“Do Not Be Afraid, For Behold, I Bring You Good Tidings Of Great Joy”

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

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, goodwill toward men!”

So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Luke 2:8-20

We are not frightened of Jesus coming to earth in a manger. In Jesus, born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough, God finds at last a mode of approach that we need not fear. What could be less scary than a new baby?

Why did God take on human form? The Bible gives many reasons, some theological and some quite practical; but the scene of Jesus as an adolescent lecturing rabbis in the temple gives one clue. For the first time, ordinary people could hold a conversation, a debate, with God in visible form. Jesus could talk to anyone – His parents, a rabbi, a poor widow – without first having to announce, “Don’t be afraid.”

In Jesus, God comes close to us.

God incarnate is the end of fear.

Our Daily Bread – August 11, 2016