement of Jesus' birth, not to Gentiles, but to
Jewish shepherds. On the other hand, Matthew the Jew, and scholarly expert in
the Old Testament Scriptures, introduced the Gentile wisemen as first learning
of the Saviour's birth through the message conveyed by the star (Matthew 2:1,3).
Wonderful are the ways of the Lord.
COKE, "Luke 2:10. Which shall be to all people— This plainly refers to the
promise made to the patriarch, that in his seed all nations should be blessed. And
as the Jews interpreted this prophesy of the Messiah, the angel's address could
not but be an intimation that this prophesy was now fulfilled; and certainly this
declaration of the angel's must for ever remain an invincible barrier against
their opinion, who believe a partial redemption. The joy which the birth of
Christ should occasion among them, according to the angel, is universal joy,—to
all people; but how could it be so to those, who from all eternity were
reprobated, and consequently rendered incapable of any of the blessings and
benefits of the gospel?
GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, "Good Tidings of Great Joy
And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings
of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in
the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.—Luk_2:10-11.
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1. To the evangelist and to Christian faith the coming of Jesus into the world is
the great event in its history. We divide time into the Christian era and the era
before Christ. Yet we cannot be sure of the very year when Christ was born, any
more than of the very year when He died; and though St. Luke was anxious to
date the birth precisely, as we see from Luk_2:1-2, there are unsolved difficulties
connected with the census which we have simply to acknowledge. That the Day-
spring from on high visited the world to give light to them that sit in darkness is
undoubted, though we may not be able to tell the hour of its rising.
The narrative of St. Luke is the most wonderful and beautiful in Holy Scripture,
and has always touched the hearts of men. Not that Christmas, as we call it, was
from the beginning the great festival of believers. On the contrary, the great
festival of the early Church was Easter, the day of the resurrection. It was not till
the thirteenth century that the infant Christ and the manger came to have the
place they now hold in the thoughts and affections of Christians, and this was
greatly due to the influence of Francis of Assisi, who visited Bethlehem and wept
with holy joy over the lowly birth of the Saviour. He diffused his own devotion
when he returned to Italy, and great artists found in the stable and the manger,
the ox and the ass (borrowed from Isa_1:3), the mother and the Child, the
shepherds and the angels, the highest inspirations of their genius.
2. It is long since the shepherds near Bethlehem beheld in the clear eastern sky
the glory of the Lord, and heard the voice of the heavenly messenger
proclaiming, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all
the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord.” Centuries have rolled by, but the lustre of that night has not
passed away. The tones of that message have been caught and repeated by an
increasing number of God-sent messengers. They swell in volume and majesty
and power until now from all parts of the world the grand chorus resounds,
filling the air with its message of joy and hope and faith and love, “Joy to the
world, the Lord has come!”
I
The Circumstances
1. The Shepherds
There were many great men and many wealthy men in Palestine. There were
scholars of the most profound and various learning. There were lean ascetics
who had left the joys of home, and gone away to pray and fast in deserts. But it
was not to any of these that the angels came, and it was not in their ears that the
music sounded; the greatest news that the world ever heard was given to a group
of humble shepherds. Few sounds from the mighty world ever disturbed them.
They were not vexed by any ambition to be famous. They passed their days amid
the silence of nature; and to the Jew nature was the veil of God. They were men
of a devout and reverent spirit, touched with a sense of the mystery of things, as
shepherds are so often to this day. Is it not to such simple and reverent spirits
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that God still reveals Himself in amplest measure? How fitting it was, too, that
shepherds should be chosen, when we remember how the Twenty-third Psalm
begins, and when we reflect that the Babe born in Bethlehem was to be the Good
Shepherd giving His life for the sheep.
The Lord manifested to the sage, the sovereign, is now manifest to the shepherd.
This last was peculiarly significant of the genius of Christianity. The people need
Christ. They have their share of sin, suffering, sorrow. They deeply need the
grace, consolations, and strengthening of the Gospel. The people are capable of
Christ. Without the intellectual distinction of the Magi, or the social eminence of
Herod, they have the essential greatness of soul which renders them capable of
Christ and of His greatest gifts. The people rejoice in Christ. “The shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and
seen.” From that day to this a new glory has shone on all common scenes, a new
joy has filled the common heart that has been opened to the Prince of Peace, the
Saviour of the World.1 [Note: W. L. Watkinson, The Gates of Dawn, 357.]
2. The Place
It is generally supposed that these anonymous shepherds were residents of
Bethlehem; and tradition has fixed the exact spot where they were favoured with
this Advent Apocalypse—about a thousand paces from the modern village. It is a
historic fact that there was a tower near that site, called Eder, or “the Tower of
the Flock,” around which were pastured the flocks destined for the Temple
sacrifice; but the topography of Luk_2:8 is purposely vague. The expression, “in
that same country,” would describe any circle within the radius of a few miles
from Bethlehem as its centre, and the very vagueness of the expression seems to
push back the scene of the Advent music to a farther distance than a thousand
paces. And this view is confirmed by the language of the shepherds themselves,
who, when the vision has faded, say one to another, “Let us now go even unto
Bethlehem, and see this thing that is come to pass”; for they scarcely would have
needed, or used, the adverbial “even” were they keeping their flocks so close up
to the walls of the city. We may therefore infer, with some amount of probability,
that, whether the shepherds were residents of Bethlehem or not, when they kept
watch over their flocks, it was not on the traditional site, but farther away over
the hills.
It is difficult, and very often impossible, for us to fix the precise locality of these
sacred scenes, these bright points of intersection, where Heaven’s glories flash
out against the dull carbon-points of earth; and the voices of tradition are at best
but doubtful guesses. It would almost seem as if God Himself had wiped out
these memories, hiding them away, as He hid the sepulchre of Moses, lest the
world should pay them too great a homage, and lest we might think that one
place lay nearer to Heaven than another, when all places are equally distant, or
rather equally near. It is enough to know that somewhere on these lonely hills
came the vision of the angels, perhaps on the very spot where David was minding
his sheep when Heaven summoned him to a higher task, passing him up among
the kings.1 [Note: Henry Burton.]
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3. The Time
The time is significant. Night is the parent of holy thought,—the nurse of devout
aspiration. Its darkness is often the chosen time for heavenly illumination. When
earth is dark, heaven glows. The world was shrouded in night when Christ came,
and into the thickest of its “gross darkness” His light burst. Yet the
unobtrusiveness of His appearance, and the blending of secrecy with the
manifestation of His power, are well typified by that glory which shone in the
night, and was seen only by two or three poor men. The Highest came to His own
in quietness, and almost stole into the world, and the whole life was of a piece
with the birth and its announcement. There was the “hiding of His power.”
Christmas hath a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a dullness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Verses, 54.]
4. How simply the appearance of the single angel and the glory of the Lord is
told! The evangelist thinks it the most natural thing in the world that heaven
should send out its inhabitant on such an errand, and that the symbol of the
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Divine presence should fill the night with sudden splendour, which paled the
bright Syrian stars. So it was, if that birth were what he tells us it was—the
coming into human life of the manifest Deity. If we think of what he is telling, his
quiet tone is profoundly impressive. The Incarnation is the great central miracle,
the object of devout wonder to “principalities … in heavenly places.” And not
only do angels come to herald and to adore, but “the glory of the Lord,” that
visible brightness which was the token of God’s presence between the cherubim
and had been hid in the secret of the sanctuary while it shone, but which had for
centuries been absent from the Temple, now blazes with undestructive light on
the open hillside, and encircles them and the friendly angel by their side. What
did that mean but that the birth of Jesus was the highest revelation of God,
henceforth not to be shut within the sanctuary, but to be the companion of
common lives, and to make all sacred by its presence? The glory of God shines
where Christ is, and where it shines is the temple.
And now the day draws nigh when Christ was born;
The day that showed how like to God Himself
Man had been made, since God could be revealed
By one that was a man with men, and still
Was one with God the Father; that men might
By drawing nigh to Him draw nigh to God,
Who had come near to them in tenderness.1 [Note: G. MacDonald, “Within and
Without” (Poetical Works, i. 52).]
II
The Preface to the Message
1. Reassurance
“Be not afraid.” This was the first bidding sent from heaven to men when Jesus
Christ was born. It was no new message of reassurance; again and again in a like
need a like encouragement had been vouchsafed: to Abraham, to Isaac, to
Gideon, to Daniel, to Zacharias, the same tranquillizing, helpful words had come
from the considerateness and gentleness that are on high. But to the shepherds of
Bethlehem they came with a new power and significance. For now they had their
final warrant upon earth; those attributes of God, those truths of the Divine
Nature upon which the bidding rested, had their perfect expression now in a
plain fact of human history. The birth of Jesus Christ was the answer, the
solvent for such fears as rushed upon the shepherds when “the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.” They
feared, as the mystery and stillness of the night were broken by that strange
invasion, what might follow it. “And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for
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behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” Within that glory was the love of
God; and all that it might disclose must come from Him who so loved the world
that He had sent His Son to be born, to suffer, and to die for men. There must,
indeed, be awe in coming near to God, in realizing how near He comes to us: but
it is like the awe with which even earthly goodness, greatness, wisdom at their
highest touch us; it is not like our terror of that which is arbitrary and
unaccountable. God dwells in depths of burning light, such as the eyes of sinful
men can never bear: but the light itself, with all it holds, streams forth from love,
and is instinct, informed, aglow with love.
These words which the angel spoke were but anticipations of the words with
which Jesus Himself has made us familiar. They were His favourite words. He
might have borrowed them from the angel, or more likely given them to the
angel in advance. We hear from His own lips continually—“Fear not.” He meets
us at every turn of life with that cheery invocation. He passed through His
ministry day by day repeating it. It was the watchword of His journey and
warfare. The disciples heard it every time they were troubled, cast down, and
afraid. When they fell at His feet trembling, He lifted them up with the words
“Fear not!” When their ship was sinking in the storm, they heard the cry “Fear
not!” When they shivered at the thought of all the foes and dangers which
awaited them, there came reassurance with the voice, “Fear not, little flock.”
When He was leaving them, one of His last words was: “Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Christ has been speaking that word ever since. He came to speak it. He came to
deliver man from those fears. He smiles upon our fears to-day. He almost laughs
them away in the sunshine of His power and confidence. The Incarnation is
God’s answer to human gloom, despondency, and pessimism. What are you
afraid of? it says. Am I not with you always to the end? And all power is given
unto Me in heaven and on earth. You are afraid of your sins? Fear not! I am able
to save to the uttermost. You are afraid of the world, the flesh, and the devil?
Fear not! I have overcome the world, and cast out the prince of the world. You
are afraid of your own weakness? Fear not! All things are possible to him that
believeth. You are afraid of life’s changes and uncertainties? Fear not! The
Father hath given all things into My hands. You are afraid of death and
bereavement? Fear not! I have conquered and abolished death. You are afraid of
all the ominous signs of the times, the perils of religion and the shakings of the
Church? Fear not! I am the first, the last, the Almighty, and the rock against
which the gates of hell shall not prevail.1 [Note: J. G. Greenhough, Christian
Festivals and Anniversaries, 207.]
Thought could not go on much longer with its over-emphasis of the Atonement
and its under-emphasis of the Incarnation without losing its relation to human
society. The Atonement, as something done for and upon man, leaving him not
an actor but a receiver, threw him out of gear with the modern idea of
personality. This idea was rather to be found in the Incarnation, the inmost
meaning of which is Divine Fatherhood and obedient Sonship. It means Christ,
not dying for man to fill out some demand of government, but living in man in
order to develop his Divineness, or, as Bushnell phrased it, that he might become
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“Christed.” It was getting to be seen that whatever Christianity is to do for man
must be done through the Incarnation; that is, through the oneness of God and
humanity, the perfect realization of which is to be found in the Christ.2 [Note: T.
T. Munger, Horace Bushnell, 399.]
2. Universal joy
The angel’s message matches with the Jewish minds he addresses. The great joy
he proclaims is to be, not for all people, but for all the people—that is, Israel; the
Saviour who has been born in David’s city is the Messianic King for whom Israel
was waiting. This was not all the truth, but it was as much as the shepherds
could take in.
The Jews said, There is a Gospel—to the Jews. And when the Gospel went out
beyond the Jews the Roman Catholic Church said, There is a Gospel—to the
baptized. And they collected them together by the thousand in India, and
sprinkled water on them, so as to give them a chance to be saved. Calvin, who
has been condemned for his doctrine of election, by it broadened out the Church
idea of salvation. When men said, Only Jews can be saved, when men said, Only
the baptized can be saved, Calvin said, Anyone can be saved. It is for those who
have been baptized, and for those who have not been baptized; it is for those who
are Jews, and for those who are Gentiles; it is for those who are old enough to
accept the Gospel, and it is for the little children not old enough to accept the
Gospel. God can save anyone He will. That is the doctrine of election. And now
we are growing to a broader view than this. It is not for the Jew only, but for the
Gentile; not for the baptized only, but also for the unbaptized; not for the elect
only, but for the non-elect, if there could be any non-elect; not only for those who
have heard it, but for those who have not heard it. This is the message of glad
tidings and joy which shall be for all people. It is salvation for “all people.”1
[Note: L. Abbott, in Christian Age, xli. (1892) 84.]
How could I tell my joy to my brother if it were not a universal joy? I can tell my
grief to the glad, but not my gladness to the grieving. I dare not spread my
banquet at the open window, where the hungry are passing by. Therefore, oh!
my Father, I rejoice that Thou hast sent into my heart a ray of glory which is not
alone for me. I rejoice that Thou hast given me a treasure which I need not hide
from my brother. I rejoice that the light which sparkles in my pool is not from
the candle, but from the moon. The candle is for me, but the moon is for all. Put
out my candle, oh! my Father. Extinguish the joy that is proud of being
unshared. Lower the lamp which shines only on my own mirror. Let down the
lights that make a wall between myself and the weary. And over the darkness let
there rise the star—Bethlehem’s star, humanity’s star, the star that shines for
one because it shines for all.2 [Note: G. Matheson, Searchings in the Silence, 52.]
III
The Message
1. “There is born … a Saviour.” A Saviour! What a thrill of joy must have shot
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through the hearts of these astonished men as they listened to the word of
wondrous import. A Saviour! Then indeed man is to be saved! Through the long,
dark, weary ages man had been groaning in miserable captivity to the tyrant
powers of sin, and nothing was more evident than this, that he had lost all power
of saving himself. Now, at last, another is going to undertake his helpless cause.
He who of old heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt under the taskmaster’s
whip, and saw the anguish of their heart while they toiled under the cruel
bondage of Pharaoh—He who sent them a saviour in the person of Moses, and
who subsequently again and again delivered them from their enemies by raising
up a Saviour for them, He had at length undertaken the cause of ruined
humanity, and was about to deliver a sin-bound world. A Saviour, and the
champion of our race, was actually born and in their midst, ready soon to enter
on His mysterious conflict, and to work out a complete deliverance, a full
salvation. This was indeed glad tidings of great joy. This was the dawning of a
new epoch. The Day-spring from on high was surely visiting a darkened, sin-
shadowed world.
The birth of any man child is an interesting event—another added to the many
million lives, to the multitude which none can number, who are to stand before
the judgment-seat of God; another life from the birth-source, which shall flow on
through the channel of mortal life, the gulf of death, and the underground
channel of the grave, to the boundless ocean of eternity:—for, once born, one
must hold on to think, and live, and feel for ever. Such is the birth of every one
who has his time to be born behind him, and his time to die before him still. But
how intensely interesting the birth of that child whose name is called
“Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of
Peace,” but for whose birth we all must have died eternally, and but for whose
birth, it would have been better none of us had been born.1 [Note: Life of
Robertson of Irvine (by A. Guthrie), 256.]
Christ goes out into the world. He heals the sick, He feeds the hungry, He
comforts the afflicted. But in all the healing and helping this one message He
repeats, in different forms, over and over again: “Thy sins be forgiven thee.”
They let down a paralytic through the roof of a house before Him, and this is His
message: “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” A woman kneels before Him and washes
His feet with her tears and wipes them with the hairs of her head, and this is His
message: “Go in peace, and sin no more.” They nail Him to the cross, and His
prayer breathes the same message: “Father, forgive them.” There hangs by the
side of Him a brigand who has gone through sins of murder and robbery. He
looks upon him with compassion, and says: “This day thou shalt be with me in
paradise.” He is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
This is more than healing the sick, more than feeding the hungry, more than
clothing the naked, more than educating the ignorant; this is taking off the great
burden under which humanity has been crushed.1 [Note: Lyman Abbott.]
2. “There is born … Christ.” He was born the Messiah, the Anointed One of
Israel. To Israel He came fulfilling all the ancient covenant promises, and
bringing with Him the “tender mercies of our God.” He is that Seed of the
woman announced and promised to Adam and Eve in the garden, whose mission
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it was to bruise the serpent’s head. He was and is that Seed of Abraham “in
whom all the nations of the earth are blessed”, of whom Balaam prophesied and
said, “I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall
come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel.” He was and is
the One whose day Abraham saw afar off and was glad. He was and is that
Wonderful Counsellor of whom Isaiah prophesied, the root out of a dry ground,
whose “visage was so marred more than any man”; who was wounded for our
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, on whom the Lord caused all our
iniquities to meet; the “prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren” whom
Moses foresaw and whom he bade all Israel hear; the Stem of Jesse; the Branch
of Zechariah; the Messenger of the Covenant and the Sun of Righteousness,
arising with healing in His wings, whom Malachi foretold as being nigh. He is the
sum and substance of all the ceremonial sacrifices and feasts of the Jews; in a
word, He is that One of whom Moses in the Law and all the prophets did speak
and all the Psalmists sang.
He might have come in regal pomp,
With pealing of Archangel trump—
An angel blast as loud and dread
As that which shall awake the dead …
He came not thus; no earthquake shock
Shiver’d the everlasting rock;
No trumpet blast nor thunder peal
Made earth through all her regions reel;
And but for the mysterious voicing
Of that unearthly choir rejoicing;
And but for that strange herald gem,
The star which burned o’er Bethlehem,
The shepherds, on His natal morn,
Had known not that the God was born.
There were no terrors, for the song
Of peace rose from the seraph throng;
On wings of love He came—to save,
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To pluck pale terror from the grave,
And on the blood-stain’d Calvary
He won for man the victory.1 [Note: N. T. Carrington.]
3. “There is born … the Lord.”
(1) In the Child born at Bethlehem we find God.—How steadily do the angel’s
words climb upwards, as it were, from the cradle to the throne. He begins with
the lowly birth, and then rises, step by step, each word opening a wider and more
wonderful prospect, to “that climax beyond which there is nothing—that this
infant is “the Lord.” The full joy and tremendous wonder of the first word are
not felt till we read the last. The birth is the birth of “the Lord.” We cannot give
any but the highest meaning to that sacred name, which could have but one
meaning to a Jew. It was much that there was born a Saviour—much that there
was born a Messiah. Men need a deliverer, and the proclamation here is best
kept in its widest meaning—as of one who sets free from all ills outward and
inward, and brings all outward and inward good. The Saviour of men must be a
man, and therefore it is good news that He is born. It was much that Messiah
should be born. The fulfilment of the wistful hopes of many generations, the
accomplishment of prophecy, the Divine communication of the Spirit which
fitted kings and priests of old for their work, the succession to David’s throne,
were all declared in that one announcement that the Christ was born in David’s
city. But that last word, “the Lord,” crowns the wonder and the blessing, while it
lays the only possible foundation for the other two names.
If, on the one hand, man’s Saviour must be man, on the other, He must be more
than man; and nothing short of a Divine man can heal the wounds of mankind,
or open a fountain of blessing sufficient for their needs. Unless God become man,
there can be no Saviour; nor can there be any Christ. For no mere humanity can
bear the full gift of the Divine Spirit, which is Messiah’s anointing for His office,
nor discharge that office in all its depth and breadth. Many in this day try to
repeat the angel’s message, and leave out the last word, and then they wonder
that it stirs little gladness and works no salvation. Let us be sure that, unless the
birth at Bethlehem was the Incarnation of Deity, it would have called forth no
angel songs, nor will it work any deliverance or bring any joy to men.
A God in the sky will never satisfy men and women upon earth. God on the
mountain will never suffice man on the plain. True, it is much, very much, to
know that God is in heaven, “The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,”
above earth’s petty discords and changing views and selfish passions. But this
falls short, pitiably short, of man’s demands. It is, at best, an icy creed, and not,
by itself, the warm, loving creed of the Christian. For it leaves a gulf between
God and man, with no bridge to pass over. It is the difference between Olympus
and Olivet. What—so the heart will ask—is the good of a God “above the bright
blue sky,” when I am down here upon earth? What intimatcy can there be
between “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity” and an earth-born
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being such as I am? How could the missionaries persuade men that such a God
loved them, cared for them, felt with them? How, indeed, could God Himself so
persuade men, save by coming and living among them, sharing their lives,
experiencing their temptations, drinking the “vinegar and gall” which they
drank, suffering in the flesh as they suffered? There was no other way. Hence the
Incarnation. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
It is related of a celebrated musician that, when asked to compose a National
Anthem for the people of another country, he went and lived with them, studied
them from within, shared their poverty, became one with them that he might
become one of them, and was thus, and only thus, enabled to express their
feelings in his music. This is what God did at the Incarnation.1 [Note: E. E.
Holmes, The Days of the Week, 42.]
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the finite met the Infinite—
the temporal, the Eternal. Heaven and earth coalesced, not in semblance, but in
reality; not by proxy, but in the wonderful Person that combined the highest
characteristics of both. In Him all fulness—the fulness of the Creator and the
fulness of the creature—dwelt bodily. All things were gathered together in one in
Him—both those which are in the heavens and those which are in the earth—
even in Him. His Incarnation was the crowning miracle of grace, as the creation
of man was the crowning miracle of nature.1 [Note: H. Macmillan, The Garden
and the City, 32.]
“If Moslems,” Lull argued, “according to their law affirm that God loved man
because He created him, endowed him with noble faculties, and pours His
benefits upon him, then the Christians according to their law affirm the same.
But inasmuch as the Christians believe more than this, and affirm that God so
loved man that He was willing to become man, to endure poverty, ignominy,
torture, and death for his sake, which the Jews and Saracens do not teach
concerning Him, therefore is the religion of the Christians, which thus reveals a
Love beyond all other love, superior to that of those which reveals it only in an
inferior degree.” Islam is a loveless religion. Raymund Lull believed and proved
that Love could conquer it. The Koran denies the Incarnation, and so remains
ignorant of the true character not only of the Godhead but of God.2 [Note: S. M.
Zwemer, Raymund Lull, 140.]
We make far too little of the Incarnation; the Fathers knew much more of the
incarnate God. Some of them were oftener at Bethlehem than at Calvary; they
had too little of Calvary, but they knew Bethlehem well. They took up the Holy
Babe in their arms; they loved Immanuel, God with us. We are not too often at
the cross; but we are too seldom at the cradle; and we know too little of the
Word made flesh, of the Holy Child Jesus.3 [Note: “Rabbi” Duncan, in
Recollections by A. Moody Stuart, 167.]
(2) Though Divine yet is He human.—Behold what manner of love God hath
bestowed upon us that He should espouse our nature! For God had never so
united Himself with any creature before. His tender mercy had ever been over all
His works; but they were still so distinct from Himself that a great gulf was fixed
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between the Creator and the created, so far as existence and relationship are
concerned. The Lord had made many noble intelligences, principalities, and
powers of whom we know little; we do not even know what those four living
creatures may be who are nearest the Eternal Presence; but God had never
taken up the nature of any of them, nor allied Himself with them by any actual
union with His Person. He has, however, allied Himself with man: He has come
into union with man, and therefore He loves him unutterably well and has great
thoughts of good towards him.
The fact that such intimate union of the Divine with the human is possible
unveils the essential Godlikeness of man. His nature is capable of receiving
Divine indwelling. There is such affinity between God and him that the fulness of
the Godhead can dwell bodily in a man. Christianity has often been accused of
gloomy, depressing views of human nature; but where, in all the dreams of
superficial exalters of manhood, is there anything so radiant with hope as the
solid fact that the eternal Son of God has said of it, “Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it”? Christianity has no temptation to varnish over the dark realities of
man as he is, for it knows its power to make him what he was meant to be.
So we have to look on the child Christ as born “to give the world assurance of a
man,” or, in modern phraseology, to realize the ideal of human nature. That
birth in the manger was the first appearance of the shoot from the dry stump of
the Davidic house, which was to flower into “a plant of renown,” and fill the
world with its beauty and fragrance. One thinks of the “loveliness of perfect
deeds,” the continual submission to the loved will of the Father, the tranquillity
unbroken, the uninterrupted self-suppression, the gentle immobility of resolve,
the gracious words, bright with heavenly wisdom, warm with pure love,
throbbing with quick pity, as one gazes on the “young child,” and would, with
the strangers from the East, bring homage and offerings thither. There is the
dawn of a sun without a spot; the headwaters of a mighty stream without stain or
perturbation in all its course.
The story tells us that Christ Himself was as poor and as unfamed as the
shepherds—yet all Heaven was with Him. No trumpet-flourish told His coming,
no posts rode swift from town to town to announce His Kingship. Earth and its
glory took no notice of One who was laid in a manger. But far above in the world
beyond, where earthly glory hath no praise, and earth no power, and rank no
dignity, the Child who lived to love and die for men, was celebrated among the
heavenly host. All the courts of Heaven began to praise God for the little Child
for whom there was no shelter on earth but a cave in the rocks, Christianity has
restored humanity to Man_1:1 [Note: Stopford A. Brooke, Sunshine and
Shadow, 191.]
“What means that star,” the Shepherds said,
“That brightens through the rocky glen?”
And angels, answering overhead,
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Sang, “Peace on earth, good-will to men!”
’Tis eighteen hundred years and more
Since those sweet oracles were dumb;
We wait for Him, like them of yore;
Alas, He seems so slow to come!
But it was said, in words of gold
No time or sorrow e’er shall dim,
That little children might be bold
In perfect trust to come to Him.
All round about our feet shall shine
A light like that the wise men saw,
If we our loving wills incline
To that sweet Life which is the Law.
So shall we learn to understand
The simple faith of shepherds then,
And, clasping kindly hand in hand,
Sing, “Peace on earth, good-will to men!”
And they who do their souls no wrong,
But keep at eve the faith of morn,
Shall daily hear the angel-song,
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“To-day the Prince of Peace is born!”2 [Note: J. R. Lowell, A Christmas Carol.]
BI, "I bring you good tidings of great Joy.
Christmas-day lessons
1. The whole thought and idea of all that is told us about Christmas Day suggests
the consoling, the cheering thought, that however gloomy our lot, however
distressed our portion, God, the Almighty God, has not forsaken us.
2. There is the truth which the heathen, and we must also add, which Christians
have often been very slow to acknowledge, that the Divine is only another word
for the perfectly good, that God is goodness, and that goodness is God.
3. Let me take one special mark of the life of Christ which extends through the
whole of it, by which His career from the cradle to the grave is distinguished from
that of any of the other founders of religions. Let me sum it up in one expression
which admits of many forms: He was the Mediator between the Divine and
human, because He was the Mediator, the middle point, between the conflicting
parts of human nature. (Dean Stanley.)
The joy-producing power of Christianity
1. What is Christianity itself, that is said to have this power of producing joy? It is
that system of influence, which was designed of God, and which is destined to
educate the whole human race to perfect manhood.
2. When we say that Christianity tends to produce joy, we are instantly pointed to
the wretched condition of things which exists. Men say, “Christianity produce
joy! Have there ever been such bloody wars as it has produced? such quarrelling
and dissensions? Where is your joy? Besides, these flighty angels may have said
something about joy, but what did the Master Himself say! Did He not say ‘Take
up your cross’ &c.?” I do not say, however, that Christianity instantly produces
joy. I do not say that it produces joy always. While man is being educated into, I
concede that there is much suffering. But it is not suffering for the sake of the
suffering—not aimless void and useless suffering.
3. But while this grand education is evolving we must not think that joy is absent
wholly, and we must not pass too summarily by what has actually been gained by
Christianity in the production of joy in the world. The earliest period of Christian
life I suppose to have been transcendently joyful. The apostles had nothing that
men usually call elements of happiness. Yet I will defy you to find in literature,
ancient or modern, so high a tone of cheerfulness as you will find in their history.
And since the days of the apostles how many Christian men have there not been
who have been lifted up into that sphere where joy abode with them. There is yet
to be a revelation of what Christianity has done for the internal man. The whole
range of joy throughout the world has been augmented and elevated. The
civilized world in ancient times was never so happy as it is now. The world is
better off to-day than it was at any five hundred years previous. Agassiz says that
the growth of a plant is in three stages: first, by the root, which is invisible, and is
the slowest and longest; second, by the stem, which is perhaps not half as long;
third, by maturation or ripening, which is the quickest of all. So it is in history.
The past has been largely occupied with root-growth in moral things. The present
may be considered the period of growth by the stem. And I think we are standing
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on the eve of a period of growth by maturation and ripening. It is for me,
therefore, a very joyful thought, not only that we have a religion which is joy-
producing in its ultimate fruits, but that, looked upon comprehensively, it has
already produced vast cycles of joy, and is going forward, not having expended
half its force yet, to an era in which joy producing shall be more apparent, and
upon a vaster scale, and with more exquisite fruit, and in infinite variety. (H. W.
Beecher.)
Glad news
Christianity is glad news.
I. BECAUSE IT REVELED GOD TO MAN. Consider the state of the world before
Christianity was born. Here and there an old sage had groped his way to a knowledge
of the alphabet of truth. Here and there the Divine Spirit had communicated to a
tribe or nation so much of the Divine wisdom that they lived faithful to their
marriage vows, knew the blessings of home, acknowledged the rights of property and
life to such an extent that they would not steal nor kill. But of God they knew little—
of the life beyond the grave nothing. But when Christianity was born, a sun arose into
the darkness of the world. Men saw what they had felt must be, but what they had
never before seen. And chiefest among all sights revealed, stood God. The heavens
were no longer a vacuum, Christianity told them that God is their Father.
II. BECAUSE IT REVEALED MAN TO HIMSELF. Never till Jesus was born—never
till he had lived and passed away—did man know the nobility of his species. Never
until God dwelt in the flesh could any man know what flesh might become. Never
until the fulness of God was in man bodily, might the race get even a hint of that
Divine receptiveness that, above all else perhaps, most nobly characterises human
nature.
III. BECAUSE IT REVEALS GOD IN MAN. The proclamation of the angels is
confirmed in our experience and corroborated by our knowledge that the birth of
Christianity was indeed “glad news” to men, because it brought God out of distance
and darkness into light, and made Him nigh, as He is nigh who shares our burdens,
consoles our sorrows, and in every pinch and stress of disastrous fortune rescues us
from peril and saves us from loss. (W. H. Murray.)
Christian joyfulness
Have you no song in you to-day? Have you received no mercy that can make you
tuneful? Do you not know that birds sing when they get wings? And shall God wing
you with powers and yet you remain silent? Look abroad over the world and see how
it is being lifted towards Christ; how the old barbarisms are melting away; how the
dungeons of old oppressions are crumbling into ruins; how the tyrannies that
trampled on men are being shorn of their power. See the torch and the sword drop
from the hand of persecution, now nerveless, but once potent to strike and to light
the martyr’s fire! Hear the chains of slavery snap! The ring and clash of the fetters
falling from wrist and ankle sound round the world. What is doing it! Jesus is doing
it. The Galilean has triumphed! Old things are passing away; behold, all things are
becoming new! Is there no joy in our hearts at the sight of all this? Shall we sit stolid
and unmoved while before our eyes the influence of the Birth is moving to its
triumph, Should we do so, Religion would disown us as unworthy of her favours, and
piety itself rebuke us as incapable of gratitude. (W. H. Murray.)
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Joy born at Bethlehem
In our text we have before us the sermon of the first evangelist under the gospel
dispensation. The preacher was an angel, and it was meet it should be so, for the
grandest and last of all evangels will be proclaimed by an angel when he shall sound
the trumpet of the resurrection, and the children of the regeneration shall rise into
the fulness of their joy. The key-note of this angelic gospel is joy—“I bring unto you
good tidings of great joy.” Nature fears in the presence of God—the shepherds were
sore afraid. The law itself served to deepen this natural feeling of dismay; seeing men
were sinful, and the law came into the world to reveal sin, its tendency was to make
men fear and tremble under any and every Divine revelation. But the first word of the
gospel ended all this, for the angelic evangelist said, “Fear not, behold I bring you
good tidings.” Henceforth, it is to be no dreadful thing for man to approach his
Maker; redeemed man is not to fear when God unveils the splendour of His majesty,
since He appears no more a judge upon His throne of terror, but a Father unbending
in sacred familiarity before His own beloved children. The joy which this first gospel
preacher spoke of was no mean one, for he said, “I bring you good tidings”—that
alone were joy: and not good tidings of joy only, but “good tidings of great joy.” Man
is like a harp unstrung, and the music of his soul’s living strings is discordant, his
whole nature wails with sorrow; but the son of David, that mighty harper, has come
to restore the harmony of humanity, and where His gracious fingers move among the
strings, the touch of the fingers of an incarnate God brings forth music sweet as that
of the spheres, and melody rich as a seraph’s canticle.
I. THE JOY mentioned in the text—whence comes it, and what is it?
1. A great joy.
2. A lasting joy.
3. A pure and holy joy. But why is it that the coming of Christ into the world is
the occasion of joy? The answer is as follows:
(1) Because it is evermore a joyous fact that God should be in alliance with
man, especially when the alliance is so near that God should in very deed take
our manhood into union with His Godhead; so that God and man should
constitute one Divine, mysterious person. From henceforth, when God looks
upon man, He will remember that His own Son is a man. As in the case of
war, the feud is ended when the opposing parties intermarry, so there is no
more war between God and man, because God has taken man into intimate
union with Himself. Herein, then, there was cause for joy.
(2) But there was more than that, for the shepherds were aware that there
had been promises made of old which had been the hope and comfort of
believers in all ages, and these were now to be fulfilled.
(3) But the angel’s song had in it yet fuller reason for joy; for our Lord who
was born in Bethlehem came as a Saviour. “Unto you is born this day a
Saviour.” God had come to earth before, but not as a Saviour. The Lord might
have come with thunderbolts in both His hands, He might have come like
Elias to call fire from heaven; but no, His hands are full of gifts of love, and
His presence is the guarantee of grace.
4. This Saviour was the Christ. “Anointed” of God, i.e., duly authorized and
ordained for this particular work.
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(5) One more note, and this the loudest, let us sound it well and hear it well.
“which is Christ the Lord.” Now the word Lord, or Kurios, here used is
tantamount to Jehovah. Our Saviour is Christ, God, Jehovah. No testimony to
His divinity could be plainer; it is indisputable. And what joy there is in this;
for suppose an angel had been our Saviour, he would not have been able to
bear the load of my sin or yours; or if anything less than God had been set up
as the ground of our salvation, it might have been found too frail a
foundation.
II. Follow Me while I briefly speak of THE PEOPLE. to whom this joy comes.
1. Observe how the angel begins, “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, for
unto you is born this day.” So, then, the joy began with the first who heard it, the
shepherds. “To you,” saith he; “for unto you is born.” Beloved hearer, shall the joy
begin with you to-day?—for it little avails you that Christ was born, or that Christ
died, unless unto you a Child is born, and for you Jesus bled. A personal interest
is the main point.
2. After the angel had said “to you,” he went on to say, “it shall be to all people.”
But our translation is not accurate, the Greek is, “it shall be to all the people.”
This refers most assuredly to the Jewish nation; there can be no question about
that; if any one looks at the original, he will not find so large and wide an
expression as that given by our translators. It should be rendered “to all the
people.” And here let us speak a word for the Jews. How long and how sinfully
has the Christian Church despised the most honourable amongst the nations!
How barbarously has Israel been handled by the so-called Church! Jesus the
Saviour is the joy of all nations, but let not the chosen race be denied their
peculiar share of whatever promise Holy Writ has recorded with a special view to
them. The woes which their sins brought upon them have fallen thick and
heavily; and even so let the richest blessings distil upon them.
3. Although our translation is not literally correct, it, nevertheless, expresses a
great truth, taught plainly in the context; and, therefore, we will advance another
step. The coming of Christ is a joy to all people. “Goodwill towards”—not Jews,
but “men “mall men. There is joy to all mankind where Christ comes. The religion
of Jesus makes men think, and to make men think is always dangerous to a
despot’s power. It is joy to all nations that Christ is born, the Prince of Peace, the
King who rules in righteousness.
III. THE SIGN. The shepherds did not ask for a sign, but one was graciously given.
Wilful unbelief shall have no sign, but weak faith shall have compassionate aid. Every
circumstance is therefore instructive. The Babe was found “wrapped in swaddling
clothes.
1. There is not the remotest appearance of temporal power here.
2. No pomp to dazzle you.
3. Neither was there wealth to be seen at Bethlehem.
4. Here too, I see no superstition.
5. Nor does the joy of the world lie in philosophy. God’s work was sublimely
simple. Mysterious, yet the greatest simplicity that was ever spoken to human
ears, and seen by mortal eyes. In a simple Christ, and in a simple faith in that
Christ, there is a deep and lasting peace, an unspeakable bliss and joy. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
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God incarnate, the end of fear
I. As to THE FEAR of the text, it may be well to discriminate. There is a kind of fear
towards God from which we must not wish to be free. There is that lawful, necessary,
admirable, excellent fear which is always due from the creature to the Creator, from
the subject to the king, ay, and from the child toward the parent. To have a holy awe
of our most holy, just, righteous, and tender parent is a privilege, not a bondage.
Godly fear is not the “fear which hath torment;” perfect love doth not east out, but
dwells with it in joyful harmony. The fear which is to be avoided is slaving fear—that
trembling which keeps us at a distance from God, which makes us think of Him as a
Spirit with whom we can have no communion, as a Being who has no care for us
except to punish us, and for whom consequently we have no care except to escape if
possible from His terrible presence.
1. This fear sometimes arises in men’s hearts from their thoughts dwelling
exclusively upon the Divine greatness. Is it possible to peer long into the vast
abyss of Infinity and not to fear? Can the mind yield itself up to the thought of the
Eternal, Self-existent, Infinite One without being filled first with awe and then
with dread? What am I? An aphis creeping upon a rosebud is a more considerable
creature in relation to the universe of beings than I can be in comparison with
God. We have had the impertinence to be disobedient to the will of this great
One; and now the goodness and greatness of His nature are as a our rent against
which sinful humanity struggles in vain, for the irresistible torrent must run its
course, and overwhelm every opponent. What does the great God seem to us out
of Christ but a stupendous rock, threatening to crush us, or a fathomless sea,
hastening to swallow us up? The contemplation of the Divine greatness may of
itself fill man with horror, and cast him into unutterable misery!
2. Each one of the sterner attributes of God will cause the like fear. Think of His
power by which He rolls the stars along, and lay thy hand upon thy mouth. Think
of His wisdom by which He numbers the clouds, and settles the ordinances of
heaven. Meditate upon any one of these attributes, but especially upon His
justice, and upon that devouring fire which burns unceasingly against sin, and it
is no wonder if the soul becomes full of fear. Meanwhile, let a sense of sin with its
great whip of wire flagellate the conscience, and man will dread the bare idea of
God.
3. Wherever there is a slavish dread of the Divine Being, it alienates man most
thoroughly from his God. Those whom we slavishly dread we cannot love. Here is
the masterpiece of Satan, that he will not let the understanding perceive the
excellence of God’s character, and then the heart cannot love that which the
understanding does not perceive to be loveable.
4. Fear creates a prejudice against God’s gospel of grace. People think that if they
were religious they would be miserable. Oh, could they comprehend, could they
but know how good God is, instead of imagining that His service would be
slavery, they would understand that to be His friends is to occupy the highest and
happiest position which created beings can occupy.
5. This fear in some men puts them out of all heart of ever being saved. Thinking
God to be an ungenerous Being, they keep at a distance from Him.
6. This wicked dread of God frequently drives men to extremities of sin.
7. This fear dishonours God.
8. This fear hath torment. No more tormenting misery in the world than to think
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of God as being our implacable foe.
II. THE CURE FOR THIS FEAR. God with us: God made flesh—that is the remedy.
1. According to the text they were not to fear, because the angel had come to
bring them good news. He who made the heavens slumbers in a manger. What
then? Why, then God is not of necessity an enemy to man, because here is God
actually taking manhood into alliance with Deity. Is there not comfort in that?
2. The second point that takes away fear is that this man who was also God was
actually born. He is more man than Adam was, for Adam never was born; Adam
never had to struggle through the risks and weaknesses of infancy; he knew not
the littlenesses of childhood—he was full-grown at once; whereas Jesus is cradled
with us in the manger, accompanies us in the pains and feebleness and infirmities
of infancy, and continues with us even to the grave.
3. Christ’s office is to deliver us from sin. Here is joy upon joy.
III. APPLY THE CURE TO VARIOUS CASES. Encouragement to the weak, the
sinful, the lonely, the tempted. There is no cause for any to keep away from God,
since Jesus has come to bring all to Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The joyful tidings of Christmas
Now, if, when Christ came on this earth, God had sent some black creature down
from heaven (if there be such creatures there) to tell us, “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men,” and if with a frowning brow and a
stammering tongue he delivered his message, if I had been there and heard it, I
should have scrupled to believe him, for I should have said, “You don’t look like the
messenger that God would send—stammering fellow as you are—with such glad news
as this.” But when the angels came there was no doubting the truth of what they said,
because it was quite certain that the angels believed it; they told it as if they did, for
they told it with singing, with joy and gladness. If some friend, having heard that a
legacy was left you, should come to you with a solemn countenance, and a tongue like
a funeral bell, saying, “Do you know so-and-so has left you £10,000?” Why, you
would say, “Ah! I dare say,” and laugh in his face. But if your brother should suddenly
burst into your room, and exclaim, “I say, what do you think? You are a rich man. So-
and-so has left you £10,000!” Why, you would say, “I think it is very likely to be true,
for he looks so happy over it.” Well, when these angels came from heaven, they told
the news just as if they believed it; and though I have often wickedly doubted my
Lord’s good will, I think I never could have doubted it while I heard those angels
singing. No, I should say, “The messengers themselves are proof of the truth, for it
seems they have heard it from God’s lips; they have no doubt about it, for see how
joyously they tell the news.” Now, poor soul thou that art afraid lest God should
destroy thee, and thou thinkest that God will never have mercy upon thee, look at the
singing angels and doubt if thou darest. Do not go to the synagogue of long-faced
hypocrites to hear the minister who preaches with a nasal twang, with misery in his
face, whilst he tells you that God has goodwill towards men; I know you won’t believe
what he says, for he does not preach with joy in his countenance; he is telling you
good news with a grunt, and you are not likely to receive it. But go straightway to the
plain where Bethlehem shepherds sat by night, and when you hear the angels singing
out the gospel, by the grace of God upon you, you cannot help believing that they
manifestly feel the preciousness of telling. Blessed Christmas, that brings such
creatures as angels to confirm our faith in God’s goodwill to men! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
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The joy of Christmas
The incarnation, such a great and manifold blessing to our race, must bring with it a
feeling of joy; and not to our race alone, but also to other beings whose destinies are
bound up with ours. The nativity brought joy—
1. In heaven, to the angel spirits. Their ruin was now repaired (Isa_51:3). Zion
here represents those who are ever beholding the Father’s face; who rejoice that
the loss to their heavenly country is now made good, for the Lord will be able to
lead all the faithful thither, where with the angels they will be in eternal joy.
2. In the unseen world, to the faithful departed, Joyful to the old fathers, it is
their longed-for redemption. Adam’s sin brought our race into captivity to the
devil. Redemption began to-day.
3. In the world, among all people. Joy for the new manifestation. He who before
was invisible was made visible to-day by opening the eyes of the human race. The
light of wisdom has put to flight all the darkness of ignorance, and brought joy in
the place of despair. (Anon.)
Joy at the birth of Jesus
To us men, more than to the angels or to any other created beings, is this day’s joy. It
is the great festival of humanity. He who was born to-day was—
I. A REDEEMER. Delivering us from the servitude of sin and Satan—a worse
bondage than that of Egypt. Think what songs of praise (Exo_15:1) are due to Jesus
Christ to-day, who, by the baptism reddened by His blood, hath delivered us from the
power of our spiritual foes.
II. A SURETY. Taking upon Himself all our debts and the condemnation of their
punishment. A new, the greatest and unheard-of benefit Col_2:14). He came to-day
to remit that vast debt, of sin which God alone could pay; that the bond might be
burnt in the fire of His love, or be affixed to the cross on Mount Calvary.
III. A HEAVENLY PHYSICIAN. Prepared and willing to heal all diseases, again and
again, without fee or reward, without pain to the patient Mat_9:12; Luk_4:23).
IV. A SUN TO THE WORLD. Enlightening a darkness more dense than any natural
or physical darkness (Joh_1:9; Joh 9:5). A light—
1. Eternal.
2. Cheering.
3. Glorifying.
V. A GUIDE TO THE TRUE AND BLESSED LIFE (Mic_2:13). Going before in
difficulties, smoothing rough ways.
VI. A NOURISHER OF THE WORLD. Sustaining us in the way with “living bread.”
VII. A PRINCE OF PEACE. Bringing peace—
1. With God.
2. To one’s own conscience.
3. With each other. (Psa_11:6-7.)
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VIII. A SAVIOUR. Who will, after this life, bring us safely to the blessed and eternal
country and being. Think on all these things and say (Psa_117:1). (M. Faber.)
Joy follows sorrow
It is the presence, or the memory, of something avoided, which gives point to our
warmest rejoicings. In man grief is linked on to happiness, and suffering to joy. Just
as a life without need of care is not a happy life, so if there were no fasts there could
be no feasts You must have shadow to show the light. So if there had been no fall
there could have been no rising again. If there had been no Adam, there could have
been no Christ. It was not only for His own pleasure, and not at all for His own profit,
but for us, that Christ was born. Not for Adam, nor the old patriarchs, nor for very
wicked men, but because we are what we are—that is why God must needs deny His
own nature, and be born. Thus thelittle Infant Child appeals to us, as from the cross
the Saviour crucified. Shall we then be sad and sorrowful on such a day? It is not
sadness to remember an escape from danger, nor sadness to see a harbour in a
storm. Those to whom this Christmas-time is not all mere pleasure, but whose sad
memories and present troubles are too heavy, may sympathize with the Child born to
suffer, and rejoice in the Lord born to save. It is for you to whom the world is not too
dear, that you may have a world where sorrows enter not, that Christ was born. And
for those who have no weight of care and sorrow, let the memory of Christ make
them generous and thoughtful and kindhearted; not hard and selfish in their
enjoyment, but longing to make all as merry and lighthearted as themselves,
remembering that the first Christmas gift was given by God to us, when the Son of
God gave to mankind Himself. (Bp. E. Steere.)
Good tidings
The gospel may be called “good tidings.”—
1. Because it is so beneficial.
2. Because it is so appropriate.
3. Because it is so personal,
4. Because it is so unexpected.
5. Because it is so subservient to the illustration of all the other dispensations of
God toward us. (G. Brooks.)
The duty of Christian joy
We are incapable of omniscience in the region alike of enjoyment and of suffering.
God has so made the eye of this body that it discerns not the animalcules swallowed
in water, nor the tiny reptiles that are crushed by each tread of the foot. This
limitation of the natural vision is a type to us of a principle which is the very
condition of being. We are not to scrutinize sufferings which we cannot alleviate. We
are not to allow pain to annihilate pleasure. We are not to set God’s dispensation of
sorrow at variance with God’s other dispensation of joy. Where there is the remotest
chance of alleviating, there we are to be keen-sighted in investigation. The eye is to be
open—but let it be the natural eye, not the microscope. We are not intended so to
realize the woe which cannot be mitigated, as to foster a general depression of tone,
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or a practical insensibility to the blessings which are largely mingled (none can deny
it) in the cup of human being. It is needful, too, that we should none of us so enjoy as
to forget the suffering which is for another and which shall be for us. On this ground,
with this view, to this extent, we are bound to remember, and to take into our
reckoning, the hardships, the calamities, and the miseries, which abound in the
world. But it is not by refusing to rejoice that we shall really either learn to feel or
learn to bear. (J. Vaughan.)
The gospel to be presented as great joy
It is the bounden duty of each one of us, in his own place and sphere, to present the
gospel to the world as good tidings—of great joy—to all people. If we once lose this
view of it, we have parted with its chief power over one large section at least of
mankind. To the young, to the strong, to the busy, to the happy, it is idle to offer a
consolation which they need not, or a gloom which they repudiate. Tell them that the
gospel is a great joy—that it heightens all other joys, that it makes that everlasting
which else must be temporal, that it makes the strong man stronger, and the young
man younger, and the wise man wiser, and the delightful man more delightful, and
thus completes and perfects every part and every kind of human vigour and of
human usefulness and of human hope—you make Christ then what prophecy writes
Him, the Desire of Nations; and you make the gospel what the angel calls it, great joy,
and to all people. Nor do you, in so painting it, detract from any one of its charms for
the struggling and the sorrow-laden. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the
broken-hearted, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness.” (J. Vaughan.)
Christmas Day the turning point
Do you remember that Christmas Day is the first day in the year in which the days
begin to lengthen? On the 21st, the 22nd, the 23rd, and the 24th of December they
are substantially at a standstill; but on the 25th of December the hand of the poetic
year cuts one lock from the head of darkness, and hangs it like a star on the forehead
of the day; and to-day is a minute longer than yesterday. And the sun will not go back
now. It has set its face toward the summer; and though there are going to be great
storms in January, though vast shrouds of snow will cover the ground, yet you know
and I know that the sun has gone to its farthest limit, and has begun to turn back;
and that just as sure as nature is constant in her career, that sun is retracing his steps
with summer in his bosom, and that there are fruits, and there are flowers, and there
is a whole realm of joy coming. You have no doubt of this in the natural world. And I
say that though the days of the world’s winter are not over, yet I believe that the Sun
of righteousness has gone as far away as He ever will, and has turned, and is coming
back; and that there is to be a future summer of joy and rejoicing in things spiritual
as well as in things temporal. (H. W.Beecher.)
Heathen religions and Christianity
There have been many religions which have made men much more joyful than
Christianity has; but they played upon the nature just as it was, and never sought to
change it. The religion of the Greeks was a gay and festive religion. They wreathed
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themselves with flowers; they anointed themselves with sweet perfumes; they
surrounded their temples with every attraction; they invoked every pleasure that they
could think of; they sought to make the hour of their worship a beautiful and
charming hour. They sought joy without seeking manhood. Theirs was a religion
which took men just where they were, and left them where they were, and wrung out
of them all the joy that there was in them at that point of development—and that was
all. But Christianity takes men, and says, “Ye are capable of mightier things than
these,” and so begins to open up the nature, to accord the nature, to discipline the
nature, and make manhood vaster with the volume of joy by-and-by wrung out of
their faculties—so vast that it shall transcend immeasurably that which was possible
in the beginning or at the earlier stages. It is a great comfort to me, that have looked
with so much sympathy upon the whole long requiem of time past, and upon the
groaning and travailing in pain until now that is in the world, to believe, as I do
heartily believe, that the future of Christianity is to be far brighter, and that the day
of struggle is comparatively past. (H. W. Beecher.)
All creatures interested in the incarnation of Christ
Men did share in Him in His own sex and person; women in the womb that bare
Him; poor men in the shepherds, great ones in the sages of the East; the beasts by
the stable whereto He was born; the earth in the gold that was offered; the trees in
the myrrh and frankincense; and to reckon up no more, the heavens in the star that
blazed. All the works of God, even they which by natural obedience bless Him and
magnify Him for ever, did claim some office to make one in the solemnity when their
Creator was born. Why surely some room was left for the angels. It was fit they
should be in the train at the inauguration of this mighty Prince, and their place,
according to their dignity, was very honourable; they were God’s ambassadors, and
as if they had a patent to use their office frequently, they had many errands from
heaven—to Mary, to Joseph. (Bishop Hacker.)
Behold
Of which word standing in this place I note three things—admiration, demonstration,
and attention.
1. Ecce, see and admire this is the greatest wonder that ever was. If you love to
cast your eyes upon that which is miraculous, look this way, and see the greatest
miracle that ever was brought to light.
2. To cry out unto the shepherds, behold, is an adverb of demonstration. Things
hard by make us look towards them more than those that are farther off; we sit
still and muse upon that which we hope will come to pass, but when we hear the
bridegroom coming, then we bustle and look out. And though the senses of our
body do not fix themselves upon Him, yet faith will perceive Him strongly and
certainly that He is truly present; faith will assure itself how He stands at the
door and knocks, and how it hears His voice. Furthermore let this demonstrative
direction put you in mind to live so justly and inoffensively as if you did always
behold God in the flesh. But—
3. Ecce, behold, it cloth not beg, but command, attention. When the Lord sends a
messenger, is it not fit to note him diligently, and to ponder his sayings in your
mind? (Bishop Hacker.)
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Good news to all people
A good harvest is not welcome to one village, but it is gladsome to the whole country
round about; and when spoils are divided after the vanquishing of an enemy, every
soldier is enriched, and hath his share. Such a communicative blessing is our
Saviour’s incarnation—every man fills his bosom with the sheaves of the harvest;
everyChristian soldier that fights a good warfare plucks somewhat from the spoils of
the enemy. (Bishop Hacker.)
The birth of Jesus
I. THE MESSENGER EMPLOYED. One of the dignified sons of light. An ambassador
from heaven to earth, from God to man. A service of unrivalled glory and
benevolence, calculated to excite wonder and abundant praise. By the redemption
which is in Christ angels become our brethren, our friends, and our companions for
ever. It is Probable their joys and honours are greatly enhanced by the work of the
Messiah.
II. THE PERSONS ADDRESSED. Jewish shepherds. What a contrast between the
ambassador and those to whom he appeared. How different, too, to the doings of
men and to human expectations. It would have been supposed the tidings should
have been given to kings, or philosophers, or assuredly to the priests. But God’s ways
are not our ways. In all the work and life of Christ God poured contempt upon
worldly glory and distinctions.
III. THE MESSAGE COMMUNICATED.
1. The angel describes the person of Him who is born.
(1) Saviour.
(2) Christ.
(3) The Lord.
2. He announces His birth. The end of prophecy. The fulfilment of types. The
fulness of the times.
3. He affirms this to be an event of good tidings. Tidings of Divine grace and
salvation—all others are insignificant in comparison. Life, light, happiness,
eternal glory.
4. He notices the universal application of these good tidings.
(1) To the Jew first. “You.”
(2) “All people.” None shut out. How comprehensive. Wherever we find even
a horde of wandering savages, Christ is born for them.
Application:
1. Is the end of Christ’s birth answered in you?
2. If so, rejoice.
3. Caution against the temptations of the season. Let your joy be “in the Lord.”
(Jabez Burns, D. D.)
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The angel’s message to the shepherds
1. The time. Not in the meridian splendour of the sun, when his unnumbered
glories might have added to the lustre of the scene, and charmed and gratified
senses and imagination. Silence of night is more favourable to devotion than
bustle of day. The errand of the heavenly messengers was of a religious nature,
therefore they arrive in the darkness and stillness of night. Long before this silent
hour the sun had set in the western sky. The stars appeared, and the moon could
not certainly withhold her light and her attendance upon such an occasion;
everything conspired to direct the pious mind to solemn contemplation.
2. The persons. Not to rulers or great men was the message sent, but to humble
shepherds. Why, then, say the poor, that religion is not for them, that they are
neglected and forgotten? It was to poor men that this wondrous announcement
was made.
3. The tidings revealed. Were they not “good tidings’? Would not the poor
afflicted and oppressed debtor, who was just about to be dragged by a merciless
creditor from his home and family, to be shut up in prison, esteem it glad tidings
if he should be in that hour informed that one, completely able, had sent an
express messenger to the hard-hearted creditor, saying, “Place all this man’s debt
to my account; set him at liberty to go home to his afflicted wife and famishing
children”? And was it not good tidings to the children of Israel in Egypt when
Moses was sent by God to be their deliverer, and to lead them to the promised
land? But what is here announced far exceeds the joy of such occasions as these,
for they refer to temporal concerns, this to eternal. (H. Venn, M. A.)
Great joy is often
1. Secret.
2. Silent.
3. Childlike.
4. Modest.
5. Elevated. Christ is the only source of rational joy among fallen men. (Van
Doren.)
The Christmas festival festival for the whole world
1. This it is designed to be.
2. This it can be.
3. This it must be.
4. This it will be. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)
The message to the shepherds
I. HOW SURE IS GOD’S WORD. Ages had rolled by since the promise was first
made. Saints had waited; types had prefigured; prophets had foretold: at last, when
all preparation is complete, the Divine decree is accomplished.
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II. HOW WONDERFUL ARE GOD’S WAYS.
III. HOW GLORIOUS IS GOD’S SALVATION. God, and yet man; a babe, and yet
Lord of all. How great the Father’s love; how wonderful the Son’s condescension! (W.
S. Bruce, M. A.)
Christianity a cheerful religion
It is necessary for some people to remember that cheerfulness, good spirits, light-
heartedness, merriment, are not unchristian nor unsaintly. We do not please God
more by eating bitter aloes than by eating honey. A cloudy, foggy, rainy day is not
more heavenly than a day of sunshine. A funeral march is not so much like the music
of angels as the song of birds on a May morning. There is no more religion in the
gaunt naked forest in winter than in the laughing blossoms of the spring, and the rich
ripe fruits of autumn. It was not the pleasant things in the world that came from the
devil, and the dreary things from God; it was sin brought death into the world and all
our woe; as the sin vanishes, the woe will vanish too. God Himself is the ever-blessed
God. He dwells in the light of joy as well as of purity, and instead of becoming more
like Him as we become more miserable, and as all the brightness and glory of life are
extinguished, we become more like God as our blessedness becomes more complete.
The great Christian graces are radiant with happiness. Faith, hope, charity—there is
no sadness in them; and if penitence makes the heart sad, penitence belongs to the
sinner, not to the saint. As we become more saintly, we have less sin to sorrow over.
No; the religion of Christ is not a religion of sorrow. It consoles wretchedness, and
brightens with a Divine glory the lustre of every inferior joy. It attracts to itself the
brokenhearted, the lonely, the weary, the despairing; but it is to give them rest,
comfort, and peace. It rekindles hope; it inspires strength, courage, and joy. It checks
the merriment of the thoughtless who have never considered the graver and more
awful realities of man’s life and destiny; but it is to lead them through transient
sorrow to deeper and more perfect blessedness, even in this world, than they had
ever felt before the sorrow came. (T. Dale, M. A.)
The great birthday
I. THE BIRTH OF CHRIST SHOULD BE THE SUBJECT OF SUPREME JOY. We
have the angelic warrant for rejoicing because Christ is born. It is a truth so full of joy
that it caused the angel who came to announce it to be filled with gladness. He had
little to do with the fact, for Christ took not up angels, but He took up the seed of
Abraham; but I suppose that the very thought that the Creator should be linked with
the creature, that the great Invisible and Omnipotent should come into alliance with
that which He Himself had made, caused the angel as a creature to feel that all
creatureship was elevated, and this made him glad. Besides, there was a sweet
benevolence of spirit in the angel’s bosom which made him happy because he had
such gladsome tidings to bring to the fallen sons of men.
1. The birth of Christ was the incarnation of God. This is a wondrous mystery, to
be believed in rather than to be defined. Mankind is not outlawed or abandoned
to destruction, for, lo! the Lord has married into the race, and the Son of God has
become Son of Man. This proves that God loves man, and means man’s good;
that He feels for man and pities him; that He intends to deliver man and to bless
him.
2. He who was born is unto us a Saviour. Those who will be most glad of this will
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be those who are most conscious of their sinnership. If you would draw music out
of that ten-stringed harp, the word “Saviour,” pass it over to a sinner. “Saviour” is
the harp, but “sinner” is the finger that must touch the strings and bring forth the
melody.
3. This Saviour is Christ the Lord, and there is much gladness in this fact. We
have not a nominal Saviour, but a Saviour fully equipped; one who, in all points,
is like ourselves, for He is Man, but in all points fit to help the feebleness which
He has espoused, for He is the Anointed Man. The godlike in dominion is joined
with the human in birth.
4. The angel called for joy, and I ask for it too, on this ground, that the birth of
this child was to bring glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill
toward men. The birth of Christ has given such glory to God as I know not that
He could ever have had here by any other means. We must always speak in
accents soft and low when we talk of God’s glory; in itself it must always be
infinite and not to be conceived by us, and yet may we not venture to say that all
the works of God’s hands do not glorify Him so much as the gift of His dear Son,
that all creation and all providence do not so well display the heart of Deity as
when He gives His Only-Begotten, and sends Him into the world that men may
live through Him? What wisdom is manifested in the plan of redemption of
which the incarnate God is the centre! What love is there revealed! What power is
that which brought the Divine One down from glory to the manger; only
Omnipotence could have worked so great a marvel! What faithfulness to ancient
promises! What truthfulness in keeping covenant! What grace, and yet what
justice!
II. Let us consider TO WHOM THIS JOY BELONGS.
1. It belongs to those who tell it.
2. It belongs to those who hear it.
3. It belongs to those who believe it.
III. How THAT JOY SHOULD BE MANIFESTED.
1. Proclaim the Saviour.
2. Sing God’s praises.
3. Spread the news—as the shepherds did.
4. Ponder this miracle of love—as Mary did.
5. Go and do good to others.
Come and worship God manifest in the flesh, and be filled with His light and
sweetness by the power of the Holy Spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ’s Nativity
1. Observe the interest which the angels felt on the occasion. While men’s minds
are intent on the decree of the emperor, theirs are centred on Christ.
2. Not only did an angel appear to the shepherds, but the glory of the Lord shone
round about them. Evidence of a message immediately from God.
3. The effect it had upon the shepherds. Sore afraid, but afterwards cheered.
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4. The object proclaimed is the “Saviour.” Not themselves, but Christ.
5. The good news was common to all people, not to one nation only.
6. The good news, though common to all people, was more immediately
addressed to the shepherds, who like many others were waiting for the
consolation of Israel. The gospel is addressed to individuals, as if they only were
the objects of it. Salvation is directly offered to every soul.
7. In this heavenly message particular attention is paid to time, place, and other
circumstances, to show their agreement with ancient prophecy. Not even an angel
may speak anything contrary to the Scriptures (Gal_1:8).
I. CONSIDER THE SUBJECT OF THE ANGELIC MESSAGE, AND SEE WHAT
GOOD TIDINGS ARE CONTAINED IN IT.
1. The birth of Jesus Christ was itself good news. The great object of prophecy
from the beginning of the world, and the hope of the Church in all ages.
2. The gracious design of His incarnation imparted good tidings to a guilty and
ruined world.
3. The way of salvation, which was effected by the coming of Christ, forms an
essential part of the good tidings brought to us by the angel. Repentance and
remission of sins preached among all nations.
II. THESE TIDINGS ARE MATTERS OF JOY, OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE.
The word used is strong, and only used for such great occasions as the joy of harvest
or an important victory; but is fully applicable to this subject.
1. The coming of Christ was the joy of the Old Testament Church, while they lived
only in hope of this great event (Isa_25:9; Joh_8:56). How much more when it is
fully realized.
2. All the joy of believers during the lifetime of our Saviour centred entirely in
Him.
3. All the joy in the times of the apostles had an immediate reference to Christ
and His salvation. The apostles triumphed in every place, but it was because the
savour of His name was spread abroad.
4. Christ and His salvation made all their troubles and sorrows light and
momentary; yea, they counted not their lives dear for His sake. The history of the
primitive Church is a history of sufferings in the cause of Christ, and of joy and
rejoicing in His holy name. This also is the way for us to bear up under all the
sorrows, trials, and afflictions of this life.
III. INQUIRE WHAT IS NECESSARY TO RENDER THESE GOOD TIDINGS A
MATTER OF REAL JOY TO US. It is an undoubted fact that they do not produce joy
in all: they did not then, and they do not now. Many think the tidings of the gospel
not worth hearing. Many who hear, neglect them, or feel no interest in them. Some
who seem to rejoice for a time become indifferent, and afterwards wither away.
1. To become the subject of real joy, these tidings require to be believed as true,
and to be received with the utmost cordiality.
2. It requires a deep conviction of our guilty, lost, and ruined state, which is
presupposed by the gospel, and which must be felt and realized before it can
convey to us tidings of great joy.
3. A cordial reception of the gospel itself, as revealing the only way of salvation;
obeying it from the heart, and receiving the truth in love. (Theological Sketch-
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book.)
The first Christmas
I. THAT A SCENE OF FRIGHT OFTEN BECOMES A SCENE OF EXALTATION.
Joseph’s way to authority led through the pit, slavery, and prison. How many
through affliction have found spiritual triumph.
II. WE SEE WHY CHRIST FINDS SO POOR A RECEPTION UPON EARTH. ROOM
for outward pomps, but none for the lowly Son of God. In yonder store there is room
for trade, for money, but no room for Christ. There is no war between prosperity and
Christ.
III. THAT WHILE VIRTUE IS OFTEN FORCED TO PLAIN LODGINGS,
WICKEDNESS IS PROVIDED WITH FINE QUARTERS. Guilt on the throne,
innocence in the cabin; Nero in the palace, Paul a prisoner; Nebuchadnezzar walking
in the hanging gardens, Shadrach in the fire. Remember the order: first the manger;
second, the cross; third, the crown.
IV. THAT JOY IS A DOMINANT ELEMENT IN RELIGION. (Dr. Talmage.)
The first Christmas morning
I. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST WAS GOOD TIDINGS TO THE SLAVE. When He
came, a large part of the race were held in abject servitude. Slavery prevailed
extensively in cultivated Greece, in imperial Rome, and even in Palestine—in the very
shadow of the temple of the Most High. Some Roman masters held from ten to
twenty thousand slaves, and the condition of the slave was hard in the extreme. He
was treated and held simply as a “thing”; bought and sold as men deal in sheep and
horses, he was absolutely the property of his master; he had no rights as a man—no
place under the law; could be beaten, scourged, and put to death at the will of the
master. Such was the condition of half the world when the angel choir sang their
Gloria in Excelsis. But that song was the death-knell to human bondage. The Infant
that lay in the manger hard by was to be the great Deliverer. Glorious emancipation!
Glorious harbinger of that spiritual liberty which Christ is yet to achieve!
II. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST WAS GOOD TIDINGS TO THE LABOURER. The
mass of men belong to the labouring class—are forced to earn their bread in the
sweat of their brows. The honour, the dignity, of labour was not at all understood
before Christ’s advent. Philosophers taught that all forms of manual labour were
degrading. In Rome only three kinds of occupation were considered respectable, viz.:
medicine, commerce, and architecture. Free men had to work side by side with
slaves. But Christ taught a new doctrine. He consecrated and made honourable all
honest labour, both by the precepts He taught and by His own example. And just as
the spirit and teachings of the great Master prevail, the labouring classes will be
elevated and prosperous, and human society will approximate the heavenly world.
III. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST REVEALED TO EARTH THE TRUE IDEA OF
HUMANITY. The ancients had no just conception of man as man. At best, he was
considered of no account, except as related to the State or the crown.
IV. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST WAS GOOD TIDINGS TO THE FAMILY. The
ancients had very imperfect ideas about it. Marriage was simply the means the State
had to produce citizens. But, oh, the power, the blessedness, of the religion of Jesus
on the family !V. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST WAS GLAD TIDINGS BECAUSE IT
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GAVE THE WORLD A NEW HOPE, The song of the angels on that eventful
Christmas morning was the song of hope to a despairing world. (D. W. Lusk.)
Good tidings of great joy
The sweet air of the gospel hath some harsh tidings, to take up the cross, and endure
unto blood, and death, but these were tidings of joy.
1. Joys are of several sizes, this is a great one, nay, none so great.
2. Joys and great ones are quickly done, this is joy that shall be and continue.
3. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others, and have no benefit
himself; this is joy to you, to every ear that hears 2:4. A good nature would not
engross a blessing, but desires to have it diffused, and so was this joy to all
people. The angel said unto them, “Fear not.” What should they not fear: first,
non a splendore divine, let not their hearts be troubled because the glory of the
Lord shone round about them, Sore eyes are distempered at much light, and it is
a sign there is some darkness within us all, which loves not to be discovered; that
the best of us all are much perplexed if any extraordinary brightness flash upon
us. (Bishop Hacket.)
Fear not
So if there be not a mixture of fear with our love, it falleth asleep, it waxeth secure,
and loseth her Beloved. If the comfort of our joy be not allayed with some fear, ‘tis
madness and presumption. Again, if our fear be not intermixed with the comfort of
some joy, ‘tis sullenness and desperation. As the earth cannot be without summer
and winter to make it fruitful, the pleasure of the one and the austerity of the other
make up the revolution of a good year, so faith is the parent both of a cloudy fear, and
a smiling hope: faith begets fear in us in regard of our own weakness, and hope in
regard of the goodness of God; hope ariseth out of the faith of the gospel, and fear
out of the faith of the law. These cannot be parted. (Bishop Hacket.)
That bondage which makes us liable to judgment is naught; but the fear which issues
from a conscientiousness of that bondage flying to God that it may fly from judgment
is holy and good. Briefly, let them thus be compared together; a filial fear, which
loves God for His own goodness, is like a bright day which hath not a cloud to
disfigure it; a servile fear, that dreads God because it dreads the wrath to come, is like
a day that is overcast with clouds, but it is clearer than the fairest moonshine night. It
is good to have the spirit of adoption, but it is better to have the spirit of bondage
than the spirit of slumber; it is good to be in Canaan, but it is better to be in the
wilderness than in Egypt; it is good to be a child, but it is better to be a servant than a
stranger to the Lord. (Bishop Hacket.)
This, then, is another fear which belongs to our allowance, but there is a fear which
hath a nolite set before it, an immoderate horror of heart, a symptom of desperation,
or at least of infidelity and diffidence; this is that quivering with which God strikes
His enemies, as a tree is shaken by the wind to unfasten it from the root. (Bishop
Hacket.)
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Nothing, you see, is comfortable to them that have not the true comforter, the Holy
Spirit in their soul. (Bishop Hacket.)
Satan feels some horror that gnaws and torments him, but he feels not the blessing of
that fear which should discipline him from sin, and amend him. (Bishop Hacket.)
Then it were good, methinks, that discretion and consideration of Christ’s merciful
gospel did mitigate their zeal, who think they are bound to thunder nothing so much
to the people as fears, and terrors, like the writer of Iambiques that spoke anger and
poison to put Archilochus into desperation. Let vices be threatened, but let the hope
that accompanies true repentance go together. Let judgment be put home to the
obdurate conscience, but let mercy be an advocate for tile broken in heart. Let the
strictness of law and the curse thereof fetch a tear from our eyes; but let the ransom
of our sins be set before us, and that Christ will wipe all tears from our eyes. St. Paul
wished himself at Corinth, not to affright them, but to rejoice with the brethren; as it
was said of the mild nature of the Emperor Vespasian, he never sent any man from
him discontent, but gave him some comfort and satisfaction. So the gospel is such a
sweet demulcing lesson, that if it be truly preached it must always revive the heart, it
cannot leave a sting behind it. You see the angel delights not to scare, but to comfort
the shepherds, “Fear not.” (Bishop Hacket.)
Gospel joy continuous
This spiritual gladness and festivity is the principal assistance to vanquish Satan, and
all desperate doubts with which he would perplex our conscience: it is a royal joy
which comforts us that we shall be heirs of a glorious kingdom; it is a sanctified joy
which gives us promise that we shall not only be kings but priests for ever, to offer up
the sweet odours of our prayers to God; it is a superlative joy which cries down all
other petty delights, and makes them appear as nothing; it is endless joy of durance
and lasting for ever and ever; for my text says it is “joy that shall be unto you.” Times
of feasting have a period, every man is glutted at last; he that hath his fill of sport is
weary by the late of night, and glad to take his rest. But the joy that you have in Christ
is with you all the year, in all your sorrow, in all your adversities; it sleeps with you, it
grows old with you, it will change this life with you, and follow you into a better:
“And My joy shall no man take from you,” says our Saviour (Joh_16:22). Christmas
joy was not only for the first twelve days when the Son of God was born, but for all
the twelve months of twelve hundred years, and many hundreds after them unto the
world’s end. So St. Peter cloth solace us with black sails of sorrow; as if he had never
made a saving voyage. All their laughter is like the joy of Herod’s birthday.; dancing,
and revels, and offering of great gifts last for a while, but before evening you shall see
an alteration; and when their surfeited tables are removed away, the last service in
the platter is the head of John the Baptist. But the mirth which we have in the
Mediator of our salvation is a song which hath no rest in it, nor ever shall have a
close. We begin the first part here, that we may sing the other part in psalms and
hallelujahs with the saints for ever. As Christmas is celebrated part of the new year,
and part of the old, so it is joy that is in this life, and shall be in the life to come.
(Bishop Hacket.)
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The nativity of our Lord, tidings of great joy
1. Let us consider that the nativity doth import the completion of many ancient
promises, predictions, and prefigurations concerning it; that whereas all former
dispensations of favour and mercy were as preludes or preambles to this; the old
law did aim to represent it in its mysterious pomps; the chief of providential
occurrences did intimate it; the prophets often in their mystical raptures did
allude to it, and often in clear terms did express it; the gracious designs of God,
and the longing expectations of mankind being so variously implied in regard
thereto; now all is come to be fulfilled, and perfected in most clear, most
effectual, most substantial accomplishment. Now what can be more delightful, or
satisfactory to our mind, than to reflect on this sweet harmony of things, this
goodly correspondence between the old and new world; wherein so pregnant
evidences of God’s chief attributes (of His goodness, of His wisdom, of His
fidelity and constancy), all conspiring to our benefit, do shine? Is it not pleasant
to contemplate how provident God hath ever been for our welfare? what trains
from the world’s beginning, or ever since our unhappy fall, He hath been laying to
repair and restore us? how wisely He hath ordered all dispensations with a
convenient reference and tendency to this masterpiece of grace? how steady He
hath been in prosecuting His designs, and how faithful in accomplishing His
promises concerning it? If the “holy patriarchs did see this day, and were glad”; if
a glimpse thereof did cause their hearts to leap within them; if its very dawn had
on the spirits of the prophets so vigorous an influence, what comfort and
complacence should we feel in this its real presence, and bright aspect on us!
2. Let us consider what alteration our Lord’s coming did induce, by comparing
the state of things before it with that which followed it. The old world then
consisting of two parts, severed by a strong wall of partition, made up of
difference in opinion, in practice, in affection, together with a strict prohibition to
one of holding intercourse with the other. Such was the state of the world in its
parts; and jointly of the whole it may be said that it was “shut up under sin” and
guilt, under darkness and weakness, under death and corruption, under sorrow
and woe: that no full declaration of God’s pleasure, no clear overture of mercy, no
express grant of spiritual aid, no certain redemption from the filth or the force of
sin, from the stroke of death, from due punishment hereafter; no
encouragements suitable to high devotion, or strict virtue, were anywise in a
solemn way exhibited or dispensed before our Lord’s appearance: so that well
might all men be then represented as Cimmerians, “sitting in darkness, in the
region and shadow of death.” Now the Spirit of God (the Spirit of direction, of
succour, of comfort spiritual) is poured on all flesh. “Now the grace of God, that
bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men.” Now Jew and Gentile are reunited
and compacted in one body; walking in the same light, and under obligation to
the same laws. But farther, that we may yet more nearly touch the point—
3. Let us consider that the nativity of our Lord is a grand instance, a pregnant
evidence, a rich earnest of Almighty God’s very great affection and benignity
toward mankind; for, “In this,” saith St. John, “the love of God was manifested,
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world:” and, “Through the tender
mercies of our God,” sang old Zachariah, “the Day-spring from on high did visit
us:” this indeed is the peculiar experiment, wherein that most Divine attribute
did show and signalize itself. And what greater reason of joy can there be, than
such an assurance of His love, on whose love all our good dependeth, in whose
love all our felicity consisteth? What can be more delightful than to view the face
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of our Almighty Lord so graciously smiling on us? Should we not be extremely
glad, should we not be proud, if our earthly prince by any signal mark would
express himself kindly affected to us? How much more should we resent such a
testimony of God’s favour t how worthily may our souls be transported with a
sense of such affection!
4. We may consider our Lord’s nativity, as not only expressing simple good-will,
but implying a perfect reconciliation, a firm peace, a steady friendship
established between God and us or that it did not only proceed from love, but did
also produce love to us. Now, then, what can be more worthy of joy than such a
blessed turn of affairs? How can we otherwise than with exceeding gladness
solemnize such a peace?
5. Our Lord’s nativity doth infer a great honour, and a high preferment to us:
nowise indeed could mankind be so dignified, or our nature so advanced as
hereby: no wisdom can devise a way beyond this, whereby God should honour
His most special favourites, or promote them to a nearness unto Himself. This is
a peculiar honour, to which the highest angels cannot pretend; “for He took not
the nature of angels, but He took the seed of Abraham.” And is it not good matter
of joy to be thus highly graced? When are men better pleased than when they are
preferred; than especially, when “from the meanest state, from the dunghill, or
from the dust, they are raised to be set among princes, and made to inherit the
throne of glory”?
6. Finally, if we survey all principal causes of joy and special exultation, we shall
find them all concurring in this event. Is a messenger of good news embraced
with joy? Behold the great Evangelist is come, with His mouth full of news, most
admirable, most acceptable: He, who doth acquaint us that God is well pleased,
that man is restored, that “the adversary is cast down,” that paradise is set open,
and immortality retrieved; that truth and righteousness, peace and joy, salvation
and happiness are descended, and come to dwell on earth. Is the birth of a prince
by honest subjects to be commemorated with joyous festivity? Behold a Prince
born to all the world! a Prince undertaking to rule mankind with sweetest
clemency and exact justice. May victory worthily beget exultation? See the
invincible warrior doth issue forth into the field, “conquering and to conquer”:
He that shall baffle and rifle the strong one, our formidable adversary; that shall
rout all the forces of hell, and triumph over the powers of darkness. Is a
proclamation of peace, after rueful wars, to be solemnized with alacrity? Behold
then everlasting peace between heaven and earth, a general peace among men. Is
satisfaction of desire and hope very pleasant? Behold the “desire of all nations,
the expectation of Israel,” He for whom the whole creation groaned, is come. Is
recovery of liberty delectable to poor slaves and captives? Behold the “Redeemer
is come out of Sion”; the precious ransom, sufficient to purchase the freedom of
many worlds, is laid down. Is an overture of health acceptable to sick and
languishing persons? Behold the great Physician, endued with admirable skill,
and furnished with infallible remedies, is come, to cure us of our maladies, and
ease us of our pains. Is mirth seasonable on the day of marriage? Behold the
greatest wedding that ever was is this day solemnised; heaven and earth are
contracted; divinity is espoused to humanity; a sacred, an indissoluble knot is
tied between God and man. Is the access of a good friend to be received with
cheerful gratulation? Behold the dearest and best Friend of all mankind. Is
opportune relief grateful to persons in a forlorn condition, pinched with extreme
want, or plunged in any hard distress? Behold a merciful, a bountiful, a mighty
Saviour and succourer. Is the sun-rising comfortable after a tedious, darksome,
and cold night? See, “the Sun of Righteousness is risen with healing in His
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wings,” dispensing all about His pleasant rays and kindly influences. (J. Barrow,
D. D.)
Religious joy
Let us consider this more at length, as contained in the gracious narrative of which
the text is part.
1. What do we read just before the text? that there were certain shepherds
keeping watch over their flock by night, and angels appeared to them. Why
should the heavenly hosts appear to these shepherds? What was it in them which
attracted the attention of the angels and the Lord of angels? Were these
shepherds learned, distinguished, or powerful? Were they especially known for
piety and gifts? Nothing is said to make us think so. Almighty God looks with a
sort of especial love, or (as we may term it) affection, upon the lowly. Perhaps it is
that man, a fallen, dependent, and destitute creature, is more in his proper place
when he is m lowly circumstances, and that power and riches, though
unavoidable in the case of some, are unnatural appendages to man, as such. And
what a contrast is presented to us when we take into account who were our Lord’s
messengers to them! The angels who excel in strength, these did His bidding
towards the shepherds. Here the highest and the lowest of God’s rational
creatures are brought together. A set of poor men, engaged in a life of hardship,
exposed at that very time to the cold and darkness of the night, watching their
flocks, with the view of scaring away beasts of prey or robbers. We know the
contracted range of thought, the minute and ordinary objects, or rather the one
or two objects, to and fro again and again without variety, which engage the
minds of men exposed to such a life of heat, cold, and wet, hunger and nakedness,
hardship and servitude. They cease to care much for anything, but go on in a sort
of mechanical way, without heart, and still more without reflection. To men so
circumstanced the angel appeared, to open their minds, and to teach them not to
be downcast and in bondage because they were low in the world. He appeared as
if to show them that God had chosen the poor in this world to be heirs of His
kingdom, and so to do honour to their lot.
2. And now comes a second lesson, which I have said may be gained from the
festival. The angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the
shepherds;, next he taught it to be joyful by his message. The angel said, “Fear
not,” when he saw the alarm which his presence caused among the shepherds.
Even a lesser wonder would have reasonably startled them. Therefore the angel
said, “Fear not.” We are naturally afraid of any messenger from the other world,
for we have an uneasy conscience when left to ourselves, and think that his
coming forebodes evil. Besides, we so little realize the unseen world, that were
angel or spirit to present himself before us we should be startled by reason of our
unbelief, a truth being brought home to our minds which we never apprehended
before. A little religion makes us afraid; when a little light is poured in upon the
conscience, there is a darkness visible; nothing but sights of woe and terror; the
glory of God alarms while it shines around. His holiness, the range and
difficulties of His commandments, the greatness of His power, the faithfulness of
His word, frighten the sinner, and men seeing him afraid, think religion has made
him so, whereas he is not religious at all. But religion itself, far from inculcating
alarm and terror, says, in the words of the angel, “Fear not;” for such is His
mercy, while Almighty God has poured about us His glory, yet it is a consolatory
glory, for it is the light of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ (2Co_4:6). If all
these things be so, surely the lesson of joy which the incarnation gives us is as
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impressive as the lesson of humility. St. Paul gives us the one lesson in his Epistle
to the Philippians: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men.” (J. H.Newman, D. D.)
Glad news
The days of life are not lived on one level range. There are days that are lifted, and
days that are depressed; days which stand out radiant with opportunity, as summits
of mountains stand forth to the eye when the sun shines upon them. Now and then
you come to a day so auspicious, so prophetic of good, that it sings through all its
hours, and is as a hymn and a psalm. Not only do men come to such days, not only do
individuals find themselves lifted by God’s mercy to such summits of feeling and
expression, but nations and cities, governments and institutions, come to the same
happy fortune. There are days in national life linked with such victorious memories,
full with such present triumphs, that at the rising of the sun every patriotic citizen
flings out to the morning air the national banner. Institutions, too, have their
glorious days. Popular movements that represent great causes and grand effects roll
up like waves to their cresting, and the power of the forces which moved them on
culminates in popular gladness. Religion shares in the action of this law. And it is
because Christianity helps men that it is properly named “glad news”; and it may be
well for us who are in worship assembled to ask ourselves and to consider wherein
Christianity is glad news, and why, being accepted, it brings joy to the human heart.
In the first place, it is glad news because it is a revelation of God—both as to what He
is in Himself, and what His feelings are toward man. The highest conception the
human mind can form is that of Deity. It is too great in itself to go on without
conceiving of a greater. The human constitution is of so noble a sort, is so majestic in
its vision, so profound in its necessities, that it must have a God. The greatness of
man is seen in the fact that in him is an actual graving to bow down to some one or to
something that symbolises some one. Look, then, at and consider the state of the
world before Christianity was born. Here and there an old sage, by sixty years of
studentship, had groped his way up until his fingers had felt out a knowledge of the
alphabet of truth which taught him the rudiments of righteousness. But of God they
knew little. Of the life beyond the grave they knew nothing. The consolation which
comes from knowledge they had not amid their trials. They died blindly submissive;
they died wretchedly patient; they died stoically indifferent. And those that were left
to mourn above their graves mourned without hope. But when Christianity was born,
a sun rose into the darkness of the world. Men saw what they had felt must be, but
what they bad never before seen. And chiefest among all sights revealed stood God. It
told them of His affection, of His patience, of His mercy. It told them that He was
mindful of them, that His ears were open to their cries, and His eyes noted the falling
of their tears. What a revelation was this! How satisfactory in its nature! How
sublime in its significance! How far-reaching in its influence! How could piety ever
become intelligent? How could devotion ever be ardent and sincere until, in the
person of God, the source and pattern of all purity, of all justice, of all affection,
should be revealed unto man? Let it be known, then, and profoundly felt by us all
here to-day, that Christianity was “glad news” unto man, first and foremost, because
it revealed God. We do not realize, so familiar are we with the thought, what a gap
would be made in our lives if from our minds the knowledge we have of God were
stricken. Such a removal would be like taking one’s heart from his bosom. As in the
one case physically we could not survive, so in the other case spiritually we could not
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survive. And the second great and emphatic reason is, as it seems to me, because it
revealed man to himself. Never till Jesus was born—never till He had lived and
passed away—did man know the nobility of his species. Never until God dwelt in the
flesh could any man know what flesh might become. For natures are measured, not
by what they can impart primarily, but by what they can receive. The ox can receive
but little. The sweetness of the grass, the pungency of the budding shrubbery he
crops, the coolness of the water that he drinks when athirst—these measure his
being. They minister to his structure, and its wants being supplied his life is satisfied.
The dog can receive yet more. He craves food, but he also craves affection. A life
higher than his own is needed for his happiness. He looks at the hand of his master
as the inferior looks at the superior when itself is great-enough to discover greatness.
The dog finds deity in his master. From him he learns law and love both. From him
he receives joy so intense that even his master marvels at it, and wonders that so
slight a motion of his hand, so brief an utterance from his lips, can make any being so
happy. It is because the dog can receive so much that thought ranks him so high. And
the capacity of receptiveness gives accurate measurement and gradation to animals
and to men. I say to men; for the same law holds good in the human species. There
are some who receive little. On the other hand, there are those who are as a house
when its windows are all open, and the sun and the wind play through its chambers.
There is no form of beauty; there is no shade of loveliness; there is no odour or
perfume, nor any melodious sound, that appeals to them in vain. And when we view
them on the higher levels of receptiveness—the levels of mind and soul—we find that
their intellect and their spirits alike are as pools that stand waiting for the streams to
flow into them. From history and poetry, from science and art, from past and
present, they are ministered unto ceaselessly. Nor is there anything religious,
anything sacred and devout, anything spiritual and Divine, which does not find ready
entrance into their natures. So freely do they receive of these, that by them at last
they are possessed. Renewed in mind, transformed in spirit, sanctified in soul, they
become like Him of whom they have received. So that their walk and conversation is
with God. Never, as we have said, until Christ came was the greatness of this capacity
to receive demonstrated. Christ showed what man might be, and thereby fixed his
value. Heaven paid such a price for man that man himself was astonished. God’s acts
are based on knowledge. The second reason, then, why Christianity is glad news is
seen in the fact that beyond any mere religion, beyond all philosophies, it tells me
what man is. We who are here can rise up and say, “We know what man is!” The
world, from east to west, from north to south, can say, speaking through all her
myriad mouths, “We know what man is!” The great continents, the islands of the sea,
the far shores and the far climes, through all their industries, through all their
commerce, through their intelligence, through the glory of their bloom and the
pendent wealth of their harvests, can say, “We know what man is!” Ay, and the spirits
of the redeemed in heaven and the great angels that wait before God, mighty in their
power and intelligence, can bow down before Him who made the revelation in His
Son, and murmur, in the hush of holy awe, “We know what man is!” We have said
that the first reason why Christianity was glad news was found in the fact that it
revealed God; and the second great reason that it was glad news was found in the fact
that it revealed man; and now we say, lastly, that the third great reason why
Christianity is glad news is found in the fact that it reveals God in man. Theodore
Parker, of pleasant memory to many, to whom this city owes much, and to whom
humanity owes more, had a splendid conception of God. No nobler Deity was ever
preached than he proclaimed. Many who deride him, but have never read him, would
be richer spiritually than they are if in their minds and souls they had his conception
of Divinity. In addition to his splendid conception of God, he had the noblest possible
conception of man—of his nature, of his possibilities, of his rights, and of his destiny.
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But of God in man he seems to have had little, if any, conception. On his right hand
stood God, like a hewn pillar, massive and polished to the finest gleam; on the left
stood man, a companion pillar, of which in way of description it is enough to say that
it was the reflection of the other. But God in man, or the God-man—that white arch
that should connect and span the space between the two—he did not discern. And
that the object of this incarnation of Deity was the salvation of men from their sins
we know. The mighty and benevolent uses of incarnation are patent. Only so could
God be revealed, in such a way that the human mind might apprehend Him clearly,
and the human soul in Him find courage. Only by such an incarnation could the
requisite authority be given to human utterance, and the requisite wisdom be
imparted to human understanding. Only by such an incarnation could the holy
example, whose presence was needed, be given unto the world, and the adequate
inspiration be imparted to humanity. And only by such an incarnation, only through
the lips of His own Son, could the Divine Fatherhood be properly declared, the
Divine life properly lived, and the victorious sacrifice, required both for the justice of
heaven and the moral necessities of men, be made. We rejoice, therefore, in the
incarnation of God in Christ as those who apprehend the high spiritual uses it
subserves, the profound spiritual necessities it meets, and the otherwise
incomprehensible truths that it makes familiar unto us. (W. H. Aitken.)
Good tidings of great joy
The message was one bearing “good tidings of great joy.” “Good tidings” in view of
the light which was to be shed, the deliverance which was to be wrought, and the
union of the whole race which was contemplated, and shall in due course be effected.
I. “Good tidings of great joy” in view of THE LIGHT WHICH WAS TO BE SHED.
Christ in His coming has shed light upon the Divine tenderness and grace. Christ, in
His coining, has shed light upon the moral obligations of men. “The law was given by
Moses.” And Christ in His coming has shed light upon human destiny.
II. “Good tidings of great joy” in view of THE DELIVERANCE WHICH WAS TO BE
WROUGHT. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord.” The deliverance Christ came to effect for all who should trust to
Him is both a present and an eternal deliverance. He secures deliverance from the
burden of unforgiven sin. He sets free from the defilement of sin. He preserves from
remorse. And He saves from despondency and distrust. But He came to effect our
eternal deliverance.
III. “Good tidings of great joy,” in view of the union of THE WHOLE RACE WHICH
WAS CONTEMPLATED, AND WHICH SHALL, IN DUE COURSE, BE
ACCOMPLISHED. “Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all
people.” Judaism was marked by its exclusiveness. (S. D. Hillman, B. A.)
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been
born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
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CLARKE, "A Savior, which is Christ the Lord - A Savior, σωτηρ, the same as
Jesus from σωζειν, to make safe, to deliver, preserve, to make alive, thus used by the
Septuagint for ‫החיה‬ hecheiah, to cause to escape; used by the same for ‫פלט‬ to confide
in, to hope. See the extensive acceptations of the verb in Mintert, who adds under
Σωτηρ: “The word properly denotes such a Savior as perfectly frees us from all evil
and danger, and is the author of perpetual salvation.” On the word Jesus, see Joh_
1:29 (note).
Which is Christ. Χριστος, the anointed, from χριω to anoint, the same as ‫משיה‬
Messiah, from ‫משח‬ mashach. This name points out the Savior of the world in his
prophetic, regal, and sacerdotal offices: as in ancient times, prophets, kings, and
priests were anointed with oil, when installed into their respective offices. Anointing
was the same with them as consecration is with us. Oil is still used in the
consecration of kings.
It appears from Isa_61:1, that anointing with oil, in consecrating a person to any
important office, whether civil or religious, was considered as an emblem of the
communication of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. This ceremony was used on
three occasions, viz. the installation of prophets, priests, and kings, into their
respective offices. But why should such an anointing be deemed necessary? Because
the common sense of men taught them that all good, whether spiritual or secular,
must come from God, its origin and cause. Hence it was taken for granted,
1. That no man could foretell events, unless inspired by the Spirit of God. And
therefore the prophet was anointed, to signify the communication of the Spirit
of wisdom and knowledge.
2. That no person could offer an acceptable sacrifice to God for the sins of men, or
profitably minister in holy things, unless enlightened, influenced, and directed
by the Spirit of grace and holiness. Hence the priest was anointed, to signify his
being divinely qualified for the due performance of his sacred functions.
3. That no man could enact just and equitable laws which should have the
prosperity of the community and the welfare of the individual continually in
view, or could use the power confided to him only for the suppression of vice
and the encouragement of virtue, but that man who was ever under the
inspiration of the Almighty.
Hence kings were inaugurated by anointing with oil. Two of these offices only exist
in all civilized nations, the sacerdotal and regal; and in some countries the priest and
king are still consecrated by anointing. In the Hebrew language, ‫משח‬ mashach
signifies to anoint; and ‫המשיח‬ ha-mashiach, the anointed person. But as no man was
ever dignified by holding the three offices, so no person ever had the title ha-
mashiach, the anointed one, but Jesus the Christ. He alone is King of kings, and Lord
of lords: the king who governs the universe, and rules in the hearts of his followers;
the prophet to instruct men in the way wherein they should go; and the great high
priest, to make atonement for their sins.
Hence he is called the Messias, a corruption of the word ‫המשיח‬ ha-mashiach, The
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anointed One, in Hebrew; which gave birth to ᆇ Χριστος, ho Christos, which has
precisely the same signification in Greek. Of him, Melchizedek, Abraham, Aaron,
David, and others, were illustrious types; but none of these had the title of The
Messiah, or the Anointed of God: This does, and ever will, belong exclusively to Jesus
the Christ.
The Lord. Κυριος, the supreme, eternal Being, the ruler of the heavens and the
earth. The Septuagint generally translate ‫יהוה‬ Yehovah by Κυριος. This Hebrew word,
from ‫היה‬ hayah, he was, properly points out the eternity and self-existence of the
Supreme Being; and if we may rely on the authority of Hesychius, which no scholar
will call in question, Κυριος is a proper translation of ‫יהוה‬ Yehovah, as it comes from
κυρω, - τυγχανω, I am, I exist. Others derive it from κυρος, authority, legislative
power. It is certain that the lordship of Christ must be considered in a mere spiritual
sense, as he never set up any secular government upon earth, nor commanded any to
be established in his name; and there is certainly no spiritual government but that of
God: and indeed the word Lord, in the text, appears to be properly understood, when
applied to the deity of Christ. Jesus is a prophet, to reveal the will of God, and
instruct men in it. He is a priest, to offer up sacrifice, and make atonement for the sin
of the world. He is Lord, to rule over and rule in the souls of the children of men: in a
word, he is Jesus the Savior, to deliver from the power, guilt, and pollution of sin; to
enlarge and vivify, by the influence of his Spirit; to preserve in the possession of the
salvation which he has communicated; to seal those who believe, heirs of glory; and
at last to receive them into the fullness of beatitude in his eternal joy.
GILL, "For unto you is born this day,.... Day is here put for a natural day,
consisting both of night and day; for it was night when Christ was born, and the
angels brought the tidings of it to the shepherds. The particular day, and it may be,
month and year, in which Christ was born, cannot be certainly known; but this we
may be sure of, it was in the fulness of time, and at the exact, season fixed upon
between God and Christ in the council and covenant of peace; and that he was born,
not unto, or for the good of angels; for the good angels stand in no need of his
incarnation, sufferings, and death, having never fell; and as for the evil angels, a
Saviour was never designed and provided for them; nor did Christ take on him their
nature, nor suffer in their stead: wherefore the angel does not say, "unto us", but
"unto you", unto you men; for he means not merely, and only the shepherds, or the
Jews only, but the Gentiles also; all the children, all the spiritual seed of Abraham, all
elect men; for their sakes, and on their account, and for their good, he assumed
human nature; see Isa_9:6.
in the city of David; that is, Bethlehem, as in Luk_2:4 where the Messiah was to be
born, as being, according to the flesh, of the seed of David, his son and offspring; as
he is, according to his divine nature, his Lord and root. The characters of this new
born child follow, and which prove the tidings of his birth to be good, and matter of
joy:
a Saviour; whom God had provided and appointed from all eternity; and had been
long promised and much expected as such in time, even from the beginning of the
world; and is a great one, being God as well as man, and so able to work out a great
salvation for great sinners, which he has done; and he is as willing to save as he is
able, and is a complete Saviour, and an only, and an everlasting one: hence his name
is called Jesus, because he saves from sin, from Satan, from the law, from the world,
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from death, and hell, and wrath to come, and from every enemy,
Which is Christ the Lord; the Messiah spoken of by the prophets; the anointed of
the Lord, with the Holy Ghost without measure, to be a prophet, priest, and king in
his church; and who is the true Jehovah, the Lord our righteousness, the Lord of all
creatures, the Lord of angels, good and bad, the Lord of all men, as Creator, the
Prince of the kings of the earth, the Lord of lords, and King of kings; and who is
particularly the Lord of saints by his Father's gift, his own purchase, the espousal of
them to himself, and by the power of his grace upon them: and the birth of such a
person must needs be joyful, and is to be accounted good news, and glad tidings.
JAMISON, "unto you is born — you shepherds, Israel, mankind [Bengel].
Compare Isa_9:6, “Unto us a Child is born.” It is a birth - “The Word is made flesh”
(Joh_1:14). When? “This day.” Where? “In the city of David” - in the right line and at
the right “spot”; where prophecy bade us look for Him, and faith accordingly
expected Him. How dear to us should be these historic moorings of our faith! With
the loss of them, all substantial Christianity is lost. By means of them how many have
been kept from making shipwreck, and attained to a certain external admiration of
Him, ere yet they have fully “beheld His glory.”
a Saviour — not One who shall be a Savior, but “born a Savior.”
Christ the Lord — “magnificent appellation!” [Bengel]. “This is the only place
where these words come together; and I see no way of understanding this “Lord” but
as corresponding to the Hebrew JEHOVAH” [Alford].
CALVIN, "11.This day is born to you Here, as we lately hinted, the angel
expresses the cause of the joy. This day is born the Redeemer long ago promised,
who was to restore the Church of God to its proper condition. The angel does not
speak of it as a thing altogether unknown. He opens his embassy by referring to
the Law and the Prophets; for had he been addressing heathens or irreligious
persons, it would have been of no use to employ this mode of speaking: this day
is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord For the same reason, he mentions
that he was born in the city of David, which could serve no purpose, but to recall
the remembrance of those promises which were universally known among the
Jews. Lastly, the angel adapted his discourse to hearers who were not altogether
unacquainted with the promised redemption. With the doctrine of the Law and
the Prophets he joined the Gospel, as emanating from the same source. Now,
since the Greek word Greek, as Cicero assures us, has a more extensive meaning
than the Latin word Servator, and as there is no Latin noun that corresponds to
it, I thought it better to employ a barbarous term, than to take anything away
from the power of Christ. And I have no doubt, that the author of the Vulgate,
and the ancient doctors of the Church, had the same intention. (150) Christ is
called Savior, (151) because he bestows a complete salvation. The pronoun to you
(152) is very emphatic; for it would have given no great delight to hear that the
Author of salvation was born, unless each person believed that for himself he
was born. In the same manner Isaiah says, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a
Son is given,” (Isaiah 9:6;) and Zechariah, “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee
lowly,” (Zechariah 9:9.)
COFFMAN, "Three titles of the Son of God were announced by the angels.
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Saviour ... has reference to Jesus' office as the sin-bearer, the procurer of
salvation for the sons of men, a salvation which, preeminently above everything
else, was the remission of their sins and restoration of the fellowship lost in Eden.
Christ ... identifies Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, the
Shiloh, Anointed, Suffering Servant, and Messiah foretold of old. Although the
term had been corrupted by the base and foreign elements of meaning imported
into the title by the carnal and malignant secularism of the religious hierarchy, it
had the true meaning that Jesus was the divine head of the theocracy, the lawful
ruler of Israel, the promised Son of David who would usher in the great
kingdom, misunderstood by the Jews as a mere resurrection of the low kingdom
of Solomon.
The Lord ... The preference Luke showed for this title in his record of Jesus' life
and teachings is alleged by the critics to have been the cause of his using it in
such contexts as this, "retroactively," thus denying that Luke really reported
here exactly what the angels said. Such a view is totally unworthy of acceptance.
Rather, it is in the use of the term "Lord' by Elizabeth and by the angels, etc.
which accounts for Luke's preference for it. This Gospel was written only thirty
years after the events related; and the widespread use of "Lord" as a title of
Jesus Christ, as evidenced by the writings and preaching of Paul, with whom
Luke had been a traveling companion for many years, postulates that there was
a cause for such widespread acceptance of the title; and that cause is evident in
the event here, in which the angels of God called Jesus "Lord."
COKE, "Luke 2:11. For unto you is born, &c.— Because one of the Bodleian
manuscripts reads this ημιν, to us, Mr. Fleming has conjectured, that the angel
who spoke was a glorified human spirit, perhaps that of Adam, all of whose
happy descendants might, he thinks, make up the chorus, Luke 2:13. But
considering the great assent of copies to the present reading, this conjecture leans
upon a very slender support. Grotius imagines (which is more probable) that this
angel was Gabriel. Almost all the Greek fathers, after the fourth Century, taught
that this day, upon which our Saviour was born, was the sixth of January; but
the Latins fixed his birth to the twenty-fifth of December. However, the
principles upon which both the one and the other proceeded, clearlyprove their
opinion to be without foundation. They imagined that Zacharias, John the
Baptist's father, enjoyed the dignity of high-priest, and that he was burning
incense on the day of expiation, when the angel appeared to him in the temple;
and as the national expiation was always made on the tenth of Tisri, answering
to the twenty-fifth of September,they fixed Elisabeth's pregnancy to that day,
and supposed that Gabriel appeared to Mary precisely six months after; so that
reckoning nine months forward, they brought the birth of Christ exactly to the
twenty-fifth of December. The Greek fathers, though they proceeded upon the
very same principles, were not so exact in their calculations, making the birth to
happen some days later; but the uncertainty, or to express it better, the fallacy of
those principles, has induced Scaliger, Calvisius, and most learned men since
that time, to maintain, in opposition to the ancient doctors of both churches, that
our Lord was born in September. The writers above mentioned support their
opinion by the following calculation: when Judas Maccabeus restored the temple
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worship on the twentieth of the month Casleu, answering to the beginning or
middle of our December, the course of Joarib, or first course of priests,
(according to 1 Chronicles 24:7.) began the service, the rest succeeding in their
turns. By making computations accordingto these suppositions, it is found, that
the course ofAbia, to which Zacharias belonged, served in the months of July or
August, at which time the conception of the Baptist happened. And as Mary had
her vision in the sixth month of Elisabeth's pregnancy, that is to say, about the
beginning of January, she conceived so as to bring forth our Lord in the
September following. To this agrees the circumstance of the shepherds lying out
in the fields the night of the nativity, which might happen in the month of
September, but not probably in January. So likewise the taxation at Christ's
birth, which might be executed more convenientlyin autumn than the depth of
winter, especially as the people were obliged to repair to the cities of their
ancestors, which were often at a great distance from the places of their abode.
After the time, the angel mentions the place of the Saviour's nativity,—in the city
of David; informing us, that thus it pleased God, that He who is described as of
the house and lineage of David, and of whom David himself was but a type,
should have his birth in the same city where David had, to make the parallel
more complete and exact. But there is yet something further in the case; for this
city of David was Bethlehem, whence we find his father called Jesse the
Bethlehemite; and from hence it was that the prophet Micah foretold that the
ruler in Israel should come forth, ch. Luke 5:2. Now since Hebrew names are
usually significant, and imposed to some special end or purpose, we may observe
that the name of this city signifies the house or place of bread; and what place
fitter for his birth and reception, who was and is the living bread which came
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die? After the place, the
angel makes out the great characteristics of the Saviour,—who is Christ the
Lord,—the Messiah, or Anointed. The natural properties of things, though
separated from common to religious use, continue the same. They are hallowed
by such separation; they are applied to greater objects, and employed in the
highest service; but are not altered in themselves. The frankincense, the salt, the
oil are the same, whether in the temple or the cottage, and are subservient to like
purposes. The properties of oil are such, as have recommended it to various
offices, civil and religious. It not only preserves itself, but also gives a lustre to
other bodies; is a proper vehicle for odoriferous perfumes, is soft and bright, and
makes the face to shine, which was of old esteemed a symbol of joy and
magnificence; to which may be added, that as it feeds and maintains life in the
lamp, so it served to denote the influences of the Spirit. Hence the king, the
prophet, the priest, consecrated persons and thing, were anointed, to give them a
lustre, and to denote and publish the separation of them from common men, and
common use. Hence the offerings of a sweet savour were with oil and
frankincense; but the sin-offering was without them. Leviticus 5:11. Oil was
poured on the head of Aaron with such profusion, as to run down upon his
beard, and the skirts of his garments. His sons were anointed with oil; the altar
and all its vessels, the tabernacle, the laver, and its foot were anointed. We have
also, in sacred and prophane history, many examples of anointing with oil. See
Luke 10:34. Homer's Iliad, Τ . 38. Σ. 350. It has been already said, that kings,
priests, and prophets were anointed. The word anointed was often used for
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prince or king. Cyrus is called the Lord's anointed: Saul was anointed captain
before he was king: Zerubbabel, with his crown of gold, and Joshua the high-
priest, with his crown of silver, are the two anointed ones in Zechariah 4:14. See
also Isaiah 61:1. So usual was the phrase of the anointed for kings, that in the
parable of the trees, Judges 9:9 they are said to go forth to anoint a king. Hence
it follows, that the expected king of the Jews, their greatest prince, prophet,
legislator, priest,—each of which offices alone would have entitled him to the
name of Messiah, or Anointed,—should eminently be called by the Jews the
Messiah, or Christ. It is not without particular emphasis, that the angel has
added to this character that he is the Lord. The title of Anointed, or anointed of
the Lord, is, as we have shewn, given to kings and God's vicegerents upon earth;
but the character of Christ the Lord is more exalted and sublime, and belongs
only to Him, whom the prophet calls Jehovah our righteousness; and the apostle,
the Lord from heaven; and who, being co-equal and co-eternal with the Father,
is God of gods, or Lord of lords. He was the Lord, the Jehovah, who appeared so
often under the first dispensation; to Abraham, in the plains of Mamre; to Isaac,
in Gerar; to Jacob, in Beth-el; to Moses, in the wilderness. He is the Leader of
the host of Israel; the Word of God, by whom he made the world, by whom he
conversedwith the first and best of mankind; whom he sent as a Saviour to
redeem his people from their servitude in Egypt, their captivity in Babylon, and
at last, in the flesh, to redeem the world from the pollution of sin, and the
dominion of death.
BI, "For unto you is born this day
Lessons from the birthday of Christ
The birthday of Christ!—a name which connects with the familiar associations of
home-life the opening of the heavens to human hope, the inconceivable grace and
condescension of Almighty God, the beginning of a state of things on earth in which
God our Maker has united Himself for ever with humankind.
I. REVERENCE. In thinking of Christ’s birthday, we are between two dangers. It may
have become a mere name and word to us, conventionally accepted and repeated, but
conveying no really living meaning; or it may have come with such fulness of
meaning as to overwhelm and confound our thoughts, making us ask, “How can such
things be?” Let us remember that “God is Love;” and that the mystery of the
incarnation is the manifestation of that infinite Love. Let us try to take a true
measure of the unspeakable majesty and living goodness with which we have to deal.
II. PURITY. The Incarnation was the mind and atmosphere of heaven, coming with
all the height of their sanctities into human flesh—a spectacle to make us stop and be
thoughtful, and consider our own experience of life and society. Let us pass from
things which fashion and custom do not mind, but which do lower the tone and
health of soul and character, which often tempt and corrupt it; let us turn away our
eyes from what, however captivating and charming, is dangerous to know and look
at, to the little child and His mother, and learn there the lesson of strength, of
manliness—for purity means manliness—of abhorrence of evil.
III. HUMILITY. The human mind cannot conceive any surrender of place and
claims, any willing lowliness and self-forgetfulness, any acceptance of the
profoundest abasement, comparable to that which is before us in the birth, and the
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circumstances of the birth, of Jesus Christ. The measure of it is the measure of the
distance between the Creator and the creature, and the creature in the most
unregarded, most uncared-for condition, helpless, unknown, of no account for the
moment among the millions of men whom He had made, and whose pride, and
loftiness, and ambition filled His own world. There He was for the time, the
youngest, weakest, poorest of them all; and He came thus, to show what God thinks
of human pride, ambition, loftiness. He came thus, to show how God despises the
untruth of self-esteem, the untruth of flattery, and to teach how little the outward
shows of our present condition answer to that which, in reality and truth, it is worth
while for a living soul, an immortal being, to be.
IV. THE LESSON OF NOT PUTTING OUR TRUST IN THE ARM OF FLESH.
Contrast the birthday of Christ with the purpose of His coming—to reform, conquer,
and restore the world. Of all that mighty order which was to be, of all that
overwhelming task and work before Him, here were the first steps, in the lowest
paths of human life! He it was to whom was committed this great work of God. Not in
the way which men understood or anticipated, not by forces and measures suggested
by their experience, but in the exact way of God’s perfect holiness and righteousness.
He began and finished the work which the Father gave Him to do. In the utter
unlikelihood of His success, there is a lesson for us. In doing His work, and in doing
our own work, we are often sorely tempted to depart from His footsteps. In doing His
work, in maintaining His cause, in fighting for His kingdom, it has always been too
common for man to think, that all the same means are available which are used in
human enterprises, that success depended on the same conditions, that it was
impossible without employing weapons which were not like His. They have trusted to
energy, strength, sagacity; they have distrusted the power of single-hearted
obedience, prayer, patience, faith, self-sacrifice, goodness; they have thought it weak
to be over-scrupulous; they have forgotten how far beyond the reach and touch of
human power are the fortunes of the kingdom of the Most Holy. And so in doing our
own work, it is hard for us all not to do the opposite to what our Master did; hard not
to trust to the arm and the ways of flesh, instead of trusting with our eyes shut the
path of duty, truth, obedience. The trader has before him the way of unflinching
honesty, or the way in which custom and opinion allow him to take advantage and
make shorter cuts to profit and increased business; which path will he take? Will he
have faith in principle, and perhaps wait, perhaps lose; or will he do as others do,
and, highly respecting principle, yet forget it at the critical moment? The young man
entering into life wishes to get on. Will he trust to what he is, to his determination to
do right, to straightforwardness and simplicity, to God’s blessing, or what God has
blessed and promised to bless, or will he push his fortunes by readiness to appear
what he is not, by selfishness, by man-pleasing, by crooked paths and questionable
compliances? The boy has to do his lessons and satisfy his teachers. Will he be
content to appear no cleverer than he is, to be conscientious, diligent, faithful,
dutiful, whatever comes of it; or will he be tempted to save himself labour and
trouble by shorter and easier ways which many will tell him of, and gain credit for
what he has no right to? Here, to warn us, to teach us, to comfort us, in all our varied
conditions and employments, we have the beginning of Christ’s conquest of the
world. The footsteps of His great progress begin from the cradle of the nativity.
V. GLADNESS AND JOY. Sometimes we feel hardly in tune for the rejoicing of
Christmas. It contrasts sharply with the bitterness of a recent bereavement, the
sorrowful watch round a hopeless sick bed. Or it may be, while we are saluting our
Lord’s coming with hymns and carols of childlike exultation, and repeating the
angelic welcome to the Prince of Peace, that by a terrible irony, the heavens around
us are black with storm and danger: that great nations are involved in the horrible
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death-struggle of war; that day by day men are perishing by every form of carnage,
and suffering every form of pain; and that by each other’s hands. We almost ask, in
such a case, whether it is not mockery to think of gladness. Yet it is in place even
then; and Christmas claims it from us. Those great gospel songs which heralded the
Incarnation of the Son of God—the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Song of the
angels—were themselves but the prelude to the life of the “Man of Sorrows.” They are
followed immediately by Rachel weeping for her children at Bethlehem, and the flight
from the sword of Herod. But yet in those dreadful days on earth, of blood and pain
and triumphant iniquity, there was peace in heaven and the joy of the angels; for
amid the cloud and storm of the conflict which men could not see through, the angels
knew who was conquering. He is conquering, and to conquer still. All falsehood,
cruelty, selfishness, oppression, and tyranny, are to fall before Him. Amid the
darkness of our life, the hope of man is still on Him, as fixed and sure as ever it was.
He will not disappoint man of his hope. (Dean Church.)
The message of the shepherds
I. How SURE IS GOD’S WORD!
II. How WONDERFUL ARE GOD’S WAYS!
III. How GLORIOUS IS GOD’S SALVATION! (W. S. Bruce, M. A.)
The two advents
I. THE FIRST COMING WAS IN WEAKNESS, the glory hidden; the second will be in
power, the glory revealed.
II. THE FIRST CONING WAS INTRODUCTIVE TO AN EXPERIENCE OF LABOUR
AND SUFFERING; the second will be the inauguration of coronation and triumph.
III. IN FIRST COMING CHRIST MADE SALVATION POSSIBLE; in second He will
prove how His work has sped.
IV. IN FIRST COMING HE INVITED MEN TO RECONCILIATION AND PEACE; in
second He shall descend to bless the believing, but judge the impenitent. Lessons: As
we are sure concerning the record of the first advent, let us also be as to the
prediction of the second. Have we used the first so as to be prepared for this? (G.
McMichael, B. A.)
Unto us a child is born
I. 1. Consider the revelation thus delivered by the angel—“Unto you is born a
Saviour.” Jesus is horn a Saviour; we do not make Him a Saviour; we have to accept
Him as such. Neither does salvation come from us or by us, but it is born to us.
2. Consider the outward sign by which the Saviour was to be known—“A babe
lying in a manger!” Children are the saviours of society: the human race renewing
itself perpetually in the freshness and innocence of childhood is prevented from
becoming utterly corrupt. This is just the lesson the world needed. Philosophy,
art, law, force, all had tried to raise mankind out of sin, and all had failed. In the
fulness of time “unto us a Child is born,” and in the weakness of that Childhood,
the human race is renewed, its flesh comes again “as the flesh of a little child.”
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II. 1. What a message from heaven to a world weary of life and sick with sin—“Unto
you is born a Saviour!”
2. What a message to those who are trusting in the pride of intellect, or in the
pride of wealth, or in the pride of earthly position, or in the pride of character—
“This shall be the sign: a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a
manger!” The signs which betoken the presence of the Eternal are not always
such as commend themselves to men’s reasoning, for we are living among
shadows which are not realities, although we mistake them for such. (Canon
Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
The nature of Christ’s salvation
He is not a temporal Saviour: He is not a Saviour from mere temporal calamity; He is
not a Saviour such as the saviours among the Jews were, who had emancipated them
from their civil foes; but He is a Saviour from spiritual evils. He saves us from
spiritual darkness by His Word; from the pollution and power of sin, by His merit
and grace; from the bondage of Satan, by His energy; from hell, by becoming a curse
for us, that we may attain eternal life. His salvation extends to the soul as well as the
body; to eternity as well as to time. (Dr. Beaumont.)
Universality of the gospel offer
In the further prosecution of this discourse, we shall first say a few words on the
principle of the gospel message—good-will: Secondly, on the object of the gospel
message—men—it is a message of good-will to men: And, Thirdly, on the application
of the gospel message to the men who now hear us.
I. When we say that God is actuated by a principle of good-will to you, it sounds in
your ears a very simple proposition. There is a barrier in these evil hearts of unbelief,
against the admission of a filial confidence in God. We see no mildness in the aspect
of the Deity. Our guilty fears suggest the apprehension of a stern and vindictive
character. It is not in the power of argument to do away this impression. We know
that they will not be made to see God, in that aspect of graciousness which belongs to
Him, till the power of a special revelation be made to rest upon them—till God
Himself, who created light out of darkness, shine in their hearts. But knowing also
that He makes use of the Word as His instrument, it is our part to lay the assurances
of that Word, in all their truth and in all their tenderness, before you.
II. We now proceed, in the second place, to the object of the gospel message—men—a
message of good-will to men. The announcement which was heard from the canopy
of heaven was not good-will to certain men to the exclusion of others. It is not an
offer made to some, and kept back from the rest of the species. It is generally to man.
We know well the scruples of the disconsolate; and with what success a perverse
melancholy can devise and multiply its arguments for despair. But we will admit of
none of them. We look at our text, and find that it recognizes no outcast. Tell us not
of the malignity of your disease—it is the disease of a man. Tell us not of your being
so grievous an offender that you are the very chief of them. Still you are a man. The
offer of God’s good-will is through Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that
believe. We want to whisper peace to your souls; but you refuse the voice of the
charmer, let him charm never so wisely. And here the question occurs to us—how
does the declaration of God’s good-will in the text consist with the entire and
everlasting destruction of so many of the species? In point of fact, all men are not
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saved. We hold out a gift to two people, which one of them may take and the other
may refuse. The good-will in me which prompted the offer was the same in reference
to both. God in this sense willeth that all men shall be saved. There is no limitation
with Him; and be not you limited by your own narrow and fearful and superstitious
conceptions of Him.
III. But this leads us, in the last place, to press home the lesson of the text on you
who are now sitting and listening around us. God, in the act of ushering the gospel
into the world, declares good-will to man. He declares it therefore to you. Now, you
are liable to the same fears with these shepherds. You are guilty; and to you belong
all the weakness and all the timidity of guilt. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Christ the Saviour
At the very utterance of the name Saviour, every heart exults with a delight otherwise
unknown. To the generous breast, no other object is so beautiful, no other sound so
welcome. Never do we shed such rapturous tears, or feel so passionate a joy, as when
we witness the heroism and the self-devotion of some act of magnanimous
deliverance. Power softens into loveliness, when thus exerted. Danger and toil,
encountered in such a cause, impart a stern, yet irresistible attraction. It is thus we
think of the patriot, bleeding for the freedom of his country; of the philanthropist,
regardless of his own security amidst pestilence, and darkness, and the ministers of
death, that he may release the wretched captive, and break the yoke of the oppressor;
of the advocate, defending the house of the widow or the heritage of the orphan, and
turning into mockery the venality of accusation, and the menaces of vengeance; of
the statesman, who stands forth single-handed, but with a dauntless heart, to turn
back the flood of tyranny or faction, when threatening to engulf in common ruin the
welfare of his people and the safety of mankind; and of the pilot, adventurously
urging his way through the pitiless and maddening surge, that he may snatch some
solitary victim from the horrors of shipwreck, and bear him, naked and shivering, to
the shore. What, then, shall be the glory of Him who plunged, with all the
consciousness of unsheltered peril, into the very depths of misery, to rescue the
perishing soul! Or what shall be the measure, either of our admiration or our
gratitude, when we celebrate, beholding its last triumphs, the emancipation of a
world! Advocate, Friend, Brother, these are beloved names; and, like a grateful
odour, they give life to the drooping spirit; but if the name of Saviour be more
endearing than them all, then what is that ravishment of love with which the rescued
sinner shall hail at length the blessed name of Jesus! (S. McAll.)
The Saviour’s love
Like the sunshine that falls with magical flicker on pearl and ruby, lance and armour,
in the royal hall, yet overflows the shepherd’s home, and quivers through the grating
of the prisoner’s cell; pours glory over the mountain-range; flames in playful
splendour on the wave; floods the noblest scenes with day, yet makes joy for the
insect; comes down to the worm, and has a loving glance for the life that stirs in the
fringes of the wayside grass; silvers the moss of the marsh and the scum of the pool;
glistens in the thistle-down; lines the shell with crimson fire, and fills the little flower
with light; travels millions and millions of miles, past stars, past constellations, and
all the dread magnificence of heaven, on purpose to visit the sickly weed, to kiss into
vividness the sleeping blooms of spring, and to touch the tiniest thing with the
gladness that makes it great: so does the Saviour’s love, not deterred by our
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unworthiness, not offended by our slights, come down to teach and bless the meanest
and the lowliest life in the new creation. He restores the bruised reed; the weakest
natures share His visits, and revive beneath His smile. (Charles Stanford, D. D.)
The great announcement
I. A Saviour is BORN.
II. A SAVIOUR is born.
III. A Saviour is born unto you.
IV. THIS DAY. (Van. Doren.)
A Saviour from spiritual ruin
I know not how, but when we hear of saving, or mention of a Saviour, presently our
mind is carried to the saving of our skin, of our temporal state, of our bodily life;
further saving we think not of. But there is another life not to be forgotten, and
greater the dangers, and the destruction there more to be feared than of this here,
and it would be well sometimes we were reminded of it. Besides our skin and flesh, a
soul we have, and it is our better part by far, that also hath need of a Saviour; that
hath her destruction out of which, that hath her destroyer from which she would be
saved, and those would be thought on. Indeed, our chief thought and care would be
for that; how to escape the wrath, how to be saved from the destruction to come,
whither our sins will certainly carry us. Sin will destroy us all. And to speak of a
Saviour, there is no person on earth has so much need of a Saviour as has a sinner.
Nothing so dangerous, so deadly unto us, as is the sin in our bosom; nothing from
which we have so much need to be saved, whatsoever account we make of it. From it
comes upon us all the evil of this life, and of the life to come, in comparison whereof
these here are not worth speaking of. Above all, then, we need a Saviour for our souls,
and from our sins, and from the everlasting destruction which sin will bring upon us
in the other life not far from us. Then if it be good tidings to hear of a Saviour, where
it is but a matter of the loss of earth, or of this life here; how then, when it comes to
the loss of heaven, to the danger of hell, when our soul is at stake, and the well-doing
or un-doing of it for ever? Is not such a Saviour worth hearkening after? (Bp.
Lancelot Andrews.)
Christ the Saviour of men
What does that word Christ mean, and what does it teach us? To the Jew of that day,
and even to the Pagan, there could have been no doubt as to the meaning of this word
Christ, the Christos, the Anointed, one representing to him some person who had
been publicly set apart to some great office among men. Anointing was that act by
which, especially among the Jews, a man was set apart to some Divinely appointed
office among the people; the prophet who was to speak to the people from God, the
priest who was to minister to the people in holy things for God, the king who was to
rule in God’s glory over God’s own people, were solemnly set apart by anointing to
their office. What they would have called anointing we now call consecration—the
publicly and divinely ordered sanctioning and setting apart of a man for an office in
which he is to minister unto men and for God. This is anointing, and more than this,
it implies that with the appointment and consecration came a power and a grace to fit
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a man for the office he received. When our Lord, then, is called the Anointed One, the
Christ, it means that He is the One of all humanity, who is divinely consecrated and
set apart to noble office and high service, and whose whole life and being is filled
with the Divine light necessary for doing the work of that office—the Anointed,
consecrated One, in whom all consecration and Divine unction centres for the
performance of all offices. And every one of these offices, observe, was in the service
of mankind. The prophetic office was His, and He claims it as His own when He says,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He hath anointed Me”—what for? “to preach
the gospel to the poor.” The prophet’s office was an office to serve mankind as their
teacher, their guide, and their counsellor. The priestly office was His, and for what?
That He might offer Himself as a Lamb without spot or blemish to God, and, having
entered by a new and living way with His own blood, should live for intercession and
sacrifice, coming forth with blessings for God’s people. God made Him king over
them, and gave Him heaven for an inheritance—for what? That He might rule them
in righteousness and peace. Prophet, Priest, King: in each one of these He was the
servant of mankind, and so He says of Himself, “The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister.” King of kings and Lord of lords He is, but Servant
of servants to His brethren, and the lordship and the kingdom that He won was won
by faith and suffering, won by faithful service, and He served that He might reign,
and through it all He was sustained by the in dwelling power of the Spirit of God,
who gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him. This is the idea of the Christ, the
consecrated One. It means One whose whole life on earth, whose whole life ever since
He has left this earth, was devoted, is devoted, to the service of mankind. (Bishop W.
C. Magee.)
A consecrated life
Not so long ago the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands were sorely smitten and
plagued by leprosy. They resolved at last to gather all the lepers from the islands
round about, all tainted with the slightest symptoms of leprosy, and banish them to
one island, where they should dwell and perish slowly, while the rest of their fellow
citizens were saved from the plague—and they did so. And this band of pilgrims, on a
pilgrimage of death, were gathered on the shore of one of these islands, about to
depart by a ship which would carry them away for life, and standing on the shore was
a priest, a Roman Catholic priest, and he saw this multitude going away without a
shepherd to care for their souls, and he said, “Take me, let me go amongst them; I
will dwell amongst these lepers, and will give them the ministrations of religion
which otherwise they would be without.” He went, and for some time his courage
sustained, and his ministrations blessed that people amongst whom he had cast his
lot for life, for he might never leave that place; and then we hear in a letter, written by
himself calmly and cheerfully, how that the disease has at last assailed himself, and
that his hours of labour are numbered, and before him lies the death of slow and
hideous decay to which he had doomed himself that he might save others. In that
man was the heart of the priest; in that man was to be seen a manifestation of the
Spirit of Christ, the Anointed One; full surely on that soul rested the Divine unction
that strengthens and blesses men for noble deeds of sacrifice; and there is not one of
us who, in our boasted Protestantism, might be disposed to look down upon “the
benighted priest,” there is not one of us who might not say, “Let my soul be with his
soul in the day when men will have to give an account before the judgment seat of
God.” (Bishop W. C. Magee.)
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The good news is for each and all
It is very pleasant to hear good tidings for all the rest of the world; but it is pleasanter
to know that we have a personal share in the benefits of which those tidings tell.
There may be safety to others who are endangered, and not to us. The lifeboat may
come and go, and we be left on the wreck. Bread may be distributed to the hungry,
and we fail of a share which shall keep as from starving. The physician may bring
health to many, and pass us by unnoticed. All of our condemned fellows might be
pardoned, and we have no release. Unless the good tidings are to us also, we cannot
welcome them with boundless joy, however glad we are that there is help for others.
The writer found himself, in the fortunes of war, a prisoner in the Libby, at
Richmond. One evening, as the prisoners lay down to sleep, the story was whispered
among them that a flag-of-truce boat had come up the river, and that some one of
their number was to be released the next day. That was glad tidings for all. But the
question in every prisoner’s mind was, “Am I to be released?” There were many
dreams of home that night on that prison floor. In the early morning, after roll-call,
there was breathless expectancy for the name of the favoured prisoner. It was the
name of Chaplain Trumbull. Those glad tidings had a meaning for him they could not
have for any of his companions. To him there came that day the message of
deliverance from bondage, and he passed out from the prison-house thanking God
that the message was to him. “Unto you” is a Saviour born. Whoever you are,
whatever are your sins there is salvation for you. (H. C. Trumbull.)
Joy in the Saviour fully received
He is the most joyful man who is the most Christly man. I wish that some Christians
were more truly Christians: they are Christians and something else; it were much
better if they were altogether Christians. Perhaps you know the legend, or perhaps
true history of the awakening of St. Augustine. He dreamed that he died, and went to
the gates of heaven, and the keeper of the gates said to him, “Who are you?” And he
answered, “Christianus sum,” I am a Christian. But the porter replied, “No, you are
not a Christian, you are a Ciceronian, for your thoughts and studies were most of all
directed to the works of Cicero and the classics, and you neglected the teaching of
Jesus. We judge men here by that which most engrossed their thoughts, and you are
judged not to be a Christian but a Ciceronian.” When Augustine awoke, he put aside
the classics which he had studied, and the eloquence at which he had aimed, and he
said, “I will be a Christian and a theologian;” and from that time he devoted his
thoughts to the Word of God, and his pen and his tongue to the instruction of others
in the truth. Oh I would not have it said of any of you, “Well, he may be somewhat
Christian, but he is far more a keen money-getting tradesman.” I would not have it
said, “Well, he may be a believer in Christ, but he is a good deal more a politician.”
Perhaps he is a Christian, but he is most at home when he is talking about science,
farming, engineering, horses, mining, navigation, or pleasure-taking. No, no, you will
never know the fulness of the joy which Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the
power of the Holy Spirit you take the Lord your Master to be your All in all, and make
Him the fountain of your intensest delight. “He is my Saviour, my Christ, my Lord,”
be this your loudest boast. Then will you know the joy which the angel’s song predicts
for men. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The lesson of Christmas
In the light of the Son of God becoming flesh, we dare not degrade or defile
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ourselves. We see how base an apostasy it is to abnegate the Divine prerogative of our
being. The birth of Christ becomes to us the pledge of immortality, the inspiration of
glad, unerring, life-long duty to ourselves. And no less does it bring home to us the
new commandment of love to our brethren. It becomes the main reason why we
should love one another. If men were indeed what Satan makes them, and makes us
try to believe that they solely are—hopelessly degraded, unimaginably vile; if human
life be nothing at the best but the shadow of a passing and miserable dream, I know
not how we could love one another. We could only turn with loathing from all the
vice and blight, the moral corruption, the manifold baseness of vile, lying, degraded
lives. How is all transfigured, how is the poorest wretch earth ever bore transfigured,
when we remember that for these Christ became man, for these He died I Shall we,
ourselves so weak, so imperfect, so stained with evil, shall we dare to despise these
whom Christ so loved that for them—yea, for those blind and impotent men, these
publicans and sinners, these ragged prodigals of humanity still voluntarily lingering
among the husks and swine—for these, even for these, He, so pure, so perfect, took
our nature upon Him, and went, step by step, down all that infinite descent? Despise
them? Ah! the revealing light of the God-man shows too much darkness in ourselves
to leave any possibility for pride. If we have learnt the lesson of Christmas, the lesson
of Bethlehem, let us live to counteract the works of the devil; let it be the one aim of
our lives to love and not to hate; to help, not to hinder; to succour them that are
tempted, not to add to and multiply their temptations; to make men better, not
worse; to make life a little happier, not more deeply miserable; to speak kindly
words, not words that may do hurt; to console and to encourage, not to blister and
envenom with slanderous lies; to live for others, not for ourselves; to look each of us
not on his own things, but on the things of others; to think noble thoughts of man as
well as of God; to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even
as God in Christ has forgiven us. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
A Saviour
The Esquimaux have no word in their language to represent the Saviour, and I could
never find out that they had any direct notion of such a Friend. But I said to them,
“Does it not happen sometimes when you are out fishing that a storm arises, and
some of you are lost and some saved?” They said, “Oh yes, very often.” “But it also
happens that you are in the water, and owe your safety to some brother or friend who
stretches out his hand to help you.” “Very frequently.” “Then what do you call that
friend?” They gave me in answer a word in their language, and I immediately wrote it
against the word Saviour in Holy Writ, and ever afterwards it was clear and
intelligible to all of them. (Colemeister.)
Christmas day explains two dispensations
Those who have travelled in mountainous countries know how the highest crest of
the mountain range is always known by seeing from that point, and that point only,
the streams dividing on either side. Even so it is with the event of this day. The
whole, or nearly the whole, history of the ancient world, and specially of the Israelite
people, leads us up to it as certainly on the one side, as the whole history of later
times, especially of the Christian world, leads us up to it from the other side: Other
events there are which explain particular portions of history; other birthdays can be
pointed out; other characters have arisen which contain within themselves the seed
of much that was to follow. There is none which professes like this to command both
views at once, and thus, even if we knew no more concerning it, we should feel that a
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life and character which so explains two dispensations comes to us with a double
authority. Either would be enough to constitute a claim to our reverence; both
together make a claim almost irresistible. (Dean Stanley.)
Christ born in the city of David
A poor casket to contain so great a Jewel. “Thou Bethlehem,” says the Prophet Micah,
“the least among the princes of Judah;” yet big enough to contain the Prince of
heaven and earth. Little Zoar, says Lot, and yet Zoar was big enough to receive him
and his children safe out of the fire of Sodom. Mean Bethlehem, unless the angel had
spoke it, the prophet foretold it, and the star had showed it to the wise men, who
would not have gainsaid that the Saviour of all men could be laid in such a village?
The Roman historian made a marvel that so noble an emperor as Alexander Severus
was, could come out of Syria, Syrus Archisynagogus, as they called him in scorn.
Behold that emperor’s Lord, comes not only out of Syria, but out of the homeliest
corner in Syria, out of the despicable tributary city of David. (Bishop Hacker.)
A Saviour
But that the name may not be an empty sound to us as it was to them, consider these
three things.
1. With what honour it was imposed.
2. What excellency it includes.
3. What reverence it deserves. (Bishop Hacker.)
His words, His actions, His miracles, His prayers, His sacraments, His sufferings, all
did smell of the Saviour. Take Him from His infancy to His death, among His
disciples and among the publicans, among the Jews, or among the Gentiles, He was
all Saviour. (Bishop Hacker.)
The sun enlightens half the world at once, yet none discern colours by the light but
they that open their eyes; and a Saviour is born unto us all, which is Christ the Lord:
but enclasp Him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms, and then thou mayest
sing his “Nune Dimittis,” or Mary’s “Magnificat,” “My spirit rejoiceth in God my
Saviour. (Bishop Hacker.)
Christ’s birth city
The Athenians were proud of Pompey’s love, that he would write his name a citizen of
their city. For a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean corporation is no little
kindness; how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven,
and be made a citizen of this vile earth, to be born after a more vile condition than
the most abject of the people. (Bishop Hacker.)
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The merit of Christ’s birth
For, as we say of the sin of Adam, the act passed away at the first, but the guilt
remains upon his posterity: so our Saviour was born upon one particular day which
is passed, but the merit and virtue of it is never passed, but abides for ever. (Bishop
Hacker.)
1. Then with reverend lips and circumcised ears let us begin with the joyful
tidings of a Saviour.
2. Here’s our participation of Him in His nature, natus, He is born, and made like
unto us.
3. It is honourable to be made like us, but it is beneficial to be made for us; “unto
you is born a Saviour.”
4. Is not the use of His birth superannuated, the virtue of it long since expired?
No, ‘tis fresh and new; as a man is most active when he begins first to run—He is
born this day.
5. Is He not like the king in the Gospel who journeyed into a far country, extra
orbem solisque vias, quite out of the way in another world? no—the circumstance
of place points His dwelling to be near—He is “born in the city of David.
6. Perhaps to make Him man is to quite unmake Him; shall we find Him able to
subdue our enemies, and save us, since He hath taken upon Him the condition of
human fragility? Yes, the last words speak His excellency and power, for He is
such a “Saviour as is Christ the Lord.” (Bishop Hacker.)
A Saviour
It comprehends all other names of grace and blessing; as manna is said to have all
kind of supers in it to please the taste. When you have called Him the glass in which
we see all truth, the fountain in which we taste all sweetness, the ark in which all
precious things are laid up, the pearl which is worth all other riches, the flower of
Jesse which hath the savour of life unto life, the bread that satisfieth all hunger, the
medicine that healeth all sickness, the light that dispelleth all darkness; when you
have run over all these, and as many more glorious titles as you can lay on, this one
word is above them, and you may pick them all out of these syllables, “a Saviour
which is Christ the Lord.” (Bishop Hacker.)
The nativity
Let us consider the message itself, the foundation of all our spiritual joy.
I. WHAT IS HE WHO IS BORN? He is “a Saviour,” a Deliverer. Good indeed are the
tidings of a saviour. Delightful to one languishing On a bed of pain and sickness is He
that comes with power and skill to heal and to restore. Most joyful to the wretch
condemned to die for his crimes, is the sound of pardon.
II. WHAT ARE THE TITLES GIVEN TO THIS SAVIOUR?
1. He is “Christ.” As His name, Jesus, signifies a saviour, so Christ signifies the
anointed. He is an anointed Saviour. Thus is He distinguished from all other
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saviours. The title “Christ” also teaches us His office.
2. He is “the Lord.” High and glorious name I He is Jehovah. He is “Lord” by
right of creation, in His Divine and eternal nature. He is “Lord” by right of
inheritance; man, as Mediator between God and man. He is more particularly our
“Lord” by redemption. These names, then, “Christ, the Lord,” show Him, an all-
sufficient Saviour; show Him, God and man united in one Person: as man to
suffer, as God to redeem. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a
baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
BARNES, "This shall be a sign ... - The evidence by which you shall know the
child is that you will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
CLARKE, "This shall be a sign (or token) unto you - You shall find this
glorious person, however strange it may appear, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying
in a stable! It is by humility that Christ comes to reign; and this is the only way into
his kingdom! Pride is the character of all the children of Adam: humility the mark of
the Son of God, and of all his followers. Christ came in the way of humility to destroy
that pride which is the root of evil in the souls of men. And thus, according to the old
medical aphorism, “Opposites are destroyed by their opposites.”
GILL, "And this shall be a sign unto you,.... When they should come to
Bethlehem, and to the inn where Joseph and Mary were:
ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger;
for though there might be many other children, in the inn, yet none else in swaddling
clothes, at least lying in a manger: this sign would distinguish the new born Saviour
from all others; had not the angel given them this direction, they would never have
thought to have looked for, and found: him in such a place: and moreover, it might
have been a stumbling to them, and an objection with them against his being Christ,
the Lord, had they not been told beforehand where he was; but by this means this
objection was prevented, and this stumbling block was removed out of the way, and
they were prepared to see him, embrace, and believe in him, in this mean condition.
HENRY, "He gives them a sign for the confirming of their faith in this matter.
“How shall we find out this child in Bethlehem, which is now full of the descendants
from David?” “You will find him by this token: he is lying in a manger, where surely
never any new-born infant was laid before.” They expected to be told, “You shall find
him, though a babe, dressed up in robes, and lying in the best house in the town,
lying in state, with a numerous train of attendants in rich liveries.” “No, you will find
him wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.” When Christ was here
upon earth, he distinguished himself, and made himself remarkable, by nothing so
much as the instances of his humiliation.
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JAMISON, "a sign — “the sign.”
the babe — “a Babe.”
a manger — “the manger.” The sign was to consist, it seems, solely in the
overpowering contrast between the things just said of Him and the lowly condition in
which they would find Him - Him whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting, “ye shall find a Babe”; whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain,
“wrapt in swaddling bands”; the “Savior, Christ the Lord,” lying in a manger! Thus
early were these amazing contrasts, which are His chosen style, held forth. (See 2Co_
8:9.)
CALVIN, "12.And this shall be a sign to you (153) The angel meets the prejudice
which might naturally hinder the faith of the shepherds; for what a mockery is
it, that he, whom God has sent to be the King, and the only Savior, is seen lying
in a manger! That the mean and despicable condition in which Christ was might
not deter the shepherds from believing in Christ, the angel tells them beforehand
what they would see. This method of proceeding, which might appear, to the
view of men, absurd and almost ridiculous, the Lord pursues toward us every
day. Sending down to us from heaven the word of the Gospel, he enjoins us to
embrace Christ crucified, and holds out to us signs in earthly and fading
elements, which raise us to the glory of a blessed immortality. Having promised
to us spiritual righteousness, he places before our eyes a little water: by a small
portion of bread and wine, he seals, (154) the eternal life of the soul. (155) But if
the stable gave no offense whatever to the shepherds, so as to prevent them from
going to Christ to obtain salvation, or from yielding to his authority, while he
was yet a child; no sign, however mean in itself, ought to hide his glory from our
view, or prevent us from offering to him lowly adoration, now that he has
ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
SBC, "The Sign of the Babe reveals Four Things.
I. That our Saviour was a real man. "Ye shall find the Babe." In the flesh—our flesh—
Christ came; as truly man as He was truly God; and infinite though the mystery may
be, that is the truth gathering about the Babe wrapt in swaddling clothes and lying in
the manger.
II. That our Saviour was simply a man. "Ye shall find the Babe "just a babe—no more.
He was almost an outcast babe—no interest evidently gathered about Him when He
came. We can say very little more about Him than this: He was a babe. We cannot
put any of the ordinary adjectives and say He was a royal babe, or a wealthy babe, or
a promising babe, or a learned man’s babe: He was just a babe.
III. The sign shows us our Saviour as a loving man. Christ came to begin the reign of
love; to make love for ever the one force that should rule man’s spirit, man’s
intercourse, man’s relationship. Therefore, He came as a babe to win first a mother’s
heart, and through that mother’s heart to win his way into the very heart of mankind.
IV. The sign shows us our Saviour, for the most part, a rejected man—"wrapt in
swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." It was the custom in the East to dress very
young children merely in folds of linen and woollen. But the giving of this description
by the angel, "swaddling clothes," seems to intimate some peculiar unreadiness for
Christ. He came unexpectedly, and the best that could be done had to be arranged for
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Him in the circumstances. The world was not even ready for Him as a babe.
R. TUCK, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 404.
I. The text teaches us how everywhere and in all things the Divine veils and even
hides Itself in the outward. This shall be your sign—not the march of a conqueror,
not the splendour of a king, but the babe wrapt in its swaddling bands; and the babe
lying in a manger. Wherever God is the presence is secret. What, for example, is the
Book of God—the Bible—but an example of this sanctity in commonness; a heap of
leaves, marked with ink and hand, stamped with signs for sounds, multiplied by
printing-press and steam engine, conveyed hither and thither by railways, bought
and sold in shops; tossed from hand to hand in schools and homes, lost and
dissipated by vulgar wear and tear. Yet in this Book of books—thus material, thus
earthly, thus human in its circumstances—there lie concealed the very breath and
spirit of God Himself mighty to stir hearts, and mighty to regenerate souls. The
swathing bands of sense and time enclose the living and moving power which is of
eternity, which is Divine—nay, the sign of the true Deity is the fact that the form is
human.
II. The same thing which is true of the Bible is true also of the Church and of the
Christian. Where is it, we ask, that God in Christ dwells most certainly, most
personally, on this earth? It is no word of man’s invention which answers to the
Church: "Ye collectively are the temple of God;" and to the Christian: "Your body is
the shrine of the Holy Ghost which is in you." The treasure of Divine light is always
held in earthen vessels: not until the pitcher is broken at the fountain shall the full
radiance shine out so as to be read of all men. Meanwhile, the sign of God is the
commonness. Christ came not to take men out of the world, but to consecrate and
keep them in it.
III. And was it not exactly thus with our Lord Jesus Christ Himself—not only in the
circumstances of His birth, but throughout His human life and His earthly ministry?
Even when the preparation was ended, and the life beyond all other lives was begun,
still was it not true that the Godhead veiled itself in the humanity? The sign of the
birth was the sign also of the life. Christ the Lord is here, and therefore the human—
the very human—is the token.
C.J. Vaughan, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 999
This verse presents to us, in the most striking manner, that our Lord, however
mysteriously His human nature was pervaded and exalted by a Divine nature, was,
notwithstanding such ineffable and inexplicable complication, one of ourselves: that
He passed through the ordinary gradations of humanity, increasing in wisdom,
increasing in stature, keeping pace with both these developments by a corresponding
progress in the love and admiration of those about Him, and in the favour and
approval of His Heavenly Father.
I. In the grief of Mary for the temporary loss of her Child we may trace a suggestion
for those who find themselves to be undergoing in their own inward experience a
similar separation. Would it not be well that those who experience this loss—this
privation of the Divine Comforter—should go straight back, like Mary, from the point
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at which they are to the point where they last enjoyed it, and retrace the steps that led
them away from it, and return to the house of God, the presence of God, the
ordinances of God, if haply they may recover what they have lost? And let them be
encouraged to do this by the fact that the parents not only sought but found Christ at
Jerusalem.
II. There were, in connection with the Temple, apartments where the Jewish rabbis
were accustomed to give lectures on the Mosaic law, to which the Jewish youths who
contemplated devoting themselves to the office of teacher were permitted to resort,
and to elicit the information they required by putting questions, which were
answered by the rabbis. In one of these halls or porches dedicated to religious
learning He was discovered by His parents. He was engaged in asking questions, and
in listening to the answers. If there should seem to be something almost like
peremptoriness, abruptness, independence, in the Divine Child’s reply to His
mother, that incongruous and jarring sort of feeling will be dissipated by adverting to
the perfectly filial submission to parental authority recorded in Luk_2:51: "And He
went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." Christ
came to brighten the homes of poverty, and to make nobility consist in something
else than birth—to set up a new patent of nobility. Let the humble craftsman look at
Him as a holy Brother.
W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 227.
BI, "And this shall be a sign unto you.
What the angels said to the shepherds was, “This shall be the sign unto you; ye shall
find a babe,” a babe like any other, “wrapped in swaddling clothes,” differing from
other babes only in the lowliness of His birth, “lying in a manger.” The absence of any
adventitious source of interest, anything awe-inspiring in the circumstances of the
birth of Christ, was no mere casual incident; it was eminently significant,
characteristic of His life, a symbol of His sway. The identification of “signs” with
“wonders” was the common error of the Jews. All Israel was expectant of the
Messiah. The reason why they received Him not was that they could not recognize
the Divine in the ordinary. A babe was born in Bethlehem: only by those who shared
the mother’s prophetic insight was the mystery of God’s interposition seen in His
birth. Angels sang of His advent; their song was mute save to the listening ear of a
few shepherds. And this is the common error of us all. “He that receiveth a prophet,”
says Christ, “in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward.” Yes, we
respond, that is well; we all shall know a prophet when we see him. But Christ also
says, “Whoso shall receive a little child in My name re-ceiveth Me.” He who is blind
to the Christ in the little child may also fail to see the prophet when he comes. Such
as Christ was manifested here, such did He ever continue. He would steal into the life
of humanity as a babe twines round a mother’s heart. He would draw men to Him by
the charm and sweetness of human sanctity; and to those who were thus attracted to
Him and abode in His fellowship, there came at length the revelation that this was
the Divine. The cross lay hidden in the manger of Bethlehem. He was already bearing
the only cross a babe can bear, poverty and man’s contempt; sweetened by a mother’s
care, the symbol of that affection of pious hearts which never failed Him throughout
His vexed and troubled history; and hallowed by the Father’s approval of the well-
beloved Son, in whom, now as ever, He was well pleased. The sacrificial purpose and
saving energy of His life already appeared. “Though He was rich, yet for our sakes,”
&c. The mother of Jesus and the adoring shepherds must have been struck by the
contrast between the honour of His annunciation and the meanness of His birth;
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between the splendours of the angelic host, and the manger where He lay. Eighteen
centuries of Christian history have taught us that herein is no contrast, but profound
consistency. What honour could the world have rendered the Son of God which
would not have more sharply contrasted with His character and mission than poverty
and the world’s neglect? There is nothing in common between Christ and the luxury
of wealth, the ostentation of a palace, the statecraft of a Court. The manger of
Bethlehem is the sign of the Messiah; the lowly, self-accepted lot of Jesus is the seal
of His divinity. Men soar, God stoops; ambition is human, condescension is Divine.
When God reveals Himself for man’s salvation it can only be by sacrifice; and the
more complete the sacrifice, the fuller is the revelation. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The sign of Jesus Christ
What a wonderful contrast between this verse and that which follows! What
greatness on the one side, what humility on the other! That humility is the sign of the
greatness.
I. The sign of humility by which the entrance of Jesus into the world was announced,
is found throughout the whole course of His history.
II. The same contrast is found in the institutions which Jesus has left to preserve in
His Church the remembrance of His benefits.
III. There is, again, this same contrast of grandeur and humility to mark, with a
Divine seal, the Church of Jesus Christ.
1. In its origin, composed of obscure persons from lowest ranks of a small
unknown people.
2. As it exists to-day wherever the true Church is to be found.
IV. The same sign of humility will enable us to recognize the worship with which
God is pleased.
V. The sign of humility which is constantly found in Christ, and in all that springs
from Christ, must be found also among His disciples. (Horace Monod.)
Lessons of the holy manger
At the cradle of Christianity, we may observe something of the predestined form both
of Christian doctrine and Christian life. In the bud we trace the probable shape and
colour of the coming flower. When standing at the source of a river we can determine
at least the general direction of its course. In the Sacred Infancy, too, we may discern,
without risk of indulgence in over-fanciful analogies, a typical portraiture of the
Christian creed, and a precious lesson for good Christian living. To the theologian
and the practical Christian, the sign of the manger and of the swaddling clothes is at
least as full of meaning now as it was of old to the shepherds of Bethlehem.
I. LOOK THEN AT THE CREED OF THE CHURCH. It has two sides, two aspects. It
is one thing to sight, another to faith. To sight, it is wrapped in swaddling clothes and
laid in a manger. To faith, it is revealed from heaven as supernatural and Divine.
II. Consider THE MORAL IMPORT OF THE MANGER-BED OF THE INFANT
JESUS. The world-wide principle of spiritual death needed to be expelled by a
stronger and not less universal principle. It demanded a regenerating force, resting
not on theory but on fact, a principle human in its form and action, but Divine in its
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strength and origin. Such a privilege we find in the Babe, wrapped, &c. This was
indeed the Divine Word, engrafted on human nature, and able to save the souls of
men. The Incarnation was the source of a moral revolution. By saving man it was
destined to save human society. It confronted sensuality by endurance and
mortification. It confronted covetousness by putting honour upon poverty. It taught
men that a man’s highest life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he
possesseth. But its great lesson was a lesson of humility. In the humiliation of the
Highest, the nations read the truth which the incarnate Lord taught in words:—
“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the
kingdom of heaven.” For us men humility is the law of progress, because it is the
admission of truth. At Christ’s manger may we learn the blessed temper which makes
faith, repentance, perseverance, easy, and to which are promised the crowns of glory,
worn by the blessed around His throne. (Canon Liddon.)
The babe: A Christmastide meditation
The Incarnation was the great event in the world’s history. Nothing can rival in
interest to us the coming of God in our mortal flesh; the shadowing of Deity in a
human form, so that we might see Him; the manifestation of Deity in a saving love,
so that we might be drawn to Him; the shinings in our humanity of a Divine purity;
which should at once reveal to us our sins; and deliver us from their power.
I. OUR SAVIOUR WAS A REAL MAN. All are alike at birth—babes. Christ came as
we came. He passed through the entire experience of human life, starting from the
cradle, right up to and beyond the tomb.
II. OUR SAVIOUR WAS SIMPLY A MAN. “Ye shall find the babe”: just a babe, no
more. No accident of birth limited Jesus to any part of the community; there were
none of those things about Him on which men pride themselves. He belongs to all,
however humble, obscure, poor, simple, needy.
III. HE WAS A LOVING MAN. A babe is the emblem of the mightiest thing on
earth—love—the sunshine of the Divine radience.
IV. He was, for the most part, A REJECTED MAN. There never seemed to be any
room for Him, from His birth onwards.
V. HE IS ALL IN ALL TO THOSE WHO RECEIVE HIM.
1. To find this Babe will be the beginning of truest peace to our own hearts.
2. To find this Babe will be the beginning for us of a better, nobler life.
3. To find this Babe will give to us the true spirit of brotherhood and charity. (R.
Tuck, B. A.)
The sign of the manger
Let us think what is the connection here. A sign—a signal: how so? In what sense did
the mode and circumstance of the birth make it typical of the thing which Christ
comes to do? What is that thing which Christ comes to do? He has come to be the
God-man, the Redeemer, the Emmanuel, and the Saviour—the God for us, and God
with us, and God in us—of the fallen, the sinful, the erring and straying man. Now, to
be this, He must first incorporate Himself with men, take the flesh and blood, the
nature and body and spirit of the race which He comes to save. He must first of all
incorporate Himself—not with a man, or a few men, but with humanity—with man as
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man, and not with certain privileged specimens and choice individuals of the race.
He has come to undo the fall. He has come to bear the sins, to wipe away the tears, to
take the sting out of the death of the Adam race as a whole; therefore He must not
only take flesh and blood—become one of us and live our very life: that is not enough.
He must go down to the very rock from which we are hewn, and He must put on our
nature—not in its ornamental but in its bare form—not as it may deck itself in the
embellishment of rank or wealth, of social distinction or philosophical culture, but as
it is in itself and in the commonest experiences of its humblest children. If the Divine
Saviour had appeared in any other form than this, He would have misled men as to
the thing which He came to do, and as to the relation in which He desired to stand as
to the lower and the lowest portions of the human family. The sign of the helpless
babe and the manger cradle was no capricious or accidental idea; for, inasmuch as it
is Christ the Lord, therefore ye shall find Him not in the miraculous strength of an
instantaneous maturity, and not in the guest-chambers of a king’s palace, but as a
babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. There was a connection
and a congruity between the sign and the reality; for thus it was that Christ became,
not the faith of a few, but the Saviour of all. None are poorer, none are humbler, none
are less learned, none are less noble after the flesh, than He. None can say now, “His
is the religion of the educated—of the philosophical—of kings and princes—His is the
religion which admits or which favours a position of comfort or respectability, and I
am none of these, so Christ is not for me.” And when, at this Christmas season,
wealth surrounds itself with all its luxuries of mind and body, and thinks it much if,
for a moment and in the most perfunctory way, it remembers the poor, we feel how
slight must be the hold of these self-indulgers upon the faith which they profess to
honour. If we would know the mystery of Christmas; if we would read the riddle of
the angel; if we would know why he said, “The Saviour is born, and the sign is the
manger,” we should turn our steps to some poor man’s chamber with its highbacked
chair and its open Bible. We shall hear that man say, “Oh, I love both to be abased
and to abound. I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, for Christ the Lord
was born this day for our salvation, and His first earthly resting place was a yard and
a manger.” (Dean Vaughan.)
Divine things veiled under earthly forms
This shall be your sign: not the march of a conqueror, not the splendour of a king,
but the Babe wrapped in swaddling bands and lying in a manger! Wherever God is,
the presence is secret. What, for example, is the Book of God—the Bible—but an
example of this sanctity in commonness: a heap of leaves, marked with ink and hand,
stamped with signs for sounds, multiplied by printing-press and steam-engine,
conveyed hither and thither by railways, bought and sold in shops, tossed from hand
to hand in schools and homes, lost and dissipated by vulgar wear and tear? But go
back to its composition. What was the Bible as it came forth originally, book by book,
and chapter by chapter, from the mind which thought, and from the hand which
wrote it? Was it not written, after all, both in composition and in dictation, like any
other work of poetry or philosophy, of history or fiction—by the brain and nerve
power of common-human beings? Was it not given forth line by line from the lips of
a Paul sitting at the tent-making, or some other evangelist alternating between
preaching and handicraft—by the utterance of sounds in an imperfect human
language to some obscure Persis or other amanuensis reporting? Yet in that Book of
books, thus material, thus earthly, thus human in its circumstances, there lies
concealed the very breath and spirit of God Himself, mighty to stir hearts, and
mighty to regenerate souls. The swathing bands of sense and time enclose the living
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and moving power which is of eternity, which is Divine. Nay, the sign of the true
Deity is the fact that the form is human. Take another example of this from another
of God’s instruments of communication. What is that vessel for holding common
water, which is the appendage of every Christian place of worship? Is there anything
in that laver—that font—but what is of the earth, and of the very commonest of all
earth’s gifts for refreshing and purifying? “What can be the use,” some might inquire,
“of bringing that earthly water into the House of God’s worship, as though we had
forgotten our Master’s own words, ‘God is a Spirit’? What significance can there be—
certainly what virtue—in sprinkling those few drops of common water upon the
forehead of a child, with or without a particular form of sacred words accompanying?
What, again, can be less intelligible than that sight of that little frugal table of
common bread and common wine, standing there in front of the congregation? How
can eating and drinking in God’s house affect, in any degree, for good the soul of the
worshipper?” We can but answer that Christ our Master commanded the one
sacrament as the appointed way of dedicating a new life to His service, and that He
appointed the other sacrament as commemorative of His own death and passion—as
instrumental, also, in nourishing the soul that in it feeds upon Him by faith. And
though it would be presumptuous, indeed, to attach any value to a form of man’s
invention, we feel that the presumption would be all the other way if we neglected an
ordinance of Jesus Christ, because it was either too mysterious for us, or too carnal.
Nay, we can almost read in the very simplicity a signal of His working, who, when He
came on earth came as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and made it a sign of
His presence that He was lying in a manger. But the same thing which is true of the
Bible and of the sacraments, is true also of the Church and of the Christian. Where is
it, we ask, that God in Christ dwells most certainly, most personally, on this earth? It
is no word of man’s invention which answers, to the Church—“Ye, collectively, are
the temple of God,” and, to the Christian “your body is the shrine of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you.” Yet if we look at the men and the women and the children thus
spoken to, we see nothing but human beings, frail and fallen, occupied for a large
part of their life in the employments and the relaxations, in the talk and in the
seeking, which are common alike to the righteous and the wicked, and which would
equally be theirs if they had neither faith nor heaven. The treasure of the Divine light
is always held in earthen vessels; not until the pitcher is broken at the fountain shall
the full radiance shine out so as to be read of all men. Meanwhile the sign of God is
the commonness. Christ came not to take men out of the world, but to consecrate and
keep them in it. Coming to redeem earth, He takes earth as it is: not the ideal, but the
real; and makes this the very token of His being amongst us—that we find a helpless
babe and a manger cradle. (Dean Vaughan.)
The practice of swathing infants
When the Gospels were translated in our venerable version, it did not occur to any of
the translators that the word “swaddling clothes” would ever be an obsolete word,
needing to be illustrated by a description of ancient or foreign customs. And yet so it
is at this day. The usage which is alluded to in this word is to us entirely strange. Few
things among the old world customs, I venture to say, strike some of us as more
outlandish—more pitiable even—more entirely removed from our notions of good
care and right training—than the swaddling of little helpless babies, as it is practised,
for instance, in Germany. I do not believe an American mother can generally pass one
of those poor little Wickelkinder, strapped down on its back to a pillow by spiral after
spiral of convoluted bandages, without longing to apply the scissors and let the little
prisoner go free. And yet it is only a few generations since this way of treating new-
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born children prevailed, with variations and aggravations, in all nations, even the
most civilized. We owe our own emancipation, in this land and century, from this
and other artificial traditions, to no other single influence so much as to a remarkable
book published in the middle of the last century by a citizen of Geneva—the “Emile”
of Jean Jacques Rousseau. It speaks thus of the universally prevalent treatment of an
infant child as it had continued to his day: “Scarcely does the child begin to enjoy the
liberty of moving and stretching its limbs, when it is placed anew in confinement. It
is wound in swaddling clothes, and laid down with its head fixed, its legs extended,
its arms at its sides. It is surrounded with clothes and bandages of all sorts that
prevent it from changing its position. It is a good thing if they do not even draw the
bands so tight as to hinder respiration, and if they have the foresight to lay it on its
side to avoid the danger of strangulation … The inaction and constraint in which the
child’s limbs are confined must necessarily disturb the circulation, hinder the child
from gaining strength, and affect its constitution … Is it possible that such cruel
constraint can fail to affect the character of the child, as well as its physical
temperament? Its first conscious feeling is a feeling of pain and suffering. It finds
nothing but hindrances to the motions which it craves. More wretched than a
criminal in irons, it frets and cries. The first gifts it receives are fetters; the first
treatment it experiences is torture.” Such was the practice of a hundred years ago in
the highest families of the most civilized country in the world. In many lands, partly
owing to this very protest, the practice is better now. But in the slow-going East the
common practice of the nursery is no better, and it is probably no worse than it was
nineteen hundred years ago. But it is worse than anything we ever see or hear of ill
this part of the world. In fact, it comes nearer to the binding of an Indian papoose to
a board, than to anything that we are accustomed to see in the families of
Christendom. Once wound around with these swathing-bands, sometimes with an
addition of fresh earth against the skin, and packed in their cradles like a little
mummy in its coffin, the poor little babies are expected to stay there, all cries and
complaints notwithstanding; they are not removed by their mothers even for such
necessary occasions as to be fed. I have heard pitiful stories told by missionaries’
wives, and by missionary physicians, in the East, of the sufferings of little infants in
consequence of the obstinate persistence of parents in a usage which we clearly see to
be so unreasonable and unnatural. (Leonard W. Bacon.)
The sign of the swaddling clothes
Is it not strange, you will ask, that when the shepherds were given a sign by which
they should know their new-born Saviour, they should be told, not of something
distinguishing Him from all children beside, but of something common to all the
infants that were born that night in all Judea? “Ye shall find wrapped in swaddling
clothes.” Why not say, according to the instincts of heathen mythology, Ye shall know
Him by the bees that gather to suck the honey of His lips, or the strangled serpents
that lie about His cradle? Why not say, according to the suggestions of Christian
legend and art, Ye shall know Him by the aspect of supernatural majesty, which it
shall be the dream and the disappointment of all the world’s artists to attempt to
portray? Or, Ye shall know Him by tile halo of celestial light beaming from His brow,
as in the “Holy Night” of Correggio, and filling the rude stall with an unearthly
brightness? Or, Ye shall know Him by some accessories worthy of so royal a birth, by
gifts of gold and myrrh and frankincense that strew the humble shed? The very
question brings its answer: You are to know Him from all these natural dreams of a
fond imagination, from the hopeful prognostications of Hebrew mothers, or the
impatient fancies of fanatics, or the artful fictions of impostors taking advantage of
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the general expectation with which the very atmosphere of Palestine was saturated,
to set forth some feigned Messiah—you are to know Him from all these by the fact
that He is just the opposite of all such imaginings—that He is to all appearance just a
helpless human infant, the most helpless thing in the whole creation, bound and
bandaged in swaddling clothes. And if you would know how to distinguish Him from
other such, it is not by His grandeur but by His poverty. There is no room in the inn
for such as He; and they have laid Him in the manger, among the cattle The sign
given to the shepherds is a sign also to us—that we find the Holy Child wrapped in
swaddling clothes. Illustrious men have sometimes had an honest pride in inscribing
upon their escutchon, beneath a noble crest, the symbol of the humble mechanic
rank in which they had their origin. So the Church of Christ, beneath the diadem of
supreme royalty, quarters upon its shield, beside the cross and the thongs, the
manger and the swaddling bands, and invites the world to read the blazon. That
family group which the painters of every later age have been essaying to depict—the
carpenter with his simple, uninquisitive faith obedient to heavenly visions, the pure
Virgin with her unskilled maiden tenderness pondering strange memories in her
heart, both leaning over the Wonderful, but understanding not the saying which He
speaks to them—these speak over again to us the language of that prophet who first
called his child “Immanuel,” “Behold we and the Child whom the Lord hath given us
are for signs and for wonders from the Lord of hosts.” (Leonard W. Bacon.)
Naturalness of the truly great
To illustrate the use of such a sign as was given to the shepherds, let me suppose
some traveller accustomed to the splendour and reserve of royal courts visiting the
city of Washington, and asking, on his way to the White House, how he should find
the President. We should tell him, “You may know him by this sign. He is a plain
man, plainly dressed in a black suit, and you will find him in the centre of the thickest
crowd, and everybody coming up to shako hands with him. First, he is not
distinguished in the way you expect him to be; and, secondly, he is unmistakably
distinguished in just the opposite way.” But for some such “sign” as this our traveller
might naturally mistake for the President some attache of a South American
Embassy standing apart in a halo of dignity and a light blaze of gold lace. This
“wrapped in swaddling-clothes and lying in a manger” was just the sign the
shepherds needed. And we do well if, looking for the Christ, we take heed to it
ourselves. We are not yet safe from the error of them of old time, who thought to find
the Lord clothed in soft raiment and dwelling in king’s palaces. (Leonard W. Bacon.)
Christ’s humility
In His nativity, and in His temptation (Mar_1:13), Christ was among beasts.
Believers, ambitious of high place, forget their Master’s cradle. A manger is here
honoured above a thousand glittering thrones. It is an ornament of His royalty, a
throne of His glory.
He comes in humility; He reigns in humility; He leads by humility. The manger and
the cross are stumbling-blocks to many. His infancy and death are still rocks,
wrecking human pride. (Van Doren.)
The sign of the Incarnation
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Christmas is full of surprises. It brings in, as no other event ever did, the element of
mystery, of wonder. Its testimony is, God became manifest in the flesh. The Eternal
Word was joined with a perfect human nature. The miracle of the Incarnation
transcends every other that has been and will be wrought. It is in itself a wonder so
great that all the accompaniments of the birth of Jesus sink into comparative
insignificance. We are, I fear, inclined to forget the majesty of the fact in the
strangeness of its surroundings. We count it a wonderful thing that He should have
been born in the stable of a country inn, whereas the real wonder is that such a birth
should take place anywhere, and so I ask you to contemplate one of the signs by
which the shepherds of Bethlehem were to find and know the incarnate God—“Ye
shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.”
I. It reminds us, by way of analogy, of a fact which constitutes the most trying
element in the mystery of the Incarnation, namely, that GOD THEREBY CAME
WITHIN CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. HOW an uncreated and omnipresent, that is, a
boundless, Infinite Being could be contracted within the circumference of a human
life is the most puzzling problem of revelation. The impossibility of our
understanding this is a temptation, not perhaps to deny, but to forget the deeper
meaning of the Christmas feast. Remember, then, that within these swathing bands
which encircled the infant form of Jesus there was bound the nature of a Being more
than human, even God Himself. Men may call this an unreasonable tax upon our
faith. It is rather a sign of God’s condescension to human weakness. The whole secret
of the history of idolatry among the Jews and the Gentiles was a longing for some
visible manifestation of Him whom they felt they must worship. Man instinctively
longs for some incarnate form, some Word of his Maker manifest in the flesh, some
finite manifestation of the Infinite Father. And the birth of Jesus, the enshrining of
God within a human form, the swathing of that power, which otherwise knows no
bounds, was but an answer to man’s desire.
II. The sign holds good, not only of the nature of Christ, but likewise of THE LIFE
WHICH, FROM FIRST TO LAST, HE LIVED. That also was like every purely human
life, hemmed in. It unfolded according to the ordinary laws of growth. His babyhood
was as real as His manhood. He increased in wisdom as well as stature. He learned
gradually the wisdom which all the world now confesses. The common idea which
people have of Jesus is that, being Divine, He was exempt from the ordinary
conditions of common men; that He never knew constraint; that there were no
barriers opposing Him, no bands fettering the free exercise of that Divine power
which lay hidden within Him. Yet duty was sometimes hard for Him. He longed to do
things which He might not attempt, because the higher and more spiritual dictates of
His conscience forbade it. The kingdoms of this world and their glory looked as fair
and tempting to His soul as they do to ours. But the law of righteousness, the
swathing-bands of duty, the rules of obedience which God throws around us, likewise
constrained Him.
III. The manner of the Incarnation shows GOD’S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE.
If you are ever tempted to despise human nature because you see it now and then
wearing disagreeable phases, or to think ill of, nay, to slight, your friends, remember
God’s estimate of them. He does not thus stoop and toil to save the worthless. From
being a King He descended to the lowest form of human life, entered the world in
utter helplessness, was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and during all His
development here on earth never rose above that form of a servant which He had
taken. And He did all this, because even fallen man was dearer to His heart than the
world of lost angels. (E. E. Johnson, M. A.)
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Great things from small beginnings
Not, Ye shall find the angel in the heavens, the king on his throne, the young prince
in a palace, the commander at the head of his armies, but “the babe in a manger.”
How strange are God’s ways of working out His strange plans! It is not by might, nor
by power, that His agencies accomplish their vast work. The least things are often the
greatest in His providence (1Co_1:27-29). It may be the shepherd boy with his sling
who gains victory over the mailed giant in whose presence the whole army of Israel
stands trembling; it may be the tinker in Bedford Jail who writes a masterpiece in
religious literature, to be honoured for centuries for its work and its worth; it may be
the unschooled clerk from a Boston shoe-store who proclaims the gospel with a
fervency and power which the best-cultured divines of all Christendom have not
attained to; or it may be in the most unprepossessing child of your school or class
that the grandest possibilities for the kingdom of Christ to-day lie hid. (H. C.
Trumbull.)
The fitness of the sign
“This shall be the sign,” saith the angel. “Shall be”; but should it be this? No; how
should it be? Let us see. Why, this shall be the sign; ye shall find the Child, not in
these clouts or cratch, but in a crimson mantle, in a cradle of ivory. That, lo, were
somewhat Saviour-like I But in vain take we upon us to teach the angel; we would
have—we know not what. We forget St. Augustine’s distingue tempera; as the time is
the angel is right, and a fitter sign could not be assigned. Would we have had Him
come in power and great glory? and so He will come, but not now. He that cometh
here in clouts will one day come in the clouds. But now His coming was for another
end, and so to be in another manner. His coming now was “to visit us in great
humility,” and so His sign to be according. Nay, then, I say, first go to the nature of a
sign; if Christ had come in His excellency, that had been no sign, no more than the
sun in the firmament shining in his full strength. Contrary to the course of nature it
must be, else it is no sign. The sun eclipsed, the sun in sackcloth; that is signum in
sole, “the sign indeed” (Luk_21:25). And that is the sign here: the Sun of
Righteousness entering into His eclipse begins to be darkened in His first point, the
point of His nativity. This is the sign, say I, and that had been none. (Bishop Lancelot
Andrewes.)
The sign nothing; the treasure all
Make of the sign what ye will; it skills not what it be, never so mean. In the nature of
a sign there is nothing, but it may be such; all is in the thing signified. So it carry us
to a rich signature, and worth the finding, what matter how mean the sign be? We
are sent to a crib, not to an empty crib; Christ is in it. Be the sign never so simple, the
signature it carries us to makes amends. Any sign with such a signatnm. And I know
not the man so squeamish, but if, in his stable and under his manger, there were a
treasure hid, and he were sure of it, but thither he would, and pluck up the planks,
and dig and rake for it, and be never a whir offended with the homeliness of the
place. If, then, Christ be a treasure, as in Him are “all the treasures of the wisdom
and bounty of God,” what skills it what be His sign. With this, with any other, Christ
is worth the finding. He is not worthy of Christ who will not go anywhither to find
Christ. (Bishop Lancelot Andrewes.)
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Christ born in a manger
At midnight from one of the galleries of the sky a chant broke forth. To an ordinary
observer there was no reason for such a celestial demonstration. If there had been
such brilliant and mighty recognition at an advent in the House of Pharaoh, or at an
advent in the House of Caesar, or the House of Hapsburg, or the House of Stuart, we
would not so much have wondered; but a barn seems too poor a centre for such
delicate and archangelic circumference. The stage seems too small for so great an act,
the music too grand for such unappreciative auditors, the windows of the stable too
rude to be serenaded by other worlds.
I. THAT NIGHT IN THE BETHLEHEM MANGER WAS BORN ENCOURAGEMENT
FOR ALL THE POORLY STARTED. He had only two friends—they His parents. No
satin-lined cradle, no delicate attentions, but straw and the cattle, and the coarse joke
and banter of the camel drivers. From the depths of that poverty He rose, until to-day
He is honoured in all Christendom, and sits on the imperial throne in heaven. Do you
know that the vast majority of the world’s deliverers had barnlike birthplaces?
Luther, the emancipator of religion, born among the mines. Shakespeare, the
emancipator of literature, born in a humble home at Stratford-on-Avon. Columbus,
the discoverer of a world, born in poverty at Genoa. Hogarth, the discoverer of how
to make art accumulative and administrative of virtue, born in a humble home at
Westminster. Kitto and Prideaux, whose keys unlocked new apartments in the Holy
Scriptures which had never been entered, born in want. Yea, I have to tell you that
nine out of ten of the world’s deliverers were born in want. I stir your holy ambitions
to-day, and I want to tell you, although the whole world may be opposed to you, and
inside and outside of your occupations or professions there may be those who would
hinder your ascent, on your side and enlisted in your behalf are the sympathetic heart
and the almighty arm of One who, one Christmas night about eighteen hundred and
eighty years ago, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Oh, what
magnificent encouragement for the poorly started!
II. Again, I have to tell you that IS THAT VILLAGE BARN THAT NIGHT WAS
BORN GOODWILL TO MEN, whether you call it kindness, or forbearance, or
forgiveness, or geniality, or affection, or love. It says, “Sheathe your swords,
dismount your guns, dismantle your batteries, turn the warship Constellation, that
carried shot and shell, into a grain ship to take food to famishing Ireland, hook your
cavalry horses to the plough, use your deadly gunpowder in blasting rocks and in
patriotic celebration, stop your lawsuits, quit writing anonymous letters, extract the
sting from your sarcasm, let your wit coruscate but never burn, drop all the harsh
words out of your vocabulary—Goodwill to men.”
III. Again, I remark that BORN THAT CHRISTMAS NIGHT IN THE VILLAGE
BARN WAS SYMPATHETIC UNION WITH OTHER WORLDS. Move that
supernatural grouping of the cloud banks over Bethlehem, and from the special
trains that ran down to the scene I find that our world is beautifully and gloriously
and magnificently surrounded. The meteors are with us, for one of them ran to point
down to the birthplace. The heavens are with us, because at the thought of our
redemption they roll hosannas out of the midnight sky.
IV. Again, I remark that THAT NIGHT BORN IN THAT VILLAGE BARN WAS THE
OFFENDER’S HOPE. Some sermonizers may say I ought to have projected this
thought at the beginning of the sermon. Oh, no! I wanted you to rise toward it. I
wanted you to examine the cornelians and the jaspers and the emeralds and the
sardonyx before I showed you the Kohinoor—the crown jewel of the ages. Oh, that
jewel had a very poor setting! The cub of the bear is born amid the grand old pillars
of the forest, the whelp of a lion takes its first step from the jungle of luxuriant leaf
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and wild flower, the kid of the goat is born in cavern chandeliered with stalactite and
pillared with stalagmite. Christ was born in a bare barn. Yet that nativity was the
offender’s hope. Over the door of heaven are written these words, “None but the
sinless may enter here.” “Oh, horror,” you say, “that shuts us out!” No. Christ came to
the world in one door, and He departed through another door. He came through the
door of the manger, and He departed through the door of the sepulchre; and His one
business was so to wash away our sin that after we are dead there will be no more sin
about us than about the eternal God. I know that is putting it strongly, but that is
what I understand by full remission. All erased, all washed away, all scoured out, all
gone. Oh! now I see what the manger was. Not so high the gilded and jewelled and
embroidered cradle of the Henrys of England, or the Louis of France, or the
Fredericks of Prussia. Now I find out that that Bethlehem crib fed not so much the
oxen of the stall as the white horses of Apocalyptic vision. Now I find the swaddling
clothes enlarging and emblazing into an imperial robe for a conqueror. (Dr.
Talmage.)
The Child in the manger
I. Learn from this story of the birth of Jesus, in the first place, that INDIGENCE IS
NOT ALWAYS SIGNIFICANT OF DEGRADATION. When princes are born, heralds
pro claim it, and flags wave it, and cannon thunder it, and illuminations set cities on
fire with the tidings; but when Christ was born there was no demonstration of earthly
honour or homage. Poor, and, if possible, getting poorer, and yet the recognition of
the angel host proves the truth of the proposition that indigence is no sign of
degradation. In all ages of the world there have been great hearts throbbing under
rags, gentle spirits under rough exterior, gold in the quartz, Parian marble in the
quarry, and in the very stables of poverty wonders of excellence that have been the
joy of the heavenly host. Poetry, and science, and law, and constitutions, and
commerce, like Christ, were born in a manger. Great thoughts that seem to have been
the axle-tree on which the centuries turned, started in some obscure corner, and had
Herods who tried to slay them, and Iscariots who betrayed them, and Pilates who
unjustly condemned them, and rabbles who crucified them, and sepulchres which
confined them until they broke forth again in glorious resurrection. Men are, like
wheat, worth all the more for being flailed. Strong character, like the rhododendron,
is an alpine plant which grows best in the tempest. There arc a great many men who
are now standing in the front rank of the Church of God who would have been utterly
useless had they not been ground and hammered in the foundries of disaster.
II. Again, I learn from the text that IT IS WHEN WE ARE ENGAGED IN OUR
LAWFUL OCCUPATIONS THAT WE HAVE DIVINE MANIFESTATIONS MADE TO
US. If these shepherds had gone that night into the village, and risked their flocks
among the wolves, they would not have heard the song of the angels. In other words,
he sees most of God and heaven who minds his own business! We are all shepherds,
and we have large flocks of cares, and we must tend them. I know there are a great
many busy men who say, “Oh, if I had only time, I would be good. If I had the days
and the months and the years to devote to the subject of religion, I should be one of
the best of Christians.” A great mistake are you making. The busiest men are
generally the best men. There is no point from which you can get clearer views of
duty than at the merchant’s counter, or the accountant’s table, or on the mason’s
wall.
III. Again, the story of the text STRIKES AT THE POPULAR FALLACY THAT THE
RELIGION OF CHRIST IS DOLOROUS AND GRIEF-INFUSING. The music that
broke through that famous birth-night was not a dirge, but an anthem. It shook joy
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over the midnight hills. It not only dropped among the shepherds, but it sprang
upward among the thrones. The robe of righteousness is not black. The religious life
is not all weeping and sighing, and cross-bearing and warfare. Christianity does not
frown on amusements and recreations. It quenches no light. It defaces no heart.
Among the happy it is the happiest. Heaven itself is only a warmer love and a
brighter joy.
IV. Again, I learn from this subject, WHAT GLORIOUS ENDINGS COME FROM
SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT BEGINNINGS. The New Testament Church was on a
small scale. The fishermen watched it. Small beginnings, but glorious endings. A
throne linked to a manger. Mansions of light at God’s right hand associated with
stables of poverty.
V. I learn, finally, from this story of the birth of Christ, THE GLORIOUS RESULT OF
A SAVIOUR’S MISSION. Have you ever thought how strangely this song of peace
must have sounded to the Roman Empire? Why, that Roman Empire gloried in its
arms, and boasted of the number of men it had slain, and with triumph looked at
conquered provinces. Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Macedonia, Egypt, had bowed to her
sword, and crouched at the cry of her war eagles. Their highest honours had been
bestowed upon Fabius and Scipio and Caesar. It was men of blood and carnage that
they honoured. With what contempt they must have looked upon a kingdom the chief
principle of which was to be goodwill to men, and upon the unarmed, penniless
Christ, who, in Nazarene garb, was about to start out for the conquest of the nations.
If all the blood which has been shed in battle were gathered together in one great
lake, it would bear up a navy. The blow that struck Abel into the dust has had its echo
in the carnage of all the centuries. If we could take our stand on some high mountain
of earth, and have all the armies of other ages pass along, what a spectacle! There go
the hosts of the Israelites through scores of Red Seas, one of them of water, the rest
of blood. There go the armies of Cyrus, lifting their infuriate yell over prostrate
Babylon. There goes Alexander, with his innumerable host, conquering all but
himself, and making the earth to reel under the battle gash of Persepolis and
Chaeronia. There goes the great Frenchman, down through Egypt like one of its own
plagues, and up through Russia like one of its own ice-blasts. Host after host. Tramp
tramp, tramp. Coming down to our day, I appeal to the grave-trench under the
shadow of Sebastopol, and turning to India I show you fallen Delhi, and Allahabad,
and the inhuman Sepoys, and the regiments of Havelock avenging the insulted flag of
Great Britain. On this, the day before Christmas, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
A Saviour for the lost. Medicine for the sick. Light for the blind. Harbour for the
bestormed. Eternal life for the dead. (Dr. Talmage.)
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly
host appeared with the angel, praising God and
saying,
CLARKE, "Suddenly there was with the angel, etc. - this multitude of the
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heavenly host had just now descended from on high, to honor the new-born Prince of
peace, to give his parents the fullest conviction of his glory and excellence, and to
teach the shepherds, who were about to be the first proclaimers of the Gospel, what
to think and what to speak of him, who, while he appeared as a helpless infant, was
the object of worship to the angels of God.
GILL, "And suddenly there was with the angel,.... That brought the tidings of
Christ's birth to the shepherds: a multitude of the heavenly host: who being caused to
fly swiftly, were at once with him, by his side, and about him; and which was a
further confirmation of the truth of his message to them: these were angels who were
called an host, or army, the militia of heaven, the ministers of God, that wait upon
him, and do his pleasure; and are sent forth to minister to his people, and encamp
about them, preserve, and defend them; see Gen_32:1 These are styled an heavenly
host, because they dwell in heaven; and to distinguish them from hosts and armies
on earth; and said to be
a multitude, for the angels are innumerable; there are thousands, ten thousands, and
ten thousand times ten thousand of them: it may be rendered "the multitude", and
may intend the whole company of angels, who were all of them together to sing the
praises of God, and glorify him at the birth of the incarnate Saviour, as well as to
adore him; since it is said, "when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he
saith, and let all the angels of God worship him", Heb_1:6, and these were
praising God; on account of the birth of Christ, and the redemption that was to be
obtained by him, for elect men; which shows their friendly disposition to them, and
how much they rejoice at their spiritual and eternal welfare; see Luk_15:10; And
thus, as at the laying of the foundation of the earth, these "morning stars sang
together, and all these sons of God shouted for joy", Job_38:7 they did the same
when the foundation of man's salvation was laid in the incarnation of the Son of God,
and saying, as follows.
HENRY, "IV. The angels' doxology to God, and congratulations of men, upon
this solemn occasion, Luk_2:13, Luk_2:14. The message was no sooner delivered by
one angel (that was sufficient to go express) than suddenly there was with that angel
a multitude of the heavenly hosts; sufficient, we may be sure, to make a chorus, that
were heard by the shepherds, praising God; and certainly their song was not like that
(Rev_14:3) which no man could learn, for it was designed that we should all learn it.
1. Let God have the honour of this work: Glory to God in the highest. God's good-will
to men, manifested in sending the Messiah, redounds very much to his praise; and
angels in the highest heavens, though not immediately interested in it themselves,
will celebrate it to his honour, Rev_5:11, Rev_5:12. Glory to God, whose kindness
and love designed this favour, and whose wisdom contrived it in such a way as that
one divine attribute should not be glorified at the expense of another, but the honour
of all effectually secured and advanced. Other works of God are for his glory, but the
redemption of the world is for his glory in the highest. 2. Let men have the joy of it:
On earth peace, good-will toward men. God's good-will in sending the Messiah
introduced peace in this lower world, slew the enmity that sin had raised between
God and man, and resettled a peaceable correspondence. If God be at peace with us,
all peace results from it: peace of conscience, peace with angels, peace between Jew
and Gentile. Peace is here put for all good, all that good which flows to us from the
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incarnation of Christ. All the good we have, or hope, is owing to God's good-will;
and, if we have the comfort of it, he must have the glory of it. Nor must any peace,
and good, be expected in a way inconsistent with the glory of God; therefore not in
any way of sin, nor in any way but by a Mediator. Here was the peace proclaimed
with great solemnity; whoever will, let them come and take the benefit of it. It is on
earth peace, to men of good-will (so some copies read it), en anthrōpois eudokias; to
men who have a good-will to God, and are willing to be reconciled; or to men whom
God has a good-will to, though vessels of his mercy. See how well affected the angels
are to man, and to his welfare and happiness; how well pleased they were in the
incarnation of the Son of God, though he passed by their nature; and ought not we
much more to be affected with it? This is a faithful saying, attested by an
innumerable company of angels, and well worthy of all acceptation, That the good-
will of God toward men is glory to God in the highest, and peace on the earth.
JAMISON, "suddenly — as if only waiting till their fellow had done.
with the angel — who retires not, but is joined by others, come to seal and to
celebrate the tidings he has brought.
heavenly host — or “army,” an army celebrating peace! [Bengel] “transferring
the occupation of their exalted station to this poor earth, which so seldom resounds
with the pure praise of God” [Olshausen]; to let it be known how this event is
regarded in heaven and should be regarded on earth.
SBC, "The Angels’ Hymn.
I. "Glory to God in the highest." This is the first jubilant adoring exclamation of the
angels, as they beheld the fulfilment of that eternal counsel of God, which, partially
known no doubt long since and foreseen in heaven, was now at length actually
accomplished upon earth; as they beheld the Lord of glory, Him whom they had
worshipped in heaven, become an infant of days, and as such laid in that rugged
cradle at Bethlehem. But what is the exact force of these words? Can God receive
increase of glory, more than He has already? Is it not the very idea of God that He is
infinitely glorious, and that this He always has been, and ever will be? Assuredly so;
in Himself He is as incapable of increase as of diminution of glory. But we may
ascribe more glory to Him; more, that is, of the honour due unto His Name; as we
know Him more, as the infinite perfection of His being, His power, His wisdom, His
love, are gradually revealed to us. So, too, may angels, and the heavenly host declare
in this voice of theirs that the Incarnation of the Son of God was a new revelation, a
new outcoming to them of the unsearchable riches of the wisdom, the power, the
love, that are in God.
II. "On earth peace, good will toward men." That same wondrous act which brought
such glory to God, namely, the taking of our flesh by the Son of God, brought also
peace on earth, and declared God’s good will towards men. (1) Christ made peace for
man with his God. Man was alienated and estranged from God by wicked works; he
knew that he hated God, and he feared that God hated him. But now the child was
born who should kill the enmity in the heart of man, who should make a propitiation
to enable the love of God to flow freely forth on the sinner as it could not flow before.
(2) In setting men at peace with God, Christ sets them at peace with themselves. (3)
But man, at enmity with God and with himself, is also at enmity with his brother;
selfishness is the root of all the divisions upon earth, from the trivial brawl that
disturbs the peace of a village to the mighty war which makes a desolation over half
the world. But He who was as upon this day born came to uproot this selfishness in
the heart of man, to plant love there in its room: and distant as that day may be, it
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will yet arrive, when the nations shall not learn war any more. It was, then, with
threefold right that the angels hailed His advent as the advent of "peace on earth,
good will toward men."
R. C. Trench, Sermons in Westminster Abbey, p. 68.
CALVIN, "13.And suddenly there was present with the angel a multitude An
exhibition of divine splendor had been already made in the person of a single
angel. But God determined to adorn his own Son in a still more illustrious
manner, This was done to confirm our faith as truly as that of the shepherds.
Among men, the testimony of “two or three witnesses ” (Matthew 18:16) is
sufficient to remove all doubt. But here is a heavenly host, with one consent and
one voice bearing testimony to the Son of God. What then would be our
obstinacy, if we refused to join with the choir of angels, in singing the praises of
our salvation, which is in Christ? Hence we infer, how abominable in the sight of
God must unbelief be, which disturbs this delightful harmony between heaven
and earth. Again, we are convicted of more than brutal stupidity, if our faith and
our zeal to praise God are not inflamed by the song which the angels, with the
view of supplying us with the matter of our praise, sang in full harmony. Still
farther, by this example of heavenly melody, the Lord intended to recommend to
us the unity of faith, and to exhort us to join with one consent in singing his
praises on earth.
LIGHTFOOT, "[A multitude of the heavenly host praising God.] The Targumist
upon Ezekiel 1:24, a host of angels from above. So in 1 Kings 19:11,12, "A host
of the angels of the wind. A host of the angels of commotion. A host of the angels
of fire; and after the host of the angels of fire, the voice of the silent singers."
COFFMAN, "A multitude of the heavenly host ... A host of angels is represented
in the Old Testament as forming the bodyguard of Deity (Psalms 103:21; Daniel
7:10). As Boles said, "This praise was a proclamation of the newborn King and a
confirmation of the glorious tidings to the shepherds, and through them to all
people."[18] Angels shouted for joy at creation (Job 38:7), served at the giving of
the Mosaic law (Deuteronomy 33:2; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19); and now, with
greater wonder than ever, and with even greater joy, they celebrated the entry of
God into human life. "Peace" was proclaimed by angels on the night in which
the Prince of Peace was born.
Glory to God in the highest ... is the so-called "Gloria in Excelsis Deo," another
of the famous Latin hymns of Christendom. The variations of the renditions of
"peace to men of good will," "peace on earth; good will to men," or as here, are
of no importance, although this version is preferable, due to the fact of its
keeping in view the truth that it is not "good will to men" who are wicked, but
"good will to men" who honor God, which was promised and proclaimed by the
angelic host.
Did the angels sing on this occasion? "The morning stars sang together, and all
the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7) in creation; and there can be no
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doubt, really, that they did so here. However, there is no New Testament word to
confirm the comment that "The choir which so suddenly joined the angelic
messenger sang heavenly music about the Prince of Heaven."[19]
[18] H. Leo Boles, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Nashville: The Gospel
Advocate Company, 1940), p. 55.
BENSON, "Luke 2:13-14. And suddenly there was with the angel, &c. — The
welcome news was no sooner published, than a multitude of heavenly beings
were heard celebrating, in songs and hymns divine, the praises of God, on
account of his unspeakable mercy and love to men; and saying, Glory to God in
the highest, &c. — The shouts of a multitude are generally broken into short
sentences, and are commonly elliptic; which is the cause of some ambiguity in
these words, which may be understood in different senses. Some read them thus:
Glory to God in the highest, that is, in heaven, and on earth peace, yea, favour,
toward men. Others understand them as signifying, That the good-will, or
favour, which was now shown to men, is the Glory of God in the highest, and is
the peace and happiness of those who dwell on earth. This is doubtless an
important sense, and what the original will very well bear, but it changes the
doxology into a kind of proverb, and destroys much of its beauty. As Dr.
Campbell observes; “The most common interpretation of the passage is the most
probable.” The words are doubtless to be considered as expressions of rejoicing
exclamation, strongly representing the piety and benevolence of these heavenly
spirits, and their affectionate good wishes for the prosperity of the Messiah’s
kingdom; as if they had said, “Glory be to God in the highest heavens, and let all
the angelic legions resound his praises in the most exalted strains, for, with the
Redeemer’s birth, peace and all happiness come down to dwell on earth; yea, the
overflowings of divine benevolence and favour are now exercised toward sinful
men, who through this Saviour become the objects of his complacential delight.”
The words, considered in a doctrinal point of view, teach us, what it is of great
importance to know, 1st, That the birth of Christ is an event which, above all
others, brings glory to God, giving such a display of several of his perfections as
had never been made before, particularly of his holiness and justice, in requiring
such a sacrifice as was hereby to be prepared for the expiation of human guilt,
and his mercy, in providing and accepting it; his wisdom, in devising such a plan
for the redemption of lost man, and his power, in executing it. 2d, It brings peace
on earth, that is, peace to man, peace with God, through the atonement and
mediation of Christ; peace of conscience, as the consequence of knowing that we
have peace with God, and peace one with another. 3d, It displays the good-will,
the benevolence, the love of God to man, as no other of his works or
dispensations ever did, or could do. See 1 John 4:7, &c.; John 3:16.
BURKITT, "Although the birth of our blessed Saviour was published by one
angel, yet is it celebrated by a host of angels; a whole choir of angels chaunt forth
the praises of Almighty God, upon this great and joyful occasion.
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Here observe, 1. The singers.
2. The song itself.
The singers of this heavenly anthem are the holy angels; called a host, partly for
their number, and partly for their order.
Where learn, 1. The goodness and sweet disposition of these blessed spirits, in
whose bosom that cankered passion of envy has no place; if it had, there was
never such an occasion to stir it up as now: but heaven admits of no such
passion; envy is a native of hell, 'tis the smoke of the bottomless pit, the character
and temper of the apostate spirits; these grieve at the happiness of man, as much
as the angels rejoice.
O ye blessed angels! what did these tidings concern you, that ruined mankind
should be taken again into favour; whereas those of your own host, which fell
likewise, remained still in that gulph of perdition, into which their sin had
plunged them, without either hope of mercy, or possiblitly of recover! The less
we repine at the good, and the more we rejoice at the happiness of others, the
more like we are to the holy angels; yea, the more we resemble God himself.
Learn, 2. Did the angels thus joy and rejoice for us? Then what joy ought we to
express for ourselves? Had we the tongue of angels, we could not sufficiently
chaunt forth the praises of our Redeemer. Eternity itself would be too short to
spend in the rapturous contemplation of redeeming mercy.
Observe, 3. The anthem or song itself, which begins with a doxology, Glory be to
God in the highest; that is, let God in the highest heavens be glorified by the
angels that dwell on high. The angelical choir excite themselves, and all the host
of angels, to give glory to God for these wonderful tidings; as if they had said,
"Let the power, the wisdom, the goodness and mercy of God, be acknowledged
and revered by all the host of heaven for ever and ever."
Next to the doxology, follows a gratulation: glory be to God in the highest, for
there is peace on earth: and good will towards men. The birth of Christ has
brought a peace of reconcilitaion betwixt God and man upon earth; and also a
piece of amity and concord betwixt man and man, and is therefore to be
celebrated with acclamations of joy.
GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE, "The Song of the Heavenly Host
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men in whom he is well
pleased.—Luk_2:13-14.
1. In all the Christian year, in all the secular year, there is not a day that has
gained the same heartiness of universal welcome as the kindly Christmas.
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Though Easter-day is chief in the Church’s Calendar, and though it comes in the
hopeful spring with the first green leaves, when the most care-worn know some
fitful waking-up of the old light-heartedness, it has never taken such hold of the
common mind of our race as has the Sacred Festival that comes in the deadest
days of the drear December, when in the wild winter-time “the heaven-born
Child lay meanly-wrapt in the rude manger”; when those linked by blood, and
early remembrances of the same fireside, but parted the long year through by the
estranging necessities of life, strive to meet again, as in childhood, together; and
all the innocent mirth, the revived associations, the kindly affection, are hallowed
by the environing presence of the Birth-day of the Blessed Redeemer.
Like small curled feathers, white and soft,
The little clouds went by
Across the moon, and past the stars,
And down the western sky:
In upland pastures, where the grass
With frosted dew was white,
Like snowy clouds the young sheep lay
That first best Christmas night.
With finger on her solemn lip,
Night hushed the shadowy earth,
And only stars and angels saw
The little Saviour’s birth;
Then came such flash of silver light
Across the bending skies,
The wondering shepherds woke and hid
Their frightened, dazzled eyes!
And all their gentle sleepy flock
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Looked up, then slept again,
Nor knew the light that dimmed the stars
Brought endless peace to men,—
Nor even heard the gracious words
That down the ages ring—
“The Christ is born! The Lord has come,
Goodwill on earth to bring!”
Then o’er the misty moonlit fields,
Dumb with the world’s great joy,
The shepherds sought the white-walled town
Where lay the baby boy—
And oh, the gladness of the world,
The glory of the skies,
Because the longed-for Christ looked up
In Mary’s happy eyes!1 [Note: Margaret Deland.]
In an Oxford College Chapel is a famous Nativity window. From the Infant,
lying in the midst, light is made to stream on all around. So, through the
Christmas chapter, ending with our text, light streams from the manger on the
Christmas feast; tingeing alike its festivity and fun, its tender memories and
associations, making it the Child’s Festival of all the year. Children understand
it best, with a fulness of feeling and an implicitness of faith they lose in after
years; but still to us older ones each Christmas freshens and recaptures
something of our childish feelings—in hymn and carol, in family and neighbour
greetings, in fireside merriment and kindliness, we feel again the tender
softening emotion which was our childish tribute to the day. With shepherds,
angels, kings, we once more go even unto Bethlehem, content if only, after
failures and shortcomings past, chances missed, friends lost, aims unperformed,
we may win and make our own the Christmas prize which the angels glorified
and the Infant taught, anchoring our souls at last upon the steadfast dominating
Peace which waits on gentle will.
The sacred chorus first was made
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Upon the first of Christmas days.
The shepherds heard it overhead,
The joyful angels raised it then:
Glory to heaven on high it said,
And peace on earth to gentle men.
My song, save this, is little worth,
I lay my simple note aside,
And wish you health and love and mirth,
As fits the solemn Christmas tide,
As fits the holy Christmas birth;
Be this, good friends, our carol still,
Be peace on earth, be peace on earth,
To men of gentle will.1 [Note: W. Tuckwell, Nuggets from the Bible Mine, 144.]
2. In its liturgical use the “Gloria in Excelsis” contributed a precious element to
the devotions of the Church, as was natural from its heavenly origin and its tone
of glory and gladness. It was known as the “Angelic Hymn” (the “Sanctus” being
in later time distinguished as the “Seraphic Hymn”). The name in course of time
signified not only the words of the angels as used alone, but also the full form of
praise and prayer and creed, of which those words became the opening and the
groundwork. There are traces of this noble hymn as used in the Church from the
most ancient times; and the Alexandrine Codex (close of fifth century) gives it at
length at the end of the thirteenth Canticle of the Greek Church, entitling it a
“Morning Hymn.” Early Latin translations with differences are found in various
quarters, and it seems clear that when the well-known Latin form of the hymn
was inserted in the Latin Psalters it was used in the daily or weekly hour services
of the clergy.
The introduction of the hymn into the Eucharistic Office of the Western Church
has been traditionally assigned to different popes, but it was certainly a part of
that Office in the fifth and sixth centuries, and directions are given in the
Sacramentaries as to occasions for its use. At times and in places it exhibited
doctrinal variations, as in the form given in the Apostolical Constitutions, where
it has received a shape possible for Arian use. On account probably of doctrinal
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diversities the fourth Council of Toledo, a.d. 633, directed that in churches only
the primitive angelic words should be sung, without the additions composed, as
they said, “by the doctors of the Church.” But this was a local and temporary
restriction. The hymn, or “greater doxology,” as it was sometimes called, had its
place at the opening of the service as it now has with us at the close. There is a
fitness in either position.1 [Note: T. D. Bernard, Songs of the Holy Nativity, 116.]
3. This is not the earliest angelic hymn that is recorded or alluded to in
Scripture. At the first creation, too, “the morning stars sang together, and all the
sons of God shouted for joy.” Whatever doubt there may be in respect of those
“sons of God” mentioned in Genesis whose apostasy from Him did so much to
hasten the flood, there can be no doubt or difficulty in regard of these. The “sons
of God” here can be only the angels of heaven, the heavenly host; for there as yet
existed no other who could claim, or be competitors with them for, this name. So
was it at the first creation; and it might almost seem on this night of the Nativity
as if a new creation had taken place, for now again we hear of “a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Nor, if we thus judged, should we prove very
wide of the truth. There is indeed now a new creation, and a new which is more
glorious than the old. In the creation of the world God showed forth His power,
His wisdom, His love; but in the foundation of the Church all these His attributes
shine far more gloriously forth; and that Church was founded, the corner-stone
of it, elect, precious, was securely laid, on that day when the Son of God, having
taken upon Him our flesh, was born of a pure Virgin, and was laid in the manger
at Bethlehem. Most fitly therefore was that day of the New Creation, which
should repair and restore the breaches of the old, ushered in with hymns of
gladness; most fitly did “the sons of God” once again shout for joy, and welcome,
with that first Christmas carol which this dull earth ever heard, the birth of a
Saviour and Restorer into the world.
Handel, entering fully into the spirit of this narrative, represents the angel as
singing this announcement; and there can be no doubt that he is right. This was
a grand solo sung by one of the leading choristers of heaven. But when the angel
had sung his solo, his companions joined in the chorus—“Suddenly there was
with him a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will.”1 [Note: D.
Davies, Talks with Men, Women and Children, v. 385.]
4. This song of the angels, as we have been used to reading it, was a threefold
message—of glory to God, peace on earth, and good will among men; but the
better scholarship of the Revised Version now reads in the verse a twofold
message. First, there is glory to God, and then there is peace on earth to the men
of good will. Those, that is to say, who have the good will in themselves are the
ones who will find peace on earth. Their unselfishness brings them their personal
happiness. They give themselves in good will, and so they obtain peace. That is
the true spirit of the Christmas season. It is the good will that brings the peace.
Over and over again in these months of feverish scrambling for personal gain
men have sought for peace and have not found it; and now, when they turn to
this generous good will, the peace they sought comes of itself. Many a man in the
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past year has been robbed of his own peace by his misunderstandings or grudges
or quarrels; but now, as he puts away these differences as unfit for the season of
good will, the peace arrives. That is the paradox of Christianity. He who seeks
peace does not find it. He who gives peace finds it returning to him again. He
who hoards his life loses it, and he who spends it finds it:—
Not what we give, but what we share,
For the gift without the giver is bare;
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,
Himself, his hungering neighbour, and Me.
That is the sweet and lingering echo of the angel’s song.
The second member of the hymn celebrates the blessing to mankind, according
to the A.V., in the familiar words, “On earth peace, good will toward men”; or,
according to the R.V., in the less graceful English, “Peace on earth among men in
whom he is well pleased.” The literal renderings would be, in the first case, “On
earth peace, in men good pleasure”; in the second, “On earth peace, in men of
good pleasure.” Two different readings are thus represented, each of them
supported by large authority. The difference is only in the presence or absence of
a final letter.1 [Note: T. D. Bernard, Songs of the Holy Nativity, 162.]
Such was the text of the angels on the night of our Saviour’s birth; and to that
text our Saviour’s life furnished the sermon. For it was a life of holiness and
devotion to His Father’s service, a life spent in doing good to the bodies and souls
of all around Him; and it was ended by a death undergone on purpose to
reconcile man with God, and to set earth at peace with heaven. Here is a
practical sermon on the angel’s text, the best of all sermons, a sermon not of
words, but of deeds. Whoever will duly study that practical sermon, whoever
with a teachable, inquiring heart will study the accounts of our Saviour’s words
and actions handed down in the four Gospels, will need little else to enlighten
him in the way of godliness.2 [Note: A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, 80.]
I
Glory to God
1. “Glory to God in the highest.” It is the first doxology of the gospel—brief
words, yet bearing up the soul into illimitable regions of thought! Is it a
proclamation—“There is glory to God in the highest”? or is it an ascription—
“Glory be to God in the highest”? It is both; for ascriptions of praise are also
proclamations of fact. Glory given to God is only some manifestation and
effluence of His own glory, recognized by created intelligences, and reflected
back in adoration and joy. So it is here. In the birth of a Saviour which is Christ
the Lord, the mystery of the Kingdom has begun, and the glory of God has
appeared. It is a glory of mercy to repair spiritual ruin, of wisdom to solve
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problems of sin and righteousness, of judgment to convict and condemn the
powers of evil, of faithfulness to fulfil promises to prisoners of hope, of grace to
conduct a history of salvation, of love to be manifested in the ages to come. This
is the glory recognized by the heavenly host in the holy Nativity and celebrated in
their responsive praise.
The first words of it are, Glory to God! and a most weighty lesson may we draw
for ourselves, from finding the angels put that first. A world is redeemed.
Millions on millions of human beings are rescued from everlasting death. Is not
this the thing uppermost in the angels’ thoughts? Is not this mighty blessing
bestowed on man the first thing that they proclaim? No, it is only the second
thing: the first thing is, Glory to God! Why so? Because God is the Giver of this
salvation; nay, is Himself the Saviour, in the person of the only-begotten Son.
Moreover, because in heavenly minds God always holds the first place, and they
look at everything with a view to Him. But if this was the feeling of the angels, it
is clear we cannot be like angels until the same feeling is uppermost with us also.
Would we become like them, we must strive to do God’s will as it is done in
heaven; that is, because it is God’s will and because we are fully persuaded that
whatever He wills must needs be the wisest and best thing to do, whether we can
see the reasons of it or not.1 [Note: A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, 80.]
The religious faith on which my own art teaching is based never has been farther
defined, nor have I wished to define it farther, than in the sentence beginning the
theoretical part of Modern Painters: “Man’s use and purpose—and let the
reader who will not grant me this, follow me no farther, for this I purpose always
to assume—is to be the witness of the glory of God, and to advance that glory by
his reasonable obedience and resultant happiness.”2 [Note: Ruskin, Epilogue to
Modern Painters (Works, vii. 462).]
2. How does the coming of Christ bring glory to God? It displays all the
attributes of God to advantage. The general arranges his forces to display his
wisdom; the orator arranges his arguments to display his power; the
philanthropist arranges his gifts and so displays his mercy. In the coming of
Christ we see wisdom and power and mercy displayed in their fullest and
sublimest manner. The whole character of God stands out resplendent in
faithfulness and love. How many promises were fulfilled, how many obligations
discharged by the coming of Jesus! By setting forth God in His highest glory it
brings glory to Him.
The glory which lay hidden from eternity in the creative Mind began to disclose
itself in the myriad forms of beauty abounding in the inorganic kingdom, in
crystals of snow and ice, in sparkle of jewels, in the exquisite hues of precious
stones, in splendour of sunrise and sunset, in glint of moonbeam and gleam of
star, in cloud, wave and sky—then continued to unfold with ever-increasing
beauty and wonder as Life, that great magician appeared, the waving of whose
wand inaugurated the organic kingdom, and changed the face of all things into a
new Creation. Thus the unveiling of the sublime purpose continued, till through
rudimentary forms of sensations, intelligence, and love, in the vegetable and
animal kingdoms, it blossomed into completer form in Man, and finally broke
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into all fruition in Christ the glory of Eternal Love unveiled.1 [Note: L. W. Caws,
The Unveiled Glory, 64.]
3. But can God receive increase of glory, more than He has already? Is it not the
very idea of God that He is infinitely glorious, and that this He always has been
and ever will be? Assuredly so: in Himself He is as incapable of increase as of
diminution of glory. But we may ascribe more glory to Him, more, that is, of the
honour due unto His name, as we know Him more, as the infinite perfection of
His being—His power, His wisdom, His love—is gradually revealed to us. So too
may angels; and the heavenly host declare in this voice of theirs that the
Incarnation of the Son of God was a new revelation, a new outcoming to them of
the unsearchable riches of the wisdom, the power, the love, that are in God; that
in that Church of the redeemed which now had become possible would be
displayed mysteries of grace and goodness which transcended and surpassed all
God’s past dealings with men or with angels.
We have St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians declaring the same thing; that
heaven was taught by what was done upon earth; that angels, as they stooped
from the shining battlements on high and looked toward this dim speck of earth
and on one obscure province of it, and at a little village, and to one lowliest
household there, learned about the mind of God things which they had not
learned standing upon the steps of the throne and beholding the unapproachable
brightness of Him who sat thereon. Can we doubt this? Does not St. Paul declare
that he was himself set to proclaim the mystery which from the beginning of the
world had been hid in God, more or less concealed therefore from men and
angels alike? And why to proclaim it? He proceeds to give the answer: “to the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places”—in other
words, to the angelic host—“might be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God.” Here then is the explanation of the angels’ song, of this “Glory to God in
the highest,” this melody of heaven, to bear a part in which they invite and
challenge the listening children of men upon earth.
Of God’s goodwill to men, and to all creatures, for ever, there needed no
proclamation by angels. But that men should be able to please Him,—that their
wills should be made holy, and they should not only possess peace in themselves,
but be able to give joy to their God, in the sense in which He afterwards is
pleased with His own baptized Son;—this was a new thing for angels to declare,
and for shepherds to believe.1 [Note: Ruskin, Val d’Arno, § 253 (Works, xxiii.
148).]
4. The glory thus manifested, apprehended, and given back, is “glory in the
highest.” What is intended by this superlative? What noun shall we read into this
adjective? Things, places, beings, realms of space, regions of thought, worlds of
life? The unexplained word embraces and exceeds all these. At least the angels
knew their meaning, cognizant as they are of the gradations and levels of
creation, the lower and the higher, the higher and the highest. Men may employ
such a word with vague and partial intention; but angels know whereof they
affirm, and the single word declares the glory of God in this Nativity to be no
secondary manifestation in the common level of human history, but a fresh
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effulgence of His highest attributes to which the highest heavens respond.
There are some who take the word “highest” to mean that there is glory to God
in the highest degree by the coming of Christ. God is glorified in nature—“the
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
He is glorified in every dew-drop that sparkles in the morning sun, and, in every
tiny wood-flower that blossoms in the copse. Every bird that warbles on the
spray, every lamb that skips the mead, glorifies God. All creation glorifies God.
Do not the stars write His name in golden letters across the midnight sky? Are
not the lightnings His sword flashing from His scabbard? Are not the thunders
the roll-drums of His armies? From least to greatest the whole of creation tells
forth His glory. But the majestic organ of creation cannot reach the compass of
the organ of redemption. There is more melody in Christ than in all worlds. He
brings glory to God in the very highest degree.
An Indian rajah has built over the grave of his favourite wife a mausoleum
which is one of the wonders of the world. So perfectly and wonderfully is this
built that a word spoken at the entrance proceeds from point to point and is
distinctly re-echoed until it reaches the very topmost height. So would the angels
have it to be in living glory to God. They would have all men praise God for His
great love-gift, the praise proceeding higher and higher, gathering in volume as it
proceeds, until it surges up against the throne of God, and bursts into the spray
of ten thousand songs. Oh, let us praise Him! If angels did who were spectators,
surely we ought who are recipients of such blessings. Let us say, “Highest!
highest!”
Remember the words of Edward Perronet when dying, and try to catch his
spirit:—
Glory to God in the height of His Divinity:
Glory to God in the depth of His Humanity:
Glory to God in His All-sufficiency.
Glory to God in the Highest!1 [Note: W. L. Mackenzie, Pure Religion, 105.]
II
Peace to Men
“Peace” how precious is the word! There is warmth in it. There is music in it.
There is Heaven in it. What pictures it paints! We can see in this mirror-like
word a hundred dear delights. A sky without a cloud. A sun whose rays are
benignant. Fields rich in harvests, white-washed farmsteads looking cosy and
clean on the hills and in the dales, cattle browsing in sweet content, workmen
plying their common tasks in undisturbed serenity, no war or battle’s sound
creating feelings of dread apprehension in human breasts anywhere. Oh, lovely
peace! But other and sweeter images are in that word: men and women find
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reflexion therein, with happy faces aglow with innocent pleasure, no strife in
their hearts, their passions orderly and under correct government, their feelings
pure, their emotions, all noble, their aspirations all heavenly, their consciences
tranquil at peace with themselves, their neighbours, with nature, and with God.
This is the peace that Jesus brings. The angels’ song has set men dreaming, and
the dreams are not unworthy; they have dreamt of peace in the workshop, the
ending of the unhappy misunderstandings between master and man; peace in the
home, the ending of all domestic disquietude; peace in the State, rival parties in
unholy rivalry no longer, but all men’s good each man’s rule; peace betwixt the
nations, the sword no longer to do its inhuman butchery, and the cannon no
longer to be the cause of unspeakable horrors; but, beautiful as are all these
dreams, and compassed as they are by the angels’ words, they fall far short of
what Christ’s gift involves. The peace He gives is not superficial, but radical: it
means, first of all, peace in man, peace at the centre of things. He does not make
the profound mistake of beginning at the circumference; He works at the centre.
He puts His peace into men, and the charm of it is sighted, and the power of it is
felt, and the contagion of it is diffused. He influences the world within, and in
that way the world without.
Placed in the midst of Europe, the Emperor was to bind its races into one body,
reminding them of their common faith, their common blood, their common
interest in each other’s welfare. And he was therefore, above all things, claiming
indeed to be upon earth the representative of the Prince of Peace, bound to listen
to complaints, and to redress the injuries inflicted by sovereigns or peoples upo n
each other; to punish offenders against the public order of Christendom; to
maintain through the world, looking down as from a serene height upon the
schemes and quarrels of meaner potentates, that supreme good without which
neither arts nor letters, nor the gentler virtues of life, can rise and flourish. The
mediæval Empire was in its essence what its modern imitators have sometimes
professed themselves: the Empire was Peace: the oldest and noblest title of its
head was “Imperator Pacificus.”1 [Note: J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire,
254.]
1. What then is this peace? Let us understand it as a fourfold personal peace.
(1) The peace of an illumined life.—No one can canvass the world’s literature,
listen to his fellows, or interrogate his own heart, and be unaware how chafed
and bewildered men are apart from Christ. We are capable of thought, but our
reflexions are at times of a mutinous and melancholy order. We appeal to what
we call the master-minds of the world, but as we note the earnest, far-away look
in their eyes, the pallor on their countenances, the grave lines which thought has
carved on their foreheads, and the note of interrogation which is ever and anon
upon their lips, we are distressed to find that the secret of peace is not in
dreaming, inquiring, speculating. We listen to science, and it seems to clash with
all our best thoughts and feelings. We feel that there is a God, and it smiles at
our weakness and whispers, No, only a Force; we feel that we are greater than
we seem, and it talks seriously of matter as though we were only that; we feel we
ought to pray, and it laughs at our credulity; we feel that our life is unending,
and it points with cruel finger to the grave. Science does not calm us; it chafes us.
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Where, then, can peace be found? Not in ignorance, for darkness evermore
distresses; not in superstition, for error is disquieting; not in unbelief, for men
have flung away rare and long-cherished beliefs for the incertitudes of
intellectual charlatans, only to find that peace has deserted them; not in
literature, for many a book is only the foam of a storm-lashed mind, and not a
few are the progeny of a diseased pessimism; not in the voices of the world, for
strife of tongues is sadly discomposing. Then where? Thank Heaven, fooled
though we be everywhere else, and disappointed with the pretty lanterns which
men have hung out to lighten the gloom, we hear the voice of Jesus say, “Come
unto me and rest,” and peace steals over us as He gives His gracious and
sufficing answers to our sundry questions.
I had a deep peace which seemed to pervade the whole soul, and resulted from
the fact that all my desires were fulfilled in God. I feared nothing; that is,
considered in its ultimate results and relations, because my strong faith placed
God at the head of all perplexities and events. I desired nothing but what I now
had, because I had a full belief that, in my present state of mind, the results of
each moment constituted the fulfilment of the Divine purposes. I do not mean to
say that I was in a state in which I could not be afflicted. My physical system, my
senses, had not lost the power of suffering. My natural sensibilities were
susceptible of being pained. Oftentimes I suffered much. But in the centre of the
soul, if I may so express it, there was Divine and supreme peace. The soul,
considered in its connexion with the objects immediately around it, might at
times be troubled and afflicted; but the soul, considered in its relation to God
and the Divine will, was entirely calm, trustful and happy. The trouble at the
circumference, originating in part from a disordered physical constitution, did
not affect and disturb the Divine peace of the centre.1 [Note: Madame Guyon, in
Life by T. C. Upham, 130.]
At the close of a sermon on the words, “The peace of God which passeth all
understanding shall keep (Gr. shall keep as by soldiers in a fortress) your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus,” Dr. Duncan came up to the preacher with his
own summary of the text, clinching it with his sharp incisive “What?”—his
constant mode of eliciting assent to a sentence which in his own judgment was
both justly conceived and rightly worded. His beautiful paraphrase of the text
was this: “Christ Jesus is the garrison, and Peace is the sentinel.”2 [Note: A.
Moody Stuart, Recollections of John Duncan, 218.]
(2) The peace of a purified life.—We have had fair dreams of a peace which
passeth all understanding. We have looked on the sea when it has been
beautifully placid: of thunder there was none, but the waters made a murmuring
music as they broke in cresting waves upon the beach. Can my life be like that?
This imagination, can it be saved from the base dreams which are fatal to its
pleasure? This memory, digging open long-closed graves and giving a
resurrection to painful and hideous incidents, can it ever be satisfied? This
conscience, may I ever hope for the silencing of its accusatory voices, the stilling
of this inward thunder? This soul, which has so sadly damaged and deranged
itself, can its equilibrium and equanimity ever be restored? Thank God, yes; in
Jesus Christ we may find life and peace. Too impotent to emancipate ourselves
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from our bitter past, to free ourselves from, the burden of our sin, to rectify our
self-inflicted wrongs, to dispose of the disabilities which are the fruit of our
unrighteousness, He comes to our conscience, to pardon our iniquity, to change
our nature, to renew our hearts. “Peace on earth”; yes, that is the meaning of
Bethlehem and the story of the great humiliation; that is the teaching of Calvary,
with its all-sufficient sacrifice; we have peace through the blood of the Cross, and
only through that blood.
The Christian may have, must have, an outer life in the world, of training,
toning, educating—in fact of “tribulation”; but with equal certainty he has a
true life, an inner life, “in Christ.” The character of the inner life—as of the
majestic life of the Eternal even in His Passion—is this, “in Me ye may have
peace.” Examine, then, some of the conditions of the Mystery of Peace. And
think, I have called it (and rightly, have I not?) a mystery. It is no mere
acquiring the right of rest by the sacrifice of principle, it is no mere buying of
freedom from disturbance at any price, it is no mere “making a solitude” and
calling it “Peace.” No, it is an inner condition of soul realized, and blessed; and
that it may be ours some conditions must be fulfilled. What are they? Sin must
be forgiven, its weight removed, its tormenting sense of ever-reviving power
attenuated, the wear and tear of its memories softened and relieved by
penitential tears. This is a possibility of supernatural life; this is a result, a
blessed outcome of life “in Christ.”1 [Note: W. J. Knox Little, The Mystery of the
Passion, 168.]
(3) The peace of a harmonized life.—Not a little of our acutest misery is due to an
internecine war which rages in man, and which makes itself felt subsequent to
our forgiveness and renewal. The Apostle paints an elaborate picture of it in the
seventh chapter of Romans, and calls our attention to that dual self of which
every nature consists: the flesh and the spirit, the law of the members and the
law of the mind. Both strive for the ascendancy, and full often the battle waxes
hot. Virtue contends with vice, pure instincts with unholy tendencies, aspirations
of the heavenliest with desires’ the most hellish. Assuredly this is never the life of
peace our God intends us to find. The human soul was never meant to be the
scene of conflict so terrible. Can it end? Is there a deliverer? Thank Heaven, the
Apostle found an answer to his question. With unmistakable clearness his voice
proclaims that the strife can end, the discord can cease “the life-long bleeding of
the soul be o’er.” Listen to him: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Christ comes to restore our whole nature. As the able physician searches into the
out-of-the-way places of our body, and shows no mercy to the microbes which
would lay waste our earthly house, but drives them thence, so Jesus has no pity
for our carnal self. He tears it out root and branch, destroying the works of the
devil, and making man at one with Himself and at one with his God. And this is
the way of peace: peace at any price is not the will of our Father. We are not to
be content with the peace that comes from making concessions to the carnal
nature, or with sundry respites from the more serious strife, but only with the
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peace that comes from the complete rout of the foe, deliverance from bondage to
the flesh, the elimination of the law of antagonism, the restoration of our inner
life to its original homogeneity. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. And
this, too, is peace on earth.
Steep Cliff Bay is now a Christian village. A dramatic incident took place not
long ago in the middle of a great native feast in North Raga. The biggest chief of
the whole district was present—one of the few then still heathen. He stepped
forward, and handing his war-club to the giver of the feast, announced that it
was to be chopped up and distributed among the other chiefs as a declaration of
peace and good-will.1 [Note: Florence Coombe, Islands of Enchantment, 10.]
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
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It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The household born
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth He sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”1 [Note: H. W. Longfellow, Christmas
Bells.]
(4) The peace of a solaced life.—We are not allowed to live our life untempted,
untroubled. There are stern factors in human experience. There was a shadow
even on the cradle of the World’s Redeemer, and the shadows are thick on the
lives of many. We are mariners, and while sometimes it is fair sailing, at others
fierce euroclydons threaten us with wholesale wreckage. There are times when
life seems almost unendurable. The troubles of our hearts are enlarged, hell
attacks us with unwonted ferocity, the world seems cold and callous, sorrow
grips us like a tiger as if it would draw our last drop of blood. Bereavement
sucks all the sunshine out of our landscape, tramples on our sweetest flowers,
silences voices which gave us cheer. Alas! alas! for the riddles of this painful
earth. Well, blessed be God, here again Christ is more than precious. He
understands us perfectly. Has He not been in the thickest shadows? Has He not
braved the dreadest storms? Has He not fought the gravest battles? He brings
peace to the earth. Wet eyes He touches with kindly hand, broken hearts He
comforts and heals, desolat homes He cheers by His presence, reeling lives He
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steadies and supports by His grace, and in life’s gravest vicissitudes He afford us
the secret of tranquillity.
Peace is more than joy: it is love’s latest boon, and her fairest. I hesitate to speak
of it: I know so little what it is One may have love in a measure, and joy many
times, and yet be but a raw scholar in this art of peace. The speaker here,
methinks, should be one far on in pilgrimage; or, if young in years, old and well-
stricken in grace. “Well-stricken,” whether the rod have been heavy or light;
weaned and quieted, like a child, from a child; or, though it “have burned the
hair and bent the shoulders,” still weaned and quieted. “Peace,” what is it? It is
what remains in the new heart when joy has subsided. Love, that is the new
heart’s action, its beat; joy its counter-beat; peace is the balance, the equilibrium
of the heart, its even posture, its settled attitude. It is neither the tide going, nor
the tide flowing, but the placid calm when the tide is full, and the soft sea-levels
poise themselves and shine—poise themselves because there is such fulness
within them; shine because there is so much serenity above them.1 [Note: R. W.
Barbour, Thoughts, 2.]
2. Have we any proper sense and feeling of this good-will? If we have, we shall be
humble, inasmuch as we are saved, not by our merits, but by the love of God, in
spite of our manifold demerits. We shall be thankful; for surely kindness like this
ought to fill our hearts with gratitude. God’s love toward us should beget in us
love toward Him. Above all, we should be full of faith, trusting that He who has
begun so excellent a work will bring the same to good effect; that He who for our
sakes gave His only Son to live a poor and humble life, and to die a painful and
shameful death, will together with that Son freely give us all things. We cannot
suppose it was a pleasure to the Son of God to suffer the pains of infancy, the
labours and mortifications and trials of manhood, the pangs of a cruel death. It
was no pleasure to Him to quit the glories of heaven, in order so dwell in
lowliness and contempt. Why then did He undergo all this? From good-will, to
save man. And think you He will leave this salvation imperfect, and so render
His incarnation, and birth, and human life and death, of no avail? O no! He must
desire to finish His work; He must be anxious to make up the known He has
toiled and bled for, by placing in it all the jewels, all the souls, He can gather. He
will never be wanting to us, if we are not wanting to ourselves.
Think of it—The love of God! We use those words very ten, and get no comfort
from them, but think what human love means,—a perfect oneness of sympathy
and will with any near friends, and imagine that purified and intensified to
Infinitude! The depth of our misery now is to me a witness of the immensity of
the blessing that makes all this worth while.1 [Note: Letters of Thomas Erskine
of Linlathen, ii. 163.]
3. If we look closely at the expression “men in whom he is well pleased,” we shall
observe that this striking and remarkable description of men is parallel with the
words used by the Father at the baptism of Jesus Christ. As Christ rose from the
Jordan the voice of the Eternal said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased” (Mat_3:17). In the text exactly the same phrase is used of men. God is
“well pleased in” men as He is “well pleased in” His beloved Son.
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But in what sense can God be well pleased with men? He cannot be well pleased
with their sins, or even with their folly. No! He is well pleased with men in so far
as they are capable of salvation in Christ, are capable, that is to say, of being
made Christlike. On the other hand, as He declared at the baptism of Christ in
the Jordan, He is well pleased with Christ as being actually and already all that
He intended every man to be when He declared, on the sixth day of the creation,
that man, the final outcome and masterpiece of the evolution of the world, was
“very good” (Gen_1:31). In a word, Christ is actually what every man is
potentially. Christ is the new Head of humanity, “the last Adam” (1Co_15:45).
Christ realizes the Divine ideal of man. He is the proof and pledge of what every
man may yet become. When the sculptor sees the rough, unhewn marble, he is
“well pleased” with it, not because it is shapeless and rough and ugly, and for
immediate purposes useless, but because it is capable of being chiselled into
forms of enduring beauty and service. The incarnation of the Eternal Word is
the definite, concrete, decisive evidence of what human nature can become when
sin is eliminated.
Jesus of Nazareth was God and man, not because His physical birth and death
took place under conditions impossible to the normal human organization, but
on the contrary because having the normal human organization, in its entirety,
He realized in and through it His absolute union with God, and became actual
fact what all men have it in them potentially to become This divinization of
humanity, this “incarnation,” took place in Him at a certain time and place,
under special historical conditions, which the gospel narrative enables us
partially, but only partially, to reconstruct. The incarnation is not completed, the
truth which Jesus proclaimed is not fully revealed, until the whole of mankind
and the whole of nature become a perfect vehicle for the life which lived in Him.1
[Note: R. L. Nettleship, Memoir of Thomas Hill Green, 48.]
Not long ago a gentle Christian lady went to a house of infamy in London to see a
fallen girl whom she hoped to rescue. The door of that house was opened by one
of those ferocious bullies who are employed in such establishments to negotiate
between the victims and their clients. For a moment she was terrified at the
fiendish appearance of this monster of iniquity. It was a low neighbourhood; she
was far from home; she was alone. But, inspired of God, she resolved to appeal
to the better self even of that foul and savage man. Taking her well-filled purse
out of her pocket, she suddenly placed it in his hands and “I do not like to take
my purse about here, will you please keep it for me until I return?” The man was
speechless with amazement; a tear burst from his eye. She passed on. In that
vestibule of hell she found the girl and arranged for her delivery. After some
interval the lady returned to the door, and there was the man where she left him,
with her well-filled purse in his hand. He stored it to her, not a single penny had
been taken from it. For the first time in his life, probably, he found himself
trusted by a lady. It appealed to all the courtesy and nobility that was left, or
that was undeveloped, in his nature. He responded at once to that appeal, and
proved worthy of that confidence.2 [Note: H. P. Hughes, Essential Christianity,
284.]
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BI, "With the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
The angel’s song
I.
CONSIDER THE PASSAGE AS IT LIES BEFORE US IN THE HISTORY.
II. MAKE SOME PRACTICAL REMARKS UPON THE SUBJECT.
1. If this be the song and taste and sentiment of heaven, what is the taste and
sentiment of the men of the earth who call themselves wise, and call us fools for
believing the Bible?
2. We learn from the song that no goodwill from heaven can be communicated to
man, nor any peace on earth, but what is consistent with the glory of God.
3. Herein are afforded sufficient encouragement and direction to every believing
heart. (R. Cecil, M. A.)
A multitude of the heavenly host
In that distant age, as by no means since, the ministry of angels was familiar to the
human mind—was required to answer, in fact, the necessities of human thought. On
occasions infinitely less important than the birth of One whose name should be called
Jesus, the Saviour, the angels then came and went in the universe freely, because in
mind and for mind the universe was what it was. Since then not one has come. So the
impression made then by its being said that this event was made illustrious by the
attendance of a multitude of the heavenly host, and that which is made now, cannot
be wholly the same. With all our ideas of the universe, it is infinitely more wonderful
now than it was then. As it is so much more wonderful, it is so much more difficult to
realize in thought. And so it is with reference to all else that is wonderful in the story
of that birth to which the thoughts of the best part of the human race go back as to no
other event in all human history. The modes of thought and of expression with
regard to all that are unchanged by the lapse of ages—in the letter unchanged—but
are they actually the same in spirit to us as they were in another age under cruder and
almost opposite conditions of human thought? So shadowy has the angelic host
become to mortal men now, to whom in their direst need or in their loftiest ecstasies
no angels come, that the joy of that angelic host over the birth of the Saviour of
mankind, so far from communicating itself to the Christian world of to-day, as it did
once, is never felt save at Christmas, and then it would be hard to say by whom. This
is not as it should be. To the thought of Christian men and women eighteen centuries
ago the angelic host and their joy were real. Why should they not be so to our thought
too? That these men and women were even as we are is the key to all history. With all
that there is in our modern modes of thought to make the supernatural seem to us in
fact, however it may be in name, one and the same thing with the incredible or faintly
believed—with all that there is of this in our modern modes of thought, that which is
in them, too, of a powerful apprehension of the idea of Christ’s life as the most signal
manifestation of the Divine, is enough, if it be only well and truly considered, to make
the angelic host and their song as real to us as ever they were to any generation of
men—much more real, at any rate, than they have been to many in this generation.
(J. Service, D. D.)
Music
Music has been called the speech of angels. I will go further and call it the speech of
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God Himself. Without words it is wonderful—blessed—one of God’s best gifts to men.
But in singing you have both the wonders together, music and words. Why is there
music in heaven? Because in music there is no self-will. It goes on certain laws and
rules which man did not make, but has only found out. Music is a pattern of the
everlasting life of heaven, because in heaven, as in music, is perfect freedom and
perfect pleasure; and yet that freedom comes not from throwing away law, but from
obeying God’s law perfectly; and that pleasure comes not from a self-will, and doing
each what he likes, but from perfectly doing the will of the Father who is in heaven.
And that in itself would be sweet music, even if there were neither voice nor sound in
heaven. Some of us may not be able to make music with our voices; but we can make
it with our hearts, and join in the angel’s song this day, if not with our lips, yet in our
lives. Christmas has always been a day of songs, of carols, and of hymns; and so let it
be for ever. For on Christmas Day, most of all days (if I may talk of eternal things
according to the laws of time) was manifested on earth the everlasting music which
was in heaven. (Charles Kingsley.)
Suddenly, or spirit and understanding
There are two classes of persons between whom a mutual distrust exists, because
they fail to appreciate each other’s attitude toward the events of the universe.
I. The first class expects all things to come to pass gradually, so that their courses
may be traced. The motive of this class is intellectual; the mind wants to correlate
facts. Sudden transitions, having been hitherto supposed to argue the absence of
natural causes, are unwelcome to the scientific mind.
II. The other class cares little for natural causes, but rather delights in things
supposed to be unexplainable by any but extra-natural interventions. It knows that
worship is the highest exercise of the mind, and it desires sudden and mysterious
events to quicken the feeling of reverence.
III. Between these extremes our text mediates by affirming the sudden occurrences,
but associating them by a copulative, rather than an adversative conjunction with the
things that went before them. In this it has the authority of many scientific men
(notably Dr. Maudsley), who assert that there are indeed leaps and sudden changes
and specific differences, while they assign them to natural causes, thus contrasting
them only with other events and things, not with nature as a whole, and connecting
them copulatively instead of adversatively with other phenomena. Nor does this
destroy the value of such events as calls to worship. The surprise caused by a sudden
event often wakes up a sleeping sense of reverence whether the event is explainable
or not. God means to surprise us, but He does not mean to put us to confusion. The
scientific mind is compelled by the facts to concede the actual occurrence of sudden
and surprising events. With the universe full of God the devout mind can afford to
concede the presumptive universality of natural causes. Science has kept saying “not
suddenly;” religion has reiterated “but suddenly;” the Bible calmly says “and
suddenly.” The “and” suits science, the “suddenly” suits religion. Let us seek to be
devout and scientific both, and sing with spirit and understanding. (American
Horniletic Review.)
The birth of our Lord
The manner and spirit in which we ought to spend Christmas.
I. LET US ASCRIBE GLORY TO GOD. The Lord incarnate is placed before us; the
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Conqueror of Satan; the Saviour of man is thus revealed. Surely, if our hearts can be
touched by the motive of gratitude to God for His mercies, we must feel it in the
commemoration of the arrival of His Son. Surely we must feel some inclination this
day to join the angelic host in “blessing, praising, and magnifying His Holy Name.”
II. LET US SPREAD PEACE ON THE EARTH. All animosities should cease. If God
desire to be at peace with us, let us imitate the heavenly pattern set us at Bethlehem.
All is peace in heaven, and it is our duty to promote it on earth.
III. LET US EXERCISE GOODWILL TOWARDS MEN.
IV. Let me impress upon you TO MAINTAIN, when this day and year have been
added to the past, and even to the end of your lives, THE SEVERAL GRACES TO
WHICH I HAVE ADVERTED. Becoming as they are at this season, they become us
always. (A. Garry, M. A.)
The song of the angels
I. THE SONG ITSELF.
I. The song consists of a proclamation of peace. We are in a state of hostility and
alienation. Not an easy thing to restore peace, consistently with the Divine nature
and glory. Not only is the birth of Christ the occasion of a proclamation of peace
between us and God, but it restores peace to our own mind. There is also peace made
with our fellows and neighbours and kindred, and with the whole creaturely
universe.
II. THE SONG AS SUNG ON THIS OCCASION—that is, as sung by ANGELS.
1. They are the most intellectual part of God’s creation; they have the purest
intellect.
2. Observe not merely their intellectuality by their disinterestedness and
impartiality. We are ourselves interested in the whole affair; not so with them.
They were never polluted.
3. Their unanimity in singing it. There was no jarring string in that song; no
dissenting voice in that harmony. Salvation affects heaven as well as earth.
Lessons:
1. A lesson of gratitute to God.
2. Kindness to each other, especially the poor. (J. Beaumont, D. D.)
The nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
His own appearance was despicable; that of His retinue was most magnificent. He
who was the ancient of days became a helpless infant: He who was the light of the
sun, comes into the world in the darkness of the night: He who came that He might
lay us in the bosom of the Father, is Himself laid in the manger of a stable. But
though meanly welcomed on earth, yet heaven makes abundant amends for all.
I. For the first it is said that AN INNUMERABLE COMPANY OF THE HEAVENLY
HOST PRAISED GOD. Strange that they should make this day of heaven’s
humiliation their festival and day of thanksgiving.
1. The holy angels rejoiced at the birth of Christ, because it gave them occasion to
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testify their deepest humility and subjection. To be subject to Christ while He sat
upon the throne of His kingdom, arrayed with unapproachable light, controlling
all the powers of heaven with a beck, was no more than His infinite glory exacted
from them: but to be subject to Him in a cratch, when He hid His beams, was not
obedience only but condescension. Now the time is come when they may express
their fidelity and Obedience in the lowest estate of their Lord.
2. The angels rejoiced at the birth of Christ because the confirmation of that
blessed estate of grace and glory, wherein they now stand, depended upon His
incarnation. The government of all creatures is laid upon His shoulders. He is the
“head of all principality and power” (Col Eph_1:10). The Mediator confirms them
in their holy estate; therefore they rejoiced at the birth of Christ, wherein they
saw the Godhead actually united to the human nature; since the merit of this
union, long before that, prevailed for their happy perseverance.
3. The holy angels rejoiced at the birth of Christ, from the fervent desire they
have of man’s salvation.
II. WHAT THIS ANGELICAL SONG CONTAINS IN IT?
1. God’s glory. God’s glory is of two sorts, essential and declarative. The abasing
nativity of Jesus Christ is the highest advancement of God’s glory. This is a
strange riddle to human reason, for God to raise His glory out of humiliation.
(1) In the birth of Christ God glorified the riches of His infinite wisdom. This
was a contrivance that would never have entered into the hearts either of men
or angels. It is called the wisdom of God (1Co_1:24). The question was how to
satisfy justice in the punishment of sinners, and yet to gratify mercy in their
pardon.
(2) The birth of Christ glorified the almighty power of God. Is it not almighty
power that the infinite Godhead should unite to itself dust and ashes, and be
so closely united, that it should grow into one and the same person.
(3) By the birth of Christ God glorified the severity of His justice. His Son
must rather take flesh and die than that this attribute should remain
unsatisfied.
(4) By the birth of Christ the truth and veracity of God is eminently glorified,
by fulfilling many promises and predictions.
(5) The birth of Christ glorifies the infinite purity and holiness of God.
(6) Hereby the infinite love and pity of God are eminently glorified.
2. Peace on earth.
(1) Peace mutually, between man and man.
(2) Peace internally, with a man’s self, in the region of his own spirit and
conscience.
(3) Peace with God. Christ was sent into this world as a minister of peace, as
a mediator of peace.
(a) All the precepts of His doctrine do directly tend to the establishing of
peace among men. Christianity teaches us not to offer any injury to
others. Christ forbids private revenge and retaliating of wrongs.
(b) The examples of Christ all tend to peace. But Christ says Mat_
10:34-35), we must distinguish between the direct end of Christ’s coming
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into the world and the accidental issue of it.
3. The infinite love and goodwill that God hath shown towards men.
(1) If you consider the Person sent, this will exalt the goodness of God toward
us. He lay under no necessity of saving us.
(2) Consider the manner and circumstances of Christ’s coming into the
world, then will appear the infinite love and goodwill of God. That Christ was
sent, as from the Father, freely: as to Himself, ignominiously.
(3) The infinite goodwill of God in sending Jesus Christ into the world
appears to be glorious and great, if you consider the persons to whom He was
sent. This love is pitched upon froward, peevish, and rebellious creatures.
(4) It is evident from these many great benefits, of which, by Christ’s coming,
we are made partakers. (E. Hopkins, D. D.)
The glory of the heavenly host an argument for more than bare necessity
in the service of God
May not sundry ceremonies be left out, say they, and yet our religion be sound and
entire? Indeed, our ceremonies are not necessary in themselves we grant it; why, and
what if such great cathedral churches had not been built, nor such rich costly
ornaments bestowed upon the roof, upon the choir, upon the Communion Table,
might not prayers be read, and sermons preached with poorer habiliments and in
meaner places?
Well, no man denies but God was faithfully served in dens, and rocks, and caves of
the earth, when the apostles and prophets were persecuted. Besides, there are that
complain, when one minister may sufficiently and audibly read service to the
congregation: frustra fit per plura, what a needless thing it is, to have a choir of
singers discharge that, which ordinarily is no more than one man’s labour? They that
make these objections, let them consider what errors they fall into. They may as well
tax God Himself for sending a multitude of angels to congratulate the birth of His
Son, when two or three would have done the business; for out of the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall every word be justified. Why should a reasonable man think it
fit to glorify God with bare scanty provision? God hath given us full measure of all
His blessings, and running over; therefore no decent ceremony is superfluous, no
rich ornament too gorgeous, no strain of our wit too eloquent, no music too sweet, no
multitude too great to advance His name, who hath exalted us by the humiliation of
His Son, and made us capable to live with angels in heaven, because Christ was
content to lie among beasts in a manger. (Bishop Hacker.)
Multitude pleasing to God
And remember that there is no variation or change in God; as He appointed many
angels to sing out His birth, so to this time and for ever He loves to be glorified by
multitudes. Let two or three be gathered together in His name rather than one
separatist alone; but if you will multiply those two or three to hundreds, to thousands
Of souls, O then His desire is upon them that fear Him, and upon those thwackt
congregations that call upon His name. He that invited the guests in the Gospel did
not think his feast well bestowed till his room was full; therefore he bid his servants
scour the highways and bring them in, that his number might be augmented. I
commend your private exercises of prayer between God and your own heart, that
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your Father that sees you devout in secret may reward you openly: but those prayers
which you would have most prosperous and successful, send them up in the thickest
press of prayers, when a great assembly open their lips together. He that joins his
spirit with the spirit of the Church shall be heard as if he prayed with ten thousand
voices. (Bishop Hacker.)
Trust the heavenly forces
O see how many legions He can command” from heaven, and then say, it is a vain
thing to trust in the forces of man; it is the Lord that hath powers and principalities
in store to awe the world: lo, He cometh with a multitude of the heavenly host.
(Bishop Hacker.)
One good work quickly followed by another
The choir was not long a-tuning, but the hymn was sung immediately after the
sermon was ended, like a chime that follows a clock without distinction of a minute:
one good work follows another incontinently without any tedious pause or lingering
respite. Quick motions of zeal and devotion are ever most acceptable. Procrastinating
of time is the ready way to be taken tardy like the foolish virgins. (Bishop Hacker.)
Church Psalmody
If Asaph and that choir did lift up their note with all sorts of musical instruments in
the old law, while the sacrifice was burning upon the altar, I am sure we have much
more cause, not in imitation of Asaph, but of the angels, to praise the Lord with
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Luther, I know not upon what reason, unless
it were because the angels in my text did begin the gospel with melody, he makes
psalmody to be one of the notes of the orthodox Church of Christ. The voice of man
certainly is to praise God in its best tunes and elegancies: and the reasons why
musical notes are most fit and necessary amidst our Christian prayers are these four:
1. Rules of piety steal into our mind with the delight of the harmony, The
Agathyrsians, even to Plato’s days, were wont to sing their laws, and put them in
tune, that men might repeat them in their recreations.
2. It kindles devotion, and fills the soul with more loving affections. Make a
cheerful noise to the God of Jacob, says David. As the noise of flutes and of
trumpets inspire a courage into soldiers, and inflame them to be victorious, so
the psalms of the Church raise up the heart, and make it leap to be with God; as if
our soul were upon our lips, and would fly away to heaven.
3. An heavy spirit oppresseth zeal, and that service of God is twice done which is
done with alacrity: and our Christian merriment by St. James’s rule is, singing
and making melody to the Lord. When our Saviour and His company were sad
the night before His Passion, to put away that heaviness they sang an hymn,
when they went to Mount Olivet.
4. To sing some part of Divine doctrine is very profitable, because that which is
sung is most treatibly pronounced; the understanding stabs long upon it, and
nails it the faster to the memory. (Bishop Hacker)
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Angelic insight
So my text lets you see, that if men be silent, and set not forth the praise of the Lord,
the angels will speak, and give Him glory. It were a great shame for the Commons to
be rude and irrespectful towards their king, when the nobles and princes of the
people are most dutiful and obsequious; so when the Cherubins devote their songs to
extol the most High, it were a beastly neglect in man, a worm in respect of a
Cherubin, not to bear a part in that humble piety: but to speak after the method of
reason, had it not been more proper for the angels at this time to have proclaimed
Christ’s poverty than His power, His infancy than His majesty, His humility in the
lowest, rather than His glory in the highest? If there were any glory coming out of
this work of the Incarnation, it may seem we had it rather than our Saviour, and He
lost it. But the piercing eye of those celestial spirits could see abundant honour
compassing Christ about, where ignorant man could espy nothing but vileness and
misery.
1. They celebrate the glory of God’s justice in sending His Son made of a woman,
and made under the law, to suffer for us that had sinned against the law, because
that justice would not receive man into favour without a satisfaction.
2. They divulge the honour of Christ unto the ends of the world, for the mercy
that came down with Him upon all those that should believe in His name; if His
justice was not forgotten in their song, surely His mercy should be much more
solemnized. The angels for their own share were unacquainted with mercy, ‘twas
news in heaven till this occasion happened; for those rebellious ones of their
order that had sinned, they found no grace to remit their trespasses; properly
that is called mercy, but a thing so rare and unheard of in heaven, that as soon as
ever they saw it stirring in the earth, they sing “Glory to God in the highest.”
3. They praise the Lord on high for the Incarnation of His Son, because the
dignity of the work was so from Himself, that no creature did merit it, none did
beseech or intercede unto Him for it, before He had destinate it, nothing but His
own compassion could move Him to it. (Bishop Hacker.)
The song of angels
1. They knew, in the first place, the glory and greatness of that Being who was
cradled in the manger.
2. The angels knew the sinfulness and misery from which the Saviour came to
rescue fallen man, as we have never known them.
3. These visitants, again, knew, as we do not, the happiness of that state to which
Christ’s mission would raise us. We have seen, then, that angels praised God with
such lively fervours, because they had so much clearer views than we of what
Christ came to accomplish, when He was born at Bethlehem. (W. N. Lewis, D. D.)
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his
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favor rests.”
BARNES, "Glory to God - Praise be to God, or honor be to God. That is, the
praise of redeeming man is due to God. The plan of redemption will bring glory to
God, and is designed to express his glory. This it does by evincing his love to people,
his mercy, his condescension, and his regard to the honor of his law and the stability
of his own government. It is the highest expression of his love and mercy. Nowhere,
so far as we can see, could his glory be more strikingly exhibited than in giving his
only-begotten Son to die for people.
In the highest - This is capable of several meanings:
1. In the highest “strains,” or in the highest possible manner.
2. “Among” the highest that is, among the angels of God; indicating that “they”
felt a deep interest in this work, and were called on to praise God for the
redemption of man.
3. In the highest heavens - indicating that the praise of redemption should not be
confined to the “earth,” but should spread throughout the universe.
4. The words “God in the highest” may be equivalent to “the Most High God,” and
be the same as saying, “Let the most high God be praised for his love and mercy
to people.”
Which of these meanings is the true one it is difficult to determine; but in this they
all agree, that high praise is to be given to God for his love in redeeming people. O
that not only “angels,” but “men,” would join universally in this song of praise!
On earth peace - That is, the gospel will bring peace. The Saviour was predicted
as the Prince of peace, Isa_9:6. The world is at war with God; sinners are at enmity
against their Maker and against each other. There is no peace to the wicked. But
Jesus came to make peace; and this he did,
1. By reconciling the world to God by His atonement.
2. By bringing the sinner to a state of peace with his Maker; inducing him to lay
down the weapons of rebellion and to submit his soul to God, thus giving him the
peace which passeth all understanding.
3. By diffusing in the heart universal good-will to people - “disposing,” people to
lay aside their differences, to love one another, to seek each other’s welfare, and to
banish envy, malice, pride, lust, passion, and covetousness - in all ages the most
fruitful causes of difference among people. And,
4. By diffusing the principles of universal peace among nations. If the gospel of
Jesus should universally prevail, there would be an end of war. In the days of the
millennium there will be universal peace; all the causes of war will have ceased;
people will love each other and do justly; all nations will be brought under the
influence of the gospel. O how should each one toil and pray that the great object of
the gospel should be universally accomplished, and the world be filled with peace!
Good will toward men - The gift of the Saviour is an expression of good-will or
love to people, and therefore God is to be praised. The work of redemption is
uniformly represented as the fruit of the love of God, Joh_3:16; Eph_5:2; 1Jo_4:10;
Rev_1:5. No words can express the greatness of that love. It can only be measured by
the “misery, helplessness,” and “danger” of man; by the extent of his sufferings here
and in the world of woe if he had not been saved; by the condescension, sufferings,
and death of Jesus; and by the eternal honor and happiness to which he will raise his
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people. All these are beyond our full comprehension. Yet how little does man feel it!
and how many turn away from the highest love of God, and treat the expression of
that love with contempt! Surely, if God so loved us “first,” we ought also to love him,
1Jo_4:19.
CLARKE, "Glory to God in the highest - The design of God, in the
incarnation, was to manifest the hidden glories of his nature, and to reconcile men to
each other and to himself. The angels therefore declare that this incarnation shall
manifest and promote the glory of God, εν ᆓψιστοις not only in the highest heavens,
among the highest orders of beings, but in the highest and most exalted degrees. For
in this astonishing display of God’s mercy, attributes of the Divine nature which had
not been and could not be known in any other way should be now exhibited in the
fullness of their glory, that even the angels should have fresh objects to contemplate,
and new glories to exult in. These things the angels desire to look into, 1Pe_1:12, and
they desire it because they feel they are thus interested in it. The incarnation of Jesus
Christ is an infinite and eternal benefit. Heaven and earth both partake of the fruits
of it, and through it angels and men become one family, Eph_3:15.
Peace, good will toward men - Men are in a state of hostility with Heaven and
with each other. The carnal mind is enmity against God. He who sins wars against his
Maker; and
“Foe to God was ne’er true friend to man.”
When men become reconciled to God, through the death of his Son, they love one
another. They have peace with God; peace in their own consciences; and peace with
their neighbors: good will dwells among them, speaks in them, and works by them.
Well might this state of salvation be represented under the notion of the kingdom of
God, a counterpart of eternal felicity. See on Mat_3:2 (note).
GILL, "Glory to God in the highest,.... Which with the following words, are not
to be considered as a wish, that so it might be, but as an affirmation, that so it was;
for the glory of God is great in the salvation, peace, and reconciliation of his people
by Jesus Christ, even the glory of all his perfections; of his wisdom and prudence in
forming such a scheme; of his love, grace, and, mercy, the glory of which is his main
view, and is hereby answered; and of his holiness, which is hereby honoured; and of
his justice, which is fully satisfied; and of his power in the accomplishment of it; and
of his truth and faithfulness in fulfilling his covenant and oath, and all the promises
and prophecies relating to it. Great glory from hence arises to God; who is in the
highest heavens, and is given him by angels and saints that dwell there, and that in
the highest strains; and by saints on earth too in, their measure, and as they are able:
the ground and foundation of which is what follows:
and on earth peace: by which is meant, not external peace, though, at this time
there was peace on earth all the world over; nor internal peace, as distinguished from
that eternal peace which the saints enjoy in heaven; nor even peace made by Christ;
for this, as yet, was not done on earth, but was to be made by the blood of his cross:
rather Christ himself is here intended, who is called "the man, the peace" Mic_5:5
and "our peace", Eph_2:14 and was now on earth, being just born, in order to make
peace with God, and reconciliation for the sins of the people: and he is so called,
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because he is the author of peace between Jew and Gentile, which were at enmity
with each other; by abrogating the ceremonial law, the cause of that enmity; by
sending the Gospel to them, and converting some of each; and by granting the like
privileges to them both; see Eph_2:14 and because he is the author of peace between
God and elect sinners, who, through the fall, are at enmity against, God, and enemies
in their minds by wicked works unto him; nor can they make their peace with God;
they know not the way of it; nor are they disposed to it; nor can they approach to God
to treat with him about terms of peace; nor can they do those things that will make
their peace with God, as satisfying his justice, and fulfilling his law: Christ only is
their peace maker; he only is fit for it, being God and man in one person, and so a
daysman that can lay his hands on both, and has a concern in each, in things
pertaining to God, and to make reconciliation for the sins of the people: he only is
able to do it, and he has done it by the blood of his cross; and a very excellent peace it
is he has made: it is made upon the most honourable terms, to the satisfaction of
justice, and the magnifying of the law of God; and is therefore a lasting one, and
attended with many blessings, such as freedom of access to God, and a right to all the
privileges of his house; and the news of it are glad tidings of good things: and those
angels that first brought the tidings of it, may be truly called, as some of the angels
are by the Jews (t), ‫שלום‬ ‫מלאכי‬ "angels of peace". Moreover, Christ may be said to be
"peace", because he is the donor of all true solid peace and real prosperity, both
external, which his people have in the world, and with each other; and internal,
which they have in their own breasts, through believing in him, and attending on his
ordinances; and eternal, which they shall have for ever with him in the world to
come. And now Christ being the peace on earth, is owing to
good will towards men; that is, to the free favour, good will, and pleasure of God
towards chosen men in Christ Jesus: that Christ was on earth as the peacemaker, or
giver, was owing to God's good will; not to angels, for good angels needed him not as
such; and the angels that sinned were not spared, nor was a Saviour provided for
them; but to men, and not to all men; for though all men share in the providential
goodness of God, yet not in his special good will, free grace, and favour: but to elect
men, to whom a child was born, and a Son given, even the Prince of Peace: it was
from God's good will to these persons, whom he loved with an everlasting love in
Christ, laid up goodness for them in him, blessed them with all spiritual blessings in
him, and made a covenant with him for them; that he provided and appointed his
son to be the Saviour and peace maker; that he sent him into this world to be the
propitiation for sin; and that he spared him not, but delivered him up into the hands
of men, justice, and death, in order to make peace for them. The Vulgate Latin
version, and some copies, as the Alexandrian, and Beza's most ancient one, read,
"peace on earth to men of good will"; and which must be understood, not of men that
have a good will of themselves, for there are no such men: no man has a will to that
which is good, till God works in him both to will, and to do of his, good pleasure;
wherefore peace, reconciliation, and salvation, are not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy: but of such who are the objects of
God's good will, and pleasure, whom he loves, because he will love, and has mercy
and compassion on them, and is gracious to them, because he will be so; and
therefore chooses, redeems, and regenerates them of his own will, and because it
seems good in his sight. The Syriac and Persic versions read, "good hope to men"; as
there is a foundation laid in Christ the peace, of a good hope of reconciliation,
righteousness, pardon, life, and salvation for sinful men. The Arabic version renders
it, "cheerfulness in men"; as there is a great deal of reason for it, on account of the
birth of the Saviour and peace maker, the salvation that comes by him to men, and
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the glory brought thereby to God,
JAMISON, "Glory, etc. — brief but transporting hymn - not only in articulate
human speech, for our benefit, but in tunable measure, in the form of a Hebrew
parallelism of two complete clauses, and a third one only amplifying the second, and
so without a connecting “and.” The “glory to God,” which the new-born “Savior” was
to bring, is the first note of this sublime hymn: to this answers, in the second clause,
the “peace on earth,” of which He was to be “the Prince” (Isa_9:6) - probably sung
responsively by the celestial choir; while quickly follows the glad echo of this note,
probably by a third detachment of the angelic choristers - “good will to men.” “They
say not, glory to God in heaven, where angels are, but, using a rare expression, “in
the highest [heavens],” whither angels aspire not,” (Heb_1:3, Heb_1:4) [Bengel].
“Peace” with God is the grand necessity of a fallen world. To bring in this, and all
other peace in its train, was the prime errand of the Savior to this earth, and, along
with it, Heaven’s whole “good will to men” - the divine complacency on a new
footing - descends to rest upon men, as upon the Son Himself, in whom God is “well-
pleased.” (Mat_3:17, the same word as here.)
CALVIN, "14.Glory to God in the highest The angels begin with thanksgiving,
or with the praises of God; for Scripture, too, everywhere reminds us, that we
were redeemed from death for this purpose, that we might testify with the
tongue, as well as by the actions of the life, our gratitude to God. Let us
remember, then, the final cause, why God reconciled us to himself through his
Only Begotten Son. It was that he might glorify his name, by revealing the riches
of his grace, and of his boundless mercy. And even now to whatever extent any
one is excited by his knowledge of grace to celebrate the glory of God, such is the
extent of proficiency in the faith of Christ. Whenever our salvation is mentioned,
we should understand that a signal has been given, (156) to excite us to
thanksgiving and to the praises of God.
On earth peace The most general reading is, that the words, among men good-
will, should stand as a third clause. So far as relates to the leading idea of the
passage, it is of little moment which way you read it; but the other appears to be
preferable. The two clauses, Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, do
unquestionably agree with each other; but if you do not place men and God in
marked opposition, the contrast will not fully appear. (157) Perhaps
commentators have mistaken the meaning of the preposition ἐν, for it was an
obscure meaning of the words to say, that there is peace in men; but as that word
is redundant in many passages of Scripture, it need not detain us here. However,
if any one prefer to throw it to the last clause, the meaning will be the same, as I
shall presently show.
We must now see what the angels mean by the word peace. They certainly do not
speak of an outward peace cultivated by men with each other; but they say, that
the earth is at peace, when men have been reconciled to God, and enjoy an
inward tranquillity in their own minds. (158) We know that we are born
“children of wrath,” (Ephesians 2:3,) and are by nature enemies to God; and
must be distressed by fearful apprehensions, so long as we feel that God is angry
with us. A short and clear definition of peace may be obtained from two opposite
things, — the wrath of God and the dread of death. It has thus a twofold
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reference; one to God, and another to men. We obtain peace with God, when he
begins to be gracious to us, by taking away our guilt, and “not imputing to us our
trespasses,” (2 Corinthians 5:19;) and when we, relying on his fatherly love,
address him with full confidence, and boldly praise him for the salvation which
he has promised to us. Now though, in another passage, the life of man on earth
is declared to be a continual warfare, (159) (Job 7:1,) and the state of the fact
shows that nothing is more full of trouble than our condition, so long as we
remain in the world, yet the angels expressly say that there is peace on earth This
is intended to inform us that, so long as we trust to the grace of Christ, no
troubles that can arise will prevent us from enjoying composure and serenity of
mind. Let us then remember, that faith is seated amidst the storms of
temptations, amidst various dangers, amidst violent attacks, amidst contests and
fears, that our faith may not fail or be shaken by any kind of opposition.
Among men good-will (160) The Vulgate has good-will in the genitive case: to
men of good-will. (161) How that reading crept in, I know not: but it ought
certainly to be rejected, both because it is not genuine, (162) and because it
entirely corruptsthe meaning. Others read good-will in the nominative case, and
still mistake its meaning. They refer good-will to men, as if it were an exhortation
to embrace the grace of God. I acknowledge that the peace which the Lord offers
to us takes effect only when we receive it. But as εὐδοκία is constantly used in
Scripture in the sense of the Hebrew word ‫,רצון‬ the old translator rendered it
beneplacitum , or, good-will. This passage is not correctly understood as
referring to the acceptance of grace. The angels rather speak of it as the source
of peace, and thus inform us that peace is a free gift, and flows from the pure
mercy of God. If it is thought better to read good-will to men, or towards men,
(163) it will not be inadmissible, so far as regards the meaning: for in this way it
will show the cause of peace to be, that God has been pleased to bestow his
undeserved favor on men, with whom he formerly was at deadly variance. If you
read, the peace of good-will as meaning voluntary peace, neither will I object to
that interpretation. But the simpler way is to look upon εὐφοκία as added, in
order to inform us of the source from which our peace is derived. (164)
LIGHTFOOT, "[Glory to God in the highest.] We may very well understand this
angelic hymn, if good will towards men, be taken for the subject, and the rest of
the words for the predicate. The good will of God towards men is glory to God in
the highest, and peace on earth. And, is put between glory and peace; not
between them and good will.
But now this good will of God towards men, being so wonderfully made known
in the birth of the Messiah, how highly it conduced to the glory of God, would be
needless to shew; and how it introduced peace on the earth the apostle himself
shews from the effect, Ephesians 2:14; Colossians 1:20; and several other places.
COKE, "Luke 2:14. Glory to God in the highest, &c.— This verse is very
differently understood, and the original is certainly capable of different senses.
Some choose to render it, Glory to God in the highest, that is to say, in heaven,—
and on earth; peace, yea, favour towards men. Others have given as the sense of
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it, that the good will or favour which is now shewn to men, is the glory to God in
the highest, and is the peace and happiness of those who dwell on earth: which is
indeed an important sense, and what the original will well enough bear; but thus
to change the doxology into a kind of proverb or aphorism, seems to destroy
much of its beauty. "I rather think," says Dr. Doddridge, "that they are all to be
considered as the words of a rejoicing acclamation, and that they strongly
represent the piety and benevolence of these heavenly spirits, and their
affectionate good wishes for the prosperity of the Messiah's kingdom." See Luke
19:38. As if they had said, "Glory be to God in the highest heavens; and let all
the angelic host resound his praises in the most exalted strains; for, with the
Redeemer's birth, peace, and all kinds of happiness, come down to dwell upon
earth; yea, the overflowings of divine benevolence and favour are now exercised
towards sinful men; who, through this Saviour, become the objects of his
complacential delight." We may observe, that the shouts of a multitude are
generally broken into shortsentences, and are commonly elliptic; which is the
only cause of the ambiguity here. Dr. Macknight gives a somewhat different turn
to the passage, explainingit thus: "Glory to God in the highest heavens, or among
the highest order of beings: let the praises of God (so the word glory signifies, be
eternally celebrated by the highest orders of beings, notwithstanding they are not
the immediate objects of his infinite goodness on earth: let all manner of
happiness (so peace signifies in the Hebrew language) from henceforth prevail
among men for ever, &c. And as they departed, they shouted in the sweetest,
most sonorous, and seraphic strains, BENEVOLENCE expressing the highest
admiration of the goodness of God, which now began to shine with a brighter
lustre than ever, on the arrival of his Son to save the world."
BI, "Glory to God in the highest
The angels’ song (A Christmas sermon)
First heard above the plains of Bethlehem it is one day to be heard over all the world.
Its sweet melody is to be woven into every language which men have learnt to speak.
The angels are to hear it in all dialects and tongues. It is to be the choral response of a
gladdened world to the birthday joy which was once poured forth upon the shepherd
hearts at Bethlehem.
I. WE OWE CHRISTMAS-TIDE TO CHRISTIANITY.
II. LET US REMEMBER THE ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTMAS-TIDE WITH
“PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD-WILL TO MEN.”
III. THERE IS JOY IN THINKING OF THE PARTIAL PREVALENCE OF THIS
DIVINE INFLUENCE AMONGST THE FAMILY OF MAN.
IV. HOW MAY THE ADVENT OF CHRIST BE MADE TO REPEAT ITSELF THIS
CHRISTMAS-TIDE? Whenever peace and goodwill mightily prevail amongst men,
that is a time when Christ has a fresh hold upon human hearts.
V. We may not forget that THERE ARE HOMES WHICH WILL DEPEND FOR
CHRISTMAS JOY UPON THE CAREFUL THOUGHT AND KINDLINESS OF
OTHERS.
VI. THERE ARE SOME WHOSE HEARTS WILL RE TROUBLED WITH
MEMORIES WHICH WILL CROWD AROUND THIS OTHERWISE HAPPY
PERIOD. (W. Dorling.)
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A Christmas carol
I. How DID THE APPEARING OF CHRIST BRING GLORY TO GOD?
1. In the fulfilment of prophecy.
2. In the salvation of man.
3. In exhibiting God’s love without detracting from any other attribute.
II. How PEACE ON EARTH?
1. It was not peace at first certainly. Describe the state of the world, especially
Palestine, when Christ came, and during succeeding years.
2. But in proportion as Christ is known and felt, there will surely be peace on
earth.
3. Peace in the city, town, or village in which Christians dwell.
4. Peace in the family.
5. Peace in the heart.
6. And all this will result from the practice of the principles of that religion whose
Founder was cradled in Bethlehem’s manger, for that religion
(1) Subdues the passions;
(2) Regulates the life;
(3) Elevates the soul.
III. How GOOD-WILL TOWARD MEN?
1. When one makes a present to another we look upon it as an expression of
good-will. The value of the present is often indicative of the measure of esteem or
good-will. God has given us His greatest, choicest gift, for He bestowed His only
Son.
2. God’s good-will becomes even more apparent when we contemplate our own
guilt.
3. What have you to say in answer to all this? All God requires from us in
recognition of His love is our heart. And if we give Him our heart, we shall surely
give our service. Have you given yours to Him? (A. F. Barfield.)
The Divine method in the world
This is the key-note, not only of the Christian message, but of Divine religion from
the beginning. It is ours to follow, not to precede; to ask what has been the Divine
method, not to ask what it should have been; and when once we begin to have some
light on that view, then it will be ours to ask what are the signs of accomplishment.
I. WHAT HAS BEEN THE DIVINE METHOD?
1. We learn that there is a Divinity in this world which secures the direction of
growth, but leaves the operative influences that produce it, and the working out
of results to great natural laws.
2. We learn that the Divine method implies great length of time.
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3. We learn that one universal and insuperable difficulty has been in teaching
men how to live together peaceably.
II. WHAT, NOW, IS THE CONDITION AND THE PROSPECT, THROUGHOUT
THE ENTIRE WORLD, OF GOOD-WILL AND PEACE, OR THE ART OF LIVING
TOGETHER?
1. The possibility of happiness among the poor, who constitute by far the largest
part of the human race, has been so immensely increased as to form a broad
platform on which to put our feet and form an estimate of the gains that have
been made.
2. In the mind of the very labourers themselves there is springing up a spirit of
organization and thrift,
3. There is coming, gradually, the admission of the great under-class of the
human family to a participation in government.
4. The influence of nation upon nation must also be taken into consideration in
estimating the advance of the latter-day glory. The globe has become but a single
neighbourhood.
5. Look at how God has been raising up four great languages on the globe which
ultimately, I think, will result in one. Look at what treasure is stored up in the
French, in the German, in the English, and in the Latin. Shall I add the Greek—
the language of science? The language of men, the language that contains the
doctrines of independence, of liberty, of, I trust, man in man, is the English
tongue. It is spoken more widely over the globe than any other. I rejoice with
exceeding great joy that the English tongue is a charter of liberty to the human
race.
III. IF YOU ACCEPT THE PROPHECIES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT,
INTERPRETING THEM along the lines of experience, showing what is the Divine
method of working upon the human race, the angels that sang peace and good-will at
the Advent will not be long delayed before they will sing again. I shall hear that song,
not here but yonder. And perhaps joined with it will be the outcry of this glorious
achievement which seems to us to have lingered, but that has not lingered, according
to the thought of God, who hath done and is doing all things well, and who is the
Conqueror of conquerors, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, my Saviour and my
God, your Saviour and your God. Trust Him; rejoice in Him; love Him; and reign. (H.
W. Beecher.)
The angels’ text
Such was the text of the angels on the night of our Saviour’s birth; and to that text
our Saviour’s life furnished the sermon.
I. The first words of it are, “GLORY TO GOD!” and a most weighty lesson may we
draw for ourselves from finding the angels put that first. A world is redeemed.
Millions on millions of human beings are rescued from everlasting death. Is not this
the thing uppermost in the angels’ thoughts? No, it is only the second thing. The first
is, Glory to God! Why so? Because God is the giver of this salvation; nay, is Himself
the Saviour, in the person of the only-begotten Son. Moreover, because in heavenly
minds God always holds the first place, and they look at everything with a view to
Him. Now, I would have you look to God in exactly the same manner. Whether you
eat or drink, or whatever you do, you should do all to God’s glory. Then will you be
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like the angels who began their text with, Glory to God!
II. The next branch of the text is “PEACE ON EARTH.” Our Saviour Himself is the
Prince of Peace—
1. Because His great purposes were to bring down peace to man.
2. Because He made it one of His prime objects to plant and foster peace within
man. Peace was His legacy to His apostles.
3. But what kind of peace? Truly every kind which man can enjoy.
(1) Peace of conscience;
(2) peace of heart;
(3) peace of a mind at ease about worldly matters;
(4) peace and union between brethren, that we may all make up one body
under Jesus Christ our Head.
Now, let each of us ask himself with all seriousness, Do I feel anything of this godly
peace?
III. There is a third part of the angels’ text, namely, “GOOD-WILL TO MEN:” and a
very important part it is. For it sets forth the ground of our salvation. It was no
excellency or merit of ours that drew our Saviour down from heaven. It was the
wretchedness of our fallen state. Herein, as St. Paul tells us, “God commendeth His
love toward us,” &c. (Rom_5:8). But though this love of God for His sinful creatures
is worthy of all gratitude and praise, the good-will declared in the angels’ text means
something more than mere love. The word which we translate “Goodwill,” is a word
very full of meaning, and signifies that mixture of goodness, and kindness, and
wisdom, which tends to good and wise plans. The good-will then in the angels’ text is
no other than the great and merciful purpose of our redemption. Have we any proper
sense and feeling of this good-will? I have spoken to you on the angels’ text, and in so
doing have spoken of man’s salvation. The end of the whole is God’s glory; the means
is peace on earth; the sole motive is goodness and loving-kindness to us miserable
sinners.
IV. There are still three words in this text which I have not noticed. The angels did
not simply say, “Glory to God;” but, “GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST,” that is, in
heaven. Here is a wonderful, a glorious, a soul-sustaining scene opened to us. The
angels in the very presence of God are moved by our sufferings and our redemption.
Shall they glorify God for His goodness to us, and shall we forget to glorify Him for
His goodness to ourselves? (A. W. Hare.)
Christmas Day
There is considerable difference of opinion as to what is the best reading and the best
rendering of this passage. According to Dean Alford and the Revised Version, we
should understand it to mean, “Peace among men towards whom God has a good-
will”—that is, in whom He is well pleased. According to the Vulgate the meaning
should be, peace to men who exhibit a good-will. This is the sense adopted by Keble
in his Christmas hymn. The reading of the Authorised Version is not, perhaps, the
best; but, as being more familiar, and at the same time so thoroughly in harmony
with the spirit of the day, I will venture to take it as a motto.
1. It must be confessed that the conduct of professing Christians has often been
such as to make the angels’ song sound like an ironical sarcasm, rather than an
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eulogy. Church history, for example, to a passionate lover of peace and good-will,
must be very melancholy reading.
2. But I hear some one say,” things are improved now-a-days.” Well, yes, I
suppose they are a little. Still many of those who call themselves Christians seem
to be characterized by the very opposites of peace and good-will. I remember that
in the preface to the second edition of his Belfast Address, Professor Tyndall said
he was not surprised at the bitter things which had been uttered against him by
Christians, when he remembered how bitterly they were in the habit of
recriminating one another. “‘Tis true, ‘tis pity; pity ‘tis, ‘tis true.” Peace and good-
will—peace, or the absence of quarrelsomeness; good-will, or the actual
performance of deeds of kindness, are essential characteristics of genuine
discipleship.
3. Let us, today, apply this test of discipleship to ourselves. Of all the provisions
made for our spiritual welfare, nothing, perhaps, more helpful than the periodical
recurrence of days like the present.
4. But it was Christ’s aim that every day should be in this respect a Christmas
Day. Is that the case with us? There was a curious institution in the Middle Ages
called the ecclesiastical truce or peace of God. Feuds legally stopped for four days
a week. The bell tolled on a Wednesday. All hostilities were to cease till the
following Monday. And until the Monday they were suspended; but then they
were always faithfully resumed. Shall it be so with us? After mani-resting peace
and good-will on the 25th of December, must we relapse again into practical
paganism on the 26th? We cannot be always making presents, but we may be
always doing good.
5. When peace and good-will are universal, human society will be, as Christ
wished to make it, a heaven upon earth.
For lo! the days are hastening on
By prophet-bands foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes back the age of gold—
When peace shall over all the earth
Its blessed banner fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
(Professor A. W. Momerie.)
The angelic hymn
The song consists of three propositions, of which two are parallel, and the third
forms a link between the other two. In the first, “Glory to God in the highest places,”
the angels demand that, from the lower regions to which they have just come down,
from the bosom of humanity, praise shall arise, which, ascending from heavens to
heavens, shall reach at last the supreme sanctuary, the highest places, and there
glorify the Divine perfections that shine forth in this birth. The second, “Peace on
earth,” is the counterpart of the first. While inciting men to praise, the angels invoke
on them peace from God. This peace is such as results from the reconciliation of man
with God; it contains the cause of the cessation of all war here below. These two
propositions are of the nature of a desire or prayer. The verb understood is ᅞστω, let
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it be. The third, which is not connected with the preceding by any particle, proclaims
the fact which is the ground of this twofold prayer. If the logical connection were
expressed, it would be by the word for. This fact is the extraordinary favour shown to
men by God, and which is displayed in the gift He is bestowing upon them at this
very time. The sense is: “for God takes pleasure in men.” In speaking thus, the angels
seem to mean, “God has not be stowed as much on us (Heb_2:16)” The idea of “good-
will” recalls the first proposition, “Glory to God!” while the expression, towards
men,” reminds us of the second, “peace on earth!” (F. Godet, D. D.)
The Gloria in excelsis
In the account of this eventful night, the words heard are alone mentioned; one
might be pardoned for wishing we had also the score! We all know how an interesting
strain of melody will fix itself in our memories; sometimes we can hardly keep from
humming it over, repeating snatches of it we have caught, and rehearsing to others
the way it went, so as to give an idea, It may be that the shepherds remembered parts
of this; but if so, we have no means of ascertaining it. Only the words reach us; but
they are well worth the study of the world. The startling abruptness with which this
seraphic anthem fell on the ears of the shepherds that first Christmas night, adds
greatly to the dramatic effect of the scene. Hardly lingering for their leader to end his
communication, that choir of singers “suddenly” burst forth with loud volume of
exquisite harmony, celebrating the praises of Jehovah, whom they saw in a fresh field
of splendid display. There were a vast number of singers—“a host,” that is to say, an
army; “an army celebrating a peace.” Surely there was enough to inspire their music;
and great armies of voices sing together quite often with immense power of rich and
voluminous harmony. It was an exaggeration, no doubt, but ancient history gravely
records that, when the invader of Macedon was finally expelled, the victorious
Greeks, who heard the news and so learned that freedom had come, and fighting was
over, and home was near, raised along the lines and throughout the camp such a
shout of “Sorer! Soter!”—“a Saviour! A Saviour!”—that birds on the wing dropped
down. It may have been so; but what was that little peninsula of Greece, as compared
with this entire race redeemed from Satan unto God? What were the actual words of
this angels’ song? It is well that we all recollect them—“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!” Three stanzas in one hymn.
1. The first of them, and the foremost in thought, is “Glory to God in the highest.”
This is not a prayer at all, but an ascription. It was no time to be asking that God
be glorified, when the whole universe was quivering with new disclosure of a
“Gloria in Excelsis,” such as blind men could see and deaf men could hear. Those
angels did not pray—Glory be to God—but they exclaimed—Glory is to God in the
highest! And then they rush rapidly into an enumeration of particulars. The
connection of thought is close. Glory to God in the highest, because peace has
come on the earth, and goodwill has already gone out toward men. These angels
are making proclamation that the rebellious race is for evermore subdued. No
longer was this planet to circle around among loyal worlds in space, flaunting the
defiant flag of a belligerent in the kingdom of heaven. Men should be redeemed;
sin should be positively checked; all the ills of a worn-out and wretched existence
should be banished; poverty should be removed, sickness and death find a
Master; Satan should be foiled by Immanuel in person. Hence this entire vision,
which flashed on the awakened intelligence of the angels and inspired their song,
was simply reversive and revolutionary. The whole earth seemed to rouse itself to
a new being. Cursed for human sin, it saw its deliverance coming. The day had
arrived when streams and lakes should gleam in the sunshine, when the valleys
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should smile and laugh and sing, when flowers should bloom and stars should
flash—all to the glory of God!
2. Then “peace on earth”; God was at last in the world reconciling it unto
Himself; the hearts of His creatures were coming back to Him; their allegiance
was to be restored, their wills were to be subjugated, their minds were to be
enlightened; thus peace over all the world would be established, God’s wrath
would be averted, and the long wrestle of man with Satan would reach its end.
For when men are really at peace with God, they will come to peace with each
other.
3. And so, at last, “goodwill toward men.” That ends this song of the angel; that is
what ought to be the beginning of each Christmas anthem and carol. God loves
us; oh, how touchingly does the aged Paul in one place tell his young brother
Titus about that “kindness and love of God our Saviour toward men! “God
cherishes only goodwill toward any of us. Even the wicked; He takes no pleasure
in their death. He would rather they would turn unto Him, and live. Oh, happy
day is that in which He tells us all this unmistakably, with perfect plainness.
Brethren, if God so loved us, then ought we also to love one another. “All ye are
brethren.” Away with all fancied superiorities and aristocracies on the common
Christmas day—the gladsome birthday of Christi Herdsmen are on a visit to a
carpenter at an inn; and they are told to go to the outhouse to find him! Beasts
are standing by a manger in which lies the Child—King David the Second I But,
for a]! this seems so democratic and small, please remember that a choir of
angels have been singing outside. Who among us is too proud to listen? (C. S.
Robinson, D. D.)
The angelic anthem
In this Divine anthem we are taught that—
I. THE INCARNATION WAS A BRIGHT EXHIBITION OF THE GLORY OF GOD.
Hitherto the holy angels had seen the glory of the Divine justice in the punishment of
their sinning compeers; and something like mercy in the suspension of the sentence
pronounced on man. But here they see justice and mercy blended in a wonderful
manner; and they give vent to their ecstasy in shouts of praise.
II. THE INCARNATION WAS THE MEANS OF BRINGING PEACE UPON EARTH.
1. Sin had created war in every man’s own bosom. Christ alone can put an end to
that war, by procuring pardon of sin, peace for the conscience, tranquillity for the
passions, subordination of the appetites—reconciling reason to conscience, and
conscience to the law of God.
2. Sin had created a horrible war between man and man. Strife, envy, jealousy,
oppression, ambition, prevailed; Christ came to preach and exemplify universal
charity. Wherever the influence of His gospel is felt, peace follows between man
and man; wherever His government is established, man embraces his brother.
3. Sin had caused war between man and his Maker. Terrible contest—the
potsherd striving with Him who made it. Christ reconciles God and man. He is
Himself both God and man; so He can both pardon sin and bestow needed grace.
III. THE INCARNATION WAS A MARVELLOUS DISPLAY OF THE GOODWILL OF
GOD TO MAN.
1. Most astonishing condescension.
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2. Unparalleled love.
3. Prodigious disinterestedness.
4. Universality. All are included in this goodwill.
IV. WHAT OUGHT TO BE OUR VIEWS, AND FEELINGS, AND CONDUCT.
1. They should be laudatory. We have far more occasion to praise God for the
Incarnation, than the angels.
2. We should proclaim the Saviour to others. In trying to kindle a brother’s faith
and devotion, our own will burn brighter and clearer. (John Stephens.)
I. The choir—singers from the new Jerusalem.
II. The theme—salvation.
III. The listeners—dwellers in heaven and earth. (Van Doren.)
The angels’ song
What does the angels’ song announce to men?
1. Bethlehem’s miracle.
2. Jesus’ greatness.
3. The Father’s honour.
4. The Christian’s calling.
5. Heaven’s likeness. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)
A Christmas motto
“With malice toward none, with charity for all.” This truly Christian motto of
President Lincoln, sounds almost like an earthly echo of the heavenly anthem, and
certainly proves its power and influence in the history of the world. (P. Schaff, D. D.)
The first Christmas carol
I. INSTRUCTIVE THOUGHTS. The angels sang something which men could
understand—something which will make men much better if they will understand it.
The angels were singing about Jesus who was born in the manger. We must look
upon their song as being built upon this foundation. They sang of Christ, and of the
salvation which He came into this world to work out.
1. They said that this salvation gave glory to God in the highest—that salvation is
God’s highest glory. God is glorified in every dewdrop that twinkles in the
morning sun. He is magnified in every wood-flower that blossoms in the copse,
although it lives to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness in the desert air. He is
glorified in every bird that warbles on the spray; in every lamb that skips the
mead. All created things extol Him. Is there aught beneath the sky, save man, that
does not glorify God? Do not the stars exalt Him, when they write His name upon
the azure of heaven in their golden letters? Do not the lightnings adore Him,
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when they flash His brightness in arrows of light piercing the midnight darkness?
Do not thunders extol Him, when they roll like drums in the march of the God of
armies? Do not all things exalt Him, from the least even to the greatest? But
though creation may be a majestic organ of praise, it cannot reach the compass of
the golden canticle—Incarnation! There is more in that than in creation, more
melody in Jesus in the manger than there is in worlds on worlds rolling their
grandeur round the throne of the Most High. See how every attribute is here
magnified. Lo! what wisdom is here. God becomes man that God may be just, and
the justifier of the ungodly. Lo! what power, for where is power so great as when
it conceals power? Behold, what love is thus revealed to us when Jesus becomes a
man! Behold what faithfulness! How many promises are this day kept; how many
solemn obligations discharged?
2. When they had sung this, they sang what they had never sung before. “Glory to
God in the highest,” was an old, old song; they had sung that from before the
foundations of the world. But now, they sang as it were a new song before the
throne of God; for they added this stanza—“on earth, peace.” They did not sing
that in the Garden of Eden. There was peace there, but it seemed a thing of
course, and scarce worth singing of. But now man had fallen, and since the day
when cherubim with fiery swords drove out the man, there had been no peace on
earth, save in the breast of some believers, who had obtained peace from the
living fountain of this incarnation of Christ. Wars had raged from the ends of the
world men had slaughtered one another, heaps on heaps. There had been wars
within as well as wars without. Conscience had fought with man; Satan had
tormented man with thoughts of sin. There had been no peace on earth since
Adam fell. But now, when the newborn King appeared, the swaddling band with
which He was wrapped up was the white flag of peace.
3. And, then, they wisely ended their song with a third note. They said, “Goodwill
to man.” Philosophers have said that God has a goodwill toward man; but I never
knew any man who derived much comfort from their philosophical assertion.
Wise men have thought from what we have seen in creation that God had much
goodwill toward man, or else His works would never have been so constructed for
their comfort; but I never heard of any man who could risk his soul’s peace upon
such a faint hope as that. But I have not only heard of thousands, but I know
them, who are quite sure that God has a goodwill towards men; and if you ask
their reason, they will give a full and perfect answer. They say, He has goodwill
toward man, for He gave His Son. No greater proof of kindness between the
Creator and His subjects can possibly be afforded than when the Creator gives
His only begotten and well beloved Son to die. Though the first note is God-like,
and though the second note is peaceful, this third note melts my heart the most.
II. EMOTIONAL THOUGHTS. Does not this song of angels stir your hearts with
happiness? With confidence?
III. PROPHETIC UTTERANCES. The angels sang, “Glory to God,” &c. But I look
around, and what see I in the wide, wide world? I do not see God honoured. I see the
heathen bowing down before their idols; I see tyranny lording it over the bodies and
souls of men; I see God forgotten.
IV. Now, I have one more lesson for you, and I have done. That lesson is
PRECEPTIVE. I wish everybody that keeps Christmas this year, would keep it as the
angels kept it. Now, Mr. Tradesman, you have an opponent in trade, and you have
said some very hard words about him lately. If you do not make the matter up to-day,
or to-morrow, or as soon as you can, yet do it on that day. That is the way to keep
Christmas, peace on earth and glory to God. And oh, if thou hast anything on thy
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conscience, anything that prevents thy having peace of mind, keep thy Christmas in
thy chamber, praying to God to give thee peace; for it is peace on earth, mind, peace
in thyself, peace with thyself, peace with thy fellow men, peace with thy God. And do
not think thou hast well celebrated that day till thou canst say,
“O God,
‘With the world, myself, and Thee
I ere I sleep at peace will be.’”
And when the Lord Jesus has become your peace, remember, there is another thing,
goodwill towards men. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Spreading the news of peace
At the close of the last war with Great Britain, I was in the city of New York. It
happened that, on a Saturday afternoon in February, a ship was discovered in the
offing, which was supposed to be a cartel, bringing home our commissioners at
Ghent from their unsuccessful mission. The sun had set gloomily before any
intelligence from the vessel has reached the city. Expectation became painfully
intense as the hours of darkness drew on. At length a boat reached the wharf,
announcing the fact that a treaty of peace had been signed, and waiting for nothing
but the action of our government to become a law. The men on whose ears these
words first fell rushed in breathless haste into the city to repeat them to their friends,
shouting as they ran through the streets, “Peace, peace, peace!” Every one who heard
the sound repeated it. From house to house, from street to street, the news spread
with electric rapidity. The whole city was in commotion. Men bearing lighted torches
were flying to and fro, shouting like madmen, “Peace, peace, peace!” When the
rapture had partially subsided, one idea occupied every mind. But few men slept that
night. In groups they were gathered in the streets and by the fireside, beguiling the
hours of midnight by reminding each ether that the agony of war was over, and that a
worn out and distracted country was about to enter again upon its wonted career of
prosperity. Thus, every one becoming a herald, the news soon reached every man,
woman, and child in the city; and in this sense the city was evangelized. All this, you
see, was reasonable and proper, but when Jehovah has offered to our world a treaty
of peace, when men doomed to hell may be raised to seats at the right hand of God,
why is not a similar zeal displayed in proclaiming the good news? Why are men
perishing all around us and no one has ever personally offered to them salvation
through a crucified Redeemer? (Dr. Wayland.)
The perfections of the Incarnation
Before the Incarnation God showed some, but not all, His perfections. He showed—
1. His goodness, in creating man after His own image.
2. His love, when He led Eve and the animals to Adam.
3. His pity, by clothing Adam and Eve with coats of skins.
4. His power, in creating the world out of nothing.
5. His justice, in expelling our first parents from Paradise, deluging the wicked
world, wasting the cities of the plain.
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6. His wisdom, confounding the tongues of the builders of Babel.
7. His providence, in saving Egypt by means of Joseph. In the Incarnation these
perfections shone out with greater clearness. We note here—
I. THE GOODNESS OF GOD. He clothed Himself with our nature, that His virtues,
grace, and glory, yea, and Himself, He might communicate to us.
1. Naturally, by preserving the order of nature.
2. By the supernatural order of grace.
3. By His particular personality.
II. THE LOVE OF GOD. Seen in the close union between God and man Rom_8:32).
1. He became incarnate to suffer and die for man.
2. And that for man, His enemy.
III. THE PITY OF GOD. In person coming to relieve our miseries, making Himself
capable of sorrow and suffering (Heb_4:15).
IV. THE POWER OF GOD. Uniting the highest nature with the lowly nature of man;
the human and the Divine, without any confusion of substance, in unity of person.
V. THE JUSTICE OF GOD. Not rescuing man from sin and death by might or by
power, but paying a full and sufficient satisfaction for all men’s sins: making an
infinite satisfaction for infinite sin.
VI. THE WISDOM OF GOD. In planning the redemption of man. Neither man nor
God, singly, could redeem man; it needed a God-man to do this. VII. THE
PROVIDENCE OF GOD. Which saw how to help and enrich man, when he was poor
and naked, and destitute of all things. (M. Faber.)
A dying saint
This doxology of the angels has sometimes filled the thoughts of dying saints. The
final words of the Rev. Edward Perronet, author of the hymn, “All hail the power of
Jesus’ name,” were, “Glory to God in the height of His Divinity! Glory to God in the
depth of His humanity! Glory to God in His all-sufficiency! and into His hand I
commend my spirit.” The last words, too, of Rev. Doctor Backus, first President of
Hamilton College, were, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill
toward men.”
Universal peace
Happy the day when every war-horse shall be houghed, when every spear shall
become a pruning-hook, and every sword shall be made to till the soil which once it
stained with blood I This will be the last triumph of Christ. Before death itself shall
be dead, death’s great jackal, war, must die also; and then there shall be peace on
earth, and the angel shall say, “I have gone up and down through the earth, and the
earth sitteth still, and is at rest: I heard no tumult of war nor noise of battle.” (C.
H.Spurgeon.)
The song of the angels
I. THE SCENE. It was a fine Eastern night, not cold like one of our Decembers, with
frosts or nipping gales freezing through blood and marrow. “The shepherds were
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abiding in the fields,” i.e., making their bivouac in them. The evangelist’s style seems
to quiver with the sudden surprise which came upon the shepherds. “And lo, an angel
of the Lord came upon them, and glory of the Lord shone round about them: and
they feared with sore fear. And that angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I
bring you good tidings of great joy, as being that which shall be to all the people of
God.” His message declares four things. The wondrous Child to be born is a Saviour,
who conies in pity for a fallen race; Christ, who, as the Anointed One, has so long
been expected; the Lord, who is Divine as well as human; in David’s city, to fulfil
literally the oracle of Micah, and the anticipations which might have been awakened
by the Psalm that speaks of a great Priest-king in connection with Bethlehem, and
God’s remembrance of David’s life of affliction. “And this shall be a sign unto you;” a
sign, in its quiet but amazing contrast to all exhibitions of this world’s royalty. “Ye
shall find a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” Among the angels
of heaven there was silence until the point when that angel visitant to the shepherds
had touched the lowest point in the abyss of the humiliation: The armies of earth
raise a shout or song. The armies of heaven (the “heavenly soldiers,” as it is grandly
rendered in the old English version) have theirs—but it is a song of peace. Much of
that choral ode was, probably, unheard by mortal ears—lost in the heights above.
One fragment alone of the song is preserved. It is a triplet.
1. “Glory to God in the highest.” The angels speak from the point of view of this
earth. We may understand either “Let it be,” or “It is.” If the former, they pray
that from the bosom of humanity glory may rise to God in the highest heaven. If
we understand the latter, they affirm that it does, at that moment, actually
ascend. There is a little poem, possibly more beautiful in idea than in execution,
which tells of a child dying in a workhouse. As her simple hymn, “Glory to Thee,
my God, this night,” ascends from the pallet-bed, it floats up and up, until the last
faint ripple touches the foot of the throne of God. Then, wakened by the faint,
sweet impulse, a new strain of adoration is taken up by angels and archangels,
and all the company of heaven—a grander and a fuller “glory.” Something in this
way, in this passage, the angels seem to view the best adorations of this earth.
2. “On earth peace.” The peace spoken of in Scripture as effected by the
Incarnation, is fourfold—between God and man; between man and angels;
between man and man; between man and his own conscience. It is, of course, too
darkly true, that as regards one form of this peace—that between man and man—
history seems a long cynical satire on the angels’ words. The earth is soaking with
blood at this moment, and families are in mourning for the slain in battle. Still,
among Christian nations, and in the case of Christian soldiers, there are soft
relentings, sweet gleams of human—or rather superhuman—love. Society, too, is
full of prejudice and bitterness. In our homes there are tempers which drop
vitriolic irritants into every little wound. It was a wholesome memory of the
angels’ song which led men to examine their souls at Christmas, and to seek for
reconciliation with any between whose souls and theirs stood the veil of quarrel
or ill-will. But there is something beyond this. It means enmity done away,
harmony restored, not only with one’s fellow-man, but with oneself. The unholy
man has no true feeling of friendship, no friendly relations with himself. Worst of
all, man may be in a state of estrangement from God, from Christ, from His
Church, from hope—hostile in his mind, which lies immersed, and has its very
existence in those evil works of his.
3. (For, understood) “Among men is good-will.” It is well known from Keble’s
beautiful lines, and his note upon Pergolesi’s setting of the Vulgate version, that
some manuscripts read, “among men of goodwill.” This interpretation, though it
may please the fancy at first, will scarcely be accepted by the maturer judgment.
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(1) It is not very concurrent with St. Luke’s universal aim, and constant
setting forth of the bold broad sympathy of the purpose of the Incarnation.
God’s love, at that moment, would not be viewed by the angels as restricted to
the comparatively righteous. It was a work whose result was to be offered to
all our fallen race through Him who is the son of Adam. Men of goodwill,
according to the Scripture use of the word, might be too high an attribute
even for the elect people of God. The third line appears to give tile cause and
foundation of the two which precede it. The “Babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes” is He who not only brings, but is personally the Truth, the Peace, the
Righteousness, the Salvation, the Redemption. Just as He is the personal
Peace, so is He the personal incarnate Good-will. There is glory to God in the
highest. And there is peace upon earth, for God’s goodwill is amongst men. It
is the equivalent of Emmanuel—God with us.
II. We may now OBSERVE WHERE THE ANGELS’ HYMN STANDS IN THE
REFORMED LITURGY. In the Roman missal it is found at the beginning of the
office; with us it is taken up immediately after we communicate, just before the
parting blessing. In that magnificent burst of praise, the “Angelic Hymn,” or “Gloria
in Excelsis,” is the basis of all that follows. “Glory be to God on high, and on earth
peace, goodwill towards men.” “We praise Thee” for Thy greatness. “We bless Thee”
for Thy goodness, thus made known to us by the voice of angels. “We worship Thee”
in our hearts, with beseeming outward reverence. “We glorify Thee, we give thanks to
Thee for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty”—
glorifying and giving thanks with the confession of the mouth. Then we address the
sacrificed Son, the Lamb, who is also our God. “O Lord, the only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the
world, have mercy upon us.” It is thus indicated that He is the subject of the angelic
song, that to Him there is glory in the highest, with the Father and the Holy Ghost.
“Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the
Father.” We worship with angels—in angels’ words. We worship them not. Therefore
into the texture of our eucharistic “Gloria in Excelsis” is woven a golden thread from
another New Testament song—the poem of victory upon the sea of glass. A psalmist
had exclaimed, “They shall praise Thy name, great and terrible; holy is it. Exalt ye
Jehovah our God, and worship at the mountain of His holiness; for holy is the Lord
our God.” The writer of the Apocalypse hears it applied to Jesus. And His believing
Church incorporates this into her golden commentary of praise upon the “Gloria in
Excelsis.” “Thou only art holy, O Christ.” Only He is holy of Himself: of His holiness
we have all received. To an ignorant and superstitious woman, now many years ago, a
kindly visitor read the Gospels, with little but the most simple commentary, and
without a single word of controversy. A day or two before her death, the poor woman
mentioned a dream which she had, valuable only because it appeared to be the
reflection of her waking thoughts. She seemed to be in a vast and magnificent church,
thronged with thousands upon thousands. High in the distance rose a glorious altar,
with a living form towering above it—the Lamb as it had been slain; below, down to
the rails which separated the altar from the body of the church, were orders of
angels, stoled and vested priests, the Virgin-mother. Moved by some impulse, one
after another came to the chancel-gate, and was either received inside with a burst of
joy that filled the distance, or sorrowfully sent away. At last the dying woman
presented herself in her turn. Sternly, yet not without a tone of regret, a priest put
her back, and said, “You cannot pass.” Sweetly, with tender sorrow, an angel
whispered, “Alas! I cannot help you.” With trembling voice, the mother of Jesus told
her that “her prayers could not open those gates, nor open a way to the eternal
presence of her Son.” Then, with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, the woman was
turning away, to wander she knew not where, when suddenly the form above the
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altar—not white, and wan, and stirless, like the crucifix, but living and glorious—
stood by the guarded gate. And He opened it, and bade her come in and fear not.
“For,” said He, “those who come unto Me I will not cast out.” And a glorious music
arose in the distance. In the same spirit, in this hymn, we pass by saints and angels,
and raise our chant, “Thou only art holy.” None holy, and therefore none tender as
Christ. In thanksgiving for angels’ food we borrow angels’ words. The song of angels
is our communion song. May it not also be made our communicant’s manual? For
instance, let us take that single line, “on earth peace.” That man who did something
to insult or injure me—that, perhaps, very wretched woman, with her bitter tongue
and cutting jeer—have I forgiven her for Christ’s sake? This evil peevish temper,
which embitters the fountains of family life, have I set about sweetening it? Am I
trying to improve it? This dark hopelessness of God’s forgiveness, this despair of the
power of God’s Spirit to help and sanctify, this unbelief in grace, as if an apostle’s pen
had never written, “How much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?” this unbelief in the power of the Cross, this
faithlessness which turns the bread of the sacrament into a stone in our bands, and
makes us too deaf to hear “for thee!” again and again- is this passing away? Am I
ready to take Him at His own word? If not, I cannot really join in the “Gloria in
Excelsis.” I have nothing to say to one line, at least, of the blessed triplet—“On earth
peace”—and therefore the whole harmony is untuned for me. The first “Gloria in
Excelsis” died away over Bethlehem. What then? “It came to pass, as the angels were
gone away from them into heaven, then the men, even the shepherds, said one to
another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.” The men, the “shepherds” (so the
Evangelist seems to say), represent the whole race of men. Even so, the Church keeps
unending Christmas, keeps a new Christmas with every communion. The shepherds
did their simple work of announcement. “They made known abroad the saying which
was told them concerning this Child;” while Mary, with her deeper and more
reflective nature, “kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Then “the
shepherds returned, glorifying God” for His greatness, and “praising Him” for His
goodness, laying the foundation for their glorification and praise “upon all the things
which they bad heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” The glory and music of
angels did not tempt them from their work, but made them do it more gladly upon
their return. There was more of heaven about it. So will it ever be with those who
seek Him faithfully, and join truly in the “Gloria in Excelsis.” (Bishop Wm.
Alexander.)
1. Glory to God in the highest. This glory arises from three sources—the matter of
the gospel, the manner of its dissemination, and the effects it has produced upon
the hearts and habits of men.
2. Glory to God arises from the manner and success of the dissemination of the
Word of God, as well as from its matter and contents.
3. Glory is given to God from the effects which this gospel produces among men.
In the experience of many it already begins a new heaven and a new earth.
II. “On earth peace.” Let us first ascertain the nature of this peace, and secondly, the
way in which the Word of God promotes it, in order that we may be able to seek
peace also, and pursue the right way of hastening on its reign. There is the peace of
ignorance, but this is the peace of delusion. There is peace from compromise, but this
is the peace of hell. True peace between man and God, or between man and man, can
flourish on true principle, and on nothing else. Let us briefly glance at a few features
of this goodwill; next, at the way in which God exerts it, and lastly, infer the manner
in which we also should show goodwill toward our fellowmen. It is a distinctive
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goodwill. Why did God pass by the angels that fell, and throw the arms of love
around the children of men? It was also an undeserved goodwill. Before the Saviour
came we lifted up no cry for the interposition of the mercy of God. Such is God’s
goodwill, and such His way of showing it. God will show His goodwill to the sinner,
just by showing him his sin and his peril. If you saw a brother asleep, amid the
darkness of night, enjoying the most delightful dreams, and at the same hour the
house on fire around him, would you show him more goodwill by leaving him
undisturbed, or by rousing him rudely from his sleep, and pointing his eye to the
danger of his situation? This is God’s way of manifesting His goodwill to men. (J.
Gumming, D. D.)
Angels’ acclamations
There never was such an apparition of angels as at this time; and there was great
cause; for—
1. There was never such a ground for it, whether we regard the matter itself, the
incarnation of Christ.
2. Or whether we regard the benefit that comes to us thereby. Christ by this
means brings God and man together since the fall.
I shall especially stand upon those words; but somewhat is to be touched concerning
the apparition of these angels.
1. The circumstances of their apparition. They appear to poor shepherds. God
respects no callings. He will confound the pride of men, that set so much by that
that God so little respects, and to comfort men in all conditions.
2. Again, the angels appeared to them in the midst of their business and callings;
and indeed God’s people, as Moses and others, have had the sweetest intercourse
with God in their affairs; and ofttimes it is the fittest way to hinder Satan’s
temptations, and to take him off, to be employed in business, rather than to
struggle with temptations.
3. And then they appeared to them in the night. God discovers Himself in the
night of affliction. Our sweetest and strongest comforts are in our greatest
miseries. God’s children find light in darkness; nay, God brings light out of
darkness itself. We see the circumstances then of this apparition. He calls these
angels “a heavenly host” in divers respects, especially in these:
(1) An host for number. Here are a number set down. A multitude is distinct
from an host; but in that they are an host, they are a multitude; as Dan_7:10.
“Ten thousand times ten thousand angels attend upon God.” And so, Rev_
5:11, there are a world of angels about the Church. In Heb_12:22, we are come
to have communion with an “innumerable company of angels.” Worldly,
sottish men that live here below, they think there is no other state of things
than they see. There is another manner of state and frame of things, if they
had spiritual eyes to see the glory of God, and of Christ our Saviour, and their
attendants there—an host, a multitude of heavenly angels.
(2) An host likewise implies order; or else it is a rout, not an host or army.
“God is the God of order, not of confusion” (1Co_14:33). If you would see
disorder, go to hell.
(3) Again, here is consent; an host all joining together in praising God: “Glory
to God on high.” Christ commends union and consent Mat_18:20).
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Agreement in good is a notable resemblance of that glorious condition we
shall enjoy in heaven.
(4) An host of angels, it shows likewise their employment. But here is our
comfort; we have a multitude, an host of angels, whose office is to defend the
Church, and to offend the enemies of the Church, as we see in Scripture.
(5) Again, an host implies strength. We have a strong garrison and guard.
Angels severally are strong creatures. We see one of them destroyed all the
first-born in Egypt; one of them destroyed the host of Sennacherib the
Assyrian in one night. “And suddenly there was,” &c. “Suddenly,” in an
unperceivable time, yet in time; for there is no motion in a moment, no
creature moves from place to place in a moment.
God is everywhere. “Suddenly,” it not only shows us—
1. Somewhat exemplary from the quick despatch of the angels in their business
we pray to God in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;”
that is, willingly, “suddenly,” cheerfully:—
2. But also it serves for comfort. If we be in any sudden danger, God can despatch
an angel, “a multitude” of angels, to encamp about us “suddenly.” What is the use
and end of this glorious apparition? In regard of the poor shepherds, to confirm
their faith, and in them ours; for if one or two witnesses confirm a thing, what
shall a multitude do? If one or two men confirm a truth, much more an host of
heavenly angels. Therefore it is base infidelity to call this in question, that is
confirmed by a multitude of angels. And to comfort them likewise in this
apparition. We see by the way that for one Christian to confirm and comfort one
another, it is the work of an angel, an angelical work; for one man to discourage
another, it is the work of a devil. Thus much for the apparition.
3. Now the celebration is “a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.” The
word signifies “singing” as well as praise. It implies praise expressed in that
manner; and indeed “praising God,” it is the best expression of the affection of
joy. The angels were joyful at the birth of Christ their Lord. Joy is no way better
expressed than in “praising God;” and it is pity that such a sweet affection as joy
should run in any other stream, if it were possible, than the “praising of God.”
God hath planted this affection of joy in the creature, and it is fit he should reap
the fruit of his own garden. It is pity a clear stream should run into a puddle, it
should rather run into a garden; and so sweet and excellent an affection as joy, it
is pity it should be employed otherwise than “in praising God” and doing good to
men. They express their joy in a suitable expression—“in praising God.” The
sweetest affection in man should have the sweetest employment. See here the
pure nature of angels. They praise God for us. We have more good by the
incarnation of Christ than they have; yet notwithstanding, such is their humility,
that they come down with great delight from heaven, and praise and glorify God
for the birth of Christ, who is not their, but our Redeemer. Some strength they
have. There is no creature but hath some good by the incarnation of Christ; to the
angels themselves, yet, however, they have some strength from Christ, in the
increase of the number of the Church; yet He is not the Redeemer of angels. And
yet see, their nature is so pure and so clear from envy and pride, that they even
glorify God for the goodness showed to us—meaner creatures than themselves;
and they envy not us, though we be advanced, by the incarnation of Christ, to a
higher place than they. Let us labour therefore for dispositions angelical, that is,
such as may delight in the good of others, and the good of other meaner than
ourselves. And learn this also from them: shall they glorify God for our good
especially, and shall we be dull and cold in praising God on our own behalf?
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There is some difference in the readings. Some copies have it, “On earth peace to
men of goodwill,” to men of God’s goodwill; and so they would have it two
branches, not three.
If the word be rightly understood, it is no great matter.
1. First, the angels begin with the main and chief end of all. It is God’s end; it was
the angels’ end, and it should be ours too, “Glory to God on high.”
2. Then they wish the chief good of all, that whereby we are fitted for the main
end, “peace.” God cannot be glorified on earth unless there be peace wrought.
3. Then, thirdly, here is the ground of all happiness from whence this peace
comes: from God’s goodwill; from his good pleasure or free grace “to men of
God’s goodwill.” To begin with the first: “Glory to God in the highest.” The
angels, those blessed and holy spirits, they begin with that which is the end of all.
It is God’s end in all things, His own glory. He hath none above Himself whose
glory to aim at. And they wish “Glory to God in the highest heavens.” Indeed, He
is more glorified there than anywhere in the world. It is the place where His
Majesty most appears; and the truth is, we cannot perfectly glorify God till we be
in heaven. There is pure glory given to God in heaven. There is no corruption
there in those perfect souls. There is perfect glory given to God in heaven. Here
upon earth God is not glorified at all by many. In the mean time, let me add this
by the way, that in some sort we may glorify God more on earth than in heaven.
Here upon earth we glorify God in the midst of enemies; He hath no enemies in
heaven; they are all of one spirit. In this respect, let us be encouraged to glorify
God, what we can here: for if we begin to glorify God here, it is a sign we are of
the number that He intends to glorify with Him for ever. The verb is not set down
here; whether it should be, Glory is given to God; or whether, by way of wishing,
“Let glory be given to God;” or by way of prediction or prophecy for the time to
come, “Glory shall be to God,” from hence to the end of the world. The verb being
wanting, all have a truth. “Glory to God on high.” Glory is excellency, greatness,
and goodness, with the eminency of it, so as it may be discovered. There is a
fundamental glory in things that are not discovered at all times. God is always
glorious, but, alas! few have eyes to see it. In the former part of the chapter “light”
is called the “glory of the Lord” (verse 9). Light is a glorious creature. Nothing
expresseth glory so much as light. It is a sweet creature, but it is a glorious
creature. It carries its evidence in itself; it discovers all other things and itself too.
So excellency and eminency will discover itself to those that have eyes to see it;
and being manifested, and withal taken notice of, is glory. In that the angels begin
with the glory of God, I might speak of this doctrine, that the glory of God, the
setting forth of the excellencies and eminencies of the Lord, should be the end of
our lives, the chief thing we should aim at. The angels here begin with it, and we
begin with it in the Lord’s Prayer, “hallowed be Thy name.” It should be our main
employment (Rom_11:36). “Well then, the incarnation of Christ, together with
the benefits to us by it, that is, redemption, adoption, &c., it is that wherein God
will show His glory most of all. That is the doctrinal truth. The glory and
excellency of God doth most shine in His love and mercy in Christ. Every
excellency of God hath its proper place or theatre where it is seen, as His power in
the creation, his wisdom in His providence and ruling of the world, His justice in
hell, His Majesty in heaven; but His mercy and kindness, His bowels of tender
mercy, do most appear in His Church among His people. God shows the
excellency of His goodness and mercy in the incarnation of Christ, and the
benefits we have by it. Many attributes and excellencies of God shine in Christ,
as—His truth: “All the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ” (2Co_1:20).
And then His wisdom, that he could reconcile justice and mercy, by joining two
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natures together. Likewise here is justice, justice fully satisfied in Christ. And of
His holiness, that He would be no otherwise satisfied for sin. Therefore “glory to
God in the highest heavens,” especially for His free grace and mercy in Christ.
Now that you may understand this sweet point, which is very comfortable, and
indeed the grand comfort to a Christian, do but compare the glory of God, that is, the
excellency and eminency of God’s mercy, and goodness, and greatness of this work of
redemption by Christ, with other things.
1. God is glorious in the work of creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God,”
and the earth manifests the glory of God.
2. Nay, the glory of God’s love and mercy shined not to us so, when we were in
Adam; not in Adam, for there God did good to a good man: He created him good,
and showed goodness to him. That was not so much wonder. But for God to show
mercy to an enemy, to a creature that was in opposition to Him, that was in a
state of rebellion against Him, it is a greater wonder and more glory. That which I
shall next stand upon, shall be to show
(1) how we may know whether we glorify God for Christ or no;
(2) and then the hindrances that keep us from glorifying God for this
excellent good;
(3) and the means how we may come to glorify God.
1. For the first, of glorifying God in general, I will not speak much. It would be
large; and the point of glorifying God is most sweetly considered, as invested in
such a benefit as this, when we think of it, not as an idea only, but think of it in
Christ, for whom we have cause to glorify God, and for all the good we have by
Him.
(1) First, then, we hold tune with the blessed angels in giving glory to God,
when we exalt God in our souls above all creatures and things in the world;
when we lift Him up in His own place, and let Him be in our souls, as He is in
Himself, in the most holy. God is glorious, especially in His mercy and
goodness. Let Him be so in our hearts, in these sweet attributes, above all our
unworthiness and sin. For God hath not glory from us till we give Him the
highest place in our love and joy and delight, and a]l those affections that are
set upon good, when they are set upon Him as the chief good; then we give
Him His due place in our souls, we ascribe to Him that divinity, and
excellency, and eminency that is due to Him.
(2) Then again, we give glory to God for Christ, when we take all the favours
we have from God in Christ, when we see Christ in everything. “All things are
ours because we are Christ’s” (1Co_3:23).
(3) Then again, we give glory to God when we stir up others. All the angels
consent. There was no discord in this harmony of the angels.
(4) Again, we glorify God in Christ, when we see such glory and mercy of
Christ, as it doth transform us and change us, and from an inward change we
have alway a blessed disposition to glorify God, as I showed out of 2Co_3:18.
Therefore if we find that the knowledge of God in Christ hath changed our
dispositions, it is a sign then we give glory to God indeed. For to glorify God is
an action that cannot proceed but from a disposition of nature that is altered
and changed. The instrument must be set in tune before it can yield this
excellent music, to glorify God as the angels do; that is, all the powers of the
soul must be set in order with grace by the Spirit of God.
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(5) Again, we glorify God when we take to heart anything that may hinder, or
stop, or eclipse God’s truth, and obscure it; when it works zeal in us in our
places as far as we can; when it affects us deeply to see the cause of religion
hindered any way. If there be any desire of glorifying God, there will be zeal.
(6) Again, if we apprehend this glorious mystery of Christ in the gospel
aright, it will work in us a glorious joy; for joy is a disposition especially that
fits us to glorify God.
2. This being so excellent a duty, to which we are stirred by the angels, “Glory to
God on high,” &c., what are the main hindrances of it that we give not God more
glory?
(1) The main hindrances are a double veil of ignorance and unbelief, that we
do not see the glorious light of God shining in Jesus Christ; or else if we do
not know it, we do not believe it; and thereupon, instead of that blessed
disposition that should be in the soul, there comes an admiration of carnal
excellencies, a delighting in base things.
(2) So likewise unbelief, when we hear and see and know the notion of mercy
and of Christ, and can dispute of these things, like men that talk of that they
never tasted of.
3. Now, the way to attain to this glorious duty, to glorify God.
(1) First, therefore, if we would glorify God, we must redeem some time to
think of these things, and bestow the strength of our thoughts this way. The
soul being the most excellent thing in the world, it is fit it should be set on the
excellentest duty.
(2) Now, to help this, in the next place, beg of God the “Spirit of revelation”
to discover to us these things in their own proper light, “for they are
spiritually discerned.”
(3) And let us labour daily more and more to see the vanity of all things in the
world. “Peace on earth.” The same holy affection in the angels that moved
them to wish God to have his due of glory from the creature, it moves them to
wish peace to men likewise; to show this, by the way, that there can be no true
zeal of God’s glory but with love to mankind. They were not so ravished with
the glory of God as to forget poor man on earth. Oh no! They have sweet, pure
affections to man, a poorer creature than themselves. Therefore let them that
are injurious and violent in their dispositions, and insolent in their carriage,
never talk of glorifying God, when they despise and wrong men. There are
some that overthrow all peace in the earth for their own glory, but he that
seeks God’s glory will procure peace what he can; for they go both together, as
we see here, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth.” Now, their end of
wishing peace upon earth, it is that men might thereby glorify God, that God
being reconciled, and peace being stablished in men’s consciences, they might
glorify God. Hence observe this likewise, that we cannot glorify God till we
have some knowledge of our peace with him in Christ. The reason is, peace
comes from righteousness. Christ is first the “King of righteousness,” and
then “King of peace;” righteousness causeth peace. Now, unless the soul be
assured of righteousness in Christ, it can have no peace. For can we heartily
wish for the manifestation of the glory of him that we think is our enemy, and
him that we have no interest in his greatness and goodness? The heart of man
will never do it, therefore God must first speak peace to the soul—the angels
knew that well enough—and then we are fit to glorify God. “Peace on earth.”
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What is peace? It is the best thing that man can attain unto, to have peace with his
Maker and Creator. Peace, in general, is a harmony and an agreement of different
things.
1. First, there is a scattering and a division from God, the fountain of good, with
whom we had communion in our first creation, and His delight was in His
creature.
2. Then there is a separation between the good angels and us; for they being good
subjects, take part with their prince, and therefore join against rebels, as we are.
3. Then there is a division and scattering between man and man.
4. And then there is a division and separation between a man and the creature,
which is ready to be in arms against any man that is in the state of nature, to take
God’s quarrel, as we see in the plagues of Egypt and other examples.
5. And they have no peace with themselves. Then if we be at peace with God, all
other peace will follow; for good subjects will be at peace with rebels, when they
are brought in subjection to their king, and all join in one obedience. Therefore
the angels are brought to God again by Christ. And so for men, there is a spirit of
union between them. The same Spirit that knits us to God by faith, knits us one to
another by love. And we have peace with the creature, for when God, who is the
Lord of hosts, is made peaceful to us, He makes all other things peaceable. All
peace with God, with angels, and with creatures is stablished in Christ. And why
in Christ? Christ is every way fitted for it, for He is the Mediator between God and
man; therefore by office He is fit to make peace between God and man.
He is Emmanuel, Himself God and man in one nature; therefore His office is to bring
God and man together.
1. It is fit it should be so in regard of God, who being a “consuming fire,” will no
peace with the creature without a mediator. It stands not with His majesty,
neither can there ever be peace with us otherwise.
2. It was also fit, in respect of us, it should be so. Alas! “who can dwell with
everlasting burnings?” (Isa_33:14). Who can have communion with God, who is a
“consuming fire?” No. We cannot endure the sight of an angel.
3. If we look to Christ Himself, He being God’s Son, and the Son of His love, for
Him to make us sons, and sons of God’s love. Is it not most agreeable, that He
that is the image of God, should again renew the image of God that we lost?
“Peace upon earth.” Why doth He say, “peace on earth”? Because peace was here
wrought upon earth by Christ in the days of His flesh, when he offered Himself “a
sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour to His Father.” Because here in earth we must
be partakers of it. We ofttimes defer to make our peace with God from time to
time, and think there will be peace made in another world. Oh, beloved, our peace
must be made on earth.
But to come to some trials, whether we have this peace made or no; whether we can
say in spirit and truth, there is a peace established between God and us.
1. For a ground of this, that may lead us to further trial, know that Christ hath
reconciled God and us together, not only by obtaining peace, by way of
satisfaction, but by way of application also. He gives a spirit of application to
improve that peace, to improve “Christ, the Prince of peace,” as their own. To
come to some more familiar evidences, whether we be at peace with God, and
whether we have the comfort of this peace, established by Christ, or no.
2. Those that are reconciled one to another have common friends and common
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enemies.
3. Another evidence of “peace” made in Christ between God and us, is a boldness
of spirit and acquaintance with God (Job_22:21).
4. A Christian that hath made his” peace” with God, will never allow himself in
any sin against conscience.
5. Again, where there is a true peace established, there is a high esteem of the
word of peace, the gospel of reconciliation, as St. Paul calls it (2Co_5:18).
6. Lastly, those that have found peace are peaceable.
In the next place, to give a few directions to maintain this peace actually and
continually every day.
1. To walk with God, and to keep our daily peace with God, it requires a great deal
of watchfulness over our thoughts,—for He is a Spirit, over our words and
actions. Watchfulness is the preserver of peace.
2. And because it is a difficult thing to maintain terms of peace with God, in
regard of our indisposition, we fall into breaches with God daily, therefore we
should often renew our covenants and purposes every day.
3. Again, if we would maintain this peace, let us be always doing somewhat that is
good and pleasing to God. In the same chapter (Php_4:8), “Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure,” &c., “think of these things. Now, to stir us up more and more to search the
grounds of our peace, I beseech you, let us consider the fearful estate of a man
that hath not made his peace with
God. “Goodwill towards men.” Divers copies have it otherwise, “On earth peace to
men of goodwill.” Some have it, “Goodwill towards men.” The sense is not much
different. Peace on earth, “To men of God’s goodwill, of God’s good pleasure.”
That God hath a pleasure to save, or “goodwill towards men,” of God’s good pleasure;
“Peace on earth,” to men of God’s goodwill and pleasure; or God’s good pleasure
towards men.
1. God shews now good pleasure towards men. The love that God bears towards
man hath divers terms, from divers relations. Now this free goodwill and grace, it
is towards men, towards mankind. He saith not, towards angels. And learn this
for imitation, to love mankind. God loved mankind; and surely there is none that
is born of God, but he loves the nature of man, wheresoever he finds it.
2. This ᅚυδοκια, “goodwill of God,” to restore lapsed man by the sending of His
Son, is the ground of all good to man, and hath no ground but itself. I come to the
last point, because I would end this text at this time.
3. This free love and grace of God is only in Christ. (R. Sibbes.)
The angels’ song
But what did the heavenly choir mean? They could not mean that, at that moment,
there was “Peace on the earth”? Was it a prayer? “May there be glory to God in the
highest, and may there be peace on earth, and may there be goodwill toward men!”
Or was it prophecy? Did they foresee that the time would come that this would be the
blessed condition of our world?—a time not yet arrived. The angel who led the band,
had spoken of joy, only joy, “great joy,” prophetic joy, “which should be to all people,”
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a joy prophetic still. But the rushing “multitude of the angel host” carried the note
higher, and gave no limit of time; and they did not say joy, but peace—“Peace on
earth.” Is it that, even to an angel’s mind, peace is above joy? Or, was it that they
thought and knew that this was what our world most wanted? They had been
accustomed to look upon the peace of heaven, where everything has found its
resting-place, and everything is calm: where there is not a sound which is not like the
flow of waters: where a discordant note is never heard: where all hearts are in one
sweet concord: where all is dove-like gentleness! No wonder, then, that they drew
their anthems from the scenes they lived in. We have to do now only with peace. And
the stress lies in the words, “On earth.” No marvel if there should be peace in heaven.
No angel would care to proclaim a thing so certain. A “peace” that has sadly left us,
since that day when sin came in! Observe the course of the facts of our world’s
history. Adam and Eve who, till that moment, were as one, now wrangled, which is
the guiltiest? The first death upon this earth is fratricide; and the murdering brother,
in his callous heart, cares nothing! The whole world is at enmity with God; and, save
a few elect of every kind, every creature perishes in one vast engulphing flood! The
earliest building upon record ends in a confusion, and is stamped a Babel! Even
Abraham and Lot have to part; and Isaac quarrels with Ishmael; and Jacob with
Esau; and Joseph has no peace with his brethren. “Peace on earth!” where is it?
Where does she hide herself? Is she in the valleys? is she among the mountains? Is
she in the high places of kings? Is she in the cottage? Is she in the Church? Is she, as
she ought to be, in any one single man that walks this earth? But what is “peace”?
The after creation—the rest of the soul—the concord of hearts—the reflection of
heaven—the image of God. We must examine it moreclosely. It is human peace the
angels sang: “Peace on earth.” What is the peace of a man? First, there must be peace
with God. God has said it universally, “There shall be no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked.” But peace makes peace. Peace with God in the soul, makes peace in the soul,
and peace in the soul makes peace with the world. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The influence of Christianity on the temporal condition of mankind
I. ON NATIONAL CHARACTER.
II. ON SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.
1. Christianity imparts to social intercourse a principle of equity.
2. A character of mildness to the intercourse of social life.
3. A principle of benevolence.
III. ON THE DOMESTIC SCENE.
IV. ON THE INDIVIDUAL
1. It secures his property.
2. It promotes his health.
3. It guards his reputation. (T. Raffles, D. D.)
National peace
And indeed national feuds are the more odious and unchristian, by how much Christ
hath called all people to the sprinkling of the same water, and to alike participation of
His body and blood at the same table. And it was well apprehended of one, that God
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hath given unto men more excellent gifts in the skill of navigation since His son is
born, than ever they had before; that He might show the way how all the kingdoms of
the earth should be sociable together: for Christ hath breathed His peace upon all the
kingdoms of the world. (Bishop Hacker.)
Christ adverse to some kinds of peace
Yet very true that none is a greater adversary than our Saviour to some sorts of peace.
The peace of Christ breaks the confederacy which sinners have in evil; it defies the
devil and the vain pomp of the world; it draws the sword against blasphemy and
idolatry; it will not let a man be at quiet within himself when he is full of vicious
concupiscence. To make a covenant with hell, as the prophet speaks, or to have any
fellowship with the works of darkness. (Bishop Hacker.)
Peace and sanctity not incompatible
The very name of peace is sweet and lovely: it is the calm of the world, the smile of
nature, the harmony of things, a gentle and melodious air struck from well-tuned
affairs; a blessing, so excellent and amiable, that in this world there is but one
preferable before it, and that is, holiness. And, certainly, great glory doth dwell in
that land, where these two sister-blessings, righteousness and peace, do meet and
kiss each other, as the Psalmist speaks (Psa_85:9-10). I know, that there are hot and
turbulent spirits enough abroad, who are apt to suspect whatsoever is spoken on the
behalf of peace, to be to the disadvantage of holiness: and, perhaps, some men’s zeal
may be such a touchy and froward thing, that, though an angel from heaven, yea an
innumerable multitude of them, proclaim it; yet they cannot believe there may be
glory to God in the highest, whilst there is peace on earth. Indeed, if peace and
sanctity were incompatible, or if any unhappy circumstances should compel us to
redeem the one at the price of the other; we ought rather to follow righteousness
through thorns and briars, than peace in its smoothest way strewed with roses. But
there is no such inconsistency between them: for, certainly, that God, who hath
commanded us to follow both peace and holiness (Heb_12:14), supposeth that they
themselves may well go together. We may well suspect that zeal to be but an unclean
bird of prey, that delights to quarry upon the dove; and those erratic lights, which
make the vulgar gaze and the wise fear, to be but glaring comets, whose bloody
aspects and eccentric irregular motions threaten nothing but wars, ruin, and
desolations. Righteousness doth not oblige, us, so soon as anything is passed
contrary to our present judgments and persuasions, nay suppose it be contrary to the
truth also, straight to furbish our weapons, to sound an alarm, and to kill others in
defence of that cause for which we ourselves rather ought to die. This is not to part
with peace for righteousness; but to sacrifice both peace and righteousness, to
injustice and violence. The cause of God, of piety and religion, may frequently engage
us to forego our own peace, as sufferers and martyrs; but never to disturb the public
peace of our country, as fighters and warriors. (E. Hopkins, D. D.)
15 When the angels had left them and gone into
heaven, the shepherds said to one another,
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“Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that
has happened, which the Lord has told us
about.”
BARNES, "Unto Bethlehem - The city of David, where the angel had told them
they would find the Saviour. These shepherds appear to have been pious people.
They were waiting for the coming of the Messiah. On the first intimation that he had
actually appeared they went with haste to find him. So all people should without
delay seek the Saviour. When told of him by the servants of God, they should, like
these shepherds, forsake all, and give no rest to their eyes until they have found him.
We may “always” find him. We need not travel to Bethlehem. We have only to cast
our eyes to heaven; to look to him and to believe on him, and we shall find him ever
near to us, and forever our Saviour and friend.
CLARKE, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem - ∆ιελθωµεν, let us go across
the country at the nearest, that we may lose no time, that we may speedily see this
glorious reconciler of God and man. All delays are dangerous: but he who delays to
seek Jesus, when the angels, the messengers of God, bring him glad tidings of
salvation, risks his present safety and his eternal happiness. O, what would the
damned in hell give for those moments in which the living hear of salvation, had they
the same possibility of receiving it! Reader, be wise. Acquaint thyself now with God,
and be at peace; and thereby good will come unto thee. Amen.
GILL, "And it came to pass, as the angels,.... The Persic version reads in the
singular number, "the angel: were gone away from them into heaven", from whence
they came, and which was the place of their abode and residence; and therefore they
are called the angels of heaven, where they always behold the face of God, hearken to
the voice of his commandment, and go and come at his orders; and these having
finished their embassy, delivered their message to the shepherds, and done all the
work they came about,
departed from them: and, as the Ethiopic version adds, "and ascended up into
heaven"; and as soon as they were gone, immediately,
the shepherds said one to another, let us now go even to Bethlehem the
place where the angel said the Saviour was born,
and see this thing which hath come to pass, which the Lord hath made
known to us: from whence it appears, that it was not from diffidence of the matter,
as questioning the truth of what the angel said, that they moved one another to go to
Bethlehem; for they firmly believed the thing was come to pass, which the angel had
told them of, and that what he said was from the Lord; nor did they act any criminal
part, or indulge a vain curiosity, in going to Bethlehem to see what was done; for it
seems to be the will of God that they should go, and for which they had a direction
from the angel, and a sign given them by which they might know the new born
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Saviour from any other infant, Luk_2:12 and which would also be a further
confirmation of their faith, and by which they would be qualified not only as ear, but
as eyewitnesses of the truth of this fact, to report it with greater certainty.
HENRY, "V. The visit which the shepherds made to the new-born Saviour. 1. They
consulted about it, Luk_2:15. While the angels were singing their hymn, they could
attend to that only; but, when they were gone away from them into heaven (for
angels, when they appeared, never made any long stay, but returned as soon as they
had despatched their business), the shepherds said one to another, Let us go to
Bethlehem. Note, When extraordinary messages from the upper world are no more to
be expected, we must set ourselves to improve the advantages we have for the
confirming of our faith, and the keeping up of our communion with God in this lower
world. And it is no reflection upon the testimony of angels, no nor upon a divine
testimony itself, to get it corroborated by observation and experience. But observe,
These shepherds do not speak doubtfully, “Let us go see whether it be so or no;” but
with assurance, Let us go see this thing which is come to pass; for what room was left
to doubt of it, when the Lord had thus made it known to them? The word spoken by
angels was stedfast and unquestionably true.
JAMISON, "Let us go, etc. — lovely simplicity of devoutness and faith this!
They are not taken up with the angels, the glory that invested them, and the lofty
strains with which they filled the air. Nor do they say, Let us go and see if this be
true - they have no misgivings. But “Let us go and see this thing which is come to
pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.” Does not this confirm the view
given on Luk_2:8 of the spirit of these humble men?
CALVIN, "15.After that the angels departed Here is described to us the
obedience of the shepherds. The Lord had made them the witnesses of his Son to
the whole world. What he had spoken to them by his angels was efficacious, and
was not suffered to pass away. They were not plainly and expressly commanded
to come to Bethlehem; but, being sufficiently aware that such was the design of
God, they hasten to see Christ. In the same manner, we know that Christ is held
out to us, in order that our hearts may approach him by faith; and our delay in
coming admits of no excuse. (166) But again, Luke informs us, that the shepherds
resolved to set out, immediately after the angels had departed. This conveys an
important lesson. Instead of allowing the word of God, as many do, to pass away
with the sound, we must take care that it strike its roots deep in us, and manifest
its power, as soon as the sound has died away upon our ears. It deserves our
attention, also, that the shepherds exhort one another: for it is not enough that
each of us is attentive to his own duty, if we do not give mutual exhortations.
Their obedience is still farther commended by the statement of Luke, that they
hastened, (ver. 16;) for we are required to show the readiness of faith.
Which the Lord hath revealed to us They had only heard it from the angel; but
they intentionally and correctly say, that the Lord had revealed it to them; for
they consider the messenger of God to possess the same authority as if the Lord
himself had addressed them. For this reason, the Lord directs our attention to
himself; that we may not fix our view on men, and undervalue the authority of
his Word. We see also that they reckon themselves under obligation, not to
neglect the treasure which the Lord had pointed out to them; for they conclude
that, immediately after receiving this intelligence, they must go to Bethlehem to
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see it. In the same manner, every one of us, according to the measure of his faith
and understanding, ought to be prepared to follow wheresoever God calls.
BENSON, "Luke 2:15-20. As the angels were gone away — Probably they saw
them ascend; the shepherds said, Let us now go; without delay; and see this
thing — This wonderful and important event; which is come to pass: and they
came and found Mary and Joseph, &c. — Though it is not mentioned, it seems
the angel had described to them the particular place in Bethlehem where Christ
was born. And, having found the child lying where the angel had said, they were
by that sign fully confirmed in their belief, and with boldness declared both the
vision which they had seen, and the things which they had heard pronounced by
the angel, and the heavenly host with him. And all they that heard wondered at
those things, &c. — Joseph and Mary, with the people of the inn who attended
them, and such of their relations as were come up to Bethlehem to be enrolled,
and happened to be with them on this occasion, were exceedingly astonished at
the things which the shepherds openly declared; and the rather, because they
could not understand how one born of such mean parents could be the Messiah.
But Mary kept all these things, &c. — Mary was greatly affected with, and
thought upon, the shepherds’ words, the import of which she was enabled to
understand, in consequence of what had been revealed to herself. She said
nothing, however, being more disposed to think than to speak: which was an
excellent instance of modesty and humility in so great a conjuncture. And the
shepherds returned, glorifying God, &c. — They returned to their flocks, and by
the way praised God for having condescended, by a particular revelation, to
inform them of so great an event as the birth of the Messiah, and because they
had seen the signs by which the angel in the vision pointed him out to them. To
this we may add, that, “besides what they had heard from the angel and seen at
Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary would doubtless give them an account of those
particulars which the sacred historian has related above, respecting the
conception of this divine infant; and this interview must have greatly confirmed
and comforted the minds of all concerned.” — Doddridge.
BURKITT, "Several particulars are here observable: as, 1. That the shepherds
no sooner heard the news of a Saviour, but they ran to Bethlehem to seek him;
and though it was at midnight, yet they delayed not to go. Those that left their
beds to attend their flocks, now leave their flocks to inquire after their Saviour.
Learn thence, that a gracious soul no sooner hears where Christ is, but instantly
makes out after him, and judges no earthly comfort too dear to be left and
forsaken for him. These shepherds shew, that they preferred their Saviour
before their sheep.
Observe, 2. These shepherds having found Christ themselves, do make him
known to others, When they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying,
which was told them concerning this child. Luke 2:17
Learn, that such as have found Christ to their comfort, and tasted that the Lord
is gracious to themselves, cannot but recommend him to the love and admiration
of others.
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Observe, 3. What effect this relation had upon the generality of people that heart
it; it wrought in them amazement and astonishment, but not faith: The people
wondered, but believed not. 'Tis not the hearing of Christ with the hearing of the
ear, nor the seeing of Christ with the sight of the outward eye; neither the
hearing of his doctine, nor the sight of his miracles, will work divine faith in the
soul, without the concuring operation of the Holy Spirit; the one may make us
marvel, but the other makes us believe. All that heard it wondered at these
things.
Lastly, note, the effect which these things had upon Mary, quite different from
what they had upon the common people; they wondered, she pondered; the
things that affected their heads, influenced her heart: She kept all these things,
and pondered them in her heart.
BI, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see
Bethlehem’s wonder
Every year the Christian heart takes, in thought, the shepherd’s pilgrimage to
Bethlehem.
In this district lay the fields of Boaz in which Ruth gleaned. Here the son of Obed was
born. David was anointed in Bethlehem. Best of all, in Bethlehem was Christ
revealed. It was not without significance that Bethlehem, “The House of Bread,”
should be the birthplace of Him who had come down from heaven to be the Bread of
Life for men, and that He, who was in after years to be the Friend of the people and
Saviour of the world, to be Himself so straitened as often to have nowhere to lay His
head, should commence His earthly pilgrimage within the precincts of a stable. Let
us ask what it was that the Bethlehem manger contained.
I. A VIRGIN’S CHILD.
II. ISRAEL’S MESSIAH.
III. THE WORLD’S SAVIOUR.
IV. GOD’S SON.
Transcendent mystery! Thought is paralyzed when it attempts to conceive how the
Eternal could become a child of days, how the Infinite could be reduced to
dimensions, how the Adorable Creator could become one with His own creature. Let
it kindle our gratitude that we can understand something of the purpose of this
sublime mystery, if even we can learn nothing of its manner. The Son of God became
incarnate, that He might reveal the Father, that He might exemplify human virtue,
that He might take away our sins, and that He might be able thereby to make us
partakers of His own Divine nature. (T. W.)
The first pilgrims to the stable of Bethlehem
1. Their pilgrim mind.
2. Their pilgrim staff.
3. Their pilgrim hope.
4. Their pilgrim joy.
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5. Their pilgrim thanksgiving. (J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.)
How men receive the good news of God
I.
1. In order that man may possess the blessings which are brought upon earth in the
Person of the Incarnate Word, he must be willing to obey the Divine Voice which bids
him seek if he would find.
2. The shepherds are not content with wondering at the Divine mystery which
has been made known to them, nor yet with listening to the angelic song, but they
hasten to Him who is born their Saviour. Being thus obedient they are filled with
the angelic spirit, and they are also able to glorify God for that which they have
seen and heard. Simple faith and obedience lift up the humblest to share in the
work of the angels of God.
3. Yet there are many, who hearing these things, regard them only with idle and
fruitless wonder (Luk_2:18) instead of pondering them in their hearts as Mary
did.
II.—1. The gospel message that God is made man is for ever ringing in our ears. How
does it affect us? There are many who are ready to study Christian doctrine as an
interesting phase of human thought, or as a bright poetic vision, but who never find
the Child of Bethlehem as a Saviour in very deed.
2. If we have thus found Him, our belief will show itself, either
(1) by summoning us to enter into the company of those elect few who, like
Mary, are absorbed in meditation on the Divine mysteries, or
(2) by giving us power to praise and glorify God in the common occupations
of daily life, in union with these shepherds who returned to the work of their
sheepfolds, filled with a new life from on high.
3. Let us pray, at any rate, we be not among those to whom the gospel is a mere
matter of curiosity and empty wonder, exercising no influence on their lives, and
forgotten in the excitement of some new incident of an unusual kind. (Canon
Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
The faith of the shepherds, true faith
1. Its foundation.
(1) God’s Word.
(2) God’s deed.
2. Its properties.
(1) Emotion of heart.
(2) Activity of life.
3. Its aim.
(1) The spreading of the kingdom of God upon earth.
(2) The glory of God. (Hatless.)
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The shepherds as patterns for imitation
1. They seek the Child in the stable and the manger.
2. They spread the gospel message everywhere.
3. They praise God with thankful joy. (Ahlfeld.)
The shepherds’ celebration of Christmas
1. Their going.
2. Their seeing,
3. Their spreading abroad the saying.
4. Their return to their avocations. (Arndt.)
A pilgrimage to Bethlehem
God gives men information to put them upon action. No sooner are the shepherds
informed of the Saviour’s birth, than they say, “Let us, then, go and see Him.” It will
be well for us to imitate them, and take a pilgrimage to Bethlehem.
I. Let us go to Bethlehem, and see DEITY DISPLAYED. It was necessary for our
redemption that the Saviour of men should be a man; for the same nature that sinned
must bear the punishment of sin. In what manner the human nature was united to
the Divine, we cannot tell. It is enough for us to know that it was so united (Mat_
1:23; Joh_1:1; Joh 1:14; 1Ti_3:15-16). Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh. Let
us go to Bethlehem, and see this great sight. Angels desire to look at it. Glorious
mystery!
II. Let us go to Bethlehem, and behold MAN REDEEMED. The redemption of fallen,
guilty, helpless man, was the grand design of the Saviour’s birth. There is something
delightful in the name “Saviour.” Cicero, the Roman orator, said, that when travelling
in Greece, he saw a pillar inscribed with this word—Saviour. He admired the fulness
of the name, but he knew not its Christian meaning. How much more may the
redeemed sinner admire it! We must have perished, had He not come and saved us.
III. Let us take another turn to Bethlehem, and see SATAN RUINED. Ever since, in
the garden of Eden, he seduced our first parents, Satan has ruled the children of
disobedience, and led men captive at his will. At the birth of Christ his throne began
to totter, and it will go on shaking until it is utterly destroyed. Christ by His death has
destroyed him that had the power of death, and by His rising again has delivered all
who were held in bondage by Satan. (George Burder.)
Teaching from Christ’s cradle
You all feel more or less the trials, the mystery of life, its sufferings and its sins. One
and One only can alleviate for you those trials, can explain that mystery, can remove
that suffering, can heal those sins. Would you understand anything either of this life
or of the life beyond? You can only do so by watching the life of your Saviour, by
coming to Christ’s cradle, by standing behind His cross, by sitting with the deathless
angel in His forsaken tomb. Follow Him with the eagle eye of faith, and then you may
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see the heavens open and Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of God. I ask you,
then, for a moment or two to stand with me beside the cradle of your Lord, in the
manger at Bethlehem, and catch something of what we there may learn.
1. Some of you are poor. How glad for you, beyond all utterance, should be the
meaning of Christmas! Your Lord was, as you are, poor—as poor as any of you.
The lot which He chose for His own was your lot. Look at your own little children
with love and reverence, for He, too, was the child of the poor. Your rooms, in
garret or in cellar, are not more comfortless than that manger at Bethlehem; nor
is your labour humbler than His in that shop of the village carpenter at Nazareth.
It was to the poor, to the humble, to the ignorant, to those poor shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, that the heavens
flashed forth with angel wings. They were the first to see in that cradle the
Blessed Child. Cannot you, in heart or mind, go with them. Let Christ’s cradle
teach you to respect yourselves, to reverence with a nobler self-esteem the nature
which He gave you and took upon Himself, and which, by taking upon Himself,
He redeemed.
2. And some are rich. Oh I come ye also to the manger-cradle of your Lord, for
rich men did come both to His cradle and to His tomb. From the far East came
those three wise men—the “three kings of the East,” as they are called—they
came, as the rich should come, with the gifts, willing and humble gifts, not doled
forth with murmurs as a burden, but lavished as a privilege with delight. First of
all they gave, as we all may and must give, themselves—the gold of worthy lives,
the frankincense of holy worship, the myrrh of consecrated sorrow. They might
have kept their gold and their treasures for their own selfishness, for their own
gratification, for the enhancement of their personal luxury, for the enrichment of
their sons and daughters. They might have stamped their substance with a vulgar
commonplace possession; but do not you think it was happier for them that they
made their gifts immortal by offering them at the cradle of their Lord? You may
do the very same thing to-day. You may give your gifts at the cradle of your Lord
to-day. If you give to one of the least of these your brethren, you give it unto Him.
3. Many of you are sorrowful. So was He. Whatever be the form of your sorrow,
and it may be very varied—be it loneliness, or agony of body, or anxiety of mind,
or the sorrows inflicted by the vulgarity or baseness of other men—He bore it all,
even to the cross. That soft and tender Child by whose cradle we stand to-day, the
shadow of His cross falls even on His cradle, the crimson of His sunset flushes
even His golden dawn; and, perfected by suffering, He would teach every one of
us out of our sorrows to make springs of tenderness and strength and beauty.
4. All of you are sinners; and to you the news of that birth is indeed “Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.” While you may see
there how much God hates the sin, you may see also how tenderly, how earnestly
He loves the sinner. Let us come to this cradle: let the lepers come, and let the
outcasts come, and the mourners with their tear-stained cheeks, and the sinners
with their broken hearts, and the young man with his selfwill and his strong
unconquered passions, and the poor with their struggling lives, and the rich with
their many temptations, and let them kneel and drink freely of the waters of
Siloam which flow softly, and let them bathe their sick and shivering souls in the
golden tide of heaven’s beatitude, and stand in the circle of heaven’s own free
light, undarkened by any shadow; let them escape the errors what, darken the
mind, the lusts which destroy the body, the sins which corrupt the soul; and so
one and all wish one another a happy Christmas time, as I do from my heart to all
of you today. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
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The festival of Christmas
This, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing,” &c., was the
resolution of the shepherds on the original Christmas Day. May it be our own I
“Come and see,” is written upon the gospel. There is no secrecy and no concealment
in it. It challenges inquiry.
I. WE HAVE A FACT BEFORE US: “UNTO YOU IS BORN A SAVIOUR.” It is a
summary of revelation.
1. It presupposes a ruin.
2. It assumes that salvation must come from without.
3. It declares that the Deliverer, though He comes from without the creature,
must enter into it by incorporation. There must be a birth to bring in the Saviour
into the Cosmos. “Unto you is born a Saviour”—Incarnation makes Him such.
II. When we try to obey the summons the first thing which we notice is, that
CHRISTMAS DAY IS THE FESTIVAL OF REDEMPTION AS A WHOLE. It presents
to us, not so much one part or one element of the gospel, but rather the intervention
of God in Christ to save sinners as a single and complete act, containing in itself all
that was necessary to give it validity and efficacy.
III. But the festival of Christmas, though its foundation lies so deep, has a thought
for all natures. It is in an especial sense THE FESTIVAL, OF THE BRIGHTER SIDE
OF CHRISTIANITY.
IV. Christmas is by common consent THE FESTIVAL OF THE FAMILY AND THE
HOME. (Dean Vaughan,)
Let us now go even unto Bethlehem
And what shall we find when we get there?
I. THAT OTHERS HAVE BEEN THERE BEFORE US.
1. Here are the shepherds. Let us ask them to tell their story. They say that they
were watching their flocks on the hill-side, with no sounds to break the stillness
but the occasional bleating of the sheep, when suddenly they became aware that
they were in the presence of a glory brighter than that of noonday. An angel stood
there, and as they shrank in affright from the wondrous vision, the angel spoke,
and said, “Fear not,” &c.” And then there appeared with him “a multitude of the
heavenly host praising God,” &c. And—
When such music sweet,
Their heart and ears did greet,
As never was by mortal fingers strook,
Divinely warbled voice Answering the stringed noise,
As all their souls in blissful rapture took
The air such pleasure loathe to lose,
With thousand echoes still prolonged each heavenly close.
The anthem died away. The light faded from the hills. The angelic host departed. And
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the shepherds leaving their flocks, as afterwards the woman Joh_4:28 left her
waterpot, set out to see the new-born Saviour whom the angels sang. They found
what? The splendour and magnificence befitting His birth who was heir of all things,
and King of kings? No, but “Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.” And
still, though that was what they saw, they returned glorifying and praising God.
2. But not only the shepherds—others also, and men very different from these,
have been to Bethlehem before us. They are not shepherds but sages. They have
come not from some near hill-side. They are travel-stained and weary, for they
have travelled long and far. They tell us that they have seen a new star, blazing
and flashing in the sky, and that, led by that star, they have come to the place
where lay the young Child and His mother; have worshipped Him, and presented
to Him precious gifts. And now, their quest ended and rewarded, and the star
having paled before the Sun of Righteousness who has arisen with healing in His
wings, they are wending their way home by another route, with a new hope born
in their hearts.
3. And not only shepherds and sages, but a countless multitude through all the
Christian centuries, have been heart-pilgrims to Bethlehem before us, and have
declared that “this thing which had come to pass” was the one thing needed to
give them peace here below and the hope of heaven hereafter.
II. BUT WHAT WENT THEY ALL OUT TO SEE, ANN WHAT SHALL WE SEE IF,
LIKE THEM, WE GO NOW EVEN UNTO BETHLEHEM?
1. The reality of Christ’s humanity.
2. The self-sacrificing power of Divine love. Our gladness cost Christ grief. Our
salvation His humiliation.
3. The perfection of Christ’s example. As we stand by the manger and know that
that cradle means the cross, let us pray that “the same mind may be in us which
was also in Christ Jesus.” (J. R. Bailey.)
This thing
I. Is of supreme interest as an event in the world. Outweighs all other great events of
history.
II. Has to do with all time and all men.
III. Should be seriously inquired into by each one of us personally.
IV. Should receive our serious attention without delay.
1. Because you are losing happiness in proportion to your neglect of Christ.
2. Because you are missing the Divine method of spiritual life and heavenward
growth.
3. Because with present conduct are bound up the solemn issues of the eternal
future. (W. Manning.)
The visit of the shepherds
I. How came they to make this visit? They were directed by the angel.
II. There was no delay in the visit: “Let us go now.” That is the secret of finding
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Christ.
III. Why did they go away rejoicing? Because they found everything just as God had
said. So if we seek and find Jesus we shall go joyfully on our journey. (Sermons for
Boys and Girls.)
Which is come to pass
Every Divine prophecy has its counterpart and fulfilment sooner or later in the
events of human history. If God has said, “It shall come to pass,” the time will come
at which men shall say, “It is come to pass.” (J. R. Bailey.)
Which the Lord hath made known to us
Mark that. When there is anything specially important it is the Lord that makes it
known to us. You would never have heard a syllable of this, if the Lord had not made
it known to you. (T. Mortimer, B. D.)
The adoration of the shepherds
I. THE TRUTH INVESTIGATED. “The shepherds said one to another, Let us now go
even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath
made known unto us.” It will be felt at once that there was very little room in their
case for scepticism. The manner of the revelation had been supernatural, and they
could scarcely doubt the correctness of the information who had received it through
the ministration of angels. The inquiry must be conducted in a humble and teachable
spirit. It is of no use coming to it at all if we come in the spirit of self-sufficiency.
Some men seem wonderfully baffled by the mysteries there are in grace. And, after
all, it is no real calamity that there is mystery connected with all the departments of
knowledge. Twilights are not altogether destitute of enjoyment: even the indistinct
apprehension of truth has its pleasures; and these experiences do but herald the
coming light. The objector may say, “Then what is the use of inquiring? You ask us to
test the truth concerning Christ, and then you practically check our inquiry by telling
us that there is mystery and that we must trust!” “Not so,” we reply. All we want you
to see is that nature and revelation are alike in this respect, that in each department
there are profound mysteries, problems you cannot solve; and just as you accept this
in reference to the former, and take this for granted in all your researches into her
domain, so we ask you candidly to accept this in relation to the latter; and further,
just as you search into Nature, and form your own conclusions from what you can
clearly apprehend, so we ask you in the same spirit to test the claims of Christ. Be
assured His life and character, and His influence and power over human hearts will
bear the closest scrutiny; and if the investigation is approached in the right spirit,
then, despite all mysteries, the inquirer shall be led to Christ, and adoringly shall say
unto Him: “Thou art the Son of God: Thou art the King of Israel!” “Immanuel, God
with us.”
II. THE TRUTH PROCLAIMED. “And they came with haste, and found Mary, and
Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it they made known
abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.” Let us look at these
first heralds or proclaimers, that we may get a little stimulus, as Christian workers,
from what is recorded respecting them. Clearly, they were not men of culture: they
were humble, unpretending shepherds. Yet, for all this, they were genuine preachers
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of the truth concerning Christ. The lack of intellectual endowments or of educational
advantages must not be pleaded in excuse for the neglect of this duty. “Go, tell the
good news to thy neighbour.” “Let him that heareth say, Come!”
These men, if unlettered, could at any rate speak from experience. They had heard
the voice from heaven and had seen the young child. And it was this personal
experience which fitted them for service and inspired them with a true enthusiasm.
And then, their hearts were full of love. The scene they had witnessed had touched
their hearts with love to the new-born King, and the sweet songs of angels to which
they had listened, proclaiming “peace on earth and goodwill toward men,” had fired
their souls with the spirit of a true brotherhood. Dr. Tholuck relates how that one
who had been a great traveller said to him that he had scarcely ever fallen into
company with fellow-travellers without speaking to them of the heavenly journey.
Tholuck almost questioned the propriety of forcing such conversation. “Ah,”
responded his friend, “I endeavoured never to speak till I was certain, that I loved. I
figured to myself that we are all brothers one of another, and this never failed to
soften my heart, and when there was love in mine I soon found a bridge into that of
the stranger. It was as though the breath of God had drawn out a thread from the one
and had fastened it to the other.” Nor must we overlook the fact that these
proclaimers kept to the one theme, Christ. They made known “the saying” concerning
Christ, but they did so with a view of leading those who heard them to Him.
III. THE TRUTH EXEMPLIFIED. “And the shepherds returned glorifying and
praising God for all the things which they had heard and seen, as it was told them.”
They not only tested and proclaimed the truth concerning Christ, but they
exemplified it in their conduct and life. Too many, alas I are content with a very
defective Christian life and character. The eminent Church historian, Neander, in
speaking of the Stoics, remarks that there were many among them who did nothing
more than make an idle parade of the lofty maxims of the ancient philosophers,
embellishing their halls with their busts, whilst their own lives were abandoned to
every vice. And even so there are to be found among the professed disciples of Jesus
those who are very unworthy representatives of Him, and who by their failings bring
dishonour upon His cause. (S. D. Hillman, B. A.)
Quiet thoughts, after high revelations
I pretend not, brethren, to sum up in these few words what such aims and
endeavours should be; but to set forth the spirit of them is enough.
1. You cannot, for example, go to seek Him “in the flesh,” who was sought of old
time in the stable at Bethlehem; but there are other humble roofs, and uninviting
abodes, where you may seek, and haply find, “the Lord of life!” For Christ yet
abides with His own; and very especially among the poorest and most helpless of
His flock. Go to them, and you go to Him. Keep up a kindly, habitual compassion
for their trials.
2. So again, you have no heaven-sent marvels of which to tell; you cannot report
to others of the descent of the Angel of the Lord; nor of the gathering of an host of
“ministering spirits” from above, chanting their adoration “to God and the
Lamb!” But you can tell, perhaps, of the peace you may yourselves have read
beneath the burning stars of some Christmas night. You can tell, perhaps, of
some rough way that you yourselves have trod, and found, by God’s grace,
consolation and “hope in its end.”
3. And need I point to one deeper and dearer realization of our subject yet? It
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stands in the fact that this sacred season has many opportunities for Holy
Communion; for that best and most privileged way in which we can “keep the
Feast.” He will be veiled in His Sacrament, as aforetime in His flesh; but the same
Immanuel, “God with you!” And, surely, you will return to your own paths and
your own ways, like your prototypes of Bethlehem, praising and glorifying God
for all the benefits that He hath done unto you; having received the Cup of
Salvation, and having been answered in the name of the Lord! (J. Puckle, M. A.)
The significance of Christmas
I. Here is a lesson of doctrinal theology.
II. A lesson of intellectual theology. A new revelation of God is given to man in the
incarnate Christ.
III. A lesson in experimental theology.
IV. A lesson in emotional theology. It is a theophany of love.
V. A lesson of practical theology. The shepherds and wise men came in the spirit of
earnest consecration.
VI. A lesson of consolation, of gladness, of rapture. (C. Wadsworth, D. D.)
Faith outliving its special occasions
The trial of men’s faith comes after God’s awakening angels have gone away. To us
God’s favouring messengers are stripped of their miraculous raiment. They take the
shape of merciful providences to relieve and comfort us, of Christian ordinances to
strengthen us, festivals to reawaken our thanksgiving, and human hearts to enrich
the poverty of ours with their affection. In the fresh mercy of some gracious
deliverance, from sadness or pain or accident or threatened sorrow, men cast their
thank-offering into the treasury of the Church, and wonder that they should ever be
forgetful of God’s care. In the stillness of a sanctuary, when all the harmonies of holy
times and places seem to shut out temptation, to set open the windows of heaven,
and fill the uplifted spirit with hearty praise, men say, “Would to God all days and
places were like this; for when faith, and zeal, and charity never would grow cold!” In
the warmth of the feast it is easy to be glad. But these hours pass by. The angels are
gone away into heaven. The festive lights are put out; the temple-doors are shut; the
winter snow lies white and smooth on the little grave in the burial-ground. The world
comes crowding, beseeching, flattering, threatening, almost forcing its way back,
with its noise and its guilt, into the unguarded and yielding heart. Then comes the
test of the reality, the sincerity, the power, of your Christian principles. When the
song ceased, the first Christmas Eve, and the bright host vanished from the sky, the
shepherds did not fall asleep again, and so have only a dream to tell the next
morning. They verified the vision, like earnest and constant men. Secondly: Such
willingness to watch and seek commonly leads, as it does here, to an equal readiness
to believe when the promise is fulfilled, and they that have sought Christ find Him.
They might have said—and if they had been modern philosophers, conceited critics,
or ambitious naturalists, they would have been very sure to say—to each other,
“Beware how you believe; these, to be sure, are extraordinary phenomena; they look
very much as miracles are said to look—brilliant figures plainly seen by many
witnesses, nay, by our own eyes, and articulate melodies from their tongues!—but
possibly electricity, meteorology, optics, or acoustics may explain them all;—light or
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sound.” They say, “We will look into our books. It is extremely unlikely that nature
would interrupt her order, or let in new light by a new channel. Let us take care not
to be ridiculed for believing too much.” Glories of heaven and earth, grander than
telescopes ever pierced among the stars, or hammers ever uncovered in the rocks,
pass by, and there is no vision to behold them. Spiritual things not seen for want of
spiritual senses! God knew whom He was choosing when He opened Heaven on
those clear-hearted keepers of simple flocks. They discredited neither messenger nor
message. Thirdly: When faith is prompt, honest, and manly, like this, it comes out as
it does in these brave men, to an open confession. The shepherds said what they said
frankly, “one to another,” and with one consent. So they did not hide their purposes,
or play fast and loose with their convictions. Will those men who have resolved to go
to Bethlehem and see, really arise and go? Many a Christian life falters and fails in
every congregation between these two. Will resolve pass on into action, and a good
faith confirm and demonstrate itself in good works? Yes, “they came with haste, and
found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Visions are transient; the
festival is but for a day; the angels go away into heaven. But the indwelling Christ
abides. (F. D. Huntingdon, D. D.)
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and
Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the
manger.
GILL, "And they came with haste,.... In the night, leaving their flocks, to see
their incarnate Lord, as Zacchaeus hastened down from the tree to receive the
Saviour. The wonderfulness of the vision, the importance of the thing related, the
eagerness of their spirits to see the thing that was told them, put them on making
quick dispatch, and hastening to the city with all speed:
and found Mary and Joseph; as they had been directed by the angel, in the city of
Bethlehem, in an inn there, and in a stable in the inn:
and the babe lying in a manger: where Mary had put it as soon as born, and had
wrapped it in swaddling clothes; because there was no room in the inn, and as the
angel had told them they should find it, Luk_2:12
HENRY, "They immediately made the visit, Luk_2:16. They lost no time, but
came with haste to the place, which, probably, the angel directed them to more
particularly than is recorded (“Go to the stable of such an inn”); and there they found
Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. The poverty and meanness in
which they found Christ the Lord were no shock to their faith, who themselves knew
what it was to live a life of comfortable communion with God in very poor and mean
circumstances. We have reason to think that the shepherds told Joseph and Mary of
the vision of the angels they had seen, and the song of the angels they had heard,
which was a great encouragement to them, more than if a visit had been made them
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by the best ladies in the town. And it is probable that Joseph and Mary told the
shepherds what visions they had had concerning the child; and so, by
communicating their experiences to each other, they greatly strengthened one
another's faith.
JAMISON, "with haste — Compare Luk_1:39; Mat_28:8 (“did run”); Joh_4:28
(“left her water-pot,” as they do their flocks, in a transport).
found Mary, etc. — “mysteriously guided by the Spirit to the right place through
the obscurity of the night” [Olshausen].
a manger — “the manger,” as before.
SBC, "The Hidden God.
I. It is said in the Bible that God is a God that hideth Himself; and yet there is
nothing of which we are more sure than this—that if any man will heartily, and by all
appointed means, seek and feel after the Lord, he will not fail to find Him; for not
only doth He promise that he that seeks shall find Him, but He even saith, "I am
found of them that sought Me not:"—whence we may learn, that God hides Himself
from some, and makes himself known to others, as in His unsearchable wisdom and
justice He thinks good. And this appears plainly in the history of our Lord and
Saviour, God manifest in the flesh. God’s own Son, being the true and Eternal God,
had taken upon Him our flesh, and had been born into the world. This most
wondrous fact had actually taken place. And yet of the many thousands, and
hundreds of thousands, of the men that He had made, who were then dwelling on the
face of His earth, who knew it? Were they among the great or learned among the
scribes or chief priests, or interpreters of the Law? No; it pleased God to pass by
these, and to make known His blessed Son to poor, unlettered shepherds. And herein
our tender and merciful Father is giving great comfort for poor people who are
obliged to work hard for their bread, late at night and early in the morning. Let them
only do their duty as in His sight, and strive, amid their earthly employments, to
raise their thoughts to their Maker, and He will be mindful of them, and visit them,
and make known unto them, in the depths of their hearts, the secrets of His love.
II. The first step towards heavenly wisdom in all men, learned or unlearned, is a deep
and true lowliness of heart. They that have this are always willing to receive
instruction, especially from those who are duly appointed to instruct them. And it is
to such simple souls that God has always been pleased to make known Himself and
His holy will. The shepherds, doubtless, like the other Jews, expected that the Christ,
or anointed Saviour, whom their prophets foretold, would come as a great King and
Conqueror. It must have been, therefore, a trial to their faith, to find Him in the
lowest poverty, laid in the manger in the inn stable. But yet, like St. Paul, they were
not disobedient to the heavenly vision, and they found Him, whom truly to know is
eternal life.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii. p. 302.
The Holy Family.
I. This was the first Christmas family that was ever gathered together in this world—
the first, the most notable, and the holiest. The exceeding beauty of the group, its
surpassing interest and attractiveness, its close affinity with our innermost instincts
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and profoundest sympathies,—have been attested by the multiplied forms into which
the hand of art has shaped it, under the familiar title of the Holy Family—than which,
perhaps, no subject in the world has been more frequently depicted.
II. It is not too much to apply the term "domestic religion" to the sentiments which
periodically crave the blameless indulgence of Christmas gatherings, and to the
affections which are stimulated, sustained, and kept in exercise by these annual
observances. Are not those feelings and affections a part of religion. Have not Christ’s
Apostles classed domestic virtues and affections among the graces and fruits
springing out of inward and spiritual life? Even in the old and more austere
Testament we find "Brethren," i.e. members of one family, "dwelling together in
unity," compared with the genial exhalation of the dews of Hermon to refresh and
fertilise the sister slopes of Zion.
III. There is such a thing not only as innocent enjoyment, but innocent mirth too;
and though actual religious exercise or contemplation be suspended, the spirit of
Christ’s characteristically humane social teaching may be present. The blazing
Christmas log shedding its happy gleam on happy faces gathered round will serve to
kindle or rekindle warm affections which may, if it please God, retain their warmth
all the more genially in consequence through the coming year.
W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 130.
CALVIN, "16.And found Mary This was a revolting sight, and was sufficient of
itself to produce an aversion to Christ. For what could be more improbable than
to believe that he was the King of the whole people, who was deemed unworthy
to be ranked with the lowest of the multitude? or to expect the restoration of the
kingdom and salvation from him, whose poverty and want were such, that he
was thrown into a stable? Yet Luke writes, that none of these things prevented
the shepherds from admiring and praising God. The glory of God was so fully
before their eyes, and reverence for his Word was so deeply impressed upon
their minds, that the elevation of their faith easily rose above all that appeared
mean or despicable in Christ. (167) And the only reason why our faith is either
retarded or driven from the proper course, by some very trifling obstacles, is,
that we do not look steadfastly enough on God, and are easily “tossed to and
fro,” (Ephesians 4:14.) If this one thought were entirely to occupy our minds,
that we have a certain and faithful testimony from heaven, it would be a
sufficiently strong and firm support against every kind of temptations, and will
sufficiently protect us against every little offense that might have been taken.
COFFMAN, "Surely there was only one babe in Bethlehem that night whose
mother had found no place but a manger to lay him; and thus the sign was
sufficient to enable the accomplishment of their mission.
With haste ... is significant. When God gives his great opportunities to men, it is
needful that they should seize them at once. Moving quickly to do God's will is
seizing the flood tide that leads on to victory. Delay may hinder or thwart
altogether the blessing God intended.
BENSON, "Luke 2:21. And when eight days were accomplished — That is, not
when the eighth day was ended, but when it was come: for the circumcising of
the child — A ceremony which the law of Moses required to be performed on
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every male child at that age, and to which Christ was made subject, that he
might wear the badge of a child of Abraham, and that he might visibly be made
under the law by a sacred rite, which obliged him to keep the whole law. It is
true, he had not any corruptions of nature to mortify, which was in part
represented by that institution, but nevertheless it was necessary that he should
be thus initiated into the Jewish Church, and thereby be engaged to the duties,
and entitled to the privileges, of a son of Abraham, according to God’s covenant
with that patriarch and his seed; as also that he might put an honour on the
solemn dedication of children to God.
BI 16-18, "And they came with haste. The course pursued by the shepherds is
vividly typical of that which should be pursued by all Christian inquirers..
1. A process of inquiry.
2. The joy of distinct confirmation.
3. A bold proclamation of the truth which has been realized.
The gospel is self-propagating. Wherever it makes a convert it makes a preacher.
Have we made known abroad what we ourselves have experienced of the power and
love of Christ? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets! We want more than
the formal sermon. We need the simple personal testimony of every believing heart.
In the case of Mary, it is plain that silence must not always be regarded as a sign of
indifference. Her joy and her wonder were too great for speech. She had, indeed, had
her period of exultation, and the calmness which followed was but the natural
expression of a chastened feeling. (J1. Parker, D. D.)
Birthday contrasts
On the 5th of September, 1639, in the faubourg St. Germain, of Paris, then a little
village surrounding the palace of King Louis XIII., was crowded the blue blood of
France. Around that royal home of the kings of France had gathered all that was
noble, all that was great in the land, in honour of the birth of a child to the king. In an
antechamber within the palace the bishops of the Church were waiting to christen
the child on its birth. Soon a nurse entered the room, bearing the child upon a pillow,
and kneeling, she said, “Sire, it is my honour to bring you this son and heir.” The
proud king carried the babe to an open window, and, addressing the waiting
multitudes, exclaimed, “My son, gentlemen, my son!” The bells rang, the people
shouted, and for a week France was wild with joy. The 19th of March, 1812, 173 years
later, was the eve of another great birthday in France. The little Corsican, the man of
destiny, was on the throne. He had put away one wife and taken another, and the
birth of a child was expected. Twenty-one guns were to be fired if a daughter was
born, a hundred if the child was a boy. On the 20th of March, at six o’clock in the
morning, the booming of cannon was heard. All Paris waited and listened. When the
twenty-second gun was heard a mighty shout arose, and there was great rejoicing in
every part of France. The dynasty of Bonaparte had a son and heir. It is impossible,
men and brethren, as we come together this morning to celebrate the anniversary of
another birth that the contrast between that one and these should be overlooked.
There was no royalty in Bethlehem; the palace was a stable, the cradle was a manger,
but what a contrast paid to Him born at that time by a whole world for eighteen
centuries. The child born in St. Germain was Louis XIV., the Grand King, who ruled
for many years, who first said, “I am the State.” But he lived to see that the sun of his
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dynasty was setting. The other son died ere he had reached man’s estate, obscure and
neglected. Five years after the guns had fired in honour of his birth his father was a
prisoner of war. Looking back to that manger in Bethlehem, we see stepping from it a
royalty which has governed the world. What a conquest, what a history is His! It is
told in one of the apocryphal books that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem the earth
stopped on its axis, and movement upon it suddenly ceased. A great light, an
ineffable joy, had come upon the world, and that light, that joy, eighteen crowded
busy centuries has not diminished. (Bishop H. C. Potter.)
The gospel a source of wonder
Many are set a-wondering by the gospel. They are content to hear it, pleased to hear
it; if not in itself something new, yet there are new ways of putting it, and they are
glad to be refreshed with the variety. The preacher’s voice is unto them as the sound
of one that giveth a goodly tune upon an instrument. They are glad to listen. They are
not sceptics, they do not cavil, they raise no difficulties; they just say to themselves,
“It is an excellent gospel, it is a wonderful plan of salvation. Here is most astonishing
love, most extraordinary condescension.” Sometimes they marvel that these things
should be told them by shepherds; they can hardly understand how unlearned and
ignorant men should speak of these things. But after holding up their hands and
opening their mouths for about nine days, the wonder subsides, and they go their
way and think no more about it. There are many of you who are set a-wondering
whenever you see a work of God in your district. You hear of somebody converted
who was a very extraordinary sinner, and you say, “It is very wonderful!” There is a
revival; you happen to be present at one of the meetings when the Spirit of God is
working gloriously: you say, “Well, this is a singular thing! very astonishing!” Even
the newspapers can afford a corner at times for very great and extraordinary works of
God the Holy Spirit; but there all emotion ends; it is all wondering, and nothing
more. Now, I trust it will not be so with any of us; that we shall not think of the
Saviour and of the doctrines of the gospel which He came to preach simply with
amazement and astonishment, for this will work us but little good. On the other
hand, there is another mode of wondering which is akin to adoration, if it be not
adoration. Let me suggest to you that holy wonder at what God has done should be
very natural to you. That God should consider His fallen creature, man, and instead
of sweeping him away with the bosom of destruction, should devise a wonderful
scheme for his redemption, and that he should Himself undertake to be man’s
Redeemer, and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed, marvellous! Holy wonder will lead
you to grateful worship; being astonished at what God has done, you will pour out
your soul with astonishment at the foot of the golden throne with the song, “Blessing,
and honour, and glory, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might be unto
Him who sitteth on the throne and doeth these great things to me.” Filled with this
wonder, it will cause you a godly watchfulness; you will be afraid to sin against such
love as this. You will be moved at the same time to a glorious hope. If Jesus has given
Himself to you, if He has done this marvellous thing on your behalf, you will feel that
heaven itself is not too great for your expectation, and that the rivers of pleasure at
God’s right hand are not too sweet or too deep for you to drink thereof. Who can be
astonished at anything when he has once been astonished at the manger and the
cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? The nine wonders
of the world! Why, you may put them all into a nutshell—machinery and modern art
can excel them all; but this one wonder is not the wonder of earth only, but of heaven
and earth, and even hell itself. It is not the wonder of the olden time, but the wonder
of all time and the wonder of eternity. They who see human wonders a few times, at
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last cease to be astonished; the noblest pile that architect ever raised, at last fails to
impress the onlooker; but not so this marvellous temple of incarnate Deity; the more
we look the more we are astonished, the more we become accustomed to it the more
have we a sense of its surpassing splendour of love and grace. There is more of God,
let us say, to be seen in the manger and the cross, than in the sparkling stars above,
the rolling deep below, the towering mountain, the teeming valleys, the abodes of life,
or the abyss of death. Let us then spend some choice hours of this festive season in
holy wonder, such as will produce gratitude, worship, love, and confidence. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Holy work for Christmas
This text seems to indicate four ways of serving God, four methods of executing holy
work and exercising Christian thought. Each of the verses sets before us a different
way of sacred service. I know not which of these four did God best service, but, I
think, if we could combine all these mental emotions and outward exercises, we
should be sure to praise God after a most godly and acceptable fashion.
I. SOME PUBLISHED ABROAD THE NEWS.
1. They had something to rehearse in men’s ears well worth the telling. They had
found out the answer to the perpetual riddle.
2. That “something” had in it the inimitable blending which is the secret sign and
royal mark of Divine authorship; a peerless marrying of sublimity and simplicity;
angels singing!—singing to shepherds! Heaven bright with glory!—bright at
midnight! God—a Babe! The Infinite—an Infant a span long! The Ancient of
Days—born of a woman! What more simple than the inn, the manger, a
carpenter, a carpenter’s wife, a child? What more sublime than a multitude of the
heavenly host waking the midnight with their joyous chorales, and God Himself
in human flesh made manifest?
3. The shepherds needed no excuse for publishing their news, for what they told
they had first received from heaven. When heaven entrusts a man with a merciful
revelation, he is bound to deliver the good tidings to others.
4. They spoke of what they had seen below. They had, by observation, made
those truths most surely their own which had first been spoken to them by
revelation. No man can speak of the things of God with any success until the
doctrine which he finds in the Book he finds also in his heart.
II. SOME KEPT CHRISTMAS BY HOLY WONDER, ADMIRATION, AND
ADORATION.
III. ONE, AT LEAST, PONDERED, MEDITATED, THOUGHT UPON THESE
THINGS.
1. An exercise of memory.
2. An exercise of the affections.
3. An exercise of the intellect.
IV. OTHERS GLORIFIED GOD, AND GAVE HIM PRAISE.
1. They praised God for what they had heard.
2. They praised God for what they had seen.
3. They praised God for the agreement between what they had heard and what
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they had seen. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Many ways of serving God
Some people get the notion into their heals that the only way in which they can live
for God is by becoming ministers, missionaries, or Bible women. Alas! how many of
us would be shut out from any opportunity of magnifying the Most High if this were
the case. Tile shepherds went back to the sheep-pens glorifying and praising God.
Beloved, it is not office, it is earnestness; it is not position, it is grace which will
enable us to glorify God. God is most surely glorified in that cobbler’s stall where the
godly worker, as he plies the awl, sings of the Saviour’s love, ay, glorified far more
than in many a prebendal stall where official religiousness performs its scanty duties.
The name of Jesus is glorified by yonder carter as he drives his horse and blesses his
God, or speaks to his fellow-labourer by the roadside, as much as by yonder divine
who, throughout the country like Boanerges, is thundering out the gospel. God is
glorified by our abiding in our vocation. Take care you do not fall out of the path of
duty by leaving your calling, and take care you do not dishonour your profession
while in it; think not much of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings.
There is no trade which is not sanctified by the gospel. If you turn to the Bible, you
will find the most menial forms of labour have been in some way or other connected
either with the most daring deeds of faith, or else with persons whose lives have been
otherwise illustrious; keep to your calling, brother, keep to your calling! Whatever
God has made thee, when He calls thee abide in that, unless thou art quite sure, mind
that, unless thou art quite sure that He calls thee to something else. The shepherds
glorified God though they went to their trade. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Christmas work
Every season has its own proper fruit: apples for autumn, holly berries for Christmas.
The earth brings forth according to the period of the year, and with man there is a
time for every purpose under heaven. At this season the world is engaged in
congratulating itself and in expressing its complimentary wishes for the good of its
citizens; let me suggest extra and more solid work for Christians. As we think to-day
of the birth of the Saviour, let us aspire after a fresh birth of the Saviour in our
hearts; that as He is already “formed in us the hope of glory,” we may be “renewed in
the spirit of our minds;” that we may go again to the Bethlehem of our spiritual
nativity and do our first works, enjoy our first loves, and feast with Jesus as we did in
the holy, happy, heavenly days of our espousals. Let us go to Jesus with something of
that youthful freshness and excessive delight which was so manifest in us when we
looked to Him at the first; let Him be crowned anew by us, for He is still adorned
with the dew of His youth, and remains “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
The citizens of Durham, though they dwell not far from the Scotch border, and
consequently in the olden times were frequently liable to be attacked, were exempted
from the toils of war because there was a cathedral within their walls, and they were
set aside to the bishop’s service, being called hi the olden times by the name of “holy
work-folk.” Now, we citizens of the New Jerusalem, having the Lord Jesus in our
midst, may well excuse ourselves from the ordinary ways of celebrating this season;
and, considering ourselves to be “holy work-folk,” we may keep it after a different
sort from other men, in holy contemplation and in blessed service of that gracious
God whose unspeakable gift the new-born King is to us. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
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Second Christmas Day
And what can better befit us than to do as these shepherds did?
I. THEY RECEIVED THE HEAVENLY MANIFESTATION WITH BECOMING
REVERENCE AND AWE. When “the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the
glory of the Lord shone round about them, they were sore afraid.” They instantly
thought of God, and referred the whole thing to its proper Divine source. A right
mind and a right learning sees God in everything, and beholds in the commonest
ongoings of the universe the manifestations of eternal Power and Godhead, as
energetic in character, and as wonderful in results, as the setting up of the stars on
high, or the calling forth of the world from its nothingness. It sees in every light that
shines from heaven the herald of present Deity, and is ready to fall down in holy
reverence at every new signal from the sky, as verily the forthcoming of the Almighty
Creator and King of the universe, before whom every knee should bow, and every
tongue confess, with trembling adoration. But we need especially to know and feel
that it is the same dreadful Majesty that approaches us in the proclamation of the
Christ. For where the gospel speaks, there God and His angels are.
II. THE SHEPHERDS RELIEVED WHAT THE HEAVENLY MESSENGER TOLD
THEM. Their ready persuasion in this respect also serves to show how self-
evidencing the true gospel is to minds that are unprejudiced and really open to it. Its
obstructions are ethical. Its absence in those to whom the gospel is faithfully
preached is not the result of the absence of sufficient demonstration, but of the
absence of heart and will to be convinced, and to own allegiance to the truth. Men
have intuition enough on this subject to do away with dialectics.
III. THE SHEPHERDS DILIGENTLY IMPROVED THE LIGHT THEY RECEIVED.
They were not satisfied with the mere hearing of the new-born Saviour, but must
needs go and see what had occurred. Faith is an active principle. It cannot know of a
Saviour and not go in search of Him. Let the impediments be what they may, it will
on. There is a most important sense in which He is still here. He is in His word, in
His sacraments, in His Church. This is now the Bethlehem to which we must go to
seek Him.
IV. THE SHEPHERDS WERE AMPLY REWARDED FOR THEIR PAINS. They
found the Saviour whom the angel announced. Earnestly seeking, they also joyfully
find.
V. THE SHEPHERDS, HAVING FOUND THE CHRIST THEMSELVES, FREELY
CONFESSED HIM BEFORE THE WORLD. “When they had seen, they made known
abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.” Christianity deals with
men as individuals. But man is a social being, and social results must necessarily
follow from the intense impulses which faith kindles in the individual soul. And as
our existence must needs affect others, so our personal experiences also have
relations, and are meant to have effects, beyond our individual selves.
VI. THE SHEPHERDS RETURNED TO THEIR FLOCKS GLORIFYING GOD. True
religion was not meant to take men away from the ordinary pursuits of life, but to go
with us into them to consecrate them, and to give us new comforts in them. (J. A.
Seiss, D. D.)
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17 When they had seen him, they spread the
word concerning what had been told them
about this child,
BARNES, "When they had see it - When they had satisfied themselves of the
truth of the coming of the Messiah, and had ascertained that they could not have
been mistaken in the appearance of the angels. There was evidence enough to satisfy
“them” that what the angels said was true, or they would not have gone to Bethlehem.
Having seen the child themselves, they had now evidence that would satisfy others;
and accordingly they became the first preachers of the “gospel,” and went and
proclaimed to others that the Messiah had come. One of the first duties of those who
are newly converted to God, and a duty in which they delight, is to proclaim to others
what they have seen and felt. It should be done in a proper way and at the proper
time; but nothing can or should prevent a Christian recently converted from telling
his feelings and views to others - to his friends, to his parents, to his brothers, and to
his old companions. And it may be remarked that often more good may be done then
than during any other period of their life. Entreaties then make an impression; nor
can a sinner well resist the appeals made to him by one who was just now with him in
the way to ruin, but who now treads the way to heaven.
CLARKE, "They made known abroad the saying - These shepherds were
the first preachers of the Gospel of Christ: and what was their text? Why, Glory to
God in the highest heavens, and on earth peace and good will among men. This is the
elegant and energetic saying which comprises the sum and substance of the Gospel of
God. This, and this only, is the message which all Christ’s true pastors or shepherds
bring to men. He who, while he professes the religion of Christ, disturbs society by
his preachings or writings, who excludes from the salvation of God all who hold not
his religious or political creed, never knew the nature of the Gospel, and never felt its
power or influence. How can religious contentions, civil broils, or open wars, look
that Gospel in the face which publishes nothing but glory to God, and peace and good
will among men? Crusades for the recovery of a holy land so called, (by the way,
latterly, the most unholy in the map of the world), and wars for the support of
religion, are an insult to the Gospel, and blasphemy against God!
GILL, "And when they had seen it,.... Or "him", as the Arabic version reads, the
child Jesus, or "them", Joseph, Mary, and the child; or this whole affair, as had been
related to them:
they made known abroad; not only in the inn, and among all the people there but
throughout the city of Bethlehem,
the saying which was told them concerning this child: both what the angel
had told them concerning his birth, and what he was, and where he lay; and what
Mary had told them concerning the notice she had from an angel of the conception of
him, and the manner of it, and of what he should be; and likewise what Joseph had
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told them, how an angel had appeared to him, and had acquainted him, after the
conception of him, that it was of the Holy Ghost; and was bid to call his name Jesus:
as Mary also was, because he was to be the Saviour of his people from their sins: for,
no doubt, but they had a conversation with Joseph and Mary about him; and as they
could not fail of relating to them, what they had seen and heard that night in the
fields, it is reasonable to suppose, that Joseph and Mary would give them some
account of the above things; which all make up the saying, or report, they spread
abroad: the Persic version reads, "what they had heard of the angel"; but there is no
reason to confine it to that.
HENRY, "VI. The care which the shepherds took to spread the report of this
(Luk_2:17): When they had seen it, though they saw nothing in the child that should
induce them to believe that he was Christ the Lord, yet the circumstances, how mean
soever they were, agreeing with the sign that the angel had given them, they were
abundantly satisfied; and as the lepers argued (2Ki_12:9, This being a day of good
tidings, we dare not hold our peace), so they made known abroad the whole story of
what was told them, both by the angels, and by Joseph and Mary, concerning this
child, that he was the Saviour, even Christ the Lord, that in him there is peace on
earth, and that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, and born of a
virgin. This they told every body, and agreed in their testimony concerning it. And
now if, when he is in the world, the world knows him not, it is their own fault, for
they have sufficient notice given them.
JAMISON, "made known abroad — before their return (Luk_2:20), and thus
were the first evangelists [Bengel].
CALVIN, "17.They published concerning the word It is mentioned by Luke, in
commendation of the faith of the shepherds, that they honestly delivered to
others what they had received from the Lord; and it was advantageous to all of
us that they should attest this, and should be a sort of secondary angels in
confirming our faith. Luke shows also that, in publishing what they had heard,
they were not without success. (168) Nor can it be doubted, that the Lord gave
efficacy to what they said, that it might not be ridiculed or despised; for the low
rank of the men diminished their credit, and the occurrence itself might be
regarded as fabulous. But the Lord, who gave them this employment, does not
allow it to be fruitless.
That the Lord should adopt such a method of proceeding as this, — should
employ inconsiderable men in publishing his Word, may not be quite so
agreeable to the human mind. But it tends to humble the pride of the flesh, and
to try the obedience of faith; and therefore God approves of it. Still, though all
are astonished, no one moves a step to come to Christ: from which we may infer,
that the impression made upon them by hearing of the power of God, was
unaccompanied by any devout affection of the heart. The design of publishing
this report was not so much for their salvation, as to render the ignorance of the
whole people inexcusable.
COFFMAN, "Childers thought that the shepherds might have "received
additional information about the child from Mary and Joseph";[20] but the use
of the singular "saying" would seem to restrict what these men preached to the
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words of the angel to them. As Barnes said:
Having seen the child for themselves, they now had evidence that would satisfy
others; and accordingly they became the first preachers of the gospel, and went
and proclaimed to others that the Messiah had come.[21]
[20] Ibid.
[21] Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Baker Book House, 1954), p. 20.
18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the
shepherds said to them.
GILL, "And all they that heard it,.... What the shepherds related of what they
had heard from the angel, and from Joseph and Mary, and what they had seen
themselves,
wondered at those things that were told them by the shepherds: for though
they expected the Messiah, and that he would be born at Bethlehem, yet they did not
imagine that he would be born of such mean parents, and appear in such mean
circumstances, and in so contemptible a place; and that shepherds, and not the
princes of Israel, should have the first notice of it; and yet the account which these
shepherd, who were plain hearted men, and could never be thought to invent such a
story, and spread it, and impose on men, without any interest in it, was very
surprising; so that they knew not what to say to it, neither to deny, nor believe it;
accordingly, the Persic version renders the whole thus, "and whoever heard,
wondering, stuck at it"; hesitated about it, and yet astonished at the particulars of it;
just as Christ's hearers were in Luk_4:22 who wondered at his ministry, and the
manner of it, and yet objected the meanness of his parentage and education.
HENRY, “What impression did it make upon people? Why truly, All they that heard
it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds, Luk_2:18. The
shepherds were plain, downright, honest men, and they could not suspect them
guilty of any design to impose upon them; what they had said therefore was likely to
be true, and, if true, they could not but wonder at it, that the Messiah should be born
in a stable and not in a palace, that angels should bring news of it to poor shepherds
and not to the chief priests. They wondered, but never enquired any further about
the Saviour, their duty to him, or advantages by him, but let the thing drop as a nine
days' wonder. O the amazing stupidity of the men of that generation! Justly were the
things which belonged to their peace hid from their eyes, when they thus wilfully
shut their eyes against them.
COFFMAN, "Wondered ... Most people were inclined to wonder about such a
message; but there is no evidence that any of them at all were concerned enough
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about the coming of the Messiah to investigate any further. This is the attitude of
the vast majority of men in all generations. The greatest news of all ages had
broken in their community, and the people "wondered" about it. It reminds one
of the newspaper editor who reported Wilbur and Orville Wright's flight of an
airplane by an inconspicuous, scanty, and apparently skeptical notice of it on a
back page. There was a far greater lack of perception in Bethlehem the night
Jesus was born.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things and
pondered them in her heart.
BARNES, "Mary kept all these things - All that happened, and all that was
said respecting her child. She “remembered” what the angel had said to “her;” what
had happened to Elizabeth and to the shepherds - all the extraordinary
circumstances which had attended. the birth of her son. Here is a delicate and
beautiful expression of the feelings of a mother. A “mother” forgets none of those
things which occur respecting her children. Everything they do or suffer - everything
that is said of them, is treasured up in her mind; and often she thinks of those things,
and anxiously seeks what they may indicate respecting the future character and
welfare of her child.
Pondered - Weighed. This is the original meaning of the word “weighed.” She
kept them; she revolved them; she “weighed” them in her mind, giving to each
circumstance its just importance, and anxiously seeking what it might indicate
respecting her child.
In her heart - In her mind. She “thought” of these things often and anxiously.
CLARKE, "And pondered them in her heart - Συµβαλλουσα, Weighing them
in her heart. Weighing is an English translation of our word pondering, from the
Latin ponderare. Every circumstance relative to her son’s birth, Mary treasured up in
her memory; and every new circumstance she weighed, or compared with those
which had already taken place, in order to acquire the fullest information concerning
the nature and mission of her son.
GILL, "But Mary kept all these things,.... Which the shepherds had related to
her:
and pondered them in her heart; or compared them in her mind, with what had
been said to herself by the angel, and also by her husband, as well as what was said by
Elisabeth at the time she made her a visit; but she said nothing of them to others, lest
she should be thought an enthusiast, or a vain boaster; and therefore left things, till
time should make a discovery of them in a proper way, and in the best season.
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HENRY, “VII. The use which those made of these things, who did believe them. 1.
The virgin Mary made them the matter of her private meditation. She said little, but
kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart, Luk_2:19. She laid the
evidences together, and kept them in reserve, to be compared with the discoveries
that should afterwards be made her. As she had silently left it to God to clear up her
virtue, when that was suspected, so she silently leaves it to him to publish her
honour, now when it was veiled; and it is satisfaction enough to find that, if no one
else takes notice of the birth of her child, angels do. Note, The truths of Christ are
worth keeping; and the way to keep them safe is to ponder them. Meditation is the
best help to memory.
CALVIN, "19.Now Mary kept Mary’s diligence in contemplating the works of
God is laid before us for two reasons; first, to inform us, that this treasure was
laid up in her heart, for the purpose of being published to others at the proper
time; and, secondly, to afford to all the godly an example for imitation. For, if we
are wise, it will be the chief employment, and the great object of our life, to
consider with attention those works of God which build up our faith. Mary kept
all these things This relates to her memory. Συμβάλλειν signifies to throw
together, — to collect the several events which agreed in proving the glory of
Christ, so that they might form one body. For Mary could not wisely estimate the
collective value of all those occurrences, except by comparing them with each
other.
COFFMAN, "Sayings ... not merely the "saying" of the shepherds, but that of
the angel to herself, that of the angel to Joseph, and many others.
Kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart ... Two things of vast
importance are here: (1) Mary kept all these sayings. "In her heart" does not
modify "kept," which is an indication that Mary made accurate records of all
that took place. All mothers like to keep a "baby book," and there can be no
doubt at all that the most accurate record of things that attended Jesus'
conception and birth was made by his virgin mother and, in due course, given to
the author of this Gospel. (2) She pondered them in her heart. This indicates that
Mary continually had these things in mind, meditating upon them, and
wondering, perhaps, what the full import of such things could be.
COKE, "Luke 2:19. But Mary, &c.— But Mary observed all those sayings,
perceiving their meaning in her own mind. Elsner. Mary was greatly affected
with, and thought upon the shepherd's words; the sense of which she was
enabled to enter into, by what had been revealed to herself. She said nothing,
however; being more disposed to think than to speak; which was an excellent
instance of modesty and humility in so great a conjuncture.
BI, “And pondered them in her heart
Mary’s musings
Great things were these which she kept, and most fit for earnest pondering.
Great were they to all, greatest to her, the “highly favoured” amongst women. Life
was opening strangely upon her; and the last few months had crowded into their
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narrow compass all that was most fit to stir the very depths of her spirit. Brought up
in the, comparative seclusion which shut in Jewish damsels, the angel of the Most
High had stood suddenly beside her, and troubled her mind by the strangeness of his
salutation. Then had followed the fears and hopes which the promise of that angel-
visitor had interwoven with her very being. The “Desire of all nations” was at last to
come, and she should be indeed His mother. From her should spring that mighty
Redeemer, to give birth to whom had been the earnest longing of every Jewish
mother. What hopes and wonder must have filled her soul! At length the months of
waiting passed away, and the gracious birth was come, the promised Child was born,
the Son of hope was given; and still how much was there upon which to muse and
ponder! There was the full tide of a mother’s love for the Babe which slept beside her;
there was the awful reverence of her pious soul for the unknown majesty of Him who
of her had taken human flesh. Depths were all around her, into which her spirit
searched, in which it could find no resting-place. How was He, this infant of days, the
Everlasting Son? How was He to make atonement for her sins and the sins of her
people? When would the mystery begin to unfold itself? As yet it lay upon her thick
and impenetrable; all was dark around her; mighty promises and small fulfilments
seemed to strive together in the womb of time. The angel had called Him Great, the
Son of the Highest; but He lay there on her bosom weak and wailing as any other
babe. He was to sit upon the throne of David; yet He was cradled in a manger. Angels
broke on mortal sight, to make His birthplace known: yet none but the shepherds of
Bethlehem had heard their message. A star from heaven guided eastern magi to His
feet; but they made their offerings in a stable. She was “highly favoured” who had
borne Him; yet a sword should pierce through her own soul. All was full of
contradictions; yet amidst all she was unmoved. To the eye of a passing observer she
might have seemed perhaps insensible—such a quietness there was about her. Did
she know her own greatness? Did she feel the strangeness of all around her? Did her
soul yearn over this Babe, and reach, forth to comprehend His unknown destiny? or
was she indeed destitute of kindling feelings? No; “she kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart”; not one escaped her; but the current of her soul flowed
far too deeply to babble forth its emotions. The “ornament of a quiet spirit” shrouded
the mighty swellings of her heart. She was in God’s hands: this one thought was her
anchor. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”: this was her talisman … So that this is
the lesson taught us in the character of the Virgin Mary. The blessedness of
cultivating a quiet, trusting spirit, a deep inward piety, a calm, waiting soul, by
musing on God’s dealings. This was what distinguished her; this was the groundwork
of that strength and nobleness of character which we trace in her. This, therefore, we
should likewise cultivate, who would share her blessedness. For this will be to us too,
of God’s blessing, a means of acquiring that pious cheerfulness of temper which is the
natural mother of high and noble conduct. It is not in a loud profession or an
obtrusive exterior, but in its silent inner power of bowing our will to that of God, of
filling our common life with His presence, that true religion shows itself. (Bishop
Samuel Wilberforce.)
Significant silence respecting Mary
How small a space does Mary hold in the New Testament! how vast a space in the
history of the Church! Observe the silence of the record respecting her. Shakespeare,
the highest among all who haw conceived the human heart or portrayed human life,
is marked above all others, as the New Testament is, by the use of significant silence
in representing character—led by his deep instinct to know that whatever is
peculiarly fine or high can only in this way be hinted to the apprehension. The
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highest traits of his highest women especially, and in their highest moments, are
indicated—how? Just by a few words, a few touches, coming in between silences of
far deeper tone, and so the exquisite outline of those wonderful characters is made
out. I find the same in the New Testament. Nothing in it is, to me, so deep and
bottomless in meaning and effect as the silences of Christ—a stroke or two, a few
lines, giving figure and expression to the formless deep lying below. And the same as
to Mary. How few the touches!—only just enough to mark out and give character to
the deeps of silence, as, when you hear a strain of music at night, the stillness which
follows it is made richer still and more musical than any possibility of sound. The
evangelists, having given us certain facts as to Mary, do afterwards almost nothing
but remain quiet, and not interfere with the inferences of the Christian heart as to the
beautiful nature and wonderful consciousness of the virgin mother. Nothing is said
as to her feelings—(silence)—but we understand from a general sense of her
character, how meek and submissive that silence is. In things which are above her
thought, and which seem to men impossible, in things which bring glory to her, or in
things which bring shame, the characteristic of this woman is deep, meek, silent
submission; and this, as it is the natural top of true womanhood, so also is it of true
Christianity. What she was, her son was also in His wider and grander relations to
God. (A. G. Mercer, D. D.)
The inwardness of Mary’s character
Observe what I may call the inwardness of Mary’s character. On several occasions,
when a common nature would have exulted, when vanity would have babbled, or
when common wonder and doubt would have gone asking for explanations, it is said
of her, “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Now this would
not have been repeated as it is, if it had not been a peculiarity and observable. This I
call inwardness. There was a hush of awe about it, a disposition to keep a sacred
thing sacred; to hide the depths of the heart away from common talk, and to keep
their inexpressible-mess hidden to God; to keep all doubts and demurs submissively
for His solution; to “judge nothing before the time”; to draw inward, and compose
and hush the entire nature at the footstool of God; in short, her whole heart seems to
have been expressed in the one sentence, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it
unto me according to Thy word.” (A. G. Mercer, D. D.)
Hearing should be followed by meditation
Musing makes the fire to burn, and deep and constant thoughts are operative, not a
glance or a slight view. The hen which straggles from her nest when she sits a
brooding, produces nothing; it is a constant incubation which hatches the young. So
when we have only a few straggling thoughts, and do not set a-brooding upon a truth,
when we have flashes only, like a little glance of a sunbeam upon a wall, it does
nothing; but serious and inculcative thoughts (through the Lord’s blessing) will do
the work. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Value of meditation
Any benefit to be derived from hearing the Word exceedingly depends on meditation.
Before we hear the Word, meditation is like a plough, which opens the ground to
receive the seed; and after we have heard the Word, it is like the harrow which covers
the new-sown seed in the earth, that the fowls of the air may not pick it up:
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meditation is that which makes the Word full of life and energy to our soul. What is
the reason that most men come to hear the Word, as the beasts did in Noah’s ark:
they came in unclean, and they went out unclean? The reason is, because they do not
meditate on the truths they hear; it is but just like putting money into a bag with
holes—presently it falls out. The truths they hear preached are put into shallow,
neglected memories, and they do not draw them forth by meditation. It is for this
reason, that hearing is so ineffectual. Hearing the Word merely is like indigestion,
and when we meditate upon the Word, that’s digestion: and this digestion of the
Word by meditation produces warm affections, zealous resolutions, and holy actions;
and therefore, if you desire to profit by hearing the word, meditate. (H. G.Salter.)
Comfort by meditation
Meditation, as it advances the graces of the soul, so the comfort of the soul. God
conveys comfort to us in a rational way; and although He is able to rain manna in the
wilderness, and to cast in comfort to our souls without any labour of ours, yet usually
He dispenses comfort according to the standing rule. He that does not work shall not
eat—he that does not labour in the duties of religion shall not taste thesweetness of
religion. Now, meditation is the serious and active performance of the soul to which
God has promised comfort. The promises of the gospel do not convey comfort to us
as they are recorded in the Word merely, but as they are applied by meditation. The
grapes, while they hang upon the vine, do not produce that wine which cheers the
heart of man: but when they arc squeezed in the wine-press, then they yield forth
their liquor, which is of such a cheering nature. So the promises which are in the
Word barely, do not send forth that sovereign juice which cheers our hearts; but
when we ponder them in our souls, and press them by meditation, then the promises
convey the water of life to us. Meditation turns the promises into marrow (Psa_
63:5-6); it conveys the strength of them to our souls. (H. G. Salter.)
Meditation nourishes the soul
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; and our best abundance of
the heart must be slowly and in quietness prepared. The cattle, when they rest, are
yet working to prepare from the grass that sweetest and moat wholesome of
beverages—milk. So must we prepare the abundance of the heart. If the milk of our
word is to flow from us nourishingly, we must turn the common things of life—the
grass—by slow and quiet processes, into sweet wisdom. In retired, meditative hours,
the digesting and secreting powers of the spirit act; and thus ourselves are nourished,
and we store nourishment for others. (T. T. Lynch.)
Meditation must be experienced to be appreciated
The advantage of meditation is rather to be felt than read. He that can paint
spikenard, or musk, or roses, in their proper colour, cannot with all his art draw their
pleasant savour; that is beyond the skill of his pencil. (T. Swinnock.)
The Incarnation a subject for devout study
No one can absolve himself from the duty of spiritual thought. The words which I
have chosen for a text presents the duty to us with almost startling force. The mother
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of the Lord had received that direct, personal, living revelation of the purpose and
the working of God which none other could have; she had acknowledged in the
familiar strain of the Magnificat the salvation which He had prepared through her for
His people; she might well seem to have been lifted above the necessity of any later
teaching; but when the simple shepherds told their story, a faint echo as we might
think of what she knew, she “kept all these things, &c.,” if haply they might show a
little more of the great mystery of which she was the minister: she kept them waiting
and learning during that long thirty years of silence, waiting and learning during that
brief time of open labour, from the first words at the marriage feast to the last words
from the cross. And shall we, with our restless, distracted lives, with our feeble and
imperfect grasp on Truth, be contented to repeat with indolent assent a traditional
confession? Can we suppose that the highest knowledge and the highest know ledge
alone is to be gained without effort, without preparation, without discipline, and by a
simple act of memory? Is it credible that the law of our nature, which adds capacity
to experience and joy to quest, is suddenly suspended when we reach the loftiest field
of man’s activity?
1. The SPIRIT of our study of the Incarnation must be love illuminated by faith,
attested by the heart.
2. It follows that the AIM of our study will be vital and not merely intellectual.
3. If we have felt one touch of the spirit which should animate our contemplation
of Christ Born, Crucified, Ascended, for us: if we have realized one fragment of
the end to which our work is directed, we shall know what the BLESSING IS.
know what it is to see with faint and trembling eyes depth below depth opening in
the poor and dull surface of the earth; to see flashes of great hope shoot across
the weary trivialities of business and pleasure; to see active about us, in the face
of every scheme of selfish ambition, powers of the age to come; to see over all the
inequalities of the world, its terrible contrasts, its desolating crimes, its pride, its
lust, its cruelty, one over-arching sign of God’s purpose of redemption, broad as
the sky and bright as the sunshine; to see in the gospel a revelation of love
powerful enough to give a foretaste of the unity of creation, powerful hereafter to
realize it. To us also the Christ has been given. To us also the message of the
angels has been made known. To us also the sign of the Saviour has been fulfilled.
Happy are we—then only happy—if we keep all these things and ponder them in
our hearts. (Canon Westcott.)
The profoundest mystery yet is the origin of child-life
It is an unexplored history. The sublimest results often are in the child, and yet not a
step can we trace with definiteness backward to know the cause of which this is the
little effect. The future beams with revelations in its behalf; but of the particles which
go to make it up who can guess? Who knows anything about it? The great Sphinx—
standing alone in Egypt half-buried in the sand—what mind conceived that? what
hand carved it? what has it to say for itself? or who shall speak for it? Yet every cradle
has a sphinx more unreadable and mysterious than the old Sphinx of the desert. It is
chiefly this future over which parents brood. A mother’s heart is a miracle. She sees
what is not there. She creates what she sees and recreates it when a breath blows it all
away. She loves what has no lovable quality. The child is a mere prophecy. These feet
shall yet walk, but not now. These eyes shall beam, but now they sleep. These hands
shall work, or caress, or carve, or carry the sword, but they are helpless now. “She
kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” is true of every Mary, and of
every other name by which the mother is known. She ponders the miracle of the
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babe, and is herself another miracle creating the life which is to come, and which is
purely the myth of her imagination. The things spoken by the angels and the
shepherds of the Messiah, the mother of Jesus pondered, and every mother is a
Mary, and ponders the little traveller knocking at the door of life or sleeping in the
hospitable cradle. The unwritten poetry of a mother’s heart would give to the world a
literature beyond all printed words. (H. F.Beecher.)
THE VIRGIN MARY TO THE CHILD JESUS,
Sleep, sleep, mine Holy One!
My flesh, my Lord I what name?
I do not know A name that seemeth not too high or low,
Too far from me or heaven.
My Jesus, that is best I that word being given
By the majestic angel whose command
Was softly as a man’s beseeching said,
When I and all the earth appeared to stand
In the great overflow.
A light celestial from his wings and head
Sleep, sleep, my saving One.
The slumber of His lips meseems to run
Through my lips to mine heart.
And then the drear sharp tongue of prophecy
With the dread sense of things which shall be done,
Doth smite me inly, like a sword.
(Mrs. E. B. Browning.)
THE MOTHER MARY.
Mary, to thee the heart was given,
For infant hands to hold,
Thus clasping, an eternal heaven,
The great earth in its fold.
He came, all helpless, to thy power,
For warmth, and love, and birth;
In thy embraces, every hour
He grew into the earth.
And thine the grief, O mother high,
Which all thy sisters share,
Who keep the gate betwixt the sky
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And this our lower air.
And unshared sorrows, gathering slow;
New thoughts within thy heart,
Which through thee like a sword will go,
And make thee mourn apart.
For, if a woman bore a son
That was of angel-brood,
Who lifted wings ere day was done,
And soared from where he stood;
Strange grief would fill each mother-moan,
Wild longing, dim and sore;
“My child! my child I He is my own,
And yet is mine no more.”
So thou, O Mary, years on years,
From child-birth to the cross,
Wast filled with yearnings, filled with fears,
Keen sense of love and loss.
(G. MacDonald.)
Missings of mother
I think that the most wonderful book that could be written would be a book in which
an angel should write all the thoughts that pass through a faithful mother’s mind
from the time that she first hears the cry of her child, and knows that it is born into
the world, and rejoices in the midst of her griefs; from the moment of her absorption,
or annihilation, pouring herself into the child. Her wonderful gladness of fatigue; her
unwillingness to divide her care with any; her heroic sacrifice of all that is brightest
and best in life, with no prospect of remuneration except the satisfaction which she
feels in serving that little mute and helpless child—these are past description. (H. W.
Beecher.)
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and
praising God for all the things they had heard
and seen, which were just as they had been told.
BARNES, "The shepherds returned - To their flocks.
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Glorifying ... - Giving honor to God, and celebrating his praises.
CLARKE, "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising - These
simple men, having satisfactory evidence of the truth of the good tidings, and feeling
a Divine influence upon their own minds, returned to the care of their flocks,
glorifying God for what he had shown them, and for the blessedness which they felt.
“Jesus Christ, born of a woman, laid in a stable, proclaimed and ministered to by the
heavenly host, should be a subject of frequent contemplation to the pastors of his
Church. After having compared the predictions of the prophets with the facts stated
in the evangelic history, their own souls being hereby confirmed in these sacred
truths, they will return to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for what they had
seen and heard in the Gospel history, just as it had been told them in the writings of
the prophets; and, preaching these mysteries with the fullest conviction of their
truth, they become instruments in the hands of God of begetting the same faith in
their hearers; and thus the glory of God and the happiness of his people are both
promoted.” What subjects for contemplation! - what matter for praise!
GILL, "And the shepherds returned,.... From Bethlehem, to the fields, and to
their flock there,
glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard; from
Joseph and Mary:
and seen; as the babe lying in the manger:
as it was told unto them; by the angel: they glorified God on account of the birth
of the Messiah; and praised him, wondering at his grace, and the high honour put
upon them, that they should be acquainted with it; and that there was such an exact
agreement between the things they had seen, and the angel's account of them.
HENRY, “The shepherds made them the matter of their more public praises. If
others were not affected with those things, yet they themselves were (Luk_2:20):
They returned, glorifying and praising God, in concurrence with the holy angels. If
others would not regard the report they made to them, God would accept the
thanksgivings they offered to him. They praised God for what they had heard from
the angel, and for what they had seen, the babe in the manger, and just then in the
swaddling, when they came in, as it had been spoken to them. They thanked God
that they had seen Christ, though in the depth of his humiliation. As afterwards the
cross of Christ, so now his manger, was to some foolishness and a stumbling-block,
but others saw in it, and admired, and praised, the wisdom of God and the power of
God.
JAMISON, "glorifying and praising God, etc. — The latter word, used of the
song of the angels (Luk_2:13), and in Luk_19:37, and Luk_24:53, leads us to
suppose that theirs was a song too, probably some canticle from the Psalter - meet
vehicle for the swelling emotions of their simple hearts at what “they had heard and
seen.”
SBC, “Think what a changed world it has become because Jesus was born at
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Bethlehem.
I. Remember that the Christian change of the world’s history is a fact. The influx
through Christ of a new power into the life of humanity is a known fact of experience,
as certain as the battle of Gettysburg, or the dawn of day.
II. In Christianity we breathe a different air. Humanity has crossed a boundary line.
Up to Bethlehem, bleak and cold—down from Bethlehem, another and a happier
time.
III. Jesus has been to the world (1) a new revelation of God, (2) a new revelation of
man.
N. Smyth, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 362.
CALVIN, "20.Glorifying and praising God This is another circumstance which
is fitted to be generally useful in confirming our faith. The shepherds knew with
certainty that this was a work of God. Their zeal in glorifying and praising God
is an implied reproof of our indolence, or rather of our ingratitude. If the cradle
of Christ (169) had such an effect upon them, as to make them rise from the
stable and the manger to heaven, how much more powerful ought the death and
resurrection of Christ to be in raising us to God? For Christ did not only ascend
from the earth, that he might draw all things after him; but he sits at the right
hand of the Father, that, during our pilgrimage in the world, we may meditate
with our whole heart on the heavenly life. When Luke says, that the testimony of
the angel served as a rule to the shepherds in all that they did, (170) he points out
the nature of true godliness. For our faith is properly aided by the works of God,
when it directs everything to this end, that the truth of God, which was revealed
in his word, may be brought out with greater clearness.
COKE, "Luke 2:20. For all the things, &c.— Besides what they had heard from
the angel and seen at Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary would, no doubt, upon such
an occasion, give them an account of those particulars, which the sacred
historian has related above, respecting the conception of this divine Infant; and
this interview must have greatly confirmed and comforted the minds of all
concerned.
COFFMAN, "Returned ... Great religious privilege did not release them from
their prosaic task; and thus it is for all who share in the heavenly message of the
Saviour. The most exalted influence of the Christian gospel in the lives of men
does not release them from earthly duties.
Peace on earth ... How that echo of the angel's message must have thrilled and
benefited them. Of course, it was not for long. Indeed the doors of the temple of
Janus were closed when Christ was born, significant symbol of a world at peace;
but the destruction of the Holy City itself loomed in the future. The peace the
angel mentioned could not come except to them who would love and honor
Christ, making it impossible for many.
BI, “And the shepherds returned
Dignifying common life
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And then they returned to their fields, to their flocks, to their ordinary life; giving
thus a beautiful example of pious diligence and fidelity in their vocation.
An extraordinary privilege has been granted to them. They are not lifted up by it into
pride and pretension and self-sufficiency and idleness. They are cheered by it in their
common toil. This is all the gospel that some of them would hear on earth. They
would die, probably, as they lived, tending their sheep, before the Good Shepherd
openly appeared. In their example, they sanctify, they glorify, what we call common
life. They dignify the duty, it may be the drudgery of the day. But what, after all, is
common life? It is a relative phrase. Common life to these shepherds is the keeping of
the sheep on those very fields where David was shepherd-boy before them, where
Ruth gleaned after the reapers. Common life to the angels lies in the heavenly
spheres, serving at the bidding of the King. This visit to the earth, on such an errand,
is a remarkable exception to their ordinary experience. It is, if we may use the phrase,
a point of high romance in their history. (Dr. Raleigh.)
This is how all true-minded, simple-hearted inquirers have returned from their
Christian investigations. It is questionable whether any man has ever closed the Bible
in a mood of dissatisfaction who opened it with reverent determination to know how
far it was a testimony from heaven. Christian investigation is not finished until it has
brought into the heart a joy altogether unprecedented. The mere letter never brings
gladness. Critics and disputants have found little in the Bible but a great waste of
words; but penitent and earnest inquirers have returned from its examination with
hearts overflowing with a new and imperishable joy. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Shepherds glorifying God for the birth of a Saviour
We will contemplate the things for which, and the manner in which, they glorified
God, and will inter mingle some practical reflections.
I. WE WILL CONSIDER THE MATTERS FOR WHICH THEY GLORIFIED AND
PRAISED GOD. These were the things, which they had heard and seen.
1. They glorified God that the promised Saviour was now born. They seem to
have been some of those pious people who looked for redemption in Israel.
2. They rejoiced that this Saviour was born for them. The angel says, “Unto you is
born this day a Saviour.” Conscious of their impotence and unworthiness, they
felt their need of a Saviour, and esteemed it a matter of great joy that He was
come to bring salvation to them. They doubtless admired the distinguishing grace
of God in visiting them first of all with the glorious tidings.
3. The shepherds rejoiced that the Saviour was horn for others, as well as
themselves. “I bring you good tidings,” says the angel, “which shall be to all
people.”
4. The shepherds glorified God for what they had seen, as well as what they had
heard.
II. CONSIDER THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY GLORIFIED HIM.
1. They glorified God by faith in the Saviour, whom He had sent. They believed
the heavenly message. By faith in the Redeemer we give glory to God.
2. They glorified God by a ready obedience. Being informed by a heavenly
messenger where the Saviour lay, they came to Him with haste. They made no
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delay, but immediately obeyed the Divine intimation. Faith operates in a way of
cheerful obedience.
3. They glorified God by confessing and spreading the Saviour’s name. “When
they had seen Him, they made known abroad what had been told them
concerning the Child.” They were not ashamed to own Him as the Messiah, even
in His infant state. You see that true faith will prompt you to honour Christ
before men.
4. They glorified God by an attendance on the means of faith. The angel who
announced the Saviour’s birth gave them a token by which they might know Him.
“This shall be a sign to you. Ye shall find the babe wrapt in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger. And they came with haste, and found as he had told them.”
God gave them a particular sign for the confirmation of their faith; and He has
appointed standing means to strengthen and enliven ours. Jesus Christ is
exhibited to us in His Word, in His sanctuary, and at His table. Here we are to
seek Him, and converse with Him, that we may increase our faith and warm our
love.
5. They glorified God with the voice of praise. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The changed world
The day after Christ’s birth was a new day in the world’s history. The old era had
passed, the new had begun; and only the angels knew what a revolution had been
wrought by the quiet power of God. The wonder has grown with the years.
Christianity has been an increasing miracle of the Lord’s presence on earth. That
song, which a few shepherds heard, has sung itself into the thought of the world, and
is the keynote and harmony of all peace and goodwill on earth.
I. THE CHRISTIAN CHANGE OF THE WORLD’S HISTORY IS A FACT. The influx
through Christ of a new power into the life of humanity is a known fact of experience,
as certain as the battle of Gettysburg, or the dawn of day. This fact of the new power
in the world, through the birth of Christ, belongs to a series of facts. The religion of
the Bible presents a continued succession, and reveals an exalted order of facts.
Christianity is a positive religion of historical facts from Moses to Christ, from Christ
to the last Church organized and the last communion table spread.
II. THE NATURE AND REAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS FACT.
1. In Christianity we breathe a different air. Midway down the Simplon Pass the
traveller pauses to read upon a stone the single word “Italia.” At this point he
passes a boundary live, and every step makes plainer how great has been the
change from Switzerland to Italy. The air becomes warm and fragrant, and vines
line the wayside, and below, embosomed in verdure, Lake Maggiore expands
before him. As that traveller rests at evening-time, he recognizes that the
entrance into a new world was marked by the word “Italia” upon the stone on the
pass. Humanity has crossed a boundary line: up to Bethlehem, bleak and cold—
down from Bethlehem, another and a happier time.
2. This new transforming power was, to the disciples, Jesus Himself. He made all
things new to them.
3. Jesus has been to the world a new revelation of God. God is essentially and
eternally Christlike.
4. Jesus is also a new revelation of man. Man is in Christ another man. You pass
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a man in the streets, and you used to feel that you did not want to know or help
such a poor creature—he lived below your world, and his name was not found in
your book of life. Now it is different, for you have been baptized into the name of
Christ, in whom our whole common humanity exists, redeemed and capable of a
great salvation. CONCLUSION: We close by asking ourselves, “Am I living, by
faith in the Son of God, in this changed world?” Is it, in the history of my soul, the
day before, or the better day after, Christmas. (Newman Smyth, D. D.)
21 On the eighth day, when it was time to
circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the
name the angel had given him before he was
conceived.
BARNES, "Eight days ... - This was the regular time for performing the rite of
circumcision, Gen_17:12.
Called Jesus - See the notes at Mat_1:21.
CLARKE, "When eight days were accomplished - The law had appointed
that every male should be circumcised at eight days old, or on the eighth day after its
birth, Gen_17:12; and our blessed Lord received circumcision in token of his
subjection to the law, Gal_4:4; Gal_5:3.
His name was called Jesus - See on Mat_1:21 (note) and Joh_1:29 (note).
GILL, "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of
the child,.... According to the original institution of circumcision, Gen_17:12 and
which was strictly observed by religious persons, as by the parents of our Lord here,
and by those of John the Baptist, Luk_1:59 Hence the Apostle Paul reckons this
among his privileges, that he could have boasted of as well as other Jews; see Gill on
Phi_3:5. But it may be asked, why was Christ circumcised, since he had no impurity
of nature, which circumcision supposed; nor needed any circumcision of the heart,
which that was a symbol of? To which it may be replied, though he needed it not
himself, it was the duty of his parents to do it, since all the male seed of Abraham
were obliged it, and that law, or ordinance, was now in force; and besides, it was
necessary that he might appear in the likeness of sinful flesh, who was to bear, and
atone for the sins of his people; as also, that it might be manifest that he assumed
true and real flesh, and was a partaker of the same flesh and blood with us; and that
he was a son of Abraham, and of his seed, as it promised he should; and that he was
made under the law, and came to fulfil it, and was obliged to it, as every one that is
circumcised is; as well as to show a regard to all divine, positive institutions that are
in being, and to set an example, that we should tread in his steps; and likewise to cut
off all excuse from the Jews, that they might not have this to say, that he was an
uncircumcised person, and so not a son of Abraham, nor the Messiah,
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His name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he
was conceived in the womb, Luk_1:31 It appears from hence, and from the
instance of John the Baptist, that at circumcision it was usual to give names to
children; See Gill on Luk_1:57. The Jews observe (u) that "six persons were called by
their names before they were born: and these are Isaac, Ishmael, Moses, Solomon,
Josiah, and the King Messiah:
the latter they prove from Psa_72:17 which they render, "before the sun his name
was Yinnon", or the son: that is, the Son of God,
HENRY, “Luke 2:21-24
Our Lord Jesus, being made of a woman, was made under the law, Gal_4:4. He
was not only, as the son of a daughter of Adam, made under the law of nature, but as
the son of a daughter of Abraham was made under the law of Moses; he put his neck
under that yoke, though it was a heavy yoke, and a shadow of good things to come.
Though its institutions were beggarly elements, and rudiments of this world, as the
apostle calls them, Christ submitted to it, that he might with the better grace cancel
it, and set it aside for us.
Now here we have two instances of his being made under that law, and submitting
to it.
I. He was circumcised on the very day that the law appointed (Luk_2:21): When
eight days were accomplished, that day seven-night that he was born, they
circumcised him. 1. Though it was a painful operation (Surely a bloody husband
thou has been, said Zipporah to Moses, because of the circumcision, Exo_4:25), yet
Christ would undergo it for us; nay, therefore he submitted to it, to give an instance
of his early obedience, his obedience unto blood. Then he shed his blood by drops,
which afterwards he poured out in purple streams. 2. Though it supposed him a
stranger, that was by that ceremony to be admitted into covenant with God, whereas
he had always been his beloved Son; nay, though it supposed him a sinner, that
needed to have his filthiness taken away, whereas he had no impurity or superfluity
of naughtiness to be cut off, yet he submitted to it; nay, therefore he submitted to it,
because he would be made in the likeness, not only of flesh, but of sinful flesh, Rom_
8:3. 3. Though thereby he made himself a debtor to the whole law (Gal_5:3), yet he
submitted to it; nay, therefore he submitted to it, because he would take upon him
the form of a servant, though he was free-born. Christ was circumcised, (1.) That he
might own himself of the seed of Abraham, and of that nation of whom, as
concerning the flesh, Christ came, and who was to take on him the seed of Abraham,
Heb_2:16. (2.) That he might own himself a surety for our sins, and an undertaker
for our safety. Circumcision (saith Dr. Goodwin) was our bond, whereby we
acknowledged ourselves debtors to the law; and Christ, by being circumcised, did as
it were set his hand to it, being made sin for us. The ceremonial law consisted much
in sacrifices; Christ hereby obliged himself to offer, not the blood of bulls or goats,
but his own blood, which none that ever were circumcised before could oblige
themselves to. (3.) That he might justify, and put an honour upon, the dedication of
the infant seed of the church to God, by that ordinance which is the instituted seal of
the covenant, and of the righteousness which is by faith, as circumcision was (Rom_
4:11), and baptism is. And certainly his being circumcised at eight days old doth
make much more for the dedicating of the seed of the faithful by baptism in their
infancy than his being baptized at thirty years old doth for the deferring of it till they
are grown up. The change of the ceremony alters not the substance.
At his circumcision, according to the custom, he had his name given him; he was
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called Jesus or Joshua, for he was so named of the angel to his mother Mary before
he was conceived in the womb (Luk_1:31), and to his supposed father Joseph after,
Mat_1:21. [1.] It was a common name among the Jews, as John was (Col_4:11), and
in this he would be made like unto his brethren. [2.] It was the name of two eminent
types of him in the Old Testament, Joshua, the successor of Moses, who was
commander of Israel, and conqueror of Canaan; and Joshua, the high priest, who
was therefore purposely crowned, that he might prefigure Christ as a priest upon his
throne, Zec_6:11, Zec_6:13. [3.] It was very significant of his undertaking. Jesus
signifies a Saviour. He would be denominated, not from the glories of his divine
nature, but from his gracious designs as Mediator; he brings salvation.
JAMISON, "Circumcision of Christ.
Here only recorded, and even here merely alluded to, for the sake of the name then
given to the holy Babe, “JESUS,” or SAVIOR (Mat_1:21; Act_13:23). Yet in this
naming of Him “Savior,” in the act of circumcising Him, which was a symbolical and
bloody removal of the body of sin, we have a tacit intimation that they “had need” - as
John said of His Baptism - rather to be circumcised by Him “with the circumcision
made without hands, in the putting off of the body [of the sins] of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ” (Col_2:11), and that He only “suffered it to be so, because
thus it became Him to fulfil all righteousness” (Mat_3:15). Still the circumcision of
Christ had a profound bearing on His own work - by few rightly apprehended. For
since “he that is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole law” (Gal_5:3), Jesus thus
bore about with Him in His very flesh the seal of a voluntary obligation to do the
whole law - by Him only possible in the flesh since the fall. And as He was “made
under the law” for no ends of His own, but only “to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal_4:4, Gal_4:5), the obedience
to which His circumcision pledged Him was a redeeming obedience - that of a
“Savior.” And, finally, as “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” by
“being made a curse for us” (Gal_3:13), we must regard Him, in His circumcision, as
brought under a palpable pledge to be “obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross” (Phi_2:8).
CALVIN, "21.That the child might be circumcised As to circumcision in general,
the reader may consult the Book of Genesis, (Genesis 17:10.) At present, it will be
sufficient to state briefly what applies to the person of Christ. God appointed
that his Son should be circumcised, in order to subject him to the law; for
circumcision was a solemn rite, by which the Jews
were initiated into the observance of the law. (171) Paul explains the design,
(172) when he says, that Christ was
“made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,”
(Galatians 4:4.)
By undergoing circumcision, Christ acknowledged himself to be the slave (173)
of the law, that he might procure our freedom. And in this way not only was the
bondage (174) of the law abolished by him, but the shadow of the ceremony was
applied to his own body, that it might shortly afterwards come to an end. For
though the abrogation of it depends on the death and resurrection of Christ, yet
it was a sort of prelude to it, that the Son of God submitted to be circumcised.
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His name was called JESUS. This passage shows, that it was a general custom
among the Jews to give names to their children on the day that they were
circumcised, just as we now do at baptism. Two things are here mentioned by the
Evangelist. First, the name Jesus was not given to the Son of God accidentally, or
by the will of men, but was the name which the angel had brought from heaven.
Secondly, Joseph and Mary obeyed the command of God. The agreement
between our faith and the word of God lies in this, that he speaks first, and we
follow, so that our faith answers to his promises. Above all, the order of
preaching the word is held up by Luke for our commendation. Salvation through
the grace of Christ, he tells us, had been promised by God through the angel, and
was proclaimed by the voice of men.
LIGHTFOOT, "[And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision
of the child.] "The disciples of R. Simeon Ben Jochai asked him, Why the law
ordained circumcision on the eighth day? To wit, lest while all others were
rejoicing, the parents of the infant should be sad. The circumcision therefore is
deferred till the woman in childbed hath got over her uncleanness." For, as it is
expressed a little before, "The woman that brings forth a man-child is prohibited
her husband the space of seven days, but on the seventh day, at the coming in of
the evening which begins the eighth day, she washeth herself, and is allowed to
go in unto her husband." If she came nigh him within the seven days she made
him unclean. On the eighth day, therefore, Joseph addresseth himself to make
provision for his wife, and to take care about the circumcision of the child.
BARCLAY, "THE ANCIENT CEREMONIES ARE OBSERVED (Luke
2:21-24)
2:21-24 When the eight days necessarily prior to circumcision had elapsed, he
was called by the name of Jesus, the name by which he had been called by the
angel before he had been conceived in the womb. When the time which,
according to the law of Moses, must precede the ceremony of purification had
elapsed, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (in
accordance with the regulation in the Lord's law, "Every male that opens the
womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to make the sacrifice which the
regulation in the Lord's law lays down, that is, a pair of doves or two young
pigeons.
In this passage we see Jesus undergoing three ancient ceremonies which every
Jewish boy had to undergo.
(i) Circumcision. Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day after his
birth. So sacred was that ceremony that it could be carried out even on a
Sabbath when the law forbade almost every other act which was not absolutely
essential; and on that day a boy received his name.
(ii) The Redemption of the First-born. According to the law (Exodus 13:2) every
firstborn male. both of human beings and of cattle, was sacred to God. That law
may have been a recognition of the gracious power of God in giving human life,
or it may even have been a relic of the day when children were sacrificed Lo the
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gods. Clearly if it had been carried out literally life would have been disrupted.
There was therefore a ceremony called the Redemption of the Firstborn
(Numbers 18:16). It is laid down that for the sum of five shekels--approximately
75 pence--parents could, as it were, buy back their son from God. The sum had
to be paid to the priests. It could not be paid sooner than thirty-one days after
the birth of the child and it might not be long delayed after that.
(iii) The Purification after Childbirth. When a woman had borne a child, if it
was a boy, she was unclean for forty days, if it was a girl, for eighty days. She
could go about her household and her daily business but she could not enter the
Temple or share in any religious ceremony (Leviticus 12:1-8 ). At the end of that
time she had to bring to the Temple a lamb for a burnt offering and a young
pigeon for a sin offering. That was a somewhat expensive sacrifice, and so the
law laid it down (Leviticus 12:8) that if she could not afford the lamb she might
bring another pigeon. The offering of the two pigeons instead of the lamb and
the pigeon was technically called The Offering of the Poor. It was the offering of
the poor which Mary brought. Again we see that it was into an ordinary home
that Jesus was born, a home where there were no luxuries, a home where every
penny had to be looked at twice, a home where the members of the family knew
all about the difficulties of making a living and the haunting insecurity of life.
When life is worrying for us we must remember that Jesus knew what the
difficulties of making ends meet can be.
These three ceremonies are strange old ceremonies; but all three have at the back
of them the conviction that a child is a gift of God. The Stoics used to say that a
child was not given to a parent but only lent. Of all God's gifts there is none for
which we shall be so answerable as the gift of a child.
COFFMAN, "MOSAIC CEREMONIES FULFILLED FOR JESUS
Not a jot or a tittle of the law was broken by Jesus. He was born under the law
and fulfilled all of its requirements perfectly, thus achieving the true
righteousness to be made available to all men "in him," that is, through union
with and identification with Christ.
Since the purification of Mary, mentioned a little later, and the circumcision of
Christ were commandments of the law, they were obeyed. Barnes pointed out
that just as Christ was baptized to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15), it
was also proper that he should have been circumcised. "It is necessary for the
future usefulness of Christ; without it, he could not have entered any synagogue,
or had access to the people, or have been regarded as the Messiah."[22]
As in the case of John the Baptist, and according to custom, the formal naming
took place at circumcision; even though, in both cases, the name had been given
before that event.
ENDNOTE:
[22] Ibid., p. 22.
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COKE, "Luke 2:21. When eight days were accomplished— Among the Jews it
was reckoned dishonourableto keep company with persons uncircumcised: Acts
11:3 wherefore, to render Jesus acceptable to the Jews, to fit him for conversing
familiarly with them, and to qualify him for discharging the other duties of his
ministry, it was in some sense necessary that he should be circumcised. Besides,
as the Messiah was to be the descendant of Abraham, whose posterity was
distinguished from the rest of mankind by this rite, he received the seal of
circumcision, to shew that he was rightly descended from that patriarch. And
further it was necessary that Jesus should be circumcised, because thereby he
was subjected to the law of Moses, and put into a condition to fulfil all
righteousness.
BURKITT, "Two things are here observable, 1. Our Saviour's circumcision, and
the name given him at his circumcision. There was no impurity in the Son of
God, and yet he is circumcised, and baptized also, though he had neither filth
nor foreskin, which wanted either the circumcising knife or the baptismal water,
yet he condescends to be both circumcised and baptized; thereby showing, that
as he was made of a woman, so he would be made under the law, which he
punctually observed to a tittle.
And accordingly, he was not only circumcised, but circumcised the eighth day, as
the ceremonial law required: and thus our Lord fulfilled all righteousness.
Matthew 3:15
Observe 2. The name given at our Saviour's circumcision: His name was called
Jesus; that is, a Saviour; he being to save his people from their sins. Matthew
1:21 The great end of Christ's coming into the world was to save persons from
the punishment and power of their sins. Had he not saved us from our sins, we
must have died in our sins, and died for our sins, and that eternally. Never let us
then sit down desponding, either under the guilt, or under the power of our sins;
and conclude, that they are either so great that they cannot be forgiven, or so
strong that they can never be overcome.
BI, “For the circumcising of the Child
Circumcision and baptism
The teaching of Jewish circumcision resembles the teaching of Christian baptism.
Both exhibit the putting away of the filth of the flesh; the first by a wounding of the
body (which aptly recalls the severity of the elder dispensation); the second by an
outward washing. This, which may be called the practical bearing of the present
festival (Circumcision of Christ, 1st January), is brought out in the collect for the day,
wherein we beseech God to grant us “the true circumcision of the spirit.” And it is
worth observing that this was seen, from the very first, to be the mystical teaching of
the rite. Thus Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy (which abounds in the loftier class
of doctrine), speaks plainly (Deu_10:16; Deu 30:6) of circumcising the heart; and the
prophets (Jer_4:4) use the same expression. St. Stephen’slanguage, when he
addressed his countrymen for the last time (“Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in
heart and ears,” Act_7:51), seems to show that this continued throughout the whole
history of the Jewish people to be the well-understood meaning of the rite; while St.
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Paul’s witness on the point (Rom_2:28-29) is express. It is interesting to observe
how closely this observance was connected with holy baptism, besides being typical
of the Christian sacrament, and, indeed, a kind of anticipation of it: a rite performed
in infancy, and made the occasion of bestowing a new name. (Dean Burgon.)
Spiritual nature of circumcision
Circumcision was the seal of the gospel covenant made by God with Abraham (Gen_
17:2; Gen 17:4; Gen 17:9); which the law, added—as the apostle teaches (Gal_3:17)—
four hundred and thirty years after, could not disannul. This was a covenant of faith,
quite distinct from the covenant of works (Exo_24:8) made through Moses; it was an
evangelical, not a legal, covenant. And it foreshadowed what was to be in the latter
days, though the people knew it not, would not know it. They relied on being
naturally descended from Abraham, and gave no heed to our Saviour’s declaration
that, if they were
indeed Abraham’s children, they would do the works of Abraham (Joh_8:39); in
other words, that God’s promise to the patriarch’s seed was a spiritual promise,
fulfilled to as many as showed the like faith with himself Gal_3:7; Gal 3:29). While,
therefore, our Saviour’s submission to be circumcised—whereby, in one respect, He
fulfilled all righteousness—conveys an obvious lesson of obedience, and conformity
to the laws of the Church, to which we belong; the gospel fulfilment which Christ
gave to that sacred rite, and to the covenant with Abraham of which it was the seal
and pledge, brings to mind the high spiritual teaching of all His other ancient laws,
the design of which was to guide man’s heart to the future Messiah. God’s ancient law
was spiritual throughout; no dead letter, but a living reality, trying the very heart and
reins. (Dean Burgon.)
The circumcision of our Lord
There is no part of our Saviour’s life uninteresting, or that will not yield instruction.
We ask, then, why did He submit to circumcision?
1. Christ was circumcised in order to fulfil the law. By His perfect obedience to all
its precepts, He abolished its force and condemning power over every
transgression. For us He was circumcised and baptized; for us He exhibited
entire legal obedience, that He might bring us under the tender, merciful,
encouraging covenant of the gospel, by “fulfilling all righteousness.”
2. Christ’s circumcision was necessary to obtain for Him a hearing among His
own people. The Jews looked upon every uncircumcised person as unclean.
Christ could have had no access to them without submitting to this ceremony. To
manifest Himself of the seed of Abraham, to satisfy in this respect the
requisitions of His nation, to substantiate His pretentions to be their Messiah,
and deprive them of what would have been an unanswerable plea for rejecting
Him, He graciously condescended to endure this painful rite. What an example
has He set us of the excellency of submitting to privations and pains in advancing
the happiness of our fellow-beings! Did Jesus bear the marks of an humbling rite
in His own precious body, that His own people, when He came to them, might
not be offended in Him; and shall not we yield to all innocent compliances with
the habits and feelings of others, which may facilitate our usefulness to them, and
bear with contentment the labours and crosses, self-denials, expenses, and cares,
which may be necessary in promoting their salvation or happiness?
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3. The institution of this ceremony, and Christ’s compliance with it, suggests to
us the propriety and efficacy of visible rites and sacraments. Here was a seal of a
covenant established by God. It was to be a token for distinguishing the faithful, a
sign of cleansing from pollution, and an assurance of blessing from Jehovah.
Without some visible rite it is hardly conceivable how this or any Church could be
preserved distinct. Some sacrament is necessary, and, if necessary, obligatory
upon every one who would support the Church, for which it is hallowed, and
enjoy all its privileges. Accordingly, all systems of religion have had their rites,
mysteries, symbols. What circumcision was to the Jews, baptism is to Christians.
Both of Divine appointment, significant of incorporation into the Church of God,
requiring faith, representing purification from the defilements of sin, and
implying consequent self-denial, holiness, obedience.
4. In the circumcision of Christ we are strikingly taught the propriety of
submitting to all the precepts and institutions of the revelation under which we
live. Christ was made under the law, consequently the law had authority over
Him. With singular truth, He might have asked, “Can I be benefited by this rite,
and by these simple ceremonies?” With peculiar force He might have inquired,
“What connection can there be between these outward forms and My spirit; what
efficacy can they have upon My heart?” With more propriety than any mortal He
might have said, “I can be safe and perfect without all these.” But he did not stop
to scruple their utility; He did not find fault with their nature. They were
ordained by the Being who established the law under which He lived. This was
sufficient for Him. And so throughout His life. He kept the passover; He observed
the Sabbath; He went up to the feasts; He neglected no precept of the revelation
which He knew came from God, and was authoritative till superseded by His new
and better dispensation. In this conduct of His life our Saviour has set an
example, excellent in itself, and fit for His disciples to revere. It points to us the
necessity of obeying every precept, and observing every rite to which the gospel
gives the seal of Divine authority. To neglect baptism or holy communion
because, as men think, they may be as good and as safe without them, or because
they cannot see their efficacy, is taking a ground which the all-perfect Son of God
was too modest to assume. Whether men may be saved without these means, how
they effect what is attributed to them, whether they are the best which might have
been selected, are points with which we have nothing to do. The questions which
concern us are, Whether Christ instituted baptism and the eucharist; and, if He
did, whether His injunctions are binding upon us or not? On this plain ground
every man may easily form a just determination concerning the propriety of
observing all the precepts and institutions of the revelation under which he lives.
His observance of them should be a simple act of faith and obedience, by which
he should testify both to God and men. (Bishop Dehon.)
Early suffering
Thus early did Jesus suffer pain for our sakes, to teach us the spiritual circumcision,
the circumcision of all our bodily senses. As the east catches at sunset the colours of
the west, so Bethlehem is a prelude to Calvary, and even the Infant’s cradle is tinged
with a crimson reflection from the Redeemer’s cross. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
The circumcision of Christ
(First Sunday after Christmas.)
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I. THE RITE OF CIRCUMCISION WHICH, AS ON THIS DAY, WAS
ADMINISTERED TO THE INFANT JESUS HAD A TWOFOLD SIGNIFICANCE.
1. Its existence was a testimony that mankind is fallen and needs purification.
2. Circumcision was not only an act of humility, it was also an act of obedience to
the law of God.
II. THE CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS THUS REVEALS TO US THE FOUNDATIONS
ON WHICH HIS HUMAN LIFE WAS BUILT, VIZ., HUMILITY AND OBEDIENCE.
Can there be truer foundations for any human life than these? Is it not the very ideal
of Christian childhood? Humility, which is the expression of our own insufficiency;
obedience, which is the recognition of our dependence upon God.
III. It has been well pointed out by many devout Christian thinkers that THE
HUMAN LIFE WHICH THE SON OF GOD LIVED IN THE FLESH IS THE VERY
SAME AS THE LIFE WHICH HE LIVES IN US; it is produced in the same manner,
and progresses according to the same law. After His spiritual birth in us comes our
spiritual circumcision (Col_2:11). As this life grows within us, we shall find that it has
also its epiphany, its baptism, its temptation, its active ministry, its passion, its cross,
its resurrection. Enough for us to-day to consider its circumcision. Not without
reason do we pray in the Litany, “By Thy holy nativity and circumcision, good Lord
deliver us.”
IV. The circumcision was distinguished from all other acts of our Lord’s humiliation
IN THAT IT WAS WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATING GLORY, and was accepted by
Him without any protest from God or man, declaring that He needed it not for His
own sake. Yet there was even in His circumcision a glory bestowed upon Him which
men could not at the time recognize, but which has proved to be the greatest of all
the honours of His incarnate life. IT WAS THEN THAT THERE WAS BESTOWED
UPON HIM THE NAME OF JESUS, God our Saviour. The name thus given Him in
His humiliation has become the name in which He has triumphed over His enemies,
the name which has been blessed by millions of penitent sinners, and adored in
rapture by ten thousands of His saints.
V. Trembling, anxiously, WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD INTO THE
UNCERTAINTY OF A NEW YEAR. If we begin the year in the spirit of Him who
began His earthly life in humility and obedience, we may know that, however galling
to our natural unrenewed will may be the humility which alone becomes us, however
difficult may be the obedience which God demands from us, there is yet to be
manifested a glory that exalteth, in comparison with which the trials of this present
life are but as nothing. (Canon V. Hutton, M. A.)
The year begins with Thee,
And Thou beginn’st with woe,
To let the world of sinners see
That blood for sin must flow.
Thine Infant cries, O Lord,
Thy tears upon the breast,
Are not enough—the legal sword
Must do its stern behest.
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Like sacrificial wine
Poured on a victim’s head
Are these few precious drops of Thin,,
Now first to offering led.
They are the pledge and seal
Of Christ’s unswerving faith
Given to His Sire, our souls to heal,
Although it costs His death.
“Jesus,” the watchword
I. FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR THE HOME.
II. FOR JOY AND FOR SORROW.
III. FOR LIFE AND FOR DEATH. (Dr. Gerok.)
The circumcision and naming of the Child
Boys were circumcised eight days after their birth. Tradition said that this day was
chosen because the mother ceased to be unclean on the seventh day if she had borne
a boy. He who circumcised the child used the following words: “Blessed be the Lord
our God, who has sanctified as by His precepts, and given us circumcision.” The
father of the child continued: “Who has sanctified us by His precepts, and has
granted us to introduce our child into the covenant of Abraham our father.” The child
was named the same day, because it was said that God changed the names of
Abraham and Sarah when He gave the covenant of circumcision. (E. Stapler, D. D.)
The circumcision of Christ
1. It signifies purification. Christ committed no sin, but stood for sinful man.
2. It signified obedience (Gen_17:12). He was “made under the law” Gal_4:4).
3. It signified consecration. This ordinance was part of the covenant between God
and the Jewish nation, whereby they were to be counted “a peculiar treasure”
unto God “above all people” (Exo_19:5). (D. Hughes, M. A.)
New Year’s Day
I. CIRCUMCISION WAS A RITE WHICH TOLD OF A MISIMPROVED PAST. The
first account of it occurs in the history of Abraham, in whose case Paul says it was
given as a sign and seal of the righteousness which is obtained by faith (Rom_4:11).
The state of uncircumcision was thus a state of unrighteousness. Paul also tells the
Colossians, that they had been dead in their sins and the uncircumcision of their
flesh (Col_2:13). Circumcision, therefore, carried with it the remembrance and
acknowledgment of a bad and unsatisfactory past. It told of alienation from God, and
of faithlessnesses and infidelities. It carried with it a retrospect of failure and sin.
Even the circumcision of “the holy child Jesus,” was an acknowledgment of the fallen
condition of the race, with which he identified Himself, in its humiliation, that He
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might become its perfect Saviour.
II. CIRCUMCISION WAS A SIGN OF THE CUTTING OFF AND CASTING AWAY
OF SIN. The fleshly incision was a token of a spiritual one, which consisted in
separation from moral impurity and evil (Rom_2:29).
III. BUT CIRCUMCISION SET APART TO OBEDIENCE, AS WELL AS SEVERED
FROM IMPURITY. It was the ceremony of initiation into the covenant, and pledged
the subject to obey it. It was part of the redemption-work of Christ to obey the law.
IV. CIRCUMCISION CONFERRED AND FIXED ON CHRIST HIS TRUE
DESCRIPTIVE NAME.
V. But, for the encouragement of those who feel their deficiencies and miseries, there
is still one other particular connected with the text. HE WHOM GOD HATH
APPOINTED TO BE OUR JUDGE, TOOK THE NAME OF JESUS. He is a Saviour,
and a great one. Hopefully His circumcision day so proclaims Him to us. Yea, saith
the apostle, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
Him” (Heb_7:25). (J. A.Seiss, D. D.)
Jesus Presented in the Temple
22 When the time came for the purification rites
required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and
Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to
the Lord
BARNES, "Days of her purification - Among the Hebrews a mother was
required to remain at home for about forty days after the birth of a male child and
about eighty for a female, and during that time she was reckoned as impure - that is,
she was not permitted to go to the temple or to engage in religious services with the
congregation, Lev_12:3-4.
To Jerusalem - The place where the temple was, and where the ordinances of
religion were celebrated.
To present him to the Lord - Every first-born male child among the Jews was
regarded as “holy” to the Lord, Exo_13:2. By their being ““holy unto the Lord” was
meant that unto them belonged the office of “priests.” It was theirs to be set apart to
the service of God - to offer sacrifice, and to perform the duties of religion. It is
probable that at first the duties of religion devolved on the “father,” and that, when
he became infirm or died, that duty devolved on the eldest son; and it is still
manifestly proper that where the father is infirm or has deceased, the duty of
conducting family worship should be performed by the eldest son. Afterward, God
chose “the tribe of Levi in the place” of the eldest sons, to serve him in the sanctuary,
Num_8:13-18. Yet still it was proper to present the child to God, and it was required
that it should be done with an offering.
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CLARKE, "Days of her purification - That is, thirty-three days after what was
termed the seven days of her uncleanness - forty days in all: for that was the time
appointed by the law, after the birth of a male child. See Lev_12:2, Lev_12:6.
The MSS. and versions differ much in the pronoun in this place: some reading
αυτης, Her purification; others αυτου, His purification; others αυτων, Their
purification; and others αυτοιν, the purification of Them Both. Two versions and two
of the fathers omit the pronoun, Αυτων, their, and αυτου, his, have the greatest
authorities in their support, and the former is received into most of the modern
editions. A needless scrupulosity was, in my opinion, the origin of these various
readings. Some would not allow that both needed purification, and referred the
matter to Mary alone. Others thought neither could be supposed to be legally impure,
and therefore omitted the pronoun entirely, leaving the meaning indeterminate. As
there could be no moral defilement in the case, and what was done being for the
performance of a legal ceremony, it is of little consequence which of the readings is
received into the text.
The purification of every mother and child, which the law enjoined, is a powerful
argument in proof of that original corruption and depravity which every human
being brings into the world. The woman to be purified was placed in the east gate of
the court, called Nicanor’s gate, and was there sprinkled with blood: thus she
received the atonement. See Lightfoot.
GILL, "And when the days of purification,.... Of the Virgin Mary, the mother
of our Lord; though most copies read, "of their purification"; and so read the Syriac,
Persic, and Ethiopic versions, including both Mary and Jesus: and now, though Mary
was not polluted by the conception, bearing, and bringing forth of Jesus, that holy
thing born of her; yet inasmuch as she was in the account of the law clean; and
though Jesus had no impurity in his nature, yet seeing he was made sin for his
people, both came under this law of purification, which was for the sake of the son or
daughter, as well as for the mother; though our reading, and which is according to
the Complutensian edition, best agrees with the Hebrew phrase, ‫טחרה‬ ‫,ימי‬ the days of
her purifying or purification, in Lev_12:4.
according to the law of Moses, in Lev_12:1.
were accomplished; which for a son were forty days: the seven first days after she
gave birth she was unclean; and then she continued three and thirty days in the blood
of her purifying, which made forty; see Lev_12:2 but though the time of her purifying
was upon the fortieth day, yet it was not till the day following that she came to the
temple with her offering: for so runs the Jewish canon (w),
"a new mother does not bring her offering on the fortieth day for a male, nor on the
eightieth day for a female, but after her sun is set: and she brings her offering on the
morrow, which is the forty first for a male, and the eighty first for a female: and this
is the day of which it is said, Lev_12:6 and "when the days of her purifying are
fulfilled for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring", &c.
And this was the time when they, Joseph and Mary, brought him, the child Jesus, to
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Jerusalem, and to the temple there, to present him to the Lord, to the priest his
representative; and which was done in the eastern gate, called the gate of Nicanor:
(x) for here,
"they made women, suspected of adultery, to drink, and purified new mothers, and
cleansed the lepers.
And here Mary appeared with her firstborn son, the true Messiah; and this was the
first time of his coming into his temple, as was foretold, Mal_3:1.
HENRY, “II. He was presented in the temple. This was done with an eye to the
law, and at the time appointed by the law, when he was forty days old, when the days
of her purification were accomplished, Luk_2:22. Many copies, and authentic ones,
read autōn for autēs, the days of their purification, the purification both of the
mother and of the child, for so it was intended to be by the law; and our Lord Jesus,
though he had no impurity to be cleansed fRom. yet submitted to it, as he did to
circumcision, because he was made sin for us; and that, as by the circumcision of
Christ we might be circumcised, in the virtue of our union and communion with him,
with a spiritual circumcision made without hands (Col_2:11), so in the purification
of Christ we might be spiritually purified from the filthiness and corruption which
we brought into the world with us. Now, according to the law,
JAMISON, "Luk_2:22-40. Purification of the virgin - Presentation of the Babe in
the Temple-scene there with Simeon and Anna.
her purification — Though the most and best copies read “their,” it was the
mother only who needed purifying from the legal uncleanness of childbearing. “The
days” of this purification for a male child were forty in all (Lev_12:2, Lev_12:4), on
the expiry of which the mother was required to offer a lamb for a burnt offering, and
a turtle dove or a young pigeon for a sin offering. If she could not afford a lamb, the
mother had to bring another turtle dove or young pigeon; and, if even this was
beyond her means, then a portion of fine flour, but without the usual fragrant
accompaniments of oil and frankincense, as it represented a sin offering (Lev_
12:6-8; Lev_5:7-11). From the intermediate offering of “a pair of turtle doves or two
young pigeons,” we gather that Joseph and the Virgin were in poor circumstances
(2Co_8:9), though not in abject poverty. Being a first-born male, they “bring him to
Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord.” All such had been claimed as “holy to the
Lord,” or set apart to sacred uses, in memory of the deliverance of the first-born of
Israel from destruction in Egypt, through the sprinkling of blood (Exo_13:2). In lieu
of these, however, one whole tribe, that of Levi, was accepted, and set apart to
occupations exclusively sacred (Num_3:11-38); and whereas there were two hundred
seventy-three fewer Levites than first-born of all Israel on the first reckoning, each of
these first-born was to be redeemed by the payment of five shekels, yet not without
being “presented (or brought) unto the Lord,” in token of His rightful claim to them
and their service (Num_3:44-47; Num_18:15, Num_18:16). It was in obedience to
this “law of Moses,” that the Virgin presented her babe unto the Lord, “in the east
gate of the court called Nicanor’s Gate, where she herself would be sprinkled by the
priest with the blood of her sacrifice” [Lightfoot]. By that Babe, in due time, we were
to be redeemed, “not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ” (1Pe_1:18, 1Pe_1:19), and the consuming of the mother’s burnt
offering, and the sprinkling of her with the blood of her sin offering, were to find
their abiding realization in the “living sacrifice” of the Christian mother herself, in
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the fullness of a “heart sprinkled from an evil conscience,” by “the blood which
cleanseth from all sin.”
SBC, “I. The entrance of our Lord into His Temple had been foretold by Malachi four
hundred years before (Mal_3:1). But the Lord did not now come in His glory, like as
before when that bright cloud, the sign of His presence, filled the new-built Temple
in the time of King Solomon: He came now in our flesh, in the form of a helpless
babe. For though it was still in deed and in truth the Lord of Hosts coming into His
Temple, yet now to the fleshly eyes what was to be seen? No visible glory, but two
persons in mean condition and of poor estate, bringing what was supposed to be
their first-born infant to present Him according to the law.
II. Christ was presented as One willing to offer Himself up for us; He came even as it
had been foretold of Him, saying, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He was come
into the world to do away with the sacrifices of the law, by offering up Himself as the
true and perfect sacrifice once for all on the Cross. And His presentation in the
Temple was (as it were) a foreshowing, or rather a beginning, of that sacrifice which
He accomplished on the Cross as on an altar where He presented Himself before His
Father as bearing our sins and making a full satisfaction for them.
III. We were presented to God once, and that pure and clean, after our baptism. And
now when we have sinned, as we all see, we are permitted to present ourselves with
confession and prayers, either at home or here in His own sacred house; like the holy
Simeon and Anna we come here to present ourselves before the Lord with
confession, prayers, and praise; thus, if we persevere in constant devout waiting
upon God, we may trust we shall, like them, find Christ here and obtain of Him the
gifts of holiness, and in union with Him be presented acceptable and pure before
God. For when we come hither to pray for the pardon of our sins, and the cleansing
of our whole man from our wretched defilements, we do in a manner, by our very
appearance, if we bring our hearts with us, present and plead before the Father the
merits of Christ’s sacrifice. Let it therefore be our endeavour to present ourselves at
His Holy Table each time more and more, as we would present ourselves before His
presence on His throne of judgment at the last day.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii., p. 21; see also J.
Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 146.
CALVIN, "22.And after that the days were fulfilled On the fortieth day after the
birth, (Leviticus 12:2,) the rite of purification was necessary to be performed.
But Mary and Joseph come to Jerusalem for another reason, to present Christ to
the Lord, because he was the first-born. Let us now speak first of the
purification. Luke makes it apply both to Mary and to Christ: for the pronoun
αὐτῶν, of them, can have no reference whatever to Joseph. But it ought not to
appear strange, that Christ, who was to be, made a curse for us on the cross,”
(Galatians 3:13,) should, for our benefit, take upon him our uncleanness with
respect to legal guilt, though he was “without blemish and without spot,” (1 Peter
1:19.) It ought not, I say, to appear strange, if the fountain of purity, in order to
wash away our stains, chose to be reckoned unclean. (191) It is a mistake to
imagine that this law of purification was merely political, and that the woman
was unclean in presence of her husband, not in presence of God. On the
contrary, it placed before the eyes of the Jews both the corruption of their
nature, and the remedy of divine grace.
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This law is of itself abundantly sufficient to prove original sin, while it contains a
striking proof of the grace of God; for there could not be a clearer demonstration
of the curse pronounced on mankind than when the Lord declared, that the child
comes from its mother unclean and polluted, and that the mother herself is
consequently defiled by childbearing. Certainly, if man were not born a sinner, if
he were not by nature a child of wrath, (Ephesians 2:3,) if some taint of sin did
not dwell in him, he would have no need of purification. Hence it follows, that all
are corrupted in Adam; for the mouth of the Lord charges all with pollution.
It is in perfect consistency with this, that the Jews are spoken of, in other
passages, as “holy branches of a holy root,” (Romans 11:16 :) for this benefit did
not properly belong to their own persons. They had been set apart, by the
privilege of adoption, as an elect people; but the corruption, which they had by
inheritance from Adam, was first in the order of time (192) We must, therefore,
distinguish between the first nature, and that special kindness through a
covenant, by which God delivers his own people from the curse which had been
pronounced on all. And the design of legal purification was to inform the Jews,
that the pollutions, which they brought with them into the world at their birth,
are washed away by the grace of God.
Hence too we ought to learn, how dreadful is the contagion of sin, which defiles,
in some measure, the lawful order of nature. I do own that child-bearing is not
unclean, and that what would otherwise be lust changes its character, through
the sacredness of the marriage relation. But still the fountain of sin is so deep
and abundant, that its constant overflowings stain what would otherwise be
pure.
LIGHTFOOT, "[When the days of her purification were accomplished, &c.] "R.
Asai saith, the child whose mother is unclean by childbearing is circumcised the
eighth day; but he whose mother is not unclean by childbearing is not
circumcised the eighth day."
You will ask probably, what mother that is, that is not unclean by childbearing.
Let the Gloss upon this place make the answer: "She whose child is cut out of
her womb: as also a Gentile woman who is brought to bed today, and the next
day becomes a proselyte; her child is not deferred till the eighth day, but is
circumcised straightway." And the Rabbins a little after: "One takes a
handmaid big with child, and while she is with him brings forth; her child is
circumcised the eighth day. But if he takes a serving-maid, and with her a child
newly born, that child is circumcised the first day."
They did not account a heathen woman unclean by child-bearing, because she
was not yet under the law that concerned uncleanness. Hence, on the other side,
Mary was unclean at her bearing a child, because she was under the law; so
Christ was circumcised because born under the law.
II. After seven days the woman must continue for three and thirty days in the
blood of her purifying, Leviticus 12:4; where the Greek, in her unclean blood;
far enough from the mind of Moses. And the Alexandrian MS much wider still:
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She shall sit thirty and ten days in an unclean garment.
Pesikta, as before, col. 4, it is written "in the blood of her purifying: though she
issue blood like a flood, yet is she clean. Nor doth she defile any thing by
touching it, but what is holy. For seven days, immediately after she is brought to
bed, she lies in the blood of her uncleanness; but the three-and-thirty days
following, in the blood of her purifying."
[To present him to the Lord.] I. This was done to the first-born, but not to the
children that were born afterward: nor was this done to the first-born unless the
first-born were fit for the priest. For in Becoroth they distinguish betwixt a first-
born fit for inheritance, and a first-born fit for a priest. That is, if the first-born
should be any ways maimed, or defective in any of his parts, or had any kind of
spot or blemish in him, this laid no bar for his inheriting, but yet made him unfit
and incapable of being consecrated to God.
II. The first-born was to be redeemed immediately after the thirtieth day from
his birth. "Every one is bound to redeem his first-born with five shekels after he
is thirty days old; as it is said, 'From a month old shalt thou redeem,'" Numbers
18:16. Not that the price of that redemption was always paid exactly upon the
thirtieth day, but that then exactly it became due. Hence in that treatise newly
quoted: "If the child die within the thirty days, and the father hath paid the
price of his redemption beforehand, the priest must restore it: but if he die after
the thirty days are past, and the father hath not paid the price of his redemption,
let him pay it." Where we find the price of redemption supposed as paid either
before or after the thirty days.
III. The women that were to be purified were placed in the east gate of the court
called Nicanor's Gate, and were sprinkled with blood.
There stood Mary for her purifying: and there, probably, Christ was placed, that
he might be presented before the Lord, presented to the priest.
COFFMAN, "Their purification ... carries some hint that Jesus needed
purification also; and, if so, this has reference to ceremonial uncleanness, a thing
Jesus suffered as an inherent factor of the incarnation. He was "made to be sin"
on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). Again from Childers:
His whole life shows that he identified himself with this sinful race - though he
was sinless. Jesus always submitted to religious rites which were necessary for
sinful men, even though they were not really necessary for him.[23]
For Old Testament teachings regarding the purification of women after
childbirth, and the redemption of the firstborn, see: Leviticus chapter 12;
Exodus 13:2; Numbers 8:16; 18:15. These ceremonies are mentioned here for the
sake of showing that all legal requirements under the law were carefully
observed.
ENDNOTE:
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COKE, "Luke 2:22. And when the days of her purification— As Jesus was
circumcised, though perfectly free from sin; so his mother submitted to
thepurifications prescribed by the law, notwithstanding she was free from the
pollutions common in other births. It was evident, indeed, that she was a
mother,—but her miraculous conception was not generally known. Because the
law required that the child should be presented in the temple at the end of forty
days fromhis birth, and that the usual offering should be made, our Lord's
parents would therefore find it more convenient to go up with him from
Bethlehem, where he was born, at the distance of sixty miles only, than after
Mary's recovery to carry him first to Nazareth, which was a great way from
Jerusalem: so that we may suppose reasonably enough, that they continued in
Bethlehem all the days of the purification; and that from Bethlehem they went
straightway to Jerusalem.`
BURKITT, "A twofold act of obedience doth the Holy Virgin here perform to
two ceremonial laws, the one concerning the purification of women after child-
birth, the other concerning the presenting the male-child before the Lord.
The law concerning the purification of women we have recorded. Leviticus 12
Where the time mentioned for the woman's purification is set down; namely,
after a male-child forty days; after a female, four score days:after which time she
was to bring a lamb of a year oldfor a burnt-offering, in case she was a person of
ability; or a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons, in case of extreme
poverty.
Now as to the Virgin's purification, observe, 1. That no sooner was she able and
allowed to walk, but she travels to the temple.
Where note, that she visited God's house at Jerusalem, before her own house at
Nazareth.
Learn thence, that such women whom God has blessed with safety of
deliverance, if they make not their first visit to the temple of God to offer up
their praises and thanksgivings there, they are strangers to the Virgin's piety and
devotion.
Observe, 2. Another act of Mary's obedience to the ceremonial law: she
presented her child at Jerusalem to the Lord.
But how durst the blessed Virgin carry her holy babe to Jerusalem into Herod's
mouth? It was but a little before that Herod sought the young child's life to
destroy it; yet the Virgin sticks not, in obedience to the commands of God, to
carry him to Jerusalem.
Learn hence, that no apprehension of dangers, either imminent or approaching,
either at hand or afar off, ought to hinder us from performing our duty to
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Almighty God. We ought not to neglect a certain duty, to escape an uncertain
danger.
Observe farther, as the obedience, so the humility, of the Holy Virgin, in
submitting to the law for purifying of uncleanness: for thus she might have
pleaded, "What need have I of purging, who did not conceive in sin? Other
births are from men, but mine is from the Holy Ghost, who is purity itself. Other
women's children are under the law, mine is above the law." But, like the mother
of him whom it beloved to fulfil all righteousness, she dutifully fulfils the law of
God without quarreling or disputing.
Observe, lastly, as the exemplary humility, so the great poverty, of the Holy
Virgin; she has not a lamb, but comes with her two doves to God. Her offering
declares her penury. The best are sometimes the poorest, seldom the wealthiest:
Yet none are so poor, but God expects an offering from them: he looks for some
what from every one, not from every one alike.
The providence of God it is that makes difference in person's abilities, but his
pleasure will make no difference in the acceptation; Where there is a willing
mind, it shall be accepted according to what a person hath. 2 Corinthians 8:12
BI, “The days of her purification
The presentation in the temple
I.
1. Consider the inner meaning of the law which was here fulfilled by the Infant Jesus.
Ever since the day that Israel had been delivered from bondage by the death of the
first-born of the Egyptians, the first-born had been considered especially dedicated
to the service of God.
2. Here the First-born, not of Mary only, but of all creation, is presented to the
Father. Is He not the Only-begotten Son, begotten before all worlds? Now that He
has come in the substance of our flesh He is the true Head of the human race, the
First-born of a restored humanity. It is as such that He makes His first visit to
Jerusalem—type of the heavenly Jerusalem—the Church of the First-born; and
His first entry into the Temple, the Home of God upon earth.
3. “Unto us a Son is given;” as the Son of Man, the Hope of the Human Race, our
First-born, He is presented to the Father as our best and only offering. From this
day forward He is “in the presence of God for us.”
4. Inasmuch as we are members of Christ, we too are presented in His
presentation. We also become the first-born, joint-heirs with Him, the first-fruits
of creation, a royal priesthood, a chosen nation.
II. 1. Realize that we are ever being presented in the Temple of God through our
union with our Head, even Jesus Christ.
2. Realize this especially in the Holy Eucharist, in which we plead before our
Father the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice and oblation for the sins of the
whole world, and at the same time, sharing in His life, we offer and present
ourselves a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice.
3. Realize that as the first-born is especially claimed for the service of God, this
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sacrifice of ourselves must include the offering of our first-born, our best
energies, our truest thoughts, our highest talents, our richest possessions.
(Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
Dedication to God from early youth
In congratulating Simeon and Anna on having seen the salvation of Israel, we should
not overlook the fact, that by long preparation and longing they made themselves
worthy of embracing the Saviour. If you desire the same happiness, make the same
preparation Do not defer it to your old age, but in order to ensure the friendship of
Jesus then, devote yourself to Him now
I. THIS IS A SACRIFICE EXCEEDINGLY WELCOME TO GOD.
1. God has a predilection for youth, and selects them as His instruments to attain
His designs. Joseph, David, Daniel, Stephen.
2. The young are eminently fit for heaven (Mat_14:14).
3. So much the more does He value the self-sacrifice of youth, the devotion to
Him from childhood being
(1) Firstlings (Gen_4:4). He who dissipates him youth, and in old age turns
to God, offers fruits of which the sweetest have been tasted by the devil; and
ears, the best grain of which has been taken by him.
(2) A sacrifice free from selfishness.
(3) A. stainless offering (Mal_1:8).
(4) An example to other’s.
II. VERY PROFITABLE FOR ONESELF.
1. Because you are led to perfection, which is the true beauty and riches of man.
(1) Virtue is a tree that strikes deeper roots in young hearts. Greater
susceptibility—fewer storms internal and external. The coldness and miseries
of life are not so much felt. The soul is not yet enervated by passions, nor
petrified by custom and stupidity.
(2) The stem of this tree is harder and more solid. Virtue, like vice, is
hardened into habit and passion. The conversion of old age is often unstable.
(3) This tree bears more delicious fruits, and in greater measure. The wine
first taken from the press is the most delicious. Virtue is an art acquired by
exercise.
2. Because you will gain happiness here on earth.
(1) Inner peace—the consciousness of being God’s friend.
(2) The prospect of proximate, abundant, eternal reward.
(3) The love and esteem of all who are of good will.
3. Happiness in the next world. (Q. Rossi.)
Consequences of good education
Mary is the happiest mother, because she carried in her arms the best Child. Where
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is there a father or mother who would not desire to have good children? The
attainment of this wish is often frustrated by parents themselves. Yet they would find
urgent motives to realize it, if they would consider the happy results of giving a wise
and religious education to their children.
I. CONSEQUENCES TO THE PARENTS. Children well educated are—
1. An honour to their parents. Their good name reflects on those who brought
them up.
2. Their joy, consolation, and help, in every condition of life.
3. Their eternal crown.
II. CONSEQUENCES TO THE CHILDREN. Parents wish nothing more than to see
their children happy. Now it is on good education that—
1. Their temporal happiness depends.
2. Their eternal weal. You have planted for heaven, and in heaven, therefore, you
will reap your reward. No dowry equals this.
III. CONSEQUENCES TO FESTIVITY.
1. In regard to the family (Psa_3:2; Psa 3:8).
2. In regard to civil society. Good and bad morals are rapidly spread and are kept
up for a long time. (Tirinus)
The purification
The question meets us, If the blessed Virgin conceived the Son by the operation of
the Holy Ghost, and if He Himself were absolutely and entirely pure, then what need
of purification? What defilement was there, from which the Virgin Mother could be
purified? And an answer is ready to hand which seems abundantly sufficient, namely,
that as Jesus was circumcised, so Mary was purified; in each case there was
submission to the letter of a Divine law, and there was no desire and no attempt to
establish an exception. Our Lord was a Jewish boy, and was treated as Jewish boys
were treated; Mary was a Jewish mother, and acted as Jewish mothers were wont to
act. Our English version speaks of the days of her purification, and this is what we
might have expected, but it should not be concealed that the best copies of the
original Scriptures give, some of them His, some of them their purification; and there
can be little doubt that this last form of the sentence is the correct one (so Revised
Version). It would seem to indicate that, in the popular belief and feeling of the Jews
the sacrifice which was instituted for the purification of the mother (Levit. 12.) did in
reality also apply to the child; and this being so, St. Luke appears not to have
hesitated to use a phrase, which, literally interpreted, would imply the need of
purification on the part of our blessed Lord Himself. This is only another instance of
the complete and unreserved manner in which the Head of our race is identified with
ourselves. Perhaps the most interesting point in these verses is the incidental
testimony to the poverty of the Holy Family. The offering might be a lamp and a
turtle-dove if the parents were rich, and two doves or two pigeons if they were poor.
Hence the mention of the “pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons” marks the
worldly condition of the Blessed Virgin and Joseph; they came with the poor man’s
and poor woman’s offering; and thus again the poverty of our Lord was declared in
the most striking manner during His infancy. (Bishop Goodwin.)
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The days of purification
When the fixed time of purification was passed (seven days for a boy and fourteen for
a girl), the mother still remained at home thirty-three days for a boy and sixty-six for
a girl. Then she went up to the Temple. (E. Stapfer, D. D.)
Her forty days were no sooner out than Mary comes up to the Holy City. She comes
with sacrifices, whereof one is for a burnt-offering, the other for a sin-offering; the
one for thanksgiving, the other for expiation; for expiation of a double sin—of the
mother that conceived, of the Child that was conceived. We are all born sinners, and
it is a just question whether we do more infect the world, or the world us. They are
gross flatterers of nature that tell her she is clean. But, O the unspeakable mercy of
our God I we provide the sin, He provides the remedy. Every poor mother was not
able to bring a lamb for her offering; there was none so poor but might procure a pair
of turtles or pigeons. God looks for somewhat of every one, not of every one alike.
Since it is He that makes differences of abilities (to whom it were as easy to make all
rich), His mercy will make no difference in the acceptation. The truth and heartiness
of obedience is that which He will crown in His meanest servants. A mite, from the
poor widow, is more worth to Him than the talents of the wealthy. The blessed Virgin
had more business in the temple than her own. She came, as to purify herself, so to
present her Son. Every male that first opened the womb was holy unto the Lord. He
that was the Son of God by eternal generation before time, was also, by common
course of nature, consecrated unto God. It is fit the Holy Mother should present God
with His own. Her first-born was the first-born of all creatures. It was He whose
temple it was that He was presented in, to whom all the first-born of all creatures
were consecrated, by whom they were accepted; and now is He brought in His
mother’s arms to His own house, and, as man, is presented to Himself as God. Under
the gospel we are all first-born, all heirs; every soul is to be holy unto the Lord; we
are a royal generation, an holy priesthood. Our baptism, as it is our circumcision, and
our sacrifice of purification, so is it also our presentation unto God. Nothing can
become us but holiness. O God! to whom we are devoted, serve Thyself of us, glorify
Thyself by us, till we shall by Thee be glorified with Thee. (Bishop Hall.)
No myth
A mythus generally endeavours to ennoble its subject, and to adapt the story to the
idea. If, then, the gospel narrative were mythical, would it have invented, or even
suffered to remain, a circumstance so foreign to the idea of the myth, and so little
calculated to dignify it as the above. A mythus would have introduced an angel, or, at
least, a vision, to hinder Mary from submitting the child to a ceremony so unworthy
of its dignity; or the priests would have received an intimation from heaven to bow
before the infant, and prevent its being reduced to the level of ordinary children. (A.
Neander.)
Early dedication to the Lord
The old Romans used to hold the face of all their new-born infants towards the sky,
to denote that they must look above the world to celestial glories. We solemnly and
prayerfully dedicate our children to God in baptism, &c. And, remembering their
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immortality and the uncertainty of their life, should we not also constantly devote
them to God, and train them for Him and for heaven! My dear mother’s prayers with
and for me influenced me more to what is good than any earthly thing besides ever
did. Richard Cecil spoke of his mother as one that had great nearness to God in
prayer, and he says she was to him as an angel of God in her counsels and prayers,
which most deeply impressed him. At a college were one hundred and twenty young
men were studying for the ministry, it was found, as the result of special inquiry, that
more than a hundred of them had been converted mainly through a mother’s prayers
and labours. But Sunday-schoolteachers, ministers, church members, young people
themselves, and everybody should join in loving, prayerful efforts to present young
people and others to the Lord. And if God’s grace be obtained for them, will they not
be restrained from evil, and also led to good? Then children themselves should
humbly, earnestly, lovingly, and through faith in Christ, present themselves to the
Lord. A dear boy, who was soon after killed in a moment, prayed, “Lord, make me
quite, quite ready, in ease Jesus comes for me in a hurry.” (Henry R. Burton.)
Early piety a safeguard
In one of the public enclosures of Philadelphia the fountain was recently left to play
all night. During the hours of darkness a sharp frost set in; and those who passed by
next morning found the water, still playing indeed, but playing over a mass of
gleaming icicles. But that was not all. The wind had been blowing steadily in one
direction through all these hours, and the spray had been carried on airy wings to the
grass which fringed the pool in which the fountain stood. On each blade of grass the
spray had fallen so gently as hardly to bend it, descending softly and silently the
whole night long. By slow and almost imperceptible processes each blade became
coated with a thin layer of ice; by the same noiseless processes each layer grew
thicker, until in the morning what before had been a little patch of swaying grass was
a miniature battleground of upright, crystal spears, each holding within it, as its
nucleus, a single blade of grass, now cold, rigid, and dead. In human life, in like
manner, it may seem a light thing leave a young heart outside of Christ’s fold, and
exposed to the “cold winds of the world’s great unbelief.” There is no violent
transformation of the character in such a case. Yet silently and surely the world’s
frost settles upon the flowers of the heart, covering them with the chill spray of
doubt, binding them with soft bonds which harden into chains of ice, encasing them
in a coat of crystal mail, polished, cold, and impenetrable. You have met persons in
whose heart this freezing process has been accomplished. You have seen beneath the
icy surface the nucleus of good which might have grown to so fair a harvest, just as
you have seen the dead blade of grass preserved at the core of the icicle. You can do
little now for either the person or the plant: nothing but heaven’s sunshine can melt
the ice which holds them in its deadly thrall. But you can take care that none of those
for whom you are responsible will be left out in the world’s cold, to suffer so deadly a
change. You can bring them within the warm influences of Christian life, where no
frost will gather upon them, and where the soul’s highest powers will be gently wooed
to their best growth.
Training children for the Lord
An aged Christian, a widow of fourscore years, relates the following experience of her
early days. When she first entered upon her married life, she and her husband could
lock their cottage door, and go together, forenoon and afternoon, to the house of
God. After the birth of their first son they had to enjoy this privilege in turn; one
going in the forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. But the sickness or fretfulness
of the child not unfrequently detained the mother at home during the whole of the
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Sabbath. This she felt to be a great privation. On one such occasion a neighbour,
coming in to inquire about her welfare, found her in tears. The dejected young
mother was a Christian; she had early been brought to the knowledge of the truth as
it is in Jesus; she was a lover of the Lord’s house, and of the Lord’s day; she trusted in
Jesus as her Saviour; but she had not yet learned lovingly to accept all His discipline.
There were things connected with it “too painful for her.” She did not know what was
to compensate her for tile want of the days in the courts of the Lord; and so she told
her neighbour the cause of her dejection. “Woman,” replied her neighbour, in the
broad dialect of that land, “d’ye no mind the word that says, ‘Take this child, and
nurse him for Me; and I will give thee thy wages’?” It was a word in season; and, with
greater or less power, it sustained and comforted that mother during the whole of her
subsequent nursing of ten children. Her home in the valley of the Tweed was long ago
exchanged for one on the banks of the Mohawk. But the God whose Word thus
comforted her in early womanhood is with her still when she is old and greyheaded;
and she can gratefully speak of her eleven children, nursed for Him, as all walking in
the ways of God on earth, or taken away to another home into which sickness and
death can never come. (Mothers’ Treasury.)
Holy education of children
Good laws will not reform us, if reformation begin not at home. This is the cause of
all our misdeeds in Church and State, even the want of a holy education of children.
(R. Baxter.)
Permanence of early impressions
The late Rev. Richard Knill, a most devoted and useful missionary in Russia,
returned home to his native village. It so happened that he slept in the chamber
where he had slept as a boy. All night long he lay awake thinking of the mercy and
goodness of God to him through life. Early in the morning he looked out of a window,
and saw a tree in the garden beneath which his mother had prayed with him forty
years before. He went out, and on the same spot knelt down and thanked God for a
praying mother. Here was the reward of a mother who trained her children in the
way to heaven.
23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord,
“Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the
Lord”[b]),
GILL, "As it is written in the law of the Lord,.... In Exo_13:2.
every male that openeth the womb, shall be called holy to the Lord; that is,
devoted and consecrated to him, and so to be redeemed. The reason of this law was
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this, when God smote all the firstborn of Egypt, he saved the firstborn of Israel; and
therefore claimed a right to them, and obliged their parents, excepting the Levites, to
redeem them at the price of five shekels, which were about twelve shillings and six
pence of our money, and which was given to the Levites: see Exo_13:12 And this law
our Lord came under as Mary s firstborn, and as one holy to the Lord; and such a
sum of money was now paid for his redemption, who was the great Redeemer of his
people: he being made under the law, and in all things subject to it, that he might
redeem them from the bondage, curse, and condemnation of it. Now as the tribe of
Levi was excepted from this law, it is a clear case, that Mary, though allied to
Elisabeth, was not of the tribe of Levi, otherwise her firstborn would not have been
subject to it (y),
"An Israelite that comes from a priestess, or from a she Levite, is free, (i.e. from the
redemption of the firstborn;) for the thing does not depend on the father, but on the
mother, as it is said, that openeth the womb in Israel.
HENRY, “1. The child Jesus, being a first-born son, was presented to the Lord, in
one of the courts of the temple. The law is here recited (Luk_2:23): Every male that
opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, because by a special writ of
protection the first-born of the Egyptians were slain by the destroying angel; so that
Christ, as first-born, was a priest by a title surer than that of Aaron's house. Christ
was the first-born among many brethren, and was called holy to the Lord, so as
never any other was; yet he was presented to the Lord as other first-born were, and
no otherwise. Though he was newly come out of the bosom of the Father, yet he was
presented to him by the hands of a priest, as if he had been a stranger, that needed
one to introduce him. His being presented to the Lord now signified his presenting
himself to the Lord as Mediator, when he was caused to draw near and approach
unto him, Jer_30:21. But, according to the law, he was redeemed, Num_18:15. The
first-born of many shalt thou redeem, and five shekels was the value, Lev_27:6 :
Num_18:16. But probably in case of poverty the priest was allowed to take less, or
perhaps nothing; for no mention is made of it here. Christ was presented to the Lord,
not to be brought back, for his ear was bored to God's door-post to serve him for
ever; and though he is not left in the temple as Samuel was, to minister there, yet like
him he is given to the Lord as long as he lives, and ministers to him in the true
temple not made with hands.
CALVIN, "23.As it is written in the Law This was another exercise of piety
which was discharged by Joseph and Mary. The Lord commanded, that all the
males should be dedicated to him, in remembrance of their deliverance; because
when the angel slew all the first-born of Egypt, (Exodus 12:29,) he had spared
the first-born of Israel.
“On the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto
me all the first-born in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be:
I am the Lord” (Numbers 3:13.)
They were afterwards permitted to redeem their first-born at a certain price.
Such was the ancient ceremony: and, as the Lord is the common Redeemer of all,
(193) he has a right to claim us as his own, from the least to the greatest. Nor is it
without a good reason, that Luke so frequently repeats the statement, that
Joseph and Mary did what was written in the law of the Lord For these words
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teach us, that we must not, at our own suggestion, attempt any thing in the
worship of God, but must obediently follow what he requires in his Word.
COKE, "Luke 2:23. Every male, &c.— God having acquired a peculiar right to
the first-born of Israel, by preserving them amid the destruction brought on the
first-born of the Egyptians, though he had accepted of the tribe of Levi as an
equivalent, yet would have the memory of it preserved by the little
acknowledgement of five shekels, or about 12s. 6d. of our money (see Numbers
18:15-16.) and in case of an omission herein, it might reasonably have been
expected that the child should be cut off by some judgment. The first-born,
therefore, were redeemed, by paying this money, in such a sense as all the people
were, when, at the time that they were numbered, each of them paid half a
shekel, as a ransom for their souls, that there might be no plague among them.
See Exodus 30:12-16.
24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what
is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves
or two young pigeons.”[c]
BARNES, "And to offer a sacrifice ... - Those who were able on such an
occasion were required to offer a lamb for a burnt-offering, and a pigeon or a turtle-
dove for a sin-offering. If not able to bring a “lamb,” then they were permitted to
bring two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, Lev_12:6, Lev_12:8.
Turtle-doves - Doves distinguished for having a plaintive and tender voice. By
Mary’s making this offering she showed her poverty; and our Saviour, by coming in a
state of poverty, has shown that it is not dishonorable to be poor. No station is
dishonorable where “God” places us. He knows what is best for us, and he often
makes a state of poverty an occasion of the highest blessings. If “with” poverty he
grants us, as is often the case, peace, contentment, and religion, it is worth far more
than all the jewels of Golconda or the gold of Mexico. If it be asked why, since the
Saviour was pure from any moral defilement in his conception and birth, it was
necessary to offer such a sacrifice: why was it necessary that he should be
circumcised, since he had no sin, it may be answered:
1. That it was proper to fulfil all righteousness, and to show obedience to the law,
Mat_3:15.
2. It was necessary for the future usefulness of Christ. Unless he had been
circumcised, he could not have been admitted to any synagogue or to the
temple. He would have had no access to the people, and could not have been
regarded as the Messiah.
Both he and Mary, therefore, yielded obedience to the laws of the land, and thus set
us an example that we should walk in their steps. Compare the notes at Mat_3:15.
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CLARKE, "And to offer a sacrifice - Neither mother nor child was considered
as in the Lord’s covenant, or under the Divine protection, till these ceremonies,
prescribed by the law, had been performed.
A pair of turtle doves, etc. - One was for a burnt-offering, and the other for a
sin-offering: see Lev_12:8. The rich were required to bring a lamb, but the poor and
middling classes were required to bring either two turtle doves, or two pigeons. This
is a proof that the holy family were not in affluence. Jesus sanctified the state of
poverty, which is the general state of man, by passing through it. Therefore the poor
have the Gospel preached unto them; and the poor are they who principally receive
it.
Though neither Mary nor her son needed any of these purifications, for she was
immaculate, and He was the Holy One, yet, had she not gone through the days of
purification according to the law, she could not have appeared in the public worship
of the Most High, and would have been considered as an apostate from the faith of
the Israel of God; and had not He been circumcised and publicly presented in the
temple, he could not have been permitted to enter either synagogue or temple, and
no Jew would have heard him preach, or had any intercourse or connection with
him. These reasons are sufficient to account for the purification of the holy virgin,
and for the circumcision of the most holy Jesus.
GILL, "And to offer a sacrifice,.... That is, when the time of purification came,
the parents of our Lord brought him from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, to present him in
the temple to the Lord as his, and to redeem him; and not only so, but to offer the
sacrifice required of child-bed women:
according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, Lev_12:8.
a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons: if the person was able, she was to
bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering; and a young pigeon, or a turtle
dove, for a sin offering; but in case of poverty, then the above sufficed, and one of
them was for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering; which shows not only
that the virgin offered for herself a sin offering, being ceremonially unclean, but also
her mean estate and poverty, in that she offered the offering of the poorer sort; see
Lev_12:6.
HENRY, “2. The mother brought her offering, Luk_2:24. When she had
presented that son of hers unto the Lord who was to be the great sacrifice, she might
have been excused from offering any other; but so it is said in the law of the Lord,
that law which was yet in force, and therefore so it must be done, she must offer a
pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons; had she been of ability, she must have
brought a lamb for a burnt-offering, and a dove for a sin-offering; but, being poor,
and not able to reach the price of a lamb, she brings two doves, one for a burnt-
offering and the other for a sin-offering (see Lev_12:6, Lev_12:8), to teach us in
every address to God, and particularly in those upon special occasions, both to give
thanks to God for his mercies to us and to acknowledge with sorrow and shame our
sins against him; in both we must give glory to him, nor do we ever want matter for
both. Christ was not conceived and born in sin, as others are, so that there was not
that occasion in his case which there is in others; yet, because he was made under the
law, he complied with it. Thus it became him to fulfil all righteousness. Much more
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doth it become the best of men to join in confessions of sin; for who can say, I have
made my heart clean?
CALVIN, "24.And that they might offer a sacrifice This sacrifice belonged to the
ceremony of purification; lest any one should suppose that it was offered for the
sake of redeeming the first-born. When the Evangelist mentions a pair of turtle-
doves, or two young pigeons, he takes for granted that his readers will
understand, that Joseph and Mary were in such deep poverty, as not to have it in
their power to offer a lamb. For this exception is expressly mentioned:
“If she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall
bring two turtles, or two young pigeons,” (Leviticus 12:8.)
Is it objected, that the Magi had very recently supplied them with a sufficiency of
gold to make the purchase? I reply: We must not imagine that they had such
abundance of gold as to raise them suddenly from poverty to wealth. We do not
read, that their camels were laden with gold. It is more probable that it was some
small present, which they had brought solely as a mark of respect. The law did
not rigorously enjoin, that the poor should spend their substance on a sacrifice,
but drew a line of distinction between them and the rich, as to the kind of
sacrifices, and thus relieved them from burdensome expense. There would be no
impropriety in saying, that Joseph and Mary gave as much as their
circumstances allowed, though they reserved a little money to defray the
expenses of their journey and of their household.
LIGHTFOOT, "[A pair of turtledoves, &c.] I. "The turtles were older, and of a
larger size": pigeons less, and younger. For it is said of pigeons, two young
pigeons; but not so of turtles.
This was called the offering of the poor; which if a rich man offered, he did not
do his duty. And when the doctors speak so often of an offering rising or falling,
it hath respect to this. "For the offering of the richer sort was a lamb; but if his
hand could not reach to a lamb, then he offered a pair of turtles, or pigeons. But
if he was poor, he offered the tenth part of an ephah: therefore is the oblation
said to be rising or falling."
"King Agrippa came one day to offer a thousand burnt offerings; but a certain
poor man prevented him with two turtledoves. So, also, when one would have
offered a bullock, there was a poor man prevented him with a handful of herbs."
II. Of the two turtledoves or young pigeons, one was to be offered as a burnt
offering, the other as a sin offering. But as to the particular appointment of the
one for the burnt offering, the other for the sin offering, that is, which should be
which, it is disputed among the doctors whether it lay in the breast of him or her
that offered it, or the priest, to determine it.
By the way, we may observe that the blessed Virgin offers a sin offering for
herself. Now what the meaning and design of a sin offering was, is evident from
Leviticus 4 and 5.
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COFFMAN, "This shows that Mary and Joseph offered the offering of the poor,
as allowed (Leviticus 12:8) for those whose means were meager; and it was
perhaps for the purpose of highlighting this that Luke included the fact of
exactly the kind of offering they made.
THE SONG OF SIMEON
In the midst of the ceremonies being observed in the temple, the appearance of
Simeon took place. His words, called the "Nunc Dimitis," are so-called from his
first words as rendered in Latin, and are referred to as a "song," not because he
sang them, but because for generations afterwards they have been sung by
others.
COKE, "Luke 2:24. A pair of turtle doves, &c.— This was the offering
appointed for the poorer sort, Leviticus 12:6-8. It is evident, therefore, that
although Joseph and Mary were both of the seed royal, they were in very mean
circumstances. The Evangelist mentions the presentation of the child to the Lord,
before the offering of the sacrifice for the mother's purification; but in fact this
preceded the presentation, because, till it was performed, the mother could not
enter the temple; accordingly St. Luke himself introduces both the parents
presenting Jesus, Luke 2:27.
BENSON, "Luke 2:22-24. When the days of her purification were
accomplished — “It appears, from Leviticus 12:1-6, that for the first seven days,
every woman who had borne a child, was considered as unclean in so great a
degree, that whoever touched or conversed with her was polluted. For thirty-
three days more, she was still, though in an inferior degree, unclean, because she
could not all that time partake in the solemnities of public worship. At the
conclusion of this term, she was commanded to bring certain sacrifices to the
temple, by the offering of which the stain laid on her by the law was wiped off,
and she restored to all the purity and cleanness she had before. This was the law
of the purification after bearing a son. But for a daughter, the time of separation
was double; the first term being fourteen days, and the second sixty-six; in all
eighty days before she could approach the sanctuary. Now as Jesus was
circumcised, though perfectly free from sin, so his mother submitted to the
purifications prescribed by the law, notwithstanding she was free from the
pollutions common in other births. It was evident, indeed, that she was a mother,
but her miraculous conception was not generally known.” They brought him to
Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord — Because the law required that he
should be presented in the temple at the end of forty days from his birth, and
that the usual offerings should be made, his parents would find it more
convenient to go up with him from Bethlehem, where he was born, at the
distance of six miles only, than, after Mary’s recovery, to carry him first to
Nazareth, which was a great way from Jerusalem. We may, therefore,
reasonably enough suppose that they tarried in Bethlehem all the days of her
purification, and that from Bethlehem they went straightway to Jerusalem. Here,
entering the temple, the sacrifices prescribed for the purification of women, after
child-bearing, were offered for Mary, who, according to custom, waited in the
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outer court till the service respecting her was performed. As it is written, Every
male that openeth the womb, &c. — See this explained in the note on Exodus
12:2. And to offer a sacrifice, a pair of turtle doves, &c. — This was the offering
required from the poor, Leviticus 12:6; Leviticus 12:8. Those in better
circumstances were commanded to bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt-
offering, and a turtle-dove, or a young pigeon, for a sin-offering. It is evident,
from the offering they made, that although Joseph and Mary were of the seed
royal, they were in very mean circumstances. The evangelist mentions the
presentation of the child to the Lord before the offering of the sacrifice for the
mother’s purification; but in fact this preceded the presentation, because, till it
was performed, the mother could not enter the temple; accordingly Luke himself
introduces both the parents as presenting Jesus.
BI, “The days of her purification
The presentation in the temple
I.
1. Consider the inner meaning of the law which was here fulfilled by the Infant Jesus.
Ever since the day that Israel had been delivered from bondage by the death of the
first-born of the Egyptians, the first-born had been considered especially dedicated
to the service of God.
2. Here the First-born, not of Mary only, but of all creation, is presented to the
Father. Is He not the Only-begotten Son, begotten before all worlds? Now that He
has come in the substance of our flesh He is the true Head of the human race, the
First-born of a restored humanity. It is as such that He makes His first visit to
Jerusalem—type of the heavenly Jerusalem—the Church of the First-born; and
His first entry into the Temple, the Home of God upon earth.
3. “Unto us a Son is given;” as the Son of Man, the Hope of the Human Race, our
First-born, He is presented to the Father as our best and only offering. From this
day forward He is “in the presence of God for us.”
4. Inasmuch as we are members of Christ, we too are presented in His
presentation. We also become the first-born, joint-heirs with Him, the first-fruits
of creation, a royal priesthood, a chosen nation.
II. 1. Realize that we are ever being presented in the Temple of God through our
union with our Head, even Jesus Christ.
2. Realize this especially in the Holy Eucharist, in which we plead before our
Father the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice and oblation for the sins of the
whole world, and at the same time, sharing in His life, we offer and present
ourselves a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice.
3. Realize that as the first-born is especially claimed for the service of God, this
sacrifice of ourselves must include the offering of our first-born, our best
energies, our truest thoughts, our highest talents, our richest possessions.
(Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
Dedication to God from early youth
In congratulating Simeon and Anna on having seen the salvation of Israel, we should
not overlook the fact, that by long preparation and longing they made themselves
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worthy of embracing the Saviour. If you desire the same happiness, make the same
preparation Do not defer it to your old age, but in order to ensure the friendship of
Jesus then, devote yourself to Him now
I. THIS IS A SACRIFICE EXCEEDINGLY WELCOME TO GOD.
1. God has a predilection for youth, and selects them as His instruments to attain
His designs. Joseph, David, Daniel, Stephen.
2. The young are eminently fit for heaven (Mat_14:14).
3. So much the more does He value the self-sacrifice of youth, the devotion to
Him from childhood being
(1) Firstlings (Gen_4:4). He who dissipates him youth, and in old age turns
to God, offers fruits of which the sweetest have been tasted by the devil; and
ears, the best grain of which has been taken by him.
(2) A sacrifice free from selfishness.
(3) A. stainless offering (Mal_1:8).
(4) An example to other’s.
II. VERY PROFITABLE FOR ONESELF.
1. Because you are led to perfection, which is the true beauty and riches of man.
(1) Virtue is a tree that strikes deeper roots in young hearts. Greater
susceptibility—fewer storms internal and external. The coldness and miseries
of life are not so much felt. The soul is not yet enervated by passions, nor
petrified by custom and stupidity.
(2) The stem of this tree is harder and more solid. Virtue, like vice, is
hardened into habit and passion. The conversion of old age is often unstable.
(3) This tree bears more delicious fruits, and in greater measure. The wine
first taken from the press is the most delicious. Virtue is an art acquired by
exercise.
2. Because you will gain happiness here on earth.
(1) Inner peace—the consciousness of being God’s friend.
(2) The prospect of proximate, abundant, eternal reward.
(3) The love and esteem of all who are of good will.
3. Happiness in the next world. (Q. Rossi.)
Consequences of good education
Mary is the happiest mother, because she carried in her arms the best Child. Where
is there a father or mother who would not desire to have good children? The
attainment of this wish is often frustrated by parents themselves. Yet they would find
urgent motives to realize it, if they would consider the happy results of giving a wise
and religious education to their children.
I. CONSEQUENCES TO THE PARENTS. Children well educated are—
1. An honour to their parents. Their good name reflects on those who brought
them up.
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2. Their joy, consolation, and help, in every condition of life.
3. Their eternal crown.
II. CONSEQUENCES TO THE CHILDREN. Parents wish nothing more than to see
their children happy. Now it is on good education that—
1. Their temporal happiness depends.
2. Their eternal weal. You have planted for heaven, and in heaven, therefore, you
will reap your reward. No dowry equals this.
III. CONSEQUENCES TO FESTIVITY.
1. In regard to the family (Psa_3:2; Psa 3:8).
2. In regard to civil society. Good and bad morals are rapidly spread and are kept
up for a long time. (Tirinus)
The purification
The question meets us, If the blessed Virgin conceived the Son by the operation of
the Holy Ghost, and if He Himself were absolutely and entirely pure, then what need
of purification? What defilement was there, from which the Virgin Mother could be
purified? And an answer is ready to hand which seems abundantly sufficient, namely,
that as Jesus was circumcised, so Mary was purified; in each case there was
submission to the letter of a Divine law, and there was no desire and no attempt to
establish an exception. Our Lord was a Jewish boy, and was treated as Jewish boys
were treated; Mary was a Jewish mother, and acted as Jewish mothers were wont to
act. Our English version speaks of the days of her purification, and this is what we
might have expected, but it should not be concealed that the best copies of the
original Scriptures give, some of them His, some of them their purification; and there
can be little doubt that this last form of the sentence is the correct one (so Revised
Version). It would seem to indicate that, in the popular belief and feeling of the Jews
the sacrifice which was instituted for the purification of the mother (Levit. 12.) did in
reality also apply to the child; and this being so, St. Luke appears not to have
hesitated to use a phrase, which, literally interpreted, would imply the need of
purification on the part of our blessed Lord Himself. This is only another instance of
the complete and unreserved manner in which the Head of our race is identified with
ourselves. Perhaps the most interesting point in these verses is the incidental
testimony to the poverty of the Holy Family. The offering might be a lamp and a
turtle-dove if the parents were rich, and two doves or two pigeons if they were poor.
Hence the mention of the “pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons” marks the
worldly condition of the Blessed Virgin and Joseph; they came with the poor man’s
and poor woman’s offering; and thus again the poverty of our Lord was declared in
the most striking manner during His infancy. (Bishop Goodwin.)
The days of purification
When the fixed time of purification was passed (seven days for a boy and fourteen for
a girl), the mother still remained at home thirty-three days for a boy and sixty-six for
a girl. Then she went up to the Temple. (E. Stapfer, D. D.)
Her forty days were no sooner out than Mary comes up to the Holy City. She comes
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with sacrifices, whereof one is for a burnt-offering, the other for a sin-offering; the
one for thanksgiving, the other for expiation; for expiation of a double sin—of the
mother that conceived, of the Child that was conceived. We are all born sinners, and
it is a just question whether we do more infect the world, or the world us. They are
gross flatterers of nature that tell her she is clean. But, O the unspeakable mercy of
our God I we provide the sin, He provides the remedy. Every poor mother was not
able to bring a lamb for her offering; there was none so poor but might procure a pair
of turtles or pigeons. God looks for somewhat of every one, not of every one alike.
Since it is He that makes differences of abilities (to whom it were as easy to make all
rich), His mercy will make no difference in the acceptation. The truth and heartiness
of obedience is that which He will crown in His meanest servants. A mite, from the
poor widow, is more worth to Him than the talents of the wealthy. The blessed Virgin
had more business in the temple than her own. She came, as to purify herself, so to
present her Son. Every male that first opened the womb was holy unto the Lord. He
that was the Son of God by eternal generation before time, was also, by common
course of nature, consecrated unto God. It is fit the Holy Mother should present God
with His own. Her first-born was the first-born of all creatures. It was He whose
temple it was that He was presented in, to whom all the first-born of all creatures
were consecrated, by whom they were accepted; and now is He brought in His
mother’s arms to His own house, and, as man, is presented to Himself as God. Under
the gospel we are all first-born, all heirs; every soul is to be holy unto the Lord; we
are a royal generation, an holy priesthood. Our baptism, as it is our circumcision, and
our sacrifice of purification, so is it also our presentation unto God. Nothing can
become us but holiness. O God! to whom we are devoted, serve Thyself of us, glorify
Thyself by us, till we shall by Thee be glorified with Thee. (Bishop Hall.)
No myth
A mythus generally endeavours to ennoble its subject, and to adapt the story to the
idea. If, then, the gospel narrative were mythical, would it have invented, or even
suffered to remain, a circumstance so foreign to the idea of the myth, and so little
calculated to dignify it as the above. A mythus would have introduced an angel, or, at
least, a vision, to hinder Mary from submitting the child to a ceremony so unworthy
of its dignity; or the priests would have received an intimation from heaven to bow
before the infant, and prevent its being reduced to the level of ordinary children. (A.
Neander.)
Early dedication to the Lord
The old Romans used to hold the face of all their new-born infants towards the sky,
to denote that they must look above the world to celestial glories. We solemnly and
prayerfully dedicate our children to God in baptism, &c. And, remembering their
immortality and the uncertainty of their life, should we not also constantly devote
them to God, and train them for Him and for heaven! My dear mother’s prayers with
and for me influenced me more to what is good than any earthly thing besides ever
did. Richard Cecil spoke of his mother as one that had great nearness to God in
prayer, and he says she was to him as an angel of God in her counsels and prayers,
which most deeply impressed him. At a college were one hundred and twenty young
men were studying for the ministry, it was found, as the result of special inquiry, that
more than a hundred of them had been converted mainly through a mother’s prayers
and labours. But Sunday-schoolteachers, ministers, church members, young people
themselves, and everybody should join in loving, prayerful efforts to present young
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people and others to the Lord. And if God’s grace be obtained for them, will they not
be restrained from evil, and also led to good? Then children themselves should
humbly, earnestly, lovingly, and through faith in Christ, present themselves to the
Lord. A dear boy, who was soon after killed in a moment, prayed, “Lord, make me
quite, quite ready, in ease Jesus comes for me in a hurry.” (Henry R. Burton.)
Early piety a safeguard
In one of the public enclosures of Philadelphia the fountain was recently left to play
all night. During the hours of darkness a sharp frost set in; and those who passed by
next morning found the water, still playing indeed, but playing over a mass of
gleaming icicles. But that was not all. The wind had been blowing steadily in one
direction through all these hours, and the spray had been carried on airy wings to the
grass which fringed the pool in which the fountain stood. On each blade of grass the
spray had fallen so gently as hardly to bend it, descending softly and silently the
whole night long. By slow and almost imperceptible processes each blade became
coated with a thin layer of ice; by the same noiseless processes each layer grew
thicker, until in the morning what before had been a little patch of swaying grass was
a miniature battleground of upright, crystal spears, each holding within it, as its
nucleus, a single blade of grass, now cold, rigid, and dead. In human life, in like
manner, it may seem a light thing leave a young heart outside of Christ’s fold, and
exposed to the “cold winds of the world’s great unbelief.” There is no violent
transformation of the character in such a case. Yet silently and surely the world’s
frost settles upon the flowers of the heart, covering them with the chill spray of
doubt, binding them with soft bonds which harden into chains of ice, encasing them
in a coat of crystal mail, polished, cold, and impenetrable. You have met persons in
whose heart this freezing process has been accomplished. You have seen beneath the
icy surface the nucleus of good which might have grown to so fair a harvest, just as
you have seen the dead blade of grass preserved at the core of the icicle. You can do
little now for either the person or the plant: nothing but heaven’s sunshine can melt
the ice which holds them in its deadly thrall. But you can take care that none of those
for whom you are responsible will be left out in the world’s cold, to suffer so deadly a
change. You can bring them within the warm influences of Christian life, where no
frost will gather upon them, and where the soul’s highest powers will be gently wooed
to their best growth.
Training children for the Lord
An aged Christian, a widow of fourscore years, relates the following experience of her
early days. When she first entered upon her married life, she and her husband could
lock their cottage door, and go together, forenoon and afternoon, to the house of
God. After the birth of their first son they had to enjoy this privilege in turn; one
going in the forenoon, and the other in the afternoon. But the sickness or fretfulness
of the child not unfrequently detained the mother at home during the whole of the
Sabbath. This she felt to be a great privation. On one such occasion a neighbour,
coming in to inquire about her welfare, found her in tears. The dejected young
mother was a Christian; she had early been brought to the knowledge of the truth as
it is in Jesus; she was a lover of the Lord’s house, and of the Lord’s day; she trusted in
Jesus as her Saviour; but she had not yet learned lovingly to accept all His discipline.
There were things connected with it “too painful for her.” She did not know what was
to compensate her for tile want of the days in the courts of the Lord; and so she told
her neighbour the cause of her dejection. “Woman,” replied her neighbour, in the
broad dialect of that land, “d’ye no mind the word that says, ‘Take this child, and
nurse him for Me; and I will give thee thy wages’?” It was a word in season; and, with
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greater or less power, it sustained and comforted that mother during the whole of her
subsequent nursing of ten children. Her home in the valley of the Tweed was long ago
exchanged for one on the banks of the Mohawk. But the God whose Word thus
comforted her in early womanhood is with her still when she is old and greyheaded;
and she can gratefully speak of her eleven children, nursed for Him, as all walking in
the ways of God on earth, or taken away to another home into which sickness and
death can never come. (Mothers’ Treasury.)
Holy education of children
Good laws will not reform us, if reformation begin not at home. This is the cause of
all our misdeeds in Church and State, even the want of a holy education of children.
(R. Baxter.)
Permanence of early impressions
The late Rev. Richard Knill, a most devoted and useful missionary in Russia,
returned home to his native village. It so happened that he slept in the chamber
where he had slept as a boy. All night long he lay awake thinking of the mercy and
goodness of God to him through life. Early in the morning he looked out of a window,
and saw a tree in the garden beneath which his mother had prayed with him forty
years before. He went out, and on the same spot knelt down and thanked God for a
praying mother. Here was the reward of a mother who trained her children in the
way to heaven.
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called
Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was
waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the
Holy Spirit was on him.
BARNES, "Whose name was Simeon - Some have supposed that this Simeon
was a son of the famous “Hillel,” a distinguished teacher in Jerusalem, and president
of the Sanhedrin; but nothing is certainly known of him but what is here related. He
was an aged man, of distinguished piety and reputation, and was anxiously expecting
the coming of the Messiah. Such an “old age” is especially honorable. No spectacle is
more sublime than an old man of piety and high character looking for the appearing
of the Lord, and patiently waiting for the time to come when he may be blessed with
the sight of his Redeemer.
Just - Righteous before God and man; approved by God as a righteous man, and
discharging faithfully his duty to man.
Devout - This word means “a religious man,” or a “pious” man. The original
expresses the idea of “good reputation, well received,” or of high standing among the
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people.
Waiting for the consolation of Israel - That is, waiting for the “Messiah,” who
is called “the consolation of Israel” because he would give comfort to them by his
appearing. This term was often applied to the Messiah before he actually appeared. It
was common to swear, also, by “the consolation of Israel” - that is, by the Messiah
about to come. See Lightfoot on this place.
The Holy Ghost ... - He was a holy man, and was “divinely inspired” respecting
the Messiah about to appear.
CLARKE, "And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem - This man is
distinguished because of his singular piety. There can be no doubt that there were
many persons in Jerusalem named Simeon, besides this man; but there was none of
the name who merited the attention of God so much as he in the text. Such
persevering exemplary piety was very rare, and therefore the inspired penman ushers
in the account with behold! Several learned men are of the opinion that he was son to
the famous Hillel, one of the most celebrated doctors and philosophers which had
ever appeared in the Jewish nation since the time of Moses. Simeon is supposed also
to have been the Ab or president of the grand Sanhedrin.
The same man was just - He steadily regulated all his conduct by the law of his
God: and devout - he had fully consecrated himself to God, so that he added a pious
heart to a righteous conduct. The original word ευλαβης, signifies also a person of
good report - one well received among the people, or one cautious and circumspect in
matters of religion; from ευ, well, and λαµβανω, I take: it properly denotes, one who
takes any thing that is held out to him, well and carefully. He so professed and
practised the religion of his fathers that he gave no cause for a friend to mourn on his
account, or an enemy to triumph.
Several excellent MSS. read ευσεβης, pious or godly, from ευ, well, and σεβοµαι, I
worship; one who worships God well, i.e. in spirit and in truth.
Waiting for the consolation of Israel - That is, the Messiah, who was known
among the pious Jews by this character: he was to be the consolation of Israel,
because he was to be its redemption. This consolation of Israel was so universally
expected that the Jews swore by it: So let me see the Consolation, if such a thing be
not so, or so. See the forms in Lightfoot.
The Holy Ghost was upon him - He was a man divinely inspired,
overshadowed, and protected by the power and influence of the Most High.
GILL, "And behold there was a man in Jerusalem,.... Not in Nazareth, or
Bethlehem, but in Jerusalem, the metropolis of the nation: one that lived there, was
an inhabitant of that city, and a person of fame and note. So Joseph ben Jochanan is
called (z) ‫ירושלם‬ ‫איש‬ a man of Jerusalem, an inhabitant of that place:
whose name was Simeon; not Simeon, ‫הצדיק‬ "the just", the last of the men of the
great synagogue, of whom the Jews often make mention (a); though this Simeon
bears the same character, yet could not be he; because he was not only an high priest,
which, if this man had been, would doubtless have been mentioned; but also lived
some years before this time. Many have thought, that this was Rabban Simeon, the
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son of Hillell, who was president of the sanhedrim forty years; and in which office
this his son succeeded him; and which Simeon was the father of Gamaliel, the master
of the Apostle Paul, of whom the Jewish chronologer thus writes (b):
"Rabban Simeon, the son of Hillell the old, received from his father, and was
appointed president after his father; but the time of the beginning of his
presidentship I do not find in any authors:
and a little after,
"Rabban Simeon, the son of Hillell, is the first that is called by the name of Rabban.
There are some things which seem to agree with, and favour this thought; for certain
it is, that Christ was born in his time, whilst he was living: so the above writer says
(c), after he had observed, that "Jesus of Nazareth was born at Bethlehem Judah, a
parsa and a half from Jerusalem, in the year 3761 of the creation, and in the 42nd
year of Caesar Augustus; that, according to this computation, his birth was in the
days of Rabban Simeon, the son of Hillell.
And it is worthy of notice also, what another genealogical writer of theirs says (d),
that "Rabban Simeon, the son of old Hillell, the prince, or president of Israel, as his
father was, as it is in Sabbat, c. 1. is not "mentioned in the Misna."
Which looks as if he was not a favourer of the traditions of the elders, nor in great
esteem with the Jews, that they ascribe none of them to him; yea, it may be observed,
that he is entirely left out in the account of the succession of the fathers of tradition,
in the tract called Pirke Abot; which is somewhat extraordinary, when he was the son
of one, and the father of another of so much note among them. One would be
tempted to think, that such a neglect of him, should spring from ill will to him, on
account of his professing Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah. But there are other
things which do not so well accord, as that this Simeon lived some years after the
birth of Christ; whereas our Simeon seems to be in the decline of life, and just ready
to depart: as also, that he was prince of Israel, or president of the sanhedrim, after
this; which it is not likely he should, after such a confession of Jesus being the
Messiah: likewise, seeing that his son Gamaliel was brought up a Pharisee: to which
last Dr. Lightfoot replies, that holy fathers have some times wicked children; and that
it was thirty years from Simeon's acknowledging Christ, to Gamaliel's education of
Paul, or little less; and so much time might wear out the notice of his father's action,
if he had taken any notice of it, especially his father dying shortly after he had made
so glorious a confession; but his last observation is an objection to him. Upon the
whole, it must be left uncertain and undetermined who he was:
and the same man was just and devout; he was a holy good man in his life and
conversation; he was one that feared God, and avoided evil; he was righteous before
men, and devout towards God, and exercised a conscience void, of offence to both:
waiting for the consolation of Israel; that is, the Messiah; for this was one of his
names with the Jews, who sometimes style him, ‫,מנחם‬ "the comforter": for so they
report (e) that "there are some that say his name is Menachen the comforter; as it is
said, "because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me". Lam_1:16.
And again (f), It is observed, that "the name of the Messiah is Menachem, the
comforter; and Menachem, by "gematry", or numerically, is the same with Tzemach,
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the branch, Zec_3:8.
And so they often call him by the name of the "consolation": ‫בגחמה‬ ‫,אראה‬ which Dr.
Lightfoot renders, "so let me see the consolation", but should be rendered, "may I
never see the consolation", was a common form of swearing among them; and used
much by R. Simeon ben Shetach, who lived before the times of Christ, of which there
are several instances (g):
"says R. Juda ben Tabai, ‫בנחמה‬ ‫אראה‬ "may I never see the consolation", if I have not
slain a false witness. Says R. Simeon ben Shetach, to him, "may I never see the
consolation", if thou hast not shed innocent blood.
The gloss (h) on it is,
"it is a light word, (the form) of an oath, in short language; as if it was said, may I
never see the consolations of Zion, if he has not done this.
Again (i),
"says R. Simeon Ben Shetach, ‫בנחמה‬ ‫אראה‬ "may I never see the consolation", if I did
not see one run after his companion, into a desolate place, &c.
Now they might easily collect this name of the Messiah, from several passages of
Scripture, which speak of God's comforting his people, at the time of redemption by
the Messiah; and particularly, from its being part of his work and office, to comfort
them that mourn, for which he was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, Isa_61:1. And
when he is called here, "the consolation of Israel", it is not to be understood of the
whole Jewish nation; for he was so far from being a comfort to them, as such, that
through their corruption and wickedness, he came not to send peace, but a sword;
and to set at variance the nearest relations and friends among themselves; and
through their unbelief and rejection of him, wrath came upon them to the uttermost:
but of the true and spiritual Israel of God, whom he has chosen, redeemed, and calls,
whether of Jews or Gentiles; his own special and peculiar people, the heirs of
promise; and who are often mourners in Zion, and being frequently disconsolate on
account of sin, the temptations of Satan, and the hidings of God's face, stand in need
of consolation from him: and in him there is what is always matter and ground of
consolation; as in his person, he being the mighty God, and so able to save to the
uttermost; in his blood, which speaks peace and pardon, and cleanses from all sin; in
his righteousness, which is pure and perfect, and justifies from all iniquity, in his
sacrifice, which expiates all the transgressions of his people; in his fulness, which is
sufficient to supply all their wants; and in his power, by which he is able to keep them
from falling, and to present them faultless before God. And he does often comfort
them by his Spirit, by his word, and ordinances, by the promises of his Gospel, by the
discoveries of pardoning grace, through his blood, and by his gracious presence: nor
are his consolations small, but large and abundant, strong, solid, and everlasting.
Now for the Messiah under this character, Simeon was waiting, hoping in a little time
to see him; since he knew, both by the prophecies of the Old Testament, particularly
by Daniel's weeks, and, by divine revelation, that the time was just at hand for his
coming,
and the Holy Ghost was upon him; not in a common and ordinary way, as he is
upon all that are called by grace, as a Spirit of regeneration and sanctification: and as
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he was upon many others, who at this time were waiting and looking for the Messiah,
as well as he; but in an extraordinary way, as a spirit of prophecy: for though
prophecy had ceased among the Jews, from the times of Malachi, yet upon the
conception and birth of Christ, it now returned; as to Zacharias, Elisabeth, and the
virgin Mary, and here to Simeon, as is clear from what follows,
HENRY, “Even when he humbles himself, still Christ has honour done him to
balance the offence of it. That we might not be stumbled at the meanness of his birth,
angels then did him honour; and now, that we may not be offended at his being
presented in the temple, like other children born in sin, and without any manner of
solemnity peculiar to him, but silently, and in the crowd of other children, Simeon
and Anna now do him honour, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
I. A very honourable testimony is borne to him by Simeon, which was both a
reputation to the child and an encouragement to the parents, and might have been a
happy introduction of the priests into an acquaintance with the Saviour, if those
watchmen had not been blind. Now observe here,
1. The account that is given us concerning this Simeon, or Simon. He dwelt now in
Jerusalem, and was eminent for his piety and communion with God. Some learned
men, who have been conversant with the Jewish writers, find that there was at this
time one Simeon, a man of great note in Jerusalem, the son of Hillel, and the first to
whom they gave the title of Rabban, the highest title that they gave to their doctors,
and which was never given but to seven of them. He succeeded his father Hillel, as
president of the college which his father founded, and of the great Sanhedrim. The
Jews say that he was endued with a prophetical spirit, and that he was turned out of
his place because he witnessed against the common opinion of the Jews concerning
the temporal kingdom of the Messiah; and they likewise observe that there is no
mention of him in their Mishna, or book of traditions, which intimates that he was
no patron of those fooleries. One thing objected against this conjecture is that at this
time his father Hillel was living, and that he himself lived many years after this, as
appears by the Jewish histories; but, as to that, he is not here said to be old; and his
saying, Now let thy servant depart intimates that he was willing to die now, but does
not conclude that therefore he did die quickly. St. Paul lived many years after he had
spoken of his death as near, Act_20:25. Another thing objected is that the son of
Simeon was Gamaliel, a Pharisee, and an enemy to Christianity; but, as to that, it is
no new thing for a faithful lover of Christ to have a son a bigoted Pharisee.
The account given of him here is, (1.) That he was just and devout, just towards men
and devout towards God; these two must always go together, and each will befriend
the other, but neither will atone for the defect of the other. (2.) That he waited for the
consolation of Israel, that is, for the coming of the Messiah, in whom alone the
nation of Israel, that was now miserably harassed and oppressed, would find
consolation. Christ is not only the author of his people's comfort, but the matter and
ground of it, the consolation of Israel. He was long a coming, and they who believed
he would come continued waiting, desiring his coming, and hoping for it with
patience; I had almost said, with some degree of impatience waiting till it came. He
understood by books, as Daniel, that the time was at hand, and therefore was now
more than ever big with expectation of it. The unbelieving Jews, who still expect that
which is already come, use it as an oath, or solemn protestation, As ever I hope to see
the consolation of Israel, so and so it is. Note, The consolation of Israel is to be
waited for, and it is worth waiting for, and it will be very welcome to those who have
waited for it, and continue waiting. (3.) The Holy Ghost was upon him, not only as a
Spirit of holiness, but as a Spirit of prophecy; he was filled with the Holy Ghost, and
enabled to speak things above himself.
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JAMISON, "just — upright in his moral character.
devout — of a religious frame of spirit.
waiting for the consolation of Israel — a beautiful title of the coming
Messiah, here intended.
the Holy Ghost was — supernaturally.
upon him — Thus was the Spirit, after a dreary absence of nearly four hundred
years, returning to the Church, to quicken expectation, and prepare for coming
events.
CALVIN, "25.And, lo, there was a man in Jerusalem The design of this narrative
is to inform us that, though nearly the whole nation was profane and irreligious,
and despised God, yet that a few worshippers of God remained, and that Christ
was known to such persons from his earliest infancy. These were “the remnant”
of whom Paul says, that they were preserved “according to the election of grace,”
(Romans 11:5.) Within this small band lay the Church of God; though the priests
and scribes, with as much pride as falsehood, claimed for themselves the title of
the Church. The Evangelist mentions no more than two, who recognised Christ
at Jerusalem, when he was brought into the temple. These were Simeon and
Anna. We must speak first of Simeon.
As to his condition in life we are not informed: he may have been a person of
humble rank and of no reputation. Luke bestows on him the commendation of
being just and devout; and adds, that he had the gift of prophecy: for the Holy
Spirit was upon him. Devotion and Righteousness related to the two tables of the
law, and are the two parts of which an upright life consists. It was a proof of his
being a devout man, that he waited for the consolation of Israel: for no true
worship of God can exist without the hope of salvation, which depends on the
faith of his promises, and particularly on the restoration promised through
Christ. Now, since an expectation of this sort is commended in Simeon as an
uncommon attainment, we may conclude, that there were few in that age, who
actually cherished in their hearts the hope of redemption. All had on their lips
the name of the Messiah, and of prosperity under the reign of David: but hardly
any one was to be found, who patiently endured present afflictions, relying on
the consolatory assurance, that the redemption of the Church was at hand. As
the eminence of Simeon’s piety was manifested by its supporting his mind in the
hope of the promised salvation, so those who wish to prove themselves the
children of God, will breathe out unceasing prayers for the promised
redemption. For we, “have need of patience” (Hebrews 10:36) till the last coming
of Christ.
And the Holy Spirit was upon him The Evangelist does not speak of “the Spirit
of adoptions” (Romans 8:15,) which is common to all the children of God, though
not in an equal degree, but of the peculiar gift of prophecy. This appears more
clearly from the next verse and the following one, in which it is said, that he
received a revelation (194) from the Holy Spirit, and that, by the guidance of the
same Spirit, he came into the temple Though Simeon had no distinction of public
office, he was adorned with eminent gifts, — with piety, with a blameless life,
with faith and prophecy. Nor can it be doubted, that this divine intimation,
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which he received in his individual and private capacity, was intended generally
for the confirmation of all the godly. Jesus is called the Lord’s Christ, because he
was anointed (195) by the Father, and, at the same time that he received the
Spirit, received also the title, of King and Priest. Simeon is said to have come into
the temple by the Spirit; that is, by a secret movement and undoubted revelation,
that he might meet Christ. (196)
LIGHTFOOT, "[Simeon.--The same man was just and devout.] I. Simeon the
Just, of whom the Jewish histories tell so many and great things, hath nothing to
do here. For, as it is certain that Simeon died long before, so it is very uncertain
whether he deserved the title of Just as well as our Simeon did. He was called
'Just' both for his piety towards God, and his charity towards his countrymen.
Grant he was so; yet is it a far greater testimony that is given of our Simeon.
II. Rabban Simeon, the son of Hillel, was alive and at Jerusalem in those very
times wherein our evangelist wrote, his father Hillel also still living; whom the
son succeeded upon the decease of the father, as president of the council. But as
to him, there is nothing famous concerning him amongst Jewish authors but his
bare name: "Rabban Simeon, the son of old Hillel, a prince of Israel, as his
father had been. As you may see in cap. 1. Schabb. there is no mention of him in
Misna." He was, therefore, no father of traditions, neither were there any things
recited from him in the Misna: which, indeed, was very extraordinary; but how
it should come to pass I cannot tell. Whether he had a sounder apprehension of
things; or was not well seen in traditions; or was this very Simeon the evangelist
mentions, and so looked higher than the mere traditions of men: this is all the
hindrance, that Rabban Simeon lived a great while after the birth of our Saviour
and had a son, Gamaliel, whom he bred up a Pharisee.
[Waiting for the consolation of Israel.] That is, believing the consolation of Israel
was nigh at hand. The whole nation waited for the consolation of Israel,
insomuch that there was nothing more common with them than to swear by the
desire which they had of seeing it.
"R. Judah Ben Tabbai said, So let me see the consolation [of Israel], if I have not
put to death a false witness. Simeon Ben Shetah saith to him, 'So let me see the
consolation, if thou hast not shed innocent blood.'"
"R. Eliezer Ben Zadok said, So let me see the consolation, if I did not see her
gleaning barley under the horses' heels."
"R. Simeon Ben Shetah said, 'So let me see the consolation, I saw one pursuing
another with a drawn sword.'"
"Those which desire the years of consolation that are to come."
BARCLAY, "A DREAM REALIZED (Luke 2:25-35)
2:25-35 Now--look you--there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon. This man
was good and pious. He was waiting for the comforting of Israel and the Holy
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Spirit was upon him. He had received a message from the Holy Spirit that he
would not see death until he had seen the Lord's Anointed One. So he came in
the Spirit to the Temple precincts. When his parents brought in the child Jesus,
to do regarding him the customary ceremonies laid down by the law, he took him
into his arms and blessed God and said, "Now O Lord, as you said, let your
servant depart in peace, because my eyes have seen your instrument of salvation,
which you have prepared before all the people, a light to bring your revelation to
the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel." His father and mother were
amazed at what was said about him. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his
mother, "Look you, this child is appointed to be the cause whereby many in
Israel will fall and many rise and for a sign which will meet with much
opposition. As for you--a sword will pierce your soul--and all this will happen
that the inner thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
There was no Jew who did not regard his own nation as the chosen people. But
the Jews saw quite clearly that by human means their nation could never attain
to the supreme world greatness which they believed their destiny involved. By
far the greater number of them believed that because the Jews were the chosen
people they were bound some day to become masters of the world and lords of all
the nations. To bring in that day some believed that some great, celestial
champion would descend upon the earth; some believed that there would arise
another king of David's line and that all the old glories would revive; some
believed that God himself would break directly into history by supernatural
means. But in contrast to all that there were some few people who were known as
the Quiet in the Land. They had no dreams of violence and of power and of
armies with banners; they believed in a life of constant prayer and quiet
watchfulness until God should come. All their lives they waited quietly and
patiently upon God. Simeon was like that; in prayer, in worship, in humble and
faithful expectation he was waiting for the day when God would comfort his
people. God had promised him through the Holy Spirit that his life would not
end before he had seen God's own Anointed King. In the baby Jesus he
recognized that King and was glad. Now he was ready to depart in peace and his
words have become the Nunc Dimittis, another of the great and precious hymns
of the Church.
In Luke 2:34 Simeon gives a kind of summary of the work and fate of Jesus.
(i) He will be the cause whereby many will fall. This is a strange and a hard
saying but it is true. It is not so much God who judges a man; a man judges
himself; and his judgment is his reaction to Jesus Christ. If, when he is
confronted with that goodness and that loveliness, his heart runs out in
answering love, he is within the Kingdom. If, when so confronted, he remains
coldly unmoved or actively hostile, he is condemned. There is a great refusal just
as there is a great acceptance.
(ii) He will be the cause whereby many will rise. Long ago Seneca said that what
men needed above all was a hand let down to lift them up. It is the hand of Jesus
which lifts a man out of the old life and into the new, out of the sin into the
goodness, out of the shame into the glory.
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(iii) He will meet with much opposition. Towards Jesus Christ there can be no
neutrality. We either surrender to him or are at war with him. And it is the
tragedy of life that our pride often keeps us from making that surrender which
leads to victory.
COFFMAN, "Simeon ... This man has been identified as the son of the famous
Hillel, father of Gamaliel, and president of the Sanhedrin.[24] Spence noted that
the Mishna (part of the Talmud), which preserved the record of sayings of great
rabbis, has no word from Simeon, "perhaps owing to the hatred incurred
because of his belief in Jesus of Nazareth."[25]
Righteous and devout ... The Greek word for "devout" means "circumspect or
cautious,"[26] and thus Simeon was not a man to make rash or unconsidered
judgments. The word also means "God-fearing."[27]
Looking for the consolation of Israel ... He longed for the coming of the Messiah;
and the Spirit prepared his heart to recognize him.
And the Holy Spirit was upon him ... indicates that it was directly under the
influence of the Holy Spirit that Simeon was told to go into the temple, thus
making this a supplementary revelation to the one already received regarding
the promise that he should live to see the Messiah.
[24] Adam Clarke, op. cit., p. 374.
[25] H. D. M. Spence, The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), Vol. 16, Luke, p. 40.
[26] H. Leo Boles, op. cit., p. 60.
[27] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 743.
COKE, "Luke 2:25. The consolation of Israel— This is a phrase frequently used
both by the ancient and modern Jews for a description of the Messiah. The day
of consolation is a common phrase among them to signify the days of the
Messiah; nor is there any thing more usual with them than to swear by their
desire of seeing this consolation. The Messiah was very fitly called the
consolation of Israel, because in all ages the prophets had been sent with express
promises of his coming, to comfort the people of God under their afflictions. See
Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 62:12. Jeremiah 31:13. Zechariah 1:17;
Zechariah 1:21.
BENSON, "Luke 2:25-33. Behold there was a man, &c. — There was now in
Jerusalem one Simeon, venerable on account of his age, piety, and virtue. For, he
was just and devout — Righteous toward his fellow-creatures, and holy toward
God; waiting for the consolation of Israel — A common phrase for the Messiah,
who was to be the everlasting consolation of the Israel of God. And the Holy
Ghost was upon him — That is, as the word here signifies, he was a prophet.
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And it was revealed unto him, &c. — God, in reward of his piety, had favoured
him so highly as to assure him by a particular revelation, that he should not die
till he had seen the Messiah. And he came by the Spirit into the temple — That
is, by a secret but powerful direction and impulse of the Holy Spirit; when the
parents brought in the child Jesus — Just at that very juncture of time when
they brought him into the court of Israel there. Then took he him up in his
arms — Having discovered him by the supernatural illumination with which he
was favoured; and blessed God, and said — Aloud, it seems, in the hearing of all
the people then present; Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
&c. — Let me depart hence with the satisfaction of having seen the Messiah,
according to the gracious promise thou wast pleased to make me. This good old
man, having attained that which had long been his highest wish, the happiness of
seeing God’s Messiah, and having no further use for life, desired immediate
death. Yet he would not depart of himself, knowing that man cannot lawfully
desert his station till God, who placed him therein, calls him off. For mine eyes
have seen thy salvation — Thy Christ, the Saviour. Simeon, being well
acquainted with the prophetic writings, knew from them that the Messiah was to
be the author of a great salvation, which, because it had its origin in the wisdom,
power, and love of God, he refers to him; and, putting the abstract for the
concrete, or the effect for the cause, he terms the Messiah God’s salvation. Thus,
God is called, our defence, our song, our hope; that is, our defender, the subject
of our song, the object of our hope. Which thou hast prepared before the face of
all people — Here it appears that Simeon knew that this salvation was not
confined to the Jews, but was designed for all mankind. A light to lighten the
Gentiles — Who then sat in darkness, and who were to receive the knowledge of
God, of true religion, and of divine things in general, especially of a future state,
through him; and the glory of thy people Israel — It was an honour to the
Jewish nation, that the Messiah sprung from one of their tribes, and was born,
lived, and died among them. And of those who were Israelites indeed, of the
spiritual Israel, he was indeed the glory, and will be so to all eternity, Isaiah
60:19. For in him shall the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory, Isaiah
45:25. And Joseph and his (Jesus’s) mother marvelled at those things which were
spoken — For they did not yet thoroughly understand them; or they marvelled
how Simeon, a stranger, came to the knowledge of the child.
SBC, “Some Aspects of the Presentation in the Temple.
I. Two points strike us in Simeon pre-eminently, whether they are marks of a school
of Jewish interpretation, or rather traits of a single soul, simpler and more receptive
than most. One is—that starting merely with prophecy, and not concerned to image
to himself the details of its fulfilment, he hears in it a note which hardly sounded as
clearly even to Apostles: "A light for the revelation of the Gentiles." The other is—that
the sadder and more mysterious tones of prophecy come back to him as well as the
more triumphant ones—the stone of stumbling—the gainsaying people—the sword
that is to awake against the Shepherd. There is set in the forefront of the new
revelation, side by side with triumphant hopes and promises, the record of a
prevision of limitation, drawbacks, it would seem, even of partial failure. These are
accepted from the first as necessary conditions; accepted and proclaimed by the same
prophetic voice, which speaks most strongly of its satisfying, universal, eternal
blessedness.
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II. The words of Simeon touch three points, which correspond roughly with the three
mysteries of human life. (1) He sees that the Gospel is to bring pain as well as
happiness: "A sword shall pierce through thine own soul also." The nearer to Christ
the surer and deeper the pain. He sees that it is to be the occasion of evil as well as of
good—to lower as well as to lift—to be the stone of stumbling as well as a ladder on
which men may rise to heavenly places. He sees that though it brings light, it is light
which cannot be visible to all eyes. (2) The second note is one still harsher to our
ears. Pain is a condition of which, if we cannot see the full explanation of its
necessity, we can see a certain purpose—we understand its disciplinary power, and
we see its limit. But evil touches the soul; reaches into the infinite world to where the
sense of limit is lost. What a strange forecast to the everlasting Gospel, that it should
be for the fall, the moral fall, as well as the rising of men! And so it has been in the
chequered after-history. If goodness has taken subtler and deeper forms, so has
badness. Men’s hearts have been widened to embrace all humankind, and they have
been narrowed and hardened into persecutors. (3) In the sphere of reason there is
also a note of incompleteness: "A sign spoken against." These words may stand as a
figure of the clamour of voices outside the Church, questioning and denying; and of
the whispers of timorous and distracted souls within, misdoubting their own hopes.
It is no answer to say that they are due to the perversity and weakness of men. We do
not even mean by that that they are unforeseen accidents which have befallen the
revelation. They were made account for in its ordering. These limitations, whatever
they are, were foreseen; they are a part of the Divine plan—foreseen before the angels
sang "Peace on earth," or prophets’ voices welcomed the coming light and glory.
E. C. Wickham, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, Feb. 7th, 1884
What is it that is here described by the words, "the consolation of Israel?".
I. Israel was God’s own people, constituted in their first father Abraham, blessed with
various renewals of the promise, and the covenant. From that time onwards, they
had long formed the one bright spot in the midst of the darkness of the nations. God
was with them. He was their God, so that, as compared with the nations round,
Israel’s consolation was already abundant. Still, Israel had, and looked for, a
consolation to come. God’s people differed in this also from every people on earth.
The brightness and the glory of every Gentile race was past; but Israel’s glory was
ever in the future. They looked for a deliverer; for one of whom their first covenant
promises spoke; of whom their psalms and prophets were full, to whom every
sacrifice and ordinance pointed. When, then, we use the words, "the consolation of
Israel," we mean Christ, in the fulness of His constituted Person and Office as the
Comforter of His people. And when we say "waiting for the consolation of Israel," we
imply that aptitude of expectation, anxious looking for, hearty desire of, this
consolation, which comes from, and is in fact, Christ Himself.
II. Christ is the consolation of His people (1) inasmuch as He delivers them from the
bondage of sin. In the history of that nation which was a parable for the Church of
God, this mighty deliverance was prefigured by their bringing up out of the land of
Egypt, the house of bondage. And correspondent, but far more glorious, is the
deliverance which Christ accomplishes for those who wait for and receive His
consolation, even till we depart in peace, having seen His salvation, and the
consolation which we have waited for is poured in all its fulness around us. (2) Christ
consoles His people not only from guilt but in sorrow. It is His especial office to bind
up the broken heart, to give the oil of joy for sorrow, the garment of praise for the
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spirit of heaviness. This He does directly and indirectly. Directly, inasmuch as His
Spirit is ever testifying within the sorrowing soul of the believer in Him,—cheering
him with better hopes and more enduring joys. Indirectly, inasmuch as His holy
example is ever before us; His compassionate tone; His promises of help and
comfort; His invitations to all that are weary and heavy-laden.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vi., p. 271..
BI 25-35, “Whose name was Simeon
Readiness for God’s will
“Some years ago,” says a lady, “I made the acquaintance of an old peasant in a little
German village, where I for some time resided.
He was called Gottlieb, a name which has the very beautiful signification, ‘The love of
God.’ The old man was well worthy of it, for if ever heart was filled with love to God
and to all God’s creatures it was his. Once when walking I came upon him as he was
stooping to pick up a fallen apple. ‘Don’t you weary, Gottlieb,’ I asked, ‘stooping so
often, end then lying all alone by the roadside?’ ‘No, no, miss,’ he answered, smiling,
and offering me a handful of ripe pears, ‘I don’t weary; I’m just waiting—waiting. I
think I’m about ripe now, and I must soon fall to the ground; and then, just think, the
Lord will pick me up! O miss, you are young yet, and perhaps just in blossom; turn
well round to the Sun of Righteousness, that you may ripen sweet for His service.’”
(New Cyclopaedia of Anecdote.)
Waiting for the Lord
Everybody knows and loves the story of the dog Argus, who just lives through the
term of his master’s absence, and sees him return to his home, and recognizes him,
and rejoicing in the sight, dies. Beautiful, too, as the story is in itself, it has a still
deeper allegorical interest. For how many Arguses have there been, how many will
there be hereafter, the course of whose years has been so ordered that they will have
just lived to see their Lord come and take possession of His home, and in their joy at
the blissful sight, have departed! How many such spirits, like Simeon’s, will swell the
praises of Him who spared them that He might save them. (Augustus Hare.)
Waiting for the chariot
Mrs. Cartwright, wife of the famous American preacher, was, after her husband’s
death, attending a meeting at Bethel Chapel, a mile from her house. She was called
upon to give her testimony, which she did with much feeling, concluding with the
words: “The past three weeks have been the happiest of all my life; I am waiting for
the chariot.” When the meeting broke up she did not rise with the rest. The minister
solemnly said, “The chariot has arrived.”
Simeon’s blessed hope
I. SIMEON’S EXPECTATION. He was “waiting.” He did not wish that the tabernacle
of his body might be dissolved; but he did hope that, through the chinks of that old
battered tabernacle of his, he might be able to see the Lord.
II. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS EXPECTATION. He had the consolation for which
he waited, and all the people of God now have it, in Jesus. But a little while ago I
heard of an ungodly man who had a pious wife. They had but one daughter, a fair and
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lovely thing; she was laid on a bed of sickness: the father and mother stood beside the
bed; the solemn moment came when she must die; the father leaned over, and put his
arm round her, and wept hot tears upon his child’s white brow; the mother stood
there too, weeping her very soul away. The moment that child was dead, the father
began to tear his hair, and curse himself in his despair; misery had got hold upon
him; but as he looked towards the foot of the bed, there stood his wife; she was not
raving, she was not cursing; she wiped her eyes, and said, “I shall go to her, but she
shall not return to me.” The unbeliever’s heart for a moment rose in anger, for he
imagined that she was a stoic. But the tears flowed down her cheeks too. He saw that
though she was a weak and feeble woman, she could bear sorrow better than he
could, and he threw his arms round her neck, and said, “Ah! wife, I have often
laughed at your religion; I will do so no more. There is much blessedness in this
resignation. Would God that I had it too!” “Yes,” she might have answered, “I have
the consolation of Israel.” There is—hear it, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!-
there is consolation in Israel. Ah! it is sweet to see a Christian die; it is the noblest
thing on earth—the dismissal of a saint from his labour to his reward, from his
conflicts to his triumphs. The georgeons pageantry of princes is as nothing. The glory
of the setting sun is not to be compared with the heavenly coruscations which
illumine the soul as it fades from the organs of bodily sense, to be ushered into the
august presence of the Lord. When dear Haliburton died, he said, “I am afraid I shall
not be able to bear another testimony to my Master, but in order to show you that I
am peaceful, and still resting on Christ, I will hold my hands up;” and just before he
died, he held both his hands up, and clapped them together, though he could not
speak. Have you ever read of the death-bed of Payson? I cannot describe it to you; it
was like the flight of a seraph. John Knox, that brave old fellow, when he came to die,
sat up in his bed, and said, “Now the hour of my dissolution is come; I have longed
for it many a-day; but I shall be with my Lord in a few moments.” Then he fell back
on his bed and died.
III. THE EXPLANATION OF THIS FACT.
1. There is consolation in the doctrines of the Bible. What sayest thou, worldling,
if thou couldst know thyself elect of God the Father, if thou couldst believe thyself
redeemed by His only-begotten Son, if thou knewest that for thy sins there was a
complete ransom paid, would not that be a consolation to you? Perhaps you
answer, “No.” That is because you are a natural man, and do not discern spiritual
things. The spiritual man will reply, “Consolation? ay, sweet as honey to these
lips; yea, sweeter than the honeycomb to my heart are those precious doctrines of
the grace of God.”
2. There is consolation in the promises of the Bible. Oh! how sweet to the soul in
distress are the promises of Jesus! For every condition there is a promise; for
every sorrow there is a cordial; for every wound there is a balm; for every disease
there is a medicine. If we turn to the Bible, there are promises for all cases.
3. Not only have we consolatory promises, and consolatory doctrines, but we
have consolatory influences in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Scripture biography of Simeon
What a biography of a man? How short, and yet how complete! We have seen
biographies so prolix, that full one half is nonsense, and much of the other half too
vapid to be worth reading. We have seen large volumes spun out of men’s letters.
Writing desks have been broken open, and private diaries exposed to the world.
Now-a-days, if a man is a little celebrated, his signature, the house in which he was
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born, the place where he dines, and everything else, is thought worthy of public
notice. So soon as he is departed this life, he is embalmed in huge fulios, the profit of
which rests mainly, I believe, with the publishers, and not with the readers. Short
biographies are the best, which give a concise and exact account of the whole man.
What do we care about what Simeon did—where he was born, where he was married,
what street he used to walk through, or what coloured coat he wore? We have a very
concise account of his history, and that is enough. His “name was Simeon;” he lived
“in Jerusalem;” “the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of
Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.” Beloved, that is enough of a biography for
any one of us. If, when we die, so much as this can be said of us—our name—our
business, “waiting for the consolation of Israel”—our character, “just and devout”—
our companionship, having the Holy Ghost upon us—that will be sufficient to hand
us down not to time, but to eternity, memorable amongst the just, and estimable
amongst all them that are sanctified. Pause awhile, I beseech you, and contemplate
Simeon’s character. The Holy Ghost thought it worthy of notice, since he has put a
“behold” in the sentence. “Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was
Simeon.” He doth not say, “Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was
King Herod;” he doth not say, “Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, who was high
priest;” but “Behold!”—turn aside here, for the sight is so rare, you may never see
such a thing again so long as you live; here is a perfect marvel; “Behold,” there was
one man in Jerusalem who was “just and devout, waiting for the consolation of
Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him.” His character is summed up in two
words—“just and devout.” “Just”—that is his character before men. “Devout”—that is
his character before God. He was “just.” Was he a father? He did not provoke his
children to anger, lest they should be discouraged. Was he a master? He gave unto
his servants that which was just and equal, knowing that he also had his Master in
heaven. Was he a citizen? He rendered obedience unto the powers that then were,
submitting himself to the ordinances of man for the Lord’s sake. Was he a merchant?
He overreached in no transaction, but pro-riding things honest in the sight of all
men, he honoured God in his common business habits. Was he a servant? Then he
did not render eye-service, as a man-pleaser, but in singleness of heart he served the
Lord. If, as is very probable, he was one of the teachers of the Jews, then he was
faithful; he spoke what he knew to be the Word of God, although it might not be for
his gain, and would not, like the other shepherds, turn aside to speak error, for the
sake of filthy lucre. Before men he was just. But that is only half a good man’s
character. There are many who say, “I am just and upright; I never robbed a man in
my life; I pay twenty shillings in the pound; and if anybody can find fault with my
character, let him speak. Am I not just? But as for your religion,” such a one will say,
“I do not care about it; I think it cant.” Sir, you have only one feature of a good man,
and that the smallest. You do good towards man, but not towards God; you do not
rob your fellow, but you rob your Maker. Simeon had both features of a Christian. He
was a “just man,” and he was also “devout.” He valued the “outward and visible sign,”
and he possessed also the “inward and spiritual grace. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The waiting Church
All the saints have waited for Jesus. Our mother Eve waited for the coming of Christ;
when her first son was born, she said, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” True she
was mistaken in what she said: it was Cain, and not Jesus. But by her mistake we see
that she cherished the blessed hope. That Hebrew patriarch, who took his son, his
only son, to offer him for a burnt offering, expected the Messiah, and well did he
express his faith when he said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb.” He who
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once had a stone for his pillow, the trees for his curtains, the heaven for his canopy,
and the cold ground for his bed, expected the coming of Jesus, for he said on his
death-bed—“Until Shiloh come.” The law-giver of Israel, who was “king in Jeshurun,”
spake of Him, for Moses said, “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you,
of your brethren, like unto me: Him shall ye hear.” David celebrated Him in many a
prophetic song—the Anointed of God, the King of Israel; Him to whom all kings shall
bow, and all nations call Him blessed. How frequently does he in his Psalms sing
about “my Lord”! “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I
make thine enemies thy footstool.” But need we stop to tell you of Isaiah, who spake
of His passion, and “saw His glory”? of Jeremiah, of Ezekiel, of Daniel, of Micah, of
Malachi, and of all the rest of the prophets, who stood with their eyes strained,
looking through the dim mists of futurity, until the weeks of prophecy should be
fulfilled—until the sacred day should arrive, when Jesus Christ should come in the
flesh? They were all waiting for the consolation of Israel. And, now, good old Simeon,
standing on the verge of the period when Christ would come, with expectant eyes
looked out for Him. Every morning he went up to the temple, saying to himself,
“Perhaps He will come to-day.” Each night when he went home he bent his knee, and
said, “O Lord, come quickly; even so, come quickly.” And yet, peradventure, that
morning he went to the temple, little thinking, perhaps, the hour was at hand when
he should see his Lord there; but there He was, brought in the arms of His mother, a
little babe; and Simeon knew Him. “Lord,” said he, “now lettest Thou Thy servant
depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”
“Oh,” cries one, “but we cannot wait for the Saviour now!” No, beloved, in one sense
we cannot, for He has come already. The poor Jews are waiting for Him. They will
wait in vain now for His first coming, that having passed already. Waiting for the
Messiah was a virtue in Simeon’s day; it is the infidelity of the Jews now, since the
Messiah is come. Still there is a high sense in which the Christian ought to be every
day waiting for the consolation of Israel. I am very pleased to see that the doctrine of
the second advent of Christ is gaining ground everywhere. I find that the most
spiritual men in every place are” looking for,” as well as “hastening unto,” the coming
of our Lord and Saviour. I marvel that the belief is not universal, for it is so perfectly
scriptural. We are, we trust, some of us, in the same posture as Simeon. We have
climbed the staircase of the Christian virtues, from whence we look for that blessed
hope, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The consolation of Israel
Piscator observeth that “the consolation of Israel” is the periphrasis of Jesus Christ;
because all the consolation of a true Israelite, as Jacob’s in Benjamin, is bound up in
Christ. If He be gone, the soul goeth down to the grave with sorrow. As all the candles
in a country cannot make a day—no, it must be the rising of the sun that must do it,
the greatest confluence of comforts that the whole creation affordeth, cannot make a
day of light and gladness in the heart of a believer; no, it must be the rising of this
Sun of Righteousness. (G. Swinnock.)
Waiting is good but hard service
Waiting is often the best kind of service a man can render. Indeed we call a good
servant a waiter. But it is commonly harder to wait than to work. It was hard for the
children, the night before Christmas, to wait until morning before they knew what
presents they were to have. Yet there was nothing for them to do but to wait. And if
they only would wait, the morning would come—and with it all that had been
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promised to them for the morning. How hard it is to wait for the fever to turn, when
we are watching by a loved one’s bedside, and our only hope is in waiting. It is hard
to wait from seedtime to harvest, from the beginning of the voyage to its end, from
the sad parting to the joyous meeting again, from the sending of a letter until its
answer can come back to us. How much easier it would be to do something to hasten
a desired event, instead of patiently, passively waiting for its coming. It is so much
easier to ask in faith than to wait in faith. The minutes drag while the response
tarries. (H. C. Trumbull.)
Waiting is harder than doing
Waiting is a harder duty than doing. In illustration of this compare Milton’s beautiful
sonnet on his blindness, and that part of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” which tells of
Passion and Patience. Jesus Himself had to wait patiently for thirty long years before
He entered upon His mission. In a certain battle a detachment of cavalry was kept
inactive. It was hard for the men to do nothing but wait, while the fight was going on
before them. At last, in the crisis of the battle, the command was given them to
charge, and that body of fresh men, sweeping down like a torrent, turned the tide of
battle. So, in the battle of life, waiting is often the surest means to victory. And it is
comforting to know that where we see only the unsightly bud, God sees the perfect
flower; where we see the rough pebble, He sees the flashing diamond. (Sunday
School Times.)
Patient waiting
Those who have read the story of Agamemnon will remember the glorious beauty of
its opening. A sentinel is placed to watch, year after year, for the beacon-blaze, the
appointed signal to announce the taking of Troy. At last it is lighted up; on many a
hill the withered heath flares up to pass on the tidings being given; from many a
promontory the fire rises in a pillar, and is reflected tremulously on the ridged waves,
till at last it is lighted upon the mountains, and recognized as the genuine offspring of
the Idean flame. And then the sentinel may be relieved. Even so it is with Simeon. He
is a sentinel whom God had set to watch for the Light. He has seen it, and he feels
now that his life-work is over. (Bishop Wm. Alexander.)
Simeon and the child Jesus
1. It is saying much for Simeon that he was both a just and a devout man. These
two features of Christian character are needful tile one to the other. A just man
may be rigidly and legally righteous, yet his character may be hard and cold; but a
devout man is one of a warmer, gentler spirit, who is not only good, but makes
goodness attractive. Simeon’s devout spirit adorned his justice, and his just spirit
strengthened his devotion.
2. No Christian grace is finer than the grace that waits for the consolation of
Israel. Waiting higher than working. The passive virtues of the Christian require
and display a greater faith and a profounder humility than the active. To those
who wait in faith, submission, and holy living, the consolation of Israel will
always come.
3. All Christians may not depart in raptures, but they may at least expect to
“depart in peace.” Many good people are greatly concerned lest they should not
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be ready to die. If we are ready to live we may leave dying to the Lord. Simeon’s
life had been passed in peace with God. In the same peace he was ready to die.
4. The salvation of Christ is no meagre and limited scheme. It is for all peoples.
Christ is both “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” and “the glory of God’s Israel.”
Before His throne will be gathered at last “a great multitude whom no man can
number.” “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” But what
will satisfy His infinite heart, if the kingdom of Satan at last outnumbers His
own?
5. Christ has always been “spoken against,” but Christianity lives, and is going on
in the world “conquering and to conquer.” (E. D. Rogers, D. D.)
Simeon: saint, singer, and seer
Simeon’s song was the first human Advent hymn with which the Saviour was greeted,
and it has been sung constantly in the Church ever since.
I. Contemplate A SAINTLY CHARACTER.
II. See further THE SAINT’S ANTICIPATION, resting upon
(1) the word of prophecy;
(2)a definite personal promise (Luk_2:26).
III. Now think of THE SAINTLY SATISFACTION. Simeon saw Christ. The promise
was fulfilled. The vision was enough to satisfy the soul.
IV. Let us listen to THE SAINT’S SONG. HOW honourable was the position which
Simeon occupied in uttering this song! A long chain of saints, stretching through the
ages, was completed in him. They expected, he realized. They had all died, not having
received the promise, he received. They had only foreseen, he actually touched
Christ. He struck the first chords of that song which has been taken up already by the
ages, and will go on vibrating and increasing in volume so long as earth stands or
heaven endures.
V. THE SAINTLY PROPHECY of Simeon must not be unnoticed. If there is to be
glory, there must also be suffering. He gives a hint of Gethsemane and of Calvary. A
sword was to pass through Mary’s heart. Here is the “first foreshadowing of the
Passion found in the New Testament.” It should save us from surprise that
Christianity has had to pass through such vicissitudes. The Saviour came to His
throne by way of the cross, and His truth will come to be the one power among men
by way of frequent dispute and temporary rejection.
VI. THE SAINT’S PREPARATION FOR DEATH is suggested in his own words.
There is a tradition that this was his “swan-song”—that he passed into the other
world when he had finished it. More fitting words with which to die could not easily
be found. What a contrast the dying words of such a saint present to the words of the
worldling! It is said that Mirabeau cried out frantically for music to soothe his last
moments; that Hobbes, the deist, said, as he gasped his last breath, “I am taking a
fearful leap into the dark”; that Cardinal Beaufort said, “What I is there no bribing
death?” Men with the Christian light have met death in another way. When
Melancthon was asked if there was anything he desired, he said, “No, Luther, nothing
but heaven.” Dr. John Owen said at last, “I am going to Him whom my soul loveth, or
rather, who has loved me with an everlasting love.” John Brown of Haddington could
say, “I am weak, but it is delightful to feel one’s self in the everlasting arms.” George
Washington could say, “It is all well.” Walter Scott, as he sank in the slumber of
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death, “Now I shall be myself again.” Beethoven, as he could almost catch the melody
of the mystic world, “Now I shall hear.” Wesley could cheerily meet death with the
words, “The best of all is, God is with us.” Locke, the Christian philosopher,
exclaimed at dying, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the goodness and knowledge of
God!” Stephen said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”: Paul, “having a desire to depart”;
and, “to die is gain.” All such utterances accord with the last words of Simeon.
Inquiry as to the character of the individual life, hope, and preparation for the future
should be the outcome of these thoughts. Useful and important lessons all may learn
as they contemplate the character of the venerable Simeon—saint, singer, and seer.
(F. Hastings.)
Simeon: a sermon for Christmas
Simeon, we are told, waited for the Consolation of Israel. In that short but striking
word we discover a thought unknown to the ancient world, and one which gives the
Jewish nation incomparable grandeur. Israel is a people that waits. Whilst the other
nations grow great, conquer, and extend here below; whilst they think only of their
power and visible prosperity, Israel waits. This little people has an immense, a
strange ambition; they expect the reign of God on earth. Much that was carnal and
selfish mixed up with that ambition. But the truly pious understood in a different
way the consolation of Israel. In their ease, the question was, before everything else,
spiritual deliverance, pardon, salvation. Yet how few they were who were not tired of
waiting! For more than four hundred years no prophet had appeared to revive their
hope. The stranger reigned in Jerusalem. Religious formalism covered with a
winding sheet of lead the whole nation. The scoffers asked where the promise of
Messiah’s coming was. Yet in the midst of that icy indifference, Simeon still waits.
Consider—
I. THE FIRMNESS OF HIS HOPE.
II. THE GREATNESS OF HIS FAITH, In a poor child brought by poor people to the
temple he discovers Him who is to he the glory of Israel, and—something more
wonderful still, and wholly foreign to the spirit of a Jew—Him who is to enlighten the
Gentiles. It is the whole of mankind that Simeon gives as a retinue to the child which
he bears in his arms. Never did a bolder faith launch out into the infinite, basing all
its calculations on the Word of God.
III. THE FEELINGS AWAKENED IN HIS SOUL BY THE CERTAINTY WITH
WHICH FAITH FILLS HIM. All these feelings summed up in one—joy; the joy of a
soul overwhelmed with the goodness of God, joy which is breathed out in song. What
is the principle of that joy? It is a Divine peace. “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart
in peace.” And on what does that peace rest? On the certainty of salvation. “Mine eyes
have seen Thy salvation.” You who know this joy, keep it not to yourselves! (E.
Bersier, D. D.)
A representative man
Sometimes one man seems to stand as the representative of the whole human family.
It was so in this instance. All the expectations, desire, hope, and assurance of better
things which have moved the heart of man, seem to have been embodied in the
waiting Simeon. His occupation is appropriately described by the word waiting. He
had probably seen a long lifetime of varied spiritual service, and had passed through
his full share of human suffering; and now, with all this discipline behind him, he
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had nothing to do but to wait for the disclosure of the supreme mercy of heaven. At
his age he could not be long, in the usual order of things, before he saw death; and
yet, between him and that grim sight there lay the promised revelation of the very
beauty of the Father’s image. The coming of Simeon into the Temple, though an
ordinary act, was invested with extraordinary feeling and significance. Sometimes the
habitude of a whole life will suddenly disclose new meanings and adaptations, and
the most beaten ground of our routine will have springing up on it unexpected and
precious flowers. Persist in going to the house of God, for the very next time you go
you may be gladdened by rare revelations! A beautiful picture is this taking of the
child into the arms of Simeon, this lifting up of the old man’s face, and this utterance
of the saint’s prayer! Let imagination linger upon the pathetic scene. It is thus that
God closes the ages and opens the coming time. The old man and the little child,
whenever they come together, seem to repeat in some degree the interest of this
exciting scene. Every child brought into the temple of the Lord should be in his own
degree a teacher and a deliverer of the people; and every venerable saint should
regard him as such, and bless God for the promise of his manhood. It is amazing at
how many points we may touch the Saviour. There is Simeon with the little child in
his arms, and in that little life he sees the whole power of God, and the light that is to
spread its glory over Israel and the Gentiles. Simeon might have given his prayer
another turn; he might have said, “Lord, let me tarry awhile, that I may see the
growth of this child. I am unwilling to go just yet, as great things are about to
happen, such as never happened upon the earth before; I pray Thee let me abide until
I see at least His first victory, and then call me to Thy rest.” This would have been a
natural desire, and yet the old man was content to have seen and touched the
promised child; and he who might have died in the night of Judaism, passed upward
in the earliest dawn of Christianity. Simeon saw the salvation of God in the little
child. Others have seen that salvation is the wondrousness and beneficence
exemplified in the full manhood of Christ. Some have been saved by a simple act of
faith; others have passed into spiritual rest through doubt, suffering, and manifold
agony. Some have gone “through nature up to nature’s God”; and others have found
Him in the pages of revelation, in bold prophecy, in tender promise, in profound
legislation, in gracious and healing sympathay. Thus there are many points at which
we touch the great saving facts of the universe; the question is not so much at what
point we come into contact with God as to be sure that our progress is vital and
progressive. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Aged evangelists
The first evangelists were old people. When the King of kings put off the glory of His
heavenly state, and came into this world, no person pronounced His name, or even
recognized His face on the day of His first public appearance, but one old man and
one old woman.
I. THE FIRST MAN IN THIS WORLD WHO WAS HONOURED TO BE AN
EVANGELIST WAS AN AGED MAN. An old father named Simeon. Historically, we
know nothing about him, not even that he was old; but all tradition says that he was
so, and it is the fair, inevitable inference from the spirit of the story that he had
reached a stage when, in all human probability, he would not have to live much
longer. I think that he began to walk up to the temple with short breath and slow
step, and that age had set a seal upon him, which, like the red cross upon a tree
marked by the steward to come down, told that he was soon to die. Yet he had in
cypher a secret message from heaven, by which he knew that he was safe to live a
little longer, It looks as if he had belonged to the predicted few who spake often one
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to another in the dark hour just before the Sun of Righteousness rose, and that in
answer to a great longing to see the Saviour “it was revealed to Him by the Holy
Ghost that he should not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” We are not
told when this revelation was made. If in his early manhood, it must have been a
strange, charmed life that he led ever after. At last the long-looked-for express came.
Did he hear in the air or did the voice whisper in his soul words like these: “Go to the
temple; the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to His temple this day”? We
only know that “he came by the Spirit into the temple.” No particular stir in the street
that morning, as the old man hurried along, to mark anything out of the common
way. No one knows what kind of being Simeon expected to see, but we know that his
faith was not shaken by the sight of His King coming as a mere child. All his soul
flamed up. The old face shone like a lamp suddenly lighted; then to the delight of the
mother and to the amazement of the officiating priests, who almost thought him out
of his mind, this servant of the Master in heaven took the child in his arms and spoke
like the prophet Isaiah. Let no believer be afraid to die. When the time comes, you
will find that, little by little, He has cleared out all the impediments that now seem to
you so great; you will be as really to go as Simeon was; and if you look for Him as he
did, you will find that Jesus clasped close to you is still “the antidote to death.”
II. THE FIRST WOMAN IN THIS WORLD WHO WAS HONOURED TO BE AN
EVANGELIST WAS AN AGED WOMAN. Let us take short notes of what is said
about her.
1. The fact of her great age is stated. The style of the statement is obscure, but the
meaning seems to be that she was a widow about eighty-four years of age; that
seven years out of the eighty-four she had been a wife, and that she was quite a
young girl when she married. Then she had lived long enough, like Noah, to see
an old world die, and a new world born.
2. She was a prophetess God had said by an ancient seer, “On My servants and on
My handmaidens I will pour out in these days of My Spirit.” As the sun sends out
shoots of glory and tinges of forerunning radiance to tell that he is coming, so,
before the Day of Pentecost was fully come, we have foretokens of it in the
prophetic flashes that shone out from the souls of Simeon and Anna.
3. She was of the tribe of Asher. Not an illustrious tribe. No star in the long story
of its darkness until now. It had, however, one honourable distinction. To it had
been left a peculiar promise, the richest gem in the old family treasure: “And of
Asher he said … As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” The old prophetess could
say of this promise, “I am its lawful heiress. Long have I known it, and always
have I found it true. In my young days, in my days of happy wifehood, in my days
of lonely widowhood, in my days of weary age; as my days, my strength has
been.”
4. “She departed not from the temple, but served God,” &c. (verse 37). Looking
and listening for the Lord of the temple, she thought that His foot on the stair
might be heard at any moment, and she would not be out of the way when He
came. When the temple shafts, crowned with lily-work, flashed back the crimson
sunrise, she was there; when the evening lamps were lighted, she was there; when
the courts were crowded, she was there; when the last echoes of the congregation
died away, still she was there; her spirit said, “One thing have I desired of the
Lord,” &c. (Psa_27:4).
5. She took part in making known the joyful tidings. Simeon was in the act of
speaking, “and she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord,
and spake of Him,” &c. (verse 38). We try in vain to picture her delight. It had
been her habit to speak about the glory of which her heart was full to the people
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who came at the hour of prayer; and now, at this most sacred hour, we are sure
that in her holy rapture she would stop this person, put her hand on that, and say
in spirit, whatever her words may have been: “Look there on that little child; He
is all that we have been looking for; folded up in that lovely little life is all our
redemption; that bud will burst into wondrous flower some day. Whoever lives to
see it, mark my words, that child will grow up to be the Redeemer of Israel.” First
things are significant things, especially at the opening of a new dispensation.
When, therefore, we find in the gospel-story that the first evangelists were old
people, both old and young should take the hint. Old Christians must never tell us
any more that they are past service. God has no such word as “superannuated”
written against any name in His book. The young Christian, joyful with a soul that
colours all things with the freshness and glory of its own morning, can never say
of the old Christian, “I have no need of thee.” No hand can turn back the shadow
on the dial of time; no spell can change the grey hair into its first bright abundant
beauty; no science can discover the fountain of youth told about in Spanish tales
of old romance; but the grace of God can do infinitely more than that. It can keep
the heart fresh; it can make the soul young when the limbs are old. When
strength is made perfect in weakness; when many years have run their course;
when we are obliged to change the tense in speech about your labours, as Paul did
when he said, “Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much in the Lord,” but
feel all the while that you are more “beloved” than ever; when, “coming in,” you
“give thanks to the Lord”; when your inmost life can say, “My hand begins to
tremble, but I can still take hold of the everlasting covenant; my foot fails, but it is
not far from the throne of grace; my sight fails, but I can see Jesus; my appetite
fails, but I have meat to eat that the world knows not of; my ears are dull, but I
hear Him, and He hears me; my memory is treacherous, but I remember the
years of the right hand of the Most High, and delight to talk of His doings”; when
you can thus preach Jesus, be assured that few evangelists do more for the
gospel. No sermon moves us more deeply than that of an old, happy, Christian
life, and no service more confirms our faith. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Simeon and Anna
Simeon had come up by special revelation; Anna needed no such token. Surely her
leading was the best. Simeon needed the message, but if Christ had come as a thief at
first, as He will at last, Anna would have been there. (A. Whyte, D. D.)
The same man was just and devout
To be devout means to live always with the consciousness of God’s presence; to walk
with Him, as the old Scriptures put it, so that all thoughts and acts are thought and
done before Him, and ordered so as to be in tune with His character. It means to live
in worship of Him, so that honour is paid in everything to that which is God, to truth
and mercy, justice and purity. But to be devout without being just is almost useless.
For this kind of devotion is liable to extravagances of feeling which dim the clear
sight of things. There is nothing more common than the prophecies M pious men
who map out the future and run into the wildest follies. The prophet must be a just
man, and that means not only the habit of right doing which devoutness almost
secures, but the habit of right thinking. (Stopford A. Brooke.)
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It is hard to wait, and few can do it well
But God was with Simeon, and high hopes, and faith. God with him; he had no lonely
hours, and it is the loneliness of the heart that makes waiting so bitter. He had that
ineffable Presence with him, consciousness of whom would make life Divine, could
we but possess it; and the glory of God’s life and thought had filled his heart with
song. To wait, then, was not hard; for every hour brought peaceful joy, and every joy
was a new pledge of the last and most glorious joy. But along with this life with God,
and flowing from it as a source, were those high hopes and faiths which were his
companions in this abiding old age. Waiting was no hardship to one So companied.
(Stopford A. Brooke.)
The expectant Simeon
We here see three different periods in the career of a believer.
I. WAITING.
1. For what? Consolation. The heart requires this (Heb_6:18). Redemption. No
consolation except through redemption. God’s salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ
the sum and substance of it all; for when he saw Him he was satisfied.
2. Relying on what? God’s Word.
3. Where? In the Temple. Perhaps because he looked for a special blessing in the
house of God (Isa_56:7). Perhaps because of prophecy Mal_3:1). Learn that the
Holy Ghost never supersedes Scripture, but leads men to trust it, and wait in faith
for the promised blessings. Observe also that He leads men to the sanctuary of
God; not to neglect church, but to look for a blessing in it.
II. FINDING. We do not know how long he waited. Perhaps years. At length a very
insignificant party entered the Temple. A man with a young woman and Child. Poor
people. Proved by turtle doves (Lev_12:8).
1. He recognizes the sacred character of the Child. The believer recognizes Christ
as his Saviour, though men in general may think nothing of Him.
2. He receives Him into his arms (Heb_11:13).
3. He blesses God.
III. HAVING FOUND.
1. He is at peace.
2. He is ready to die.
3. He is sure of the Divine salvation. (Canon Hoare.)
The Consolation of Israel
I. THE CHARACTER, UNDER WHICH THEY EXPECTED THEIR MESSIAH, is
beautifully expressed in these words of Simeon—THE CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL.
II. Having shown you under what character the Messiah was expected by Simeon
and his friends, I proceed now, in the second place, to consider the STATE OF MIND
IN WHICH THEY AWAITED HIS ARRIVAL.
1. Simeon waited in full confidence for the Consolation of Israel. He had received
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the promises of God concerning the coming of that Just One, and by faith he was
persuaded of them, and embraced them. He entertained no doubts of their being
fulfilled in their season.
2. Simeon waited for the Consolation of Israel with ardent desire. The
Incarnation of the Son of God was not merely an event of whose certainty this
excellent man was assured: he regarded it as an event most desirable, most happy
for himself.
3. Once more; the state in which Simeon awaited the birth of the Messiah, was a
state of holy preparation. For the same man was just and devout; and both he and
his friends appear to have been very constant in their attendance on the public
worship at the Temple. (J. Jowett, M. A.)
Christ our Consolation
I. Let us ask ourselves what it is that is here described by the words “the Consolation
of Israel.” Israel was God’s own people. For all the duties, for all the trials, for all the
sufferings of life, what had the Greek, what had the Roman, to furnish him, as
compared with the poorest peasant in Israel, with one who could go forth in the
strength of the Lord his God, and make mention of His righteousness only; who
could stay himself on his God in trial, and in suffering could say, “It is Jehovah, my
covenant God: let Him do what seemeth Him good”? Which of them could ever cry
out, as death drew on, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord?” Of which of them
could it ever be said, amidst all the void and unsatisfied yearnings of this life, “When
I awake up after Thy likeness I shall be satisfied”? So that, as compared with the
nations round, Israel’s Consolation was already abundant. Still, Israel had, and
looked for, a Consolation to come. God’s people differed in this also from every
people on earth. When, then, we use the words “the Consolation of Israel,” we mean
Christ in the fulness of His constituted Person and Office as the Comforter of His
people. And when we say “waiting for the Consolation of Israel,” we imply that
attitude of expectation, anxious looking for, hearty desire of, this Consolation, which
comes from, and is in fact, Christ Himself. First, then, Christ is the Consolation of
His people, inasmuch as He DELIVERS THEM FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN. But,
again, Christ consoles His people not only from guilt, but Is SORROW. It is His
especial office, as we saw, “to bind up the broken heart; to give the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” (H. Alford, M. A.)
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy
Spirit that he would not die before he had seen
the Lord’s Messiah.
BARNES, "And it was revealed unto him - In what way this was done we are
not informed. Sometimes a revelation was made by a dream, at others by a voice, and
at others by silent suggestion. All we know of this is that it was by the Holy Spirit.
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Not see death - Should not die. To “see” death and to “taste” of death, was a
common way among the Hebrews of expressing death itself. Compare Psa_89:48.
The Lord’s Christ - Rather “the Lord’s Anointed.” The word “Christ” means
“anointed,” and it would have been better to use that word here. To an aged man who
had been long waiting for the Messiah, how grateful must have been this revelation -
this solemn assurance that the Messiah was near! But this revelation is now given to
every man, that he need not taste of death until, by the eye of faith, he may see the
Christ of God. He is offered freely. He has come. He waits to manifest himself to the
world, and he is not willing that any should die forever. To us also it will be as great a
privilege in our dying hours to have seen Christ by faith as it was to Simeon. It will be
the only thing that can support us then - the only thing that will enable us to depart
in peace.
CLARKE, "It was revealed unto him - He was divinely informed,
κεχρηµατισµενον - he had an express communication from God concerning the
subject. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. The soul of a righteous and
devout man is a proper habitation for the Holy Spirit.
He should not see death - They that seek shall find: it is impossible that a man
who is earnestly seeking the salvation of God, should be permitted to die without
finding it.
The Lord’s Christ - Rather, the Lord’s anointed. That prophet, priest, and king,
who was typified by so many anointed persons under the old covenant; and who was
appointed to come in the fullness of time, to accomplish all that was written in the
law, in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning him. See the note on Luk_2:11.
GILL, "And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost,.... Not in a dream,
as the wise men were warned, nor by an angel, as Joseph, nor by a voice from heaven,
which the Jews call "Bath Kol", but by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, enlightening
his understanding, and impressing on his mind:
that he should not see death; an Hebraism, see it in Psa_89:48 the same with
the phrase, "to taste death", elsewhere used; and the sense is, as the Ethiopic version
renders it, "that he should not die"; or as the Persic version, "that his death should
not be"; as yet: he should live some time longer; nor should that messenger be sent to
remove him, though a man in years, out of time into eternity,
before he had seen the Lord's Christ: with his bodily eyes: for he had seen him
with an eye of faith already, and in the promise, as Abraham had; and in the types
and sacrifices of the law, as the rest of believers under the Old Testament. The
Messiah is called the Lord's Christ, referring to Psa_2:2 because he was anointed by
Jehovah, the Father, and with Jehovah, the Spirit; with the Holy Ghost, the oil of
gladness, to be prophet, priest, and king, in the Lord's house. So the Messiah is by
the Targumist called, the Messiah of Jehovah, or Jehovah's Messiah; that is as here,
the Lord's Christ: thus in the Targum on Isa_4:2 it is said,
"in that time, ‫דיי‬ ‫,משיחא‬ "Jehovah's Messiah", shall be for joy and for glory.
And on Isa_28:5 the paraphrase is,
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"at that time, ‫דיי‬ ‫,משיחא‬ "the Messiah of the Lord" of hosts shall be for a crown of joy,
and for a diadem of praise to the rest of his people.
Compare these paraphrases with what is said of Christ, in Luk_2:32. "The glory of
thy people Israel"; Simeon's language exactly agrees with the Targumist. The Persic
version adds, "and with this hope he passed his time, or age, and became very old
and decrepit."
HENRY, He had a gracious promise made him, that before he died he should have
a sight of the Messiah, Luk_2:26. He was searching what manner of time the Spirit
of Christ in the Old Testament prophets did signify, and whether it were not now at
hand; and he received this oracle (for so the word signifies), that he should not see
death before he had seen the Messiah, the Lord's Anointed. Note, Those, and those
only, can with courage see death, and look it in the face without terror, that have had
by faith a sight of Christ.
JAMISON, "revealed by the Holy Ghost — implying, beyond all doubt, the
personality of the Spirit.
should see not death till he had seen — “sweet antithesis!” [Bengel]. How
would the one sight gild the gloom of the other! He was, probably, by this time,
advanced in years.
SBC, “I. This revelation was made to an old man who had waited on God continually
in the Temple service, cherishing in his secret heart the promise given to the first
fathers of his race, renewed from time to time by the mouth of God’s holy prophets,
and at length by one of them defined as to the time of its fulfilment, and brought
within the limits of a certain expectation and hope. Simeon’s prayers and
meditations, his converse with men like-minded, his observations of passing events,
possibly his knowledge of the words of certain wise men who had lately arrived at
Jerusalem enquiring for a King that was to be born, had at length convinced him that
the time was at hand; and it pleased God to confirm his hope by an inward revelation
of the Spirit. "It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see
death, till he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
II. Who ever saw a Christian man or woman die in faith, but heard them almost say
old Simeon’s words, "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation?" And whence comes this
strength of salvation to the eyes of dying men? Whence comes it but through that
Child whom Simeon held in his arms as he prophesied the fall and rising again of
many in Israel, and the piercing of the soul of the Virgin Mother with the sword of
grief. No life but that which Jesus Christ endured on earth, no death but that which
He died on Mount Calvary, could ever establish the truth of the Gospel to the poor.
All the wisdom and learning that could have been brought to bear, all the worldly
power, even power to command stones to become bread—all this would have been in
vain. No sign could have convinced a poor man so effectually of God’s sympathy with
him in his low estate as the birth of his Saviour of a poor Jewish maiden, and the
manifestation of the Gospel in a person so humble. And to those who view human life
in all its bearings it is obvious at once that no system of religion could be true which
does not imply this at its basis, that the poor, the vast multitude of men, are the chief
consideration. Educate as you will; legislate as you will; double by chemical science
and skilfulness of labour the productiveness of the earth; bind yourself together in
associations to provide against all contingencies of evil; there will still be the poor.
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The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only Gospel that reaches the needs of the poor.
When Jesus Christ humbled Himself, and took on Him the form of a servant, when
He dwelt at Nazareth with His parents, and was subject unto them in a low estate, He
ennobled the state of poverty for ever.
Bishop Claughton, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 620.
27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple
courts. When the parents brought in the child
Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law
required,
BARNES, "By the Spirit - By the direction of the Spirit.
Into the temple - Into that part of the temple where the public worship was
chiefly performed - into the court of the women. See the notes at Mat_21:12.
The custom of the law - That is, to make an offering for purification, and to
present him to God.
CLARKE, "He came by the Spirit into the temple - Probably he had in view
the prophecy of Malachi, Mal_3:1, The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to
his temple. In this messenger of the covenant, the soul of Simeon delighted. Now the
prophecy was just going to be fulfilled; and the Holy Spirit, who dwelt in the soul of
this righteous man, directed him to go and see its accomplishment. Those who come,
under the influence of God’s Spirit, to places of public worship, will undoubtedly
meet with him who is the comfort and salvation of Israel.
After the custom of the law - To present him to the Lord, and then redeem him
by paying five shekels, Num_18:15, Num_18:16, and to offer those sacrifices
appointed by the law. See Luk_2:24.
GILL, "And he came by the Spirit into the temple,.... By the same Spirit of
God, that revealed the above to him. The Ethiopic version renders it, "the Spirit
brought him into the temple": but Simeon was not brought thither, as this version
seems to suggest, in such manner as Ezekiel was brought by the Spirit to
Jerusalem.Eze_8:3 or as Christ was brought by Satan to the holy city and set upon
the pinnacle of the temple; but the Spirit of God, who knows and searches all things,
even the deep things of God, and could testify beforehand the sufferings of Christ,
and the glory that should follow, knew the exact time when Jesus would be brought
into the temple; and suggested to Simeon, and moved upon him, and influenced and
directed him, to go thither at that very time. The Persic version renders the whole
verse thus, "when he heard that they brought Christ into the temple, that they might
fulfil the law, Simeon went in"; which version spoils the glory of the text, making
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Simeon's coming into the temple, to be upon a report heard, and not the motion of
the Holy Ghost,
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus; when Joseph and Mary
brought Christ into the temple. The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions
read, "his parents", Mary was his real parent, Joseph is called so, as he is his father in
Luk_2:48 because he was supposed, and generally thought to be so, Luk_3:23.
To do for him after the custom of the law; as was used to be done in such a
case, according to the appointment of the law: or as the Syriac version renders it, "as
is commanded in the law"; namely, to present him to the Lord, and to pay the
redemption money for him.
HENRY, “2. The seasonable coming of Simeon into the temple, at the time when
Christ was presented there, Luk_2:27. Just then, when Joseph and Mary brought in
the child, to be registered as it were in the church-book, among the first-born,
Simeon came, by direction of the Spirit, into the temple. The same Spirit that had
provided for the support of his hope now provided for the transport of his joy. It was
whispered in his ear, “Go to the temple now, and you shall see what you have longed
to see.” Note, Those that would see Christ must go to his temple; for there The Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to meet you, and there you must be ready to
meet him.
JAMISON, "The Spirit guided him to the temple at the very moment when the
Virgin was about to present Him to the Lord.
COFFMAN, "The parents ... Luke's use of this word for Joseph and Mary here,
and again in Luke 2:41, and Mary's reference to Joseph as "father" of Jesus
raises no question whatever regarding the virgin birth. One grows weary of the
sophistry, and that is all it is, that seizes upon such expressions as any manner of
denial of the facts Luke had so dogmatically affirmed only a moment before.
They were his "parents" legally; Joseph was his "father" legally; and a student
of the New Testament must be out of his senses to suppose that Jesus was reared
any other way than as the "supposed" child of Joseph (Luke 3:23), a fact Luke
stated. Could it be imagined, even for a moment, that Mary and Joseph would
have shared the glorious truth of Jesus' virgin birth with the nosey neighbors of
unbelieving Nazareth? or with the secular hypocrites who ran the temple? NO! It
must be supposed even further that Mary did not tell Jesus himself of the
marvels that attended his birth, at least not the whole story until he reached
sufficient age. The fact of her eventually sharing the full wonder of it all
probably came when Jesus was about twelve years of age; and it was Jesus' full
comprehension of what Mary had told him (probably recently) which may
account for the incident of his hearing and asking questions of the religious
doctors, and his first recorded reference to God as "my Father." And is not the
inference which we have spelled out here exactly the reason why Luke recorded
these references to "parents" and "father" as inclusive of Joseph? If any other
course had been followed, the function of the blessed Mary would have been that
of a child-worshiper, rather than that of a competent mother of our Lord. What
Luke is saying here is that, despite the supernatural elements in the birth of
Jesus, he was at once relegated by his legal parents to the ordinary status of any
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child, and that his infancy, youth, and immaturity were those of any normal
human being. That this should have been so was inherent in the fact of the
incarnation.
In this same connection, there inevitably came to the holy mother herself an
acceptance of the normalcy of Jesus' life and person. Time eroded, to a certain
extent, but never effaced, the blessed memories of Jesus' supernatural birth; and
when Jesus dramatically claimed God as "my Father" (Luke 2:49), it was only
natural that Joseph and Mary "understood not the saying which he spake unto
them." All of the basic knowledge needed for the understanding of it, they
already had, as Luke's history shows; but Joseph and Mary, lulled by the years
of Jesus' normal and unspectacular development, found nothing in their
knowledge of the child Jesus thus far that could enable their understanding of it.
In all probability, the same state of affairs continued until the baptism of Jesus
eighteen years later. The facts related here are of vast importance in refuting the
wild and irresponsible tales that were fancied during the Dark Ages with
reference to the child Jesus.
After the custom of the law ... See under Luke 2:21.
BURKITT, "No sooner was our Saviour brought into the temple and presented
to the Lord by his holy parents, but in springs old Simeon, a pious and devout
man who had a revelation from God that he should not die until he had with his
bodily eyes seen the promised Messiah.
Accordingly, he takes up the child Jesus in his arms, but hugs him faster by his
faith, than by his feeble arms, and with ravishment of heart praises God for the
sight of his Saviour, whom he calls the Consolation of Israel; that is, the Messiah,
whom the Israel of God had long looked and waited for, now took comfort and
consolation in.
Note here, 1. How God always performs his promises to his children with
wonderful advantages. Simeon had a revelation that he should not die until he
had seen Christ; now he not only sees him, but feels him too; he not only has him
in his eye, but holds him in his hands.
Though God stays long before he fulfils his promises, he certainly comes at last
with a double reward for our expectation.
Note 2. That the coming of the Messiah in the fulness of time, and his appearing
in our flesh and nature, was and is a matter of unspeakable consolation to the
Israel of God. And now that he is come, let us live by faith in him, as the
foundation of all comfort and consolation both in life and death.
Alas! what are all other consolations besides this, and without this? They are
impotent and insufficient consolations, they are dying and perishing
consolations; nay, they are sometimes afflictive and distressing consolations. The
bitterness accompanying them, is sometimes more than the sweetness that is
tasted in them; but in Christ, who is the consolation of Israel there is light
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without darkness, joy without sorrow, all consolation without any mixture of
discomfort.
28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised
God, saying:
CLARKE, "Then took he him up in his arms - What must the holy soul of
this man have felt in this moment! O inestimable privilege! And yet ours need not be
inferior: If a man love me, says Christ, he will keep my word; and I and the Father
will come in unto him, and make our abode with him. And indeed even Christ in the
arms could not avail a man, if he were not formed in his heart.
GILL, "Then took he him up in his arms,.... That same Spirit that had revealed
unto him that he should not die till he saw the Messiah with his bodily eyes; and who
by a secret impulse had moved him to go to the temple just at this time made known
unto him that that child which Joseph and Mary then brought into the temple to
present to the Lord, was the Messiah; wherefore, in a rapture of joy, he took him out
of their arms into his own, embracing him with all affection and respect imaginable:
though, some think he was a priest, and it being his office to present the firstborn to
the Lord, he took him in his arms, and did it; but the former account seems more
agreeable:
and blessed God; praised him, and gave glory to him, for his great goodness, in
sending the promised Messiah, and long wished for Saviour; for his grace and favour,
in indulging him with a sight of him; and for his truth and faithfulness in making
good his promise to him:
and said; as follows.
HENRY, “3. The abundant satisfaction wherewith he welcomed this sight: He
took him up in his arms (Luk_2:28), he embraced him with the greatest affection
imaginable, laid him in his bosom, as near his heart as he could, which was as full of
joy as it could hold. He took him up in his arms, to present him to the Lord (so some
think), to do either the parent's part or the priest's part; for divers of the ancients say
that he was himself a priest. When we receive the record which the gospel gives us of
Christ with a lively faith, and the offer it makes us of Christ with love and resignation,
then we take Christ in our arms. It was promised him that he should have a sight of
Christ; but more is performed than was promised: he has him in his arms.
JAMISON, "took him up in his arms — immediately recognizing in the child,
with unhesitating certainty, the promised Messiah, without needing Mary to inform
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him of what had happened to her. [Olshausen]. The remarkable act of taking the
babe in his arms must not be overlooked. It was as if he said, “This is all my salvation
and all my desire” (2Sa_23:5).
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss[d] your servant in
peace.
BARNES, "Now lettest - Now thou “dost” let or permit. This word is in the
indicative mood, and signifies that God was permitting him to die in peace, by having
relieved his anxieties, allayed his fears, fulfilled the promises, and having by the
appearing of the Messiah, removed every reason why he should live any longer, and
every wish to live.
Depart - Die.
According to thy word - Thy promise made by revelation. God never
disappoints. To many it might have appeared improbable, when such a promise was
made to an old man, that it should be fulfilled. But God fulfils all his word, keeps all
his promises, and never disappoints those who trust in him.
CLARKE, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace - Now thou
dismissest, απολυεις, loosest him from life; having lived long enough to have the
grand end of life accomplished.
According to thy word - It was promised to him, that he should not die till he
had seen the Lord’s anointed, Luk_2:26; and now, having seen him, he expects to be
immediately dismissed in peace into the eternal world; having a full assurance and
enjoyment of the salvation of God. Though Simeon means his death, yet the thing
itself is not mentioned; for death has not only lost its sting, but its name also, to
those who have, even by faith, seen the Lord’s anointed.
GILL, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant,.... He acknowledges him as his
Lord, and to have a despotic power over him with respect to life and death; and
himself as his servant, which he was, both by creation and grace: and though it
expresses humiliation, and a sense of distance and unworthiness, yet to be a servant
of the most high God, is a very high and honourable character: what he requests of
the Lord is that he might
depart in peace; signifying his hearty desire to die, and with what cheerfulness he
should meet death, having obtained all that he could wish for and desire, in seeing
and embracing the Saviour: he expresses his death, by a departure out of the world,
as in Joh_13:1 Phi_1:21 agreeably to the way of speaking of it among the Jews. See
Gill on Phi_1:21 and by a word, which signifies a loosing of bonds; death being a
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dissolving the bond of union, between soul and body, and a deliverance, as from
prison and bondage; the body being, as it were, a prison to the soul in the present
state of things: and he also intimates, that whereas, though he had the strongest
assurances of the Messiah's coming, and of his coming before his death, by the
revelation of the Holy Ghost, and so most firmly believed it, without fluctuation, and
hesitation of mind; yet as hope deferred makes the heart sick, he was anxious and
restless in his desire, till it was accomplished; but now being come, he could take his
leave of the world, and his entrance into eternity, with the greatest calmness and
tranquillity of mind, having nothing to disturb him, nor more to desire: he adds,
according to thy word; for he seems to have understood by the revelation made to
him, that as he should not die before he saw the Messiah, so, when he had seen him,
that he should immediately, or in a very short time after, be removed by death; and
which he greatly desired, and in which, he sinned not, because his request was
according to the word of God: whereas often, desires of death are not only without
the word of God, and due resignation to his will, and any regard to his glory, but to be
rid of some trouble, or gratify some lust, as pride, revenge, &c.
HENRY, “4. The solemn declaration he made hereupon: He blessed God, and
said, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace, Luk_2:29-32.
(1.) He has a pleasant prospect concerning himself, and (which is a great
attainment) is got quite above the love of life and fear of death; nay, he is arrived at a
holy contempt of life, and desire of death: “Lord, now let thou thy servant depart, for
mine eyes have seen the salvation I was promised a sight of before I died.” Here is,
[1.] An acknowledgment that God had been as good as his word; there has not failed
one tittle of his good promises, as Solomon owns, 1Ki_8:56. Note, Never any that
hoped in God's word were made ashamed of their hope. [2.] A thanksgiving for it. He
blessed God that he saw that salvation in his arms which many prophets and kings
desired to see, and might not. [3.] A confession of his faith, that the child in his arms
was the saviour, the Salvation itself; thy salvation, the salvation of thine appointing,
the salvation which thou has prepared with a great deal of contrivance. And, while it
has been thus long in the coming, it hath still been in the preparing. [4.] It is a
farewell to this world: “Now let thy servant depart; now mine eyes have been blessed
with this sight, let them be closed, and see no more in this world.” The eye is not
satisfied with seeing (Ecc_1:8), till it hath seen Christ, and then it is. What a poor
thing doth this world look to one that hath Christ in his arms and salvation in his
eye! Now adieu to all my friends and relations, all my enjoyments and employments
here, even the temple itself. [5.] It is a welcome to death: Now let thy servant depart.
Note, Death is a departure, the soul's departure out of the body, from the world of
sense to the world of spirits. We must not depart till God give us our discharge, for
we are his servants and must not quit his service till we have accomplished our time.
Moses was promised that he should see Canaan, and then die; but he prayed that this
word might be altered, Deu_3:24, Deu_3:25. Simeon is promised that he should not
see death till he had seen Christ; and he is willing to construe that beyond what was
expressed, as an intimation that, when he had seen Christ, he should die: Lord, be it
so, saith he, now let me depart. See here, First, How comfortable the death of a good
man is; he departs as God's servant from the place of his toil to that of his rest. He
departs in peace, peace with God, peace with his own conscience; in peace with
death, well-reconciled to it, well-acquainted with it. He departs according to God's
word, as Moses at the word of the Lord (Deu_34:5): the word of precept, Go up and
die; the word of promise, I will come again and receive you to myself. Secondly,
What is the ground of this comfort? For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. This
bespeaks more than a great complacency in the sight, like that of Jacob (Gen_46:30),
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Now let me die, since I have seen thy face. It bespeaks a believing expectation of a
happy state on the other side death, through this salvation he now had a sight of,
which not only takes off the terror of death, but makes it gain, Phi_1:21. Note, Those
that have welcomed Christ may welcome death.
JAMISON, "Lord — “Master,” a word rarely used in the New Testament, and
selected here with peculiar propriety, when the aged saint, feeling that his last object
in wishing to live had now been attained, only awaited his Master’s word of
command to “depart.”
now lettest, etc. — more clearly, “now Thou art releasing Thy servant”; a patient
yet reverential mode of expressing a desire to depart.
CALVIN, "29.Thou now sendest thy servant away From this song it is
sufficiently evident, that Simeon looked at the Son of God with different eyes
from the eyes of flesh. For the outward beholding of Christ could have produced
no feeling but contempt, or, at least, would never have imparted such satisfaction
to the mind of the holy man, as to make him joyful and desirous to die, from
having reached the summit of his wishes. The Spirit of God enlightened his eyes
by faith, to perceive, under a mean and poor dress, the glory of the Son of God.
He says, that he would be sent away in peace; which means, that he would die
with composure of mind, having obtained all that he desired.
But here a question arises. If he chose rather to depart from life, was it amidst
distress of mind and murmuring, as is usually the case with those who die
unwillingly, that Simeon was hurried away? I answer: we must attend to the
circumstance which is added, according to thy word God had promised that
Simeon would behold his Son. He had good reason for continuing in a state of
suspense, and must have lived in some anxiety, till he obtained his expectation.
This ought to be carefully observed; for there are many who falsely and
improperly plead the example of Simeon, and boast that they would willingly die,
if this or the other thing were previously granted to them; while they allow
themselves to entertain rash wishes at their own pleasure, or to form vain
expectations without the authority of the Word of God. If Simeon had said
exactly, “Now I shall die with a composed and easy mind, because I have seen the
Son of God,” this expression would have indicated the weakness of his faith; but,
as he had the word, he might have refused to die until the coming of Christ.
COFFMAN, "This passage carries the imagery of a bondservant requesting of
his master that he might be dismissed. Simeon recognized that in the giving of
Christ, God had indeed accomplished the salvation of men inclusive of the
Gentiles. That Jesus was indeed the glory of Israel is fully true; but the Israel of
this promise is far more extensive than secular or national Israel, and
encompasses the redeemed of all ages.
COKE, "Luke 2:29. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart, &c.— The word
rendered depart, or dimiss, is generally used to express death; and joined to the
word peace, signifies a happy and contented death. There may, perhaps, be an
allusion here to the custom of saying, especially to an inferior when parting, Go
in peace. See Ch. Luke 7:50. This good old man, having attained theutmost pitch
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of felicity, in the gratification of that which had always been his highest wish,
and having no farther use for life, desired immediate death; yet he would not
depart of himself; knowing that no man can lawfully desert his station, till
dismissed by the sovereign Master who placed him there.
BURKITT, "These words are a sweet canticle, or swan-like song, of old Simeon,
a little before his dissolution. He had seen the Messiah before by faith, now by
sight, and wishes to have his eyes closed, that he might see nothing after this
desirable sight. It is said of some Turks, that after they have seen Mahomet's
tomb, they put out their eyes, that they may never defile them after they have
seen so glorious an object. Thus did old Simeon desire to see no more of this
world, after he had seen Christ the Saviour of the world, but sues for his
dismission; Lord, let thy servant depart.
Note here, 1. That a good man having served his generation, and God in his
generation, faithfully, is weary of the world, and willing to be dismissed from it.
2. That the death of a good man is nothing else but a quiet and peaceable
departure; it is a departure in peace to the God of peace.
3. That it is only a spiritual sight of Christ by faith that can welcome the
approach of death, and render it an object desirable to the Christian's choice; he
only that can say, My eyes have seen thy salvation, will be able to say, Lord, let
thy servant depart.
Observe, farther, Holy Simeon having declared the faithfulness of God to himself
in the gift of Christ, next he celebrates the mercy of God in bestowing this
invaluable gift of a Saviour upon the whole world.
The world consists of Jews and Gentiles; Christ is a light to the one, and the
glory of the other. A light to the blind and dark Gentiles, and the glory of the
renowned church of the Jews; the Messiah being promised to them, born and
bred up with them, living amongst them, preaching his doctrine to them, and
working his miracles before them: and thus was Christ the glory of his people
Israel.
MACLAREN, “SIMEON'S SWAN-SONG
That scene, when the old man took the Infant in his withered arms, is one of the most
picturesque and striking in the Gospel narrative. Simeon’s whole life appears, in its
later years, to have been under the immediate direction of the Spirit of God. It is very
remarkable to notice how, in the course of three consecutive verses, the operation of
that divine Spirit upon him is noted. ‘It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that
he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.’ ‘And he came by the
Spirit into the Temple.’ I suppose that means that some inward monition, which he
recognised to be of God, sent him there, in the expectation that at last he was to ‘see
the Lord’s Christ.’ He was there before the Child was brought by His parents, for we
read ‘He came by the Spirit into the Temple, and when the parents brought in the
Child Jesus . . . he took Him in his arms.’ Think of the old man, waiting there in the
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Sanctuary, told by God that he was thus about to have the fulfilment of his life-long
desire, and yet probably not knowing what kind of a shape the fulfilment would take.
There is no reason to believe that he knew he was to see an infant; and he waits. And
presently a peasant woman comes in with a child in her arms, and there arises in his
soul the voice ‘Anoint Him! for this is He!’ And so, whether he expected such a vision
or no, he takes the Child in his arms, and says, ‘Lord! Now, now !-after all these years
of waiting-lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.’
Now, it seems to me that there are two or three very interesting thoughts deducible
from this incident, and from these words. I take three of them. Here we have the Old
recognising and embracing the New; the slave recognising and submitting to his
Owner; and the saint recognising and welcoming the approach of death.
I. The Old recognising and embracing the New.
It is striking to observe how the description of Simeon’s character expresses the aim
of the whole Old Testament Revelation. All that was meant by the preceding long
series of manifestations through all these years was accomplished in this man. For
hearken how he is described-’just and devout,’ that is the perfection of moral
character, stated in the terms of the Old Testament; ‘waiting for the Consolation of
Israel,’ that is the ideal attitude which the whole of the gradual manifestation of
God’s increasing purpose running through the ages was intended to make the
attitude of every true Israelite-an expectant, eager look forwards, and in the present,
the discharge of all duties to God and man. ‘And the Holy Ghost was upon him’; that,
too, in a measure, was the ultimate aim of the whole Revelation of Israel. So this man
stands as a bright, consummate flower which had at last effloresced from the roots;
and in his own person, an embodiment of the very results which God had patiently
sought through millenniums of providential dealing and inspiration. Therefore in
this man’s arms was laid the Christ for whom he had so long been waiting.
And he exhibits, still further, what God intended to secure by the whole previous
processes of Revelation, in that he recognises that they were transcended and done
with, that all that they pointed to was accomplished when a devout Israelite took into
his arms the Incarnate Messiah, that all the past had now answered its purpose, and
like the scaffolding when the top stone of a building is brought forth with shouting,
might be swept away and the world be none the poorer. And so he rejoices in the
Christ that he receives, and sings the swan-song of the departing Israel, the Israel
according to the Spirit. And that is what Judaism was meant to do, and how it was
meant to end, in an euthanasia, in a passing into the nobler form of the Christian
Church and the Christian citizenship.
I do not need to remind you how terribly unlike this ideal the reality was, but I may,
though only in a sentence or two, point out that that relation of the New to the Old is
one that recurs, though in lees sharp and decisive forms, in every generation, and in
our generation in a very special manner. It is well for the New when it consents to be
taken in the arms of the Old, and it is ill for the Old when, instead of welcoming, it
frowns upon the New, and instead of playing the part of Simeon, and embracing and
blessing the Infant, plays the part of a Herod, and seeks to destroy the Child that
seems to threaten its sovereignty. We old people who are conservative, if not by
nature, by years, and you young people who are revolutionary and innovating by
reason of your youth, may both find a lesson in that picture in the Temple, of Simeon
with the Infant Christ in his arms.
II. Further, we have here the slave recognising and submitting to his
Owner.
Now the word which is here employed for ‘Lord’ is one that very seldom occurs in the
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New Testament in reference to God; only some four or five times in all. And it is the
harshest and hardest word that can be picked out. If you clip the Greek termination
off it, it is the English word ‘despot,’ and it conveys all that that word conveys to us,
not only a lord in the sense of a constitutional monarch, not only a lord in the polite
sense of a superior in dignity, but a despot in the sense of being the absolute owner of
a man who has no rights against the owner, and is a slave. For the word ‘slave’ is
what logicians call the correlative of this word ‘despot,’ and as the latter asserts
absolute ownership and authority, the former declares abject submission. So Simeon
takes these two words to express his relation and feeling towards God. ‘Thou art the
Owner, the Despot, and I am Thy slave.’ That relation of owner and slave, wicked as it
is, when subsisting between two men-an atrocious crime, ‘the sum of all villainies,’ as
the good old English emancipators used to call it-is the sum of all blessings when
regarded as existing between man and God. For what does it imply? The right to
command and the duty to obey, the sovereign will that is supreme over all, and the
blessed attitude of yielding up one’s will wholly, without reserve, without reluctance,
to that infinitely mighty, and-blessed be God!-infinitely loving Will Absolute
authority calls for abject submission.
And again, the despot has the unquestioned right of life and death over his slave, and
if he chooses, can smite him down where he stands, and no man have a word to say.
Thus, absolutely, we hang upon God, and because He has the power of life and death,
every moment of our lives is a gift from His hands, and we should not subsist for an
instant unless, by continual effluence from Him, and influx into us, of the life which
flows from Him, the Fountain of life.
Again, the slave-owner has entire possession of all the slave’s possessions, and can
take them and do what he likes with them. And so, all that I call mine is His. It was
His before it became mine; it remains His whilst it is mine, because I am His, and so
what seems to belong to me belongs to Him, no less truly. What, then, do you do with
your possessions? Use them for yourselves? Dispute His ownership? Forget His
claims? Grudge that He should take them away sometimes, and grudge still more to
yield them to Him in daily obedience, and when necessary, surrender them? Is such a
temper what becomes the slave? What reason has he to grumble if the master comes
to him and says, ‘This little bit of ground that I have given you to grow a few sugar-
canes and melons on, I am going to take back again.’ What reason have we to set up
our puny wills against Him, if He exercises His authority over us and demands that
we should regard ourselves not only as sons but also as slaves to whom the owner of
it and us has given a talent to be used for Him?
Now, all that sounds very harsh, does it not? Let in one thought into it, and it all
becomes very gracious. The Apostle Peter, who also once uses this word ‘despot,’
does so in a very remarkable connection. He speaks about men’s ‘denying the despot
that bought them.’ Ah, Peter! you were getting on very thin ice when you talked about
denial. Perhaps it was just because he remembered his sin in the judgment hall that
he used that word to express the very utmost degree of degeneration and departure
from Jesus. But be that as it may, he bases the slave-owner’s right on purchase. And
Jesus Christ has bought us by His own precious blood; and so all that sounds harsh
in the metaphor, worked out as I have been trying to do, changes its aspect when we
think of the method by which He has acquired His rights and the purpose for which
He exercises them. As the Psalmist said, ‘Oh, Lord! truly I am Thy slave. Thou hast
loosed my bonds.’
III. So, lastly, we have here the saint recognising and welcoming the
approach of death.
Now, it is a very singular thing, but I suppose it is true, that somehow or other, most
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people read these words, ‘Lord! now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,’ as
being a petition; ‘Lord! now let Thy servant depart.’ But they are not that at all. We
have here not a petition or an aspiration, but a statement of the fact that Simeon
recognises the appointed token that his days were drawing to an end, and it is the
glad recognition of that fact. ‘Lord! I see now that the time has come when I may put
aside all this coil of weary waiting and burdened mortality, and go to rest.’ Look how
he regards approaching death. ‘Thou lettest Thy servant depart’ is but a feeble
translation of the original, which is better given in the version that has become very
familiar to us all by its use in a musical service, the Nunc Dimittis; ‘Now Thou dost
send away’ It is the technical word for relieving a sentry from his post. It conveys the
idea of the hour having come when the slave who has been on the watch through all
the long, weary night, or toiling through all the hot, dusty day, may extinguish his
lantern, or fling down his mattock, and go home to his little hut. ‘Lord! Thou dost
dismiss me now, and I take the dismission as the end of the long watch, as the end of
the long toil.’
But notice, still further, how Simeon not only recognises, but welcomes the approach
of death. ‘Thou lettest Thy servant depart in peace.’ Yes, there speaks a calm voice
tranquilly accepting the permission. He feels no agitation, no fluster of any kind, but
quietly slips away from his post. And the reason for that peaceful welcome of the end
is ‘for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.’ That sight is the reason, first of all, for his
being sure that the curfew had rung for him, and that the day’s work was done. But it
is also the reason for the peacefulness of his departure. He went ‘in peace,’ because of
what? Because the weary, blurred, old eyes had seen all that any man needs to see to
be satisfied and blessed. Life could yield nothing more, though its length were
doubled to this old man, than the sight of God’s salvation.
Can it yield anything more to us, brethren? And may we not say, if we have seen that
sight, what an unbelieving author said, with a touch of self-complacency not
admirable, ‘I have warmed both hands at the fire of life, and I am ready to depart.’
We may go in peace, if our eyes have seen Him who satisfies our vision, whose bright
presence will go with us into the darkness, and whom we shall see more perfectly
when we have passed from the sentry-box to the home above, and have ceased to be
slaves in the far-off plantation, and are taken to be sons in the Father’s house. ‘Thou
lettest Thy servant depart in peace.’
SBC, “Old Age.
The examples of Simeon and Anna combine to set before us a picture of that old age
which we must allow to be the most befitting, which we must wish to see realised in
our own case—an old age free from wordly harass and desires—with leisure for
higher things; occupied with the care of the soul; calmly waiting for the great change;
employed much in religious meditation and prayer; anxious for nothing which the
world can give; anxious only to be found of the Lord; ready and prepared when He
arrives; walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
I. Such an old age is not, we fear, very commonly seen. For the most part, as men
grow in years, they grow more worldly; and instead of putting off the cares, and
pleasures, and occupations of youth and middle life, they cleave to these with an
unwise tenacity. We seldom see any who, like Barzillai, or Simeon, or Anna, have
detached themselves from all unnecessary business, in order to walk the closer with
God; who have set their affections not upon things on the earth, but upon things
above.
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II. St. Paul tells us, in a few words, the qualities which ought to adorn old age—
sobriety, gravity, temperance, wisdom. The old should be known among us for these
things. They should be examples and guides to youth in the ways and works of
godliness. To them we should look for counsel, for advice, for help, in the practice of
a Christian life. Above all, they should be examples of piety, of reverent respect for all
God’s holy ordinances. It is recorded of Simeon and of Anna, that in their old age
they were diligent in their attendance upon God’s worship. The place where they
were to be found was the Temple. The service which most occupied them was the
service of God. And so, surely, ought it to be with the old amongst ourselves. No
place so well befits them as the sanctuary. If any, they most of all should be able to
say, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine
honour dwelleth."
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 4th series, p. 107.
Luke 2:29-30
The Glory and Work of Old Age.
What were the gains which blessed this old man’s age?
I. The first was prophetic power; not so much the power of foretelling, as the power
of insight into God’s doings. He saw the Child, and he knew that It was the Saviour of
the world: "Mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation." And in a moment, before his inward
eye, he beheld the Sun of Redemption rising in glory, not only over his own people,
but in a light which should lighten the Gentiles also. This is the glory of a Christian’s
old age—vividness of spiritual vision. The spirit does its own peculiar work better
than in youth and manhood. It sees more clearly into the life and realities of things. It
has gained security of faith and hope for itself, and in all matters pertaining to the
spiritual progress of mankind it sees into God’s plans, and rejoices in them.
II. Another remarkable gain blessed the old age of Simeon, the possession of a liberal
religious view. We find the old man set free from the exclusiveness and bigotry of his
time and of his youth. Those were strange words upon the lips of a Jew, "A light to
lighten the Gentiles." Those who heard Simeon would be likely to call him a
dangerous Liberal. The true liberality of old age is not indifference. It is gained by the
entrance of the soul into the large region of the love of God, by deeper communion
with the infinite variety of the character of Christ.
III. The crowning blessing of old age is deep peace. "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy
servant depart in peace, according to Thy word." We can contend no more; we have
scarcely anything left to contend against; we have slain all our foes in the power of
Christ; we have exhausted all our doubts; and as the clouds disperse, the star of hope
rises soft and clear in the pale pure light of the heavenly dawn. We look on it, and are
at rest; we lay down our armour; we lie back contented in the arms of God.
IV. The special work of age is partly outward, partly inward. Its outward work is the
spreading of charity. Its inward work consists (1) in the edifying of the heart in noble
religion in consideration of the past; (2) in rounding the soul into as great perfection
as possible.
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 393.
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Christ and Old Age.
Scripture tells us of a "good old age," and we would ask today what that is. For
assuredly all old age is not good. If there is an old age which makes, there is an old
age that mars reputations. There are those who, for their fame, have lived too long:
have survived their usefulness and their honour, and whose obituary, when at length
we read it, awakens little interest and no sorrow.
I. Few men, in the abstract, desire old age; few men, in their own experience, find it
desirable. Like all things of importance—like success, like honour, like love, like
sorrow, pain, and death itself—it needs practising for. A good old age comes to no
man by accident. A well-principled and self-controlled patience, under its special
trials and disabilities, is one condition of a good old age.
II. There is another of a less negative kind and of equal importance. There is a natural
tendency as life advances to an impatience of the new. One of the foremost
conditions of a good old age is the preservation, the perpetual renewing, of a
thorough harmony and unity with the young. An old man may be young in feeling,
and, when he is so, there is no attraction like his for the young. Secure of his
sympathy, they can use his experience; there is a repose which even the young can
delight in, in that mellowness of character which is at once love and wisdom.
III. Nor can we forget this one further characteristic of the good old age. If there are
trials which must be borne with patience—if there are special risks which must be
jealously counteracted—in the circumstances of an old man, there are also
incomparable privileges which must be treasured up and occupied. A long life, lived
with eye and ear and heart open, lays up a store of memories which no chronicles can
rival, and no libraries supersede. The influences of old age are incalculable. Let a man
give himself to the work, and he may mould the young almost to his will. Such a work
requires, for its accomplishment, an Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ to the old.
C. J. Vaughan, Words of Hope, p. 88.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
BARNES, "Thy salvation - Him who is to procure salvation for his people; or,
the Saviour.
CLARKE, "Thy salvation - That Savior which it became the goodness of God to
bestow upon man, and which the necessities of the human race required. Christ is
called our salvation, as he is called our life, our peace, our hope; i.e. he is the author
of all these, to them who believe.
GILL, "For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,.... The Messiah, who is often so
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called; see Gen_49:18. He goes by the name of "salvation", because the salvation of
God's elect is put into his hands, and he has undertook it; and because he is the
author of it, he has fulfilled his engagements, and has accomplished what he
promised to do; and because salvation is in him, it is to be had in him; and in him the
true Israel of God are saved, with an everlasting salvation: and he is called "God's
salvation" because he is a Saviour of his choosing, calling, and constituting; whom he
promised under the Old Testament dispensation and in the fulness of time sent; and
who now appeared in human nature, and whom good old Simeon now saw, with his
bodily eyes; a sight which many kings and prophets had desired, but were not
favoured with; and also with the eyes of his understanding, with the spiritual eye of
faith, as his Saviour and Redeemer; for without this, the former would not have been
sufficient to have given such peace and tranquillity of mind, in a departure out of this
world: for many saw him in the days of his flesh, who never saw his glory, as the Son
of God, and Saviour of sinners; but such a sight those have, who have their
understandings enlightened, and Christ, as God's salvation, set before them: they see
him in the glory of his person, the fulness of his grace, the suitableness and
excellency of his righteousness, the efficacy of his blood, and the perfection of his
sacrifice; and as an able, willing, complete, and only Saviour: and such a sight of him,
puts them out of conceit with themselves, and their own works of righteousness, as
saviours; makes the creature, and all it has and does, look mean and empty; fills the
soul with love to Christ, and a high esteem of him, and with joy unspeakable, and full
of glory; it transforms a soul, and makes it like to Christ; gives it inexpressible
pleasure and satisfaction; and makes it desirous, as it did this good man, to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better than to live in this (in some sense) state of
absence from him.
JAMISON, "seen thy salvation — Many saw this child, nay, the full-grown
“man, Christ Jesus,” who never saw in Him “God’s Salvation.” This estimate of an
object of sight, an unconscious, helpless babe, was pure faith. He “beheld His glory”
(Joh_1:14). In another view it was prior faith rewarded by present sight.
CALVIN, "30.For my eyes have seen This mode of expression is very common in
Scripture; but Simeon appears to denote expressly the bodily appearance of
Christ, as if he had said, that he now has the Son of God present in the flesh, on
whom the eyes of his mind had been previously fixed. By saving (197) I
understand the matter of salvation: for in Christ are hid all the parts of salvation
and of a happy life. Now if the sight of Christ, while he was yet a child, had so
powerful an effect on Simeon, that he approached death with cheerfulness and
composure; how much more abundant materials of lasting peace are now
furnished to us, who have the opportunity of beholding our salvation altogether
completed in Christ? True, Christ no longer dwells on earth, nor do we carry
him in our arms: but his divine majesty shines openly and brightly in the gospel,
and there do “we all,” as Paul says, “behold as in a glass the glory of the
Lord,” — not as formerly amidst the weakness of flesh, but in the glorious power
of the Spirit, which he displayed in his miracles, in the sacrifice of his death, and
in his resurrection. In a word, his absence from us in body is of such a nature,
that we are permitted to behold him sitting at the right hand of the Father. If
such a sight does not bring peace to our minds, and make us go cheerfully to
death, we are highly ungrateful to God, and hold the honor, which he has
bestowed upon us, in little estimation.
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COKE, "Luke 2:30-32. Mine eyes have seen, &c.— Simeon, being well
acquainted with the prophetic writings, knew from them that the Messiah was to
be the Author of a great salvation, which, because it was planned by God, this
pious man very properly refers to God;—thy salvation. He knew likewise that
this salvation was not designed for the Jews only, but for all mankind; therefore
he says, Luke 2:31 that it was prepared by God, to set before the face of all
people, as the glorious object of their faith and hope: withal, because in the
prophesies the Messiah is introduced teaching and ruling the Gentiles, he calls
him after Isaiah, A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel; whom he
greatly honoured by condescending to arise among them.
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all
nations:
BARNES, "Before the face of all people - Whom thou hast provided for all
people, or whom thou dost design to “reveal” to all people.
CLARKE, "Which thou hast prepared - ᆍ ᅧτοιµασας, which thou hast Made
Ready before the face, in the presence, of all people. Here salvation is represented
under the notion of a feast, which God himself has provided for the whole world; and
to partake of which he has invited all the nations of the earth. There seems a direct
allusion here to Isa_25:6, etc. “In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all
people a feast of fat things,” etc. Salvation is properly the food of the soul, by which it
is nourished unto eternal life; he that receiveth not this, must perish for ever.
GILL, "Which thou hast prepared,.... In his eternal purposes and decrees,
having chosen and foreordained Christ, and appointed him to be his salvation, to the
ends of the earth; in his counsel and covenant of grace wherein it was agreed,
determined, and concluded on, that he should be the Saviour of his people; and in
the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, and in all the types, shadows, and
sacrifices, of that dispensation; in which he was exhibited, and held forth as the
Saviour to the saints and believers of those times; and now had sent him in human
nature, to work out that salvation he had chosen and called him to, and he had
undertook:
before the face of all people; meaning not the congregation of Israel, that looked
for redemption in Jerusalem, and who were now together with Simeon and Anna,
when the child Jesus was presented in the temple; nor the body of the Jewish nation
only, to whom he was made manifest, had they not wilfully shut their eyes, by John's
ministry and baptism; and more so, by the miracles, wonders, and signs, which God
did by Christ, in the midst of them; but both Jews and Gentiles: for, as he was
provided and sent as a Saviour, and a great one, he was to be lifted up on the cross, as
the serpent was lifted up by Moses, in the wilderness, to draw all his elect to him, of
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every nation; and to be set up as an ensign to the people, in the public ministry of the
word; to be the object of faith and hope, to look unto, for life and salvation.
JAMISON, "all people — all the peoples, mankind at large.
a light to the Gentiles — then in thick darkness.
glory of thy people Israel — already Thine, and now, in the believing portion of
it, to be so more gloriously than ever. It will be observed that this “swan-like song,
bidding an eternal farewell to this terrestrial life” [Olshausen], takes a more
comprehensive view of the kingdom of Christ than that of Zacharias, though the
kingdom they sing of is one.
CALVIN, "31.Which thou hast prepared By these words Simeon intimates, that
Christ had been divinely appointed, that all nations might enjoy his grace; and
that he would shortly afterwards be placed in an elevated situation, and would
draw upon him the eyes of all. Under this term he includes all the predictions
which relate: to the spread of Christ’s kingdom. But if Simeon, when holding a
little child in his arms, could stretch his mind to the utmost boundaries of the
world, and acknowledge the power of Christ to be everywhere present, how
much more magnificent ought our conceptions regarding him to be now that he
has been set up as a, “standard to the people,” (Isaiah 49:22,) and has revealed
himself to the whole world.
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
BARNES, "A light to lighten the Gentiles - This is in accordance with the
prophecies in the Old Testament, Isa. 49; Isa_9:6-7; Psa_98:3; Mal_4:2. The
Gentiles are represented as sitting in darkness that is, in ignorance and sin. Christ is
a “light” to them, as by him they will be made acquainted with the character of the
true God, his law, and the plan of redemption. As the darkness rolls away when the
sun arises, so ignorance and error flee away when Jesus gives light to the mind.
Nations shall come to his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising, Isa_60:3.
And the glory ... - The first offer of salvation was made to the Jews, Joh_4:22;
Luk_24:47. Jesus was born among the Jews; to them had been given the prophecies
respecting him, and his first ministry was among them. Hence, he was their glory,
their honor, their light. But it is a subject of special gratitude to us that the Saviour
was given also for the Gentiles; for:
1. We are Gentiles, and if he had not come we should have been shut out from the
blessings of redemption.
2. It is he only that now.
“Can make our dying bed.
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Feel soft as downy pillows are,
While on his breast we lean our head,
And breathe our life out sweetly there.”
Thus our departure may be like that of Simeon. Thus we may die in peace. Thus it
will be a blessing to die. But,
3. In order to do this, our life must be like that of Simeon. We must wait for the
consolation of Israel. We must look for his coming. We must be holy, harmless,
undefiled, “loving” the Saviour. Then death to us, like death to Simeon, will
have no terror; we shall depart in peace, and in heaven see the salvation of God,
2Pe_3:11-12. But,
4. Children, as well as the hoary-headed Simeon, may look for the coming of
Christ. They too must die; and “their” death will be happy only as they depend
on the Lord Jesus, and are prepared to meet him.
CLARKE, "A light to lighten the Gentiles - Φως εις αποκαλυψιν εθνων - A light
of the Gentiles, for revelation. By Moses and the prophets, a light of revelation was
given to the Jews, in the blessedness of which the Gentiles did not partake. By Christ
and his apostles, a luminous revelation is about to be given unto the Gentiles, from
the blessedness of which the Jews in general, by their obstinacy and unbelief, shall be
long excluded. But to all true Israelites it shall be a glory, an evident fulfillment of all
the predictions of the prophets, relative to the salvation of a lost world; and the first
offers of it shall be made to the Jewish people, who may see in it the truth of their
own Scriptures indisputably evinced.
GILL, "A light to lighten the Gentiles,.... Or for the revelation of the Gentiles; to
reveal the love, grace, and mercy of God, an everlasting righteousness, and the way of
life and salvation to them. Reference seems to be had to Isa_42:6. "Light", is one of
the names of the Messiah in the Old Testament, as in Psa_43:3 Dan_2:22, which
passages are by the Jews (k) themselves interpreted of Christ; and is a name often
used of him in the New Testament: it is true of him as God, he is light itself, and in
him is no darkness at all; and as the Creator of mankind, he is that light which
lightens every man with the light of nature and reason; and as the Messiah, he is
come a light into the world: the light of the Gospel, in the clear shine of it, is from
him; the light of grace in his people, who were in darkness itself, he is the author and
donor of; as he is also of the light of glory and happiness, in the world to come: and
particularly, the Gentiles enjoy this benefit of light by him; who were, and as this
supposes they were, in darkness, as they had been some hundreds of years before the
Messiah's coming: they were in the dark about the being and perfections of God,
about the unity of God, and the Trinity of persons in the Godhead, and about God in
Christ; about his worship, the rule and nature of it; and the manner of atonement,
and reconciliation for sin; the person, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ; the
Spirit of God, and his operations on the souls of men; the Scriptures of truth, and
both law and Gospel; the resurrection of the dead, and a future state: now, though
Christ in his personal ministry, was sent only to the Jews, yet after his resurrection,
he gave his disciples a commission to go into all the world, to preach the Gospel to
the Gentiles, in order to turn them from darkness to light; and hereby multitudes
were called out of darkness into marvellous light: and this Simeon had knowledge of,
and a few more besides him; otherwise, the generality of the Jewish nation were of
opinion, that when the Messiah came, the nations of the world would receive no
benefit by him, no light, nor comfort, nor peace, or prosperity: but all the reverse
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would befall them, as darkness, calamity, and misery: and so they express themselves
in a certain place; (l) the Israelites look, or wait for "redemption; for the day of the
Lord shall be "light to them"; but; the nations, why do they wait for him? for he shall
be "to them darkness, and not light".
But the contrary, Simeon, under divine inspiration, declares, and, blessed be God, it
has proved true: he adds,
and the glory of thy people Israel; which is true of Israel in a literal sense,
inasmuch as the Messiah was born of the Jews, and among them; and was first sent
and came to them, and lived and dwelled with them; taught in their streets, and
wrought his miracles in the midst of them; though this was an aggravation of their
ingratitude and unbelief, in rejecting him: the Gospel was first preached to them,
even after the commission was enlarged to carry it among the Gentiles; and many of
them were converted, and the first Gospel church was planted among them; and an
additional glory was made to them, by the calling of the Gentiles, and joining them to
them, through the ministry of the apostles, who were all Jews; who went forth from
Zion, and carried the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, to the several parts of the
world: and this also is more especially true, of the mystical, or spiritual Israel of God,
whose glory Christ is; being made of God unto them, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption; they having such an head, husband, Saviour, and
Redeemer, as he; and they being clothed with his righteousness, and washed in his
blood, sanctified by his grace, and made meet for eternal glory; to which they have a
right and claim, through the grace of God, and merits of Christ; and therefore glory
not in themselves, but in Christ, who is their all in all,
HENRY, “(2.) He has a pleasant prospect concerning the world, and concerning
the church. This salvation shall be,
[1.] A blessing to the world. It is prepared before the face of all people, not to be
hid in a corner, but to be made known; to be a light to lighten the Gentiles that now
sit in darkness: they shall have the knowledge of him, and of God, and another world
through him. This has reference to Isa_49:6, I will give thee for a light to the
Gentiles; for Christ came to be the light of the world, not a candle in the Jewish
candlestick, but the Sun of righteousness.
[2.] A blessing to the church: the glory of thy people Israel. It was an honour to the
Jewish nation that the Messiah sprang out of one of their tribes, and was born, and
lived, and died, among them. And of those who were Israelites indeed of the spiritual
Israel, he was indeed the glory, and will be so to eternity, Isa_60:19. They shall glory
in him. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory, Isa_45:25.
When Christ ordered his apostles to preach the gospel to all nations, therein he made
himself a light to lighten the Gentiles; and when he added, beginning at Jerusalem,
he made himself the glory of his people Israel.
SBC, “The song of Simeon was very beautiful in its arrangement. First the believer’s
personal appropriation of a promise, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation;" next the
expansion of a Christian’s Catholic spirit, "A Light to lighten the Gentiles," and then
the holy patriotism of a Jewish heart, "and the glory of Thy people Israel."
I. The question will naturally arise, What is the distinction, if any, between Christ as
the "Light of the Gentiles" and Christ as the "Glory of Israel?" Is it only a difference of
degree? Sight, growing into deeper intensity and glow, becomes glory. So Christ
illuminates, indeed, all people, but not with that lustre with which He will one day
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encircle Jerusalem. And it is therefore "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of
Thy people Israel."
II. Or, once more—the actual presence of the Lord, in beauty and power, is glory.
Where shall that Presence be at the last? At Jerusalem. Very great will be the
irradiation of the whole earth. But still it will be only the distant beam of a full
meridian sun, which is blazing in Palestine "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of Thy people Israel."
III. As Gentiles then, we ask, What is our proper privilege and portion? And we have
the answer—Light. Christ a light; of these simple words no one will know the power
who has never felt the narrowing in of a moral darkness on his mind. But ask the
man who has ever known a season of deep sorrow which shrouded all his earthly
prospects, and left nothing before him but a thick night over the future and one
rayless expanse. Or, still more, hear the soul, which, under the conscious hiding of
God’s countenance, has felt the shadows of conscience deepen over his spirit into the
blackness of despair. And those are the men who will understand the words, "Christ a
Light."
IV. Turn next to Israel’s glory. When Abraham’s outcasts and Judah’s dispersed ones
shall all come back—come back first in their unconverted state, by a political
restoration, to their own country; then to trials and afflictions commensurate with
the deed which their fathers perpetrated; then to majesty unprecedented upon this
earth—when, the subjects of the visible King of kings and Lord of lords, they shall
hold high court and be supreme among the nations of the world, that Infant Jesus, in
Simeon’s arms, shall be "the glory of His people Israel," when He "reigns in Mount
Zion, and before His ancients gloriously."
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1871, p. 217.
CALVIN, "32.A light for the revelation of the Gentiles Simeon now points out
the purpose for which Christ was to be exhibited by the Father before all
nations. It was that he might enlighten the Gentiles, who had been formerly in
darkness, and might be the glory of his people Israel There is propriety in the
distinction here made between the people Israel and the Gentiles: for by the right
of adoption the children of Abraham “were nigh” (Ephesians 2:17) to God, while
the Gentiles, with whom God had made no “covenants of promise,” were
“strangers” to the Church, (Ephesians 2:12.) For this reason, Israel is called, in
other passages, not only the son of God, but hisfirst-born, (Jeremiah 31:9;) and
Paul informs us, that “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the
truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Romans 15:8.)
The preference given to Israel above the Gentiles is, that all without distinction
may obtain salvation in Christ.
A light for revelation (198) means for enlightening the Gentiles Hence we infer,
that men are by nature destitute of light, till Christ, “the Sun of Righteousness,”
(Malachi 4:2,) shine upon them. With regard to Israel, though God had bestowed
upon him distinguished honor, yet all his glory rests on this single article, that a
Redeemer had been promised to him.
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33 The child’s father and mother marveled at
what was said about him.
CLARKE, "Joseph and his mother marvelled - For they did not as yet fully
know the counsels of God, relative to the salvation which Christ was to procure; nor
the way in which the purchase was to be made: but to this Simeon refers in the
following verses.
GILL, "And Joseph and his mother,.... The Vulgate Latin reads, "and his father
and mother". The Ethiopic version retains both his name and his relation, and reads,
"and Joseph his father, and his mother"; but all the ancient copies read only
"Joseph", without the addition, his father; and so the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic
versions: they
marvelled at those things which were spoken of him; the child Jesus: not
that those things which Simeon said, were new and strange to them; for they not only
knew that the same things were predicted of the Messiah, but they had heard and
known, and believed the same concerning this child; but they wondered, that a
stranger to them and the child, coming into the temple at this instant, should have
such a revelation made to him, and be able to say the things he did. Moreover, there
is no need to confine this passage to what were said by Simeon, but it may reach to,
and include every thing; that as yet had been spoken concerning Jesus; either before,
or since his birth; as by the angel to them both, to the one before his conception, to
the other after; and by Zacharias and Elisabeth, and by the angel to the shepherds,
who had reported the same to Joseph and Mary, and now by Simeon; and they were
astonished, at the exact agreement there was between them.
HENRY, “ The prediction concerning this child, which he delivered, with his
blessing, to Joseph and Mary. They marvelled at those things which were still more
and more fully and plainly spoken concerning this child, Luk_2:33. And because they
were affected with, and had their faith strengthened by, that which was said to them,
here is more said to them.
CALVIN, "33.And his father and mother were wondering Luke does not say,
that they were astonished at it as a new thing, but that they contemplated with
reverence, and embraced with becoming admiration, this prediction of the Spirit
uttered by the lips of Simeon, so that they continued to make progress in the
knowledge of Christ. We learn from this example that, when we have once come
to possess a right faith, we ought to collect, on every hand, whatever may aid in
giving to it additional strength. That man has made great proficiency in the word
of God, who does not fail to admire whatever he reads or hears every day, that
contributes to his unceasing progress in faith.
COFFMAN, "Childers' discerning comment on this catches the truth of it
exactly:
317

Simeon was not telling Joseph and Mary anything they had not previously
learned about Jesus. They marvelled, rather, that these truths should come to
them from a stranger and under such circumstances. The marvel to them, and to
us, is that everything that was said by all of God's messengers harmonized so
perfectly.[28]
ENDNOTE:
34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary,
his mother: “This child is destined to cause the
falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a
sign that will be spoken against,
BARNES, "Simeon blessed them - Joseph and Mary. On them he sought the
blessing of God.
Is set - Is appointed or constituted for that, or such will be the effect of his
coming.
The fall - The word “fall” here denotes “misery, suffering, disappointment,” or
“ruin.” There is a plain reference to the passage where it is said that he should be “a
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence,” Isa_8:14-15. Many expected a temporal
prince, and in this they were disappointed. They loved darkness rather than light,
and rejected him, and fell unto destruction. Many that were proud were brought low
by his preaching. They fell from the vain and giddy height of their own self-
righteousness, and were humbled before God, and then, through him, rose again to a
better righteousness and to better hopes. The nation also rejected him and put him to
death, and, as a judgment, “fell” into the hands of the Romans. Thousands were led
into captivity, and thousands perished. The nation rushed into ruin, the temple was
destroyed, and the people were scattered into all the nations. See Rom_9:32-33;
1Pe_2:8; 1Co_1:23-24.
And rising again - The word “again” is not expressed in the Greek. It seems to be
supposed, in our translation, that the “same persons would fall and rise again; but
this is not the meaning of the passage. It denotes that many would be ruined by his
coming, and that many “others” would be made happy or be saved. Many of the poor
and humble, that were willing to receive him, would obtain pardon of sin and peace -
would “rise” from their sins and sorrows here, and finally ascend to eternal life.
And for a sign ... - The word “sign” here denotes a conspicuous or distinguished
object, and the Lord Jesus was such an object of contempt and rejection by all the
people. He was despised, and his religion has been the common “mark” or “sign” for
all the wicked, the profligate, and the profane, to curse, and ridicule, and oppose.
318

Compare Isa_8:18, and Act_28:22. Never was a prophecy more exactly fulfilled than
this. Thousands have rejected the gospel and fallen into ruin; thousands are still
falling of those who are ashamed of Jesus; thousands blaspheme him, deny him,
speak all manner of evil against him, and would crucify him again if he were in their
hands; but thousands also “by” him are renewed, justified, and raised up to life and
peace.
CLARKE, "This child is set for the fall - This seems an allusion to Isa_8:14,
Isa_8:15 : Jehovah, God of hosts, shall be - for a stone of stumbling and rock of
offense to both houses of Israel; and many among them shall stumble and fall, etc. As
Christ did not come as a temporal deliverer, in which character alone the Jews
expected him, the consequence should be, they would reject him, and so fall by the
Romans. See Rom_11:11, Rom_11:12, and Matthew 24. But in the fullness of time
there shall be a rising again of many in Israel. See Rom_11:26.
And for a sign - A mark or butt to shoot at - a metaphor taken from archers. Or
perhaps Simeon refers to Isa_11:10-12. There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an Ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: - intimating that the
Jews would reject it, while the Gentiles should flock to it as their ensign of honor,
under which they were to enjoy a glorious rest.
That the thoughts (or reasonings) of many hearts may be revealed - I
have transposed this clause to the place to which I believe it belongs. The meaning
appears to me to be this: The rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish rulers will
sufficiently prove that they sought the honor which comes from the world, and not
that honor which comes from God: because they rejected Jesus, merely for the
reason that he did not bring them a temporal deliverance. So the very Pharisees, who
were loud in their professions of sanctity and devotedness to God, rejected Jesus, and
got him crucified, because his kingdom was not of this world. Thus the reasonings of
many hearts were revealed.
GILL, "And Simeon blessed them,.... Pronounced them blessed persons, on
account of their relation to Christ as man; and more especially, because of their
interest in him, as the, Saviour and Redeemer of them; and wished them all
happiness and prosperity inward and outward, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; and
so the Arabic version renders it, confining it to Joseph and Mary; "and Simeon
blessed them both"; though this blessing of his may take in also the young child
Jesus; whom he might pronounce blessed, as Elizabeth before had done, Luk_1:42
since he was the promised seed, in whom all nations of the earth should be blessed;
and to whom, and to whose undertakings, interest, and kingdom, he might wish all
prosperous success. The Persic version reads, "old Simeon: and said unto Mary his
mother": he directed his discourse to her, because she was the only real parent of this
child he had in his arms, and had said so much of, and was about to say more; and
because part of what follows, personally concerned her:
behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. The
word "child", is not in the original text; where it is only, "this is set, &c." Simeon
seeming to be, as it were, at a loss, what name to call this great and illustrious person
by, and therefore it is left to be supplied. The Persic version supplies it thus, behold,
"this Holy One is set, &c." The sense is, that this child, who is the stone of Israel, is
set, or put, or lies, both as a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence, for many of the
Jews to stumble at, and fail and perish; and as a precious corner and foundation
319

stone, for the erection and elevation of others of them, to the highest honour and
dignity, that shall believe on him: for these words are not to be understood of the
same, but of different persons among the Jews; though it may be true, that some,
who first stumbled at him, might be raised up again, and brought to believe in him;
and that many, who for his sake, and the Gospel, fell under great disgrace and
reproach, and into great afflictions and persecutions, were raised up to the
enjoyment of great comfort and honour: but they are not the same persons that
Christ is set for the fall of, that he is set for the rising of; nor the same he is set for the
rising of, he is set for the fall of; the one designs the elect of God among the Jews,
who became true believers in Christ; and the other, the reprobate, who died in
impenitence and unbelief: the words, so far as they concern Christ, "being set for the
fall of many of the Jews"; have a manifest reference to Isa_8:14 where the Messiah is
spoken of as a stone, and as a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence; at which, many
of the Jews should stumble, and fail, and be broken. And so the text is applied in the
Talmud (m), where it is said, that "the son of David will not come, until both houses
of the fathers, fail out of Israel; and they are these, the head of the captivity in
Babylon, and the prince in the land of Israel; as it is said, Isa_8:14 "he shall be for a
sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and rock of offence", to both the houses of
Israel.
Accordingly the Jews did stumble at his birth, parentage, and education; at the
meanness of his person, and the obscurity of his kingdom; at the company he kept,
and the audience that attended him; at his doctrine and miracles, and at his
sufferings and death: they fell, through their unbelief and rejection of him, as the
Messiah; and not only from their outward privileges, civil, and religious; the Gospel
was taken away from them, the national covenant between God and them was
broken, and they ceased to be his people, their temple and city were destroyed, and
wrath came upon their nation to the uttermost; but they also fell into everlasting
perdition, dying in their sins, through their disbelief of Jesus as the Messiah: this
indeed was not the case of all of them; there was a seed, a remnant, according to the
election of grace but it was the case of many, and of the far greater part but then this
same stone that was laid in Zion, was also
set for the rising again of many of them; meaning not for their resurrection in a
literal sense, though this is a truth: for as all God's elect, whether Jews or Gentiles,
rose in him representatively, when he rose from the dead; so many of them rose
personally after his resurrection, and all of them, at the last day, will rise again, in
consequence of their union to him: and indeed, all the wicked will be raised again, by
virtue of his power; but not this, but their resurrection in a spiritual sense, is here
meant; and it supposes the persons raised to have been in a low estate, as all God's
elect by nature are: they are in a hopeless and helpless condition in themselves: they
are in a state of thraldom and bondage, to sin, Satan, and the law; they are filled with
diseases, nauseous, mortal, and incurable; they are clothed in rags, and are beggars
on the dunghill; they are deep in debt, and have nothing to pay; and are dead in
trespasses and sins. Christ is now provided and appointed, for the raising them up
out of their low estate, and he does do it; he is the resurrection and the life unto
them; he raises from the death of sin, to a life of grace and holiness from him, to a life
of faith on him, and communion with him here, and to eternal life hereafter: he pays
all their debts clothes them with his righteousness, heals all their diseases, redeems
them from the slavery of sin, the captivity of Satan, and the bondage and curse of the
law; brings them into a hopeful and comfortable condition; raises them to the
possession of a large estate, an eternal inheritance; and gives them both a right unto
it, and ineptness for it; sets them among princes, makes them kings, places them on a
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throne of glory, yea, on his own throne, and sets a crown of righteousness, life, and
glory, on their heads; and will cause them to reign with him, first on earth, for a
thousand years, and then in heaven to all eternity: and this was to be the case of
many in Israel, though not of all; for all did not obey the Gospel, some did, three
thousand under one sermon; and more will in the latter day, when all Israel shall be
saved. This privilege of rising again, in this sense, by Christ, though it is here spoken
of with respect to many of the Jews, yet not to the exclusion of the Gentiles; for this
honour have all the saints, be they of what nation they will. Now when Christ is said
to be "set" for these different things, the meaning is, that he was foreappointed,
preordained, and set forth in God's counsel, purposes, and decrees, as a stone at
which some should stumble, through their own wickedness and unbelief, and fall and
perish, and be eternally lost; and as a foundation stone for others, to build their faith
and hope upon, which should be given them, and so rise up to everlasting life; and
that he was set forth in the prophecies of the Old Testament, as in that here referred
to, for the same ends; and that he was now exhibited in human nature with the same
views, and should be held forth in the everlasting Gospel, for the like purposes; and
which eventually is the savour of life unto life to some, and the savour of death unto
death to others: to all this, a behold is prefixed, as expressing what is wonderful and
surprising, and not to be accounted for, but to be resolved into the secret and
sovereign will of God: it is added, that he is also set
for a sign which shall be spoken against: referring to Isa_8:18. Christ is the
sign of God's everlasting love to his people, the great proof, evidence, and
demonstration of it; and in this respect, is spoken against by many: and he is set up
in the Gospel, as an ensign of the people to look at, and gather to, for comfort, peace,
righteousness, salvation, and eternal life; but is by many contradicted, opposed, and
treated with contempt and abhorrence; so that he appears rather to be set as a mark
and butt to shoot at: he was spoken against by the Scribes and Pharisees, and the
greater part of the people of the Jews, and contradicted, as the Messiah, because of
his mean appearance among them; his proper deity was denied, his divine sonship
was gainsayed; he was contemned in all his offices, kingly, priestly, and prophetic;
his works of mercy, both to the bodies and souls of men, his miracles, and the whole
series of his life and actions, were traduced as sinful and criminal: this was the
contradiction of sinners against himself, which he endured, Heb_12:3 and for which
he was set and appointed; and still the contradiction continues, and will, as long as
the Gospel is preached,
HENRY, “(1.) Simeon shows them what reason they had to rejoice; for he blessed
them (Luk_2:34), he pronounced them blessed who had the honour to be related to
this child, and were entrusted with the bringing him up. He prayed for them, that
God would bless them, and would have others do so too. They had reason to rejoice,
for this child should be, not only a comfort and honour to them, but a public
blessing. He is set for the rising again of many in Israel, that is, for the conversion of
many to God that are dead and buried in sin, and for the consolation of many in God
that are sunk and lost in sorrow and despair. Those whom he is set for the fall of may
be the same with those whom he is set for the rising again of. He is set eis ptōsin kai
anastasin - for their fall, in order to their rising again; to humble and abase them,
and bring them off from all confidence in themselves, that they may be exalted by
relying on Christ; he wounds and then heals, Paul falls, and rises again.
JAMISON, "set — appointed.
fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against —
321

Perhaps the former of these phrases expresses the two stages of temporary “fall of
many in Israel” through unbelief, during our Lord’s earthly career, and the
subsequent “rising again” of the same persons after the effusion of the Spirit at
Pentecost threw a new light to them on the whole subject; while the latter clause
describes the determined enemies of the Lord Jesus. Such opposite views of Christ
are taken from age to age.
CALVIN, "34.And Simeon blessed them If you confine this to Joseph and Mary,
there will be no difficulty. But, as Luke appears to include Christ at the same
time, it might be asked, What right had Simeon to take upon him the office of
blessing Christ? “Without all contradiction,” says Paul, “the less is blessed of the
greater,” (Hebrews 7:7.) Besides, it has the appearance of absurdity, that any
mortal man should offer prayers in behalf of the Son of God. I answer: The
Apostle does not speak there of every kind of blessing, but only of the priestly
blessing: for, in other respects, it is highly proper in men to pray for each other.
Now, it is more probable that Simeon blessed them, as a private man and as one
of the people, than that he did so in a public character: for, as we have already
said, we nowhere read that he was a priest. But there would be no absurdity in
saying, that he prayed for the prosperity and advancement of Christ’s kingdom:
for in the book of Psalms the Spirit prescribes such a εὐλογία , —a blessing of
this nature to all the godly.
“Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord;
we have blessed you in the name of the Lords”
(Psalms 118:26.)
Lo, this has been set This discourse was, no doubt, directly addressed by Simeon
to Mary; but it has a general reference to all the godly. The holy virgin needed
this admonition, that she might not (as usually happens) be lifted up by
prosperous beginnings, so as to be less prepared for enduring afflictive events.
But she needed it on another account, that she might not expect Christ to be
received by the people with universal applause, but that her mind, on the
contrary, might be fortified by unshaken courage against all hostile attacks. It
was the design, at the same time, of the Spirit of God, to lay down a general
instruction for all the godly. When they see the world opposing Christ with
wicked obstinacy, they must be prepared to meet that opposition, and to contend
against it undismayed. The unbelief of the world is—we know it—a great and
serious hinderance; but it must be conquered, if we wish to believe in Christ.
There never was a state of human society so happily constituted, that the greater
part followed Christ. Those who will enlist in the cause of Christ must learn this
as one of their earliest lessons, and must “put on” this “armor,” (Ephesians
6:11,) that they may be steadfast in believing on him.
It was by far the heaviest temptation, that Christ was not acknowledged by his
own countrymen, and was even ignominiously rejected by that nation, which
boasted that it was the Church of God; and, particularly, that the priests and
scribes, who held in their hands the government of the Church, were his most
determined enemies. For who would have thought, that he was the King of those,
who not only rejected him, but treated him with such contempt and outrage?
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We see, then, that a good purpose was served by Simeon’s prediction, that Christ
was set for the ruin of many in Israel The meaning is, that he was divinely
appointed to cast down and destroy many. But it must be observed, that the ruin
of unbelievers results from their striking against him. This is immediately
afterwards expressed, when Simeon says that Christ is a sign, which is spoken
against Because unbelievers are rebels against Christ, they clash themselves
against him, and hence comes their ruin This metaphor is taken from a mark
shot at by archers, (200) as if Simeon had said, Hence we perceive the malice of
men, and even the depravity of the whole human race, that all, as if they had
made a conspiracy, rise in murmurs and rebellion against the Son of God. The
world would not display such harmony in opposing the Gospel, if there were not
a natural enmity between the Son of God and those men. The ambition or fury of
the enemies of the Gospel carries them in various directions, faction splits them
into various sects, and a wide variety of superstitions distinguishes idolaters from
each other. But while they thus differ among themselves, they all agree in this, to
oppose the Son of God. It has been justly observed, that the opposition
everywhere made to Christ is too plain an evidence of human depravity. That the
world should thus rise against its Creator is a monstrous sight. But Scripture
predicted that this would happen, and the reason is very apparent, that men who
have once been alienated from God by sin, always fly from him. Instances of this
kind, therefore, ought not to take us by surprise; but, on the contrary, our faith,
provided with this armor, ought to be prepared to fight with the contradiction of
the world.
As God has now gathered an Israel to himself from the whole world, and there is
no longer a distinction between the Jew and the Greek, the same thing must now
happen as, we learn, happened before. Isaiah had said of his own age,
“ The Lord will be for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense, to both the
houses of Israel,” (Isaiah 8:14.)
From that time, the Jews hardly ever ceased to dash themselves against God, but
the rudest shock was against Christ. The same madness is now imitated by those
who call themselves Christians; and even those, who lay haughty claims to the
first rank in the Church, frequently employ all the power which they possess in
oppressing Christ. But let us remember, all that they gain is, to be at length
crushed and “ broken in pieces,” (Isaiah 8:9.)
Under the word ruin the Spirit denounces the punishment of unbelievers, and
thus warns us to keep at the greatest possible distance from them; lest, by
associating with them, we become involved in the same destruction. And Christ is
not the less worthy of esteem, because, when he appears, many are ruined: for
the “savor” of the Gospel is not less “sweet” and delightful to God, (2
Corinthians 2:15,) though it is destructive to the ungodly world. Does any one
inquire, how Christ occasions the ruin of unbelievers, who without him were
already lost? The reply is easy. Those who voluntarily deprive themselves of the
salvation which God has offered to them, perish twice. Ruin implies the double
punishment which awaits all unbelievers, after that they have knowingly and
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wilfully opposed the Son of God.
And for the resurrection This consolation is presented as a contrast with the
former clause, to make it less painful to our feelings: for, if nothing else were
added, it would be melancholy to hear, that Christ is “ a stone of stumbling,”
which will break and crush, by its hardness, a great part of men. Scripture
therefore reminds us of his office, which is entirely different: for the salvation of
men, which is founded on it, is secure; as Isaiah also says, “ Sanctify the Lord of
hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; and he shall
be for a sanctuary,” or fortress of defense, (Isaiah 8:13.) And Peter speaks more
clearly:
“ To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen
of God and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.
Wherefore also it is contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion the head-stone
of the corner, elect, precious, and he that believeth in him shall not be
confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious: but unto them
who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner,” (1 Peter 2:4; Isaiah 28:16.)
That we may not be terrified by the designation bestowed on Christ, “a stone of
stumbling,” let it be instantly recollected, on the other hand, that he is likewise
called the “corner-stone,” on which rests the salvation of all the godly. (201)
Let it be also taken into account, that the former is accidental, while the latter is
properly and strictly his office. Besides, it deserves our notice, that Christ is not
only called the support, but the resurrection of the godly: for the condition of
men is not one in which it is safe for them to remain. They must rise from death,
before they begin to live.
COFFMAN, "No indeed! Luke had not forgotten about the virgin birth, nor had
his reference to "parents" and "father" been any denial of it. Notice how it
comes into focus here in the words of Simeon who addressed these words, not to
Joseph at all, but to Mary his mother.
Rising and falling of many ... Those rising would be such men as the fishers of
Galilee who would become his apostles, and those falling would be such
unbelievers as Annas and Caiaphas, the mighty high priests, and the ruling
hierarchy.
A sign which is spoken against ... The name of Jesus was spoken against, not only
by the Roman writers such as Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny, who "spoke against
the Name with the most intense bitterness";[29] but "The great rabbinical
schools which flourished in the first three centuries of Christianity, commonly
used such names of Christ as `That Deceiver,' `That Man,' and `The Hung'."
Even today the holy SIGN is spoken against by the servants of Satan throughout
the world, some of whom spent their entire lives in the study of the Holy
Scriptures in pursuit of the one purpose of finding something which they can
deny.
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ENDNOTE:
[29] H. D. M. Spence, op. cit., p. 41.
SBC, "The Dual Aspect of Christ’s Advent.
The words of Simeon in the text seem to be intended to check natural but undue
expectations about the effect of the first coming of Christ. The Child of Mary, the
everlasting Son of the Father, is set by the counsels of God, set in Jewish history, in
human history, for the fall and rising again of many a human soul.
I. Let us here remark, that Christ’s coming into the world was not to have a uniform
effect upon human souls. It would act on one soul in one way, and on another in
another, it would act differently on the same soul at different periods of its history.
God’s good will is limited by the free action of men. Men can, if they like, reject Him,
and in fact they do. He is the glory of His people at large, but of the individuals who
compose it many will lose, as many will gain, by His coming among them. That is the
sense of Simeon’s words, "Behold this Child is set for the fall and rising again of
many in Israel."
II. Of the two effects of Christ’s Advent Simeon mentions, as first in order, the fall of
many in Israel. It must strike us as bold to the very verge of paradox thus to associate
His blessed Name, who came to be the health and Saviour of men, with spiritual
failure. And yet this language was in keeping with what the prophecy must have led
men to expect. Isaiah had said that the Lord Himself would be a "stumbling-stone
and a rock of offence" to both the houses of Israel; and this was shown to be the case
again and again through the centuries of Israel’s history. The worst faults of this
people were occasioned by the misuse of privileges and opportunities designed to
lead up to God.
III. Christ is also set for the rising of many in Israel. This was His original purpose in
coming among us; a purpose which was only limited in its operation by the free but
perverted will of man. When our Lord had His own way with souls, it was to raise
them to newness of life. He did not simply promote this resurrection in men. He was
Himself, so He said, the "Resurrection." To come into contact with Him was to touch
a life so intrinsically buoyant and vigorous that it transfused itself forthwith into the
attracted soul, and bore it onwards and upwards.
H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 401.
Luke 2:34-35
I. That is the claim which Christ has upon us; that He knows us. As it is said, "He
knew what was in man," and He does not merely know our faces, our forms, but our
true selves. You know nothing of any science or thing until you know its hidden inner
secret. Man has a great hidden nature, waiting for revealment and development.
Christ is the true Revealer of the hidden nature of man. He walked amidst the
mysteries of man’s spirit, as one there perfectly at home.
II. Knowledge of human nature is essential to all teaching. Have you not noticed that
scarcely any mind can cross the broad disc of our Lord’s even temporary association,
without revealing, as it passes, its state. It seems as if any mind coming into the
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neighbourhood of His Divine character is compelled to yield itself up. Not only to His
perfect knowledge, in the memorable events of His life, is illustrated how that which
is done in secret is proclaimed on the housetops. The teaching of our Lord had the
same influence as His personal character; it revealed the thoughts of the heart. (1)
His knowledge was and is absolute. (2) Hence His authority over man. Whenever a
man makes you feel his power it is because he knows you, because he reads you. (3)
He revealed our thoughts in His sympathy.
III. Christ not only revealed the thoughts of many hearts by eliciting their peculiar
moral character; but He spoke to the universal heart of men in all ages, both by His
deeds and by His words. He transformed the great instincts of men in all ages into
absolute revelations.
IV. You will see how eminently our Saviour knew us, if you think of the four things
which it was necessary should be done for us, and which He, as our Saviour, wrought
out, to make His righteousness ours. (1) He saw that human nature was dark, He
came to enlighten it. (2) He saw the hardness as well as the darkness of man. He
came to soften the world’s heart. (3) He consecrated humanity. He revealed the holy
destiny of man, for He knew what was in man. He knew that darkness and hardness
were the indissoluble associates of impurity, therefore He came to consecrate human
nature. (4) He ca

Luke 2 commentary

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Luke 2 commentary