Be Still When Proclaiming a Sign (Advent 19, 2017)

It was almost like the excitement of Christmas morning!! (Actually, it was still dark but it was Christmas morning in the birth narrative of the Christ Child.)  The angel, probably giddy with excitement like a toddler couldn’t even wait for sunrise, rushes to wake up and proclaim to the shepherds there’s a seriously amazing gift just arrived! 

Be Still, angels. 

Just proclaim it.

Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

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Don’t you find it interesting that the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger isn’t the gift per se?  That’s only a sign.  The gift is the Savior.

And it’d be 30 years before that Baby Jesus, the Christ Child, would be–visibly and demonstrably–our Savior.

Be Still.  Take a moment to step out of hustle-bustle of Christmas and ponder the reality of this.  We celebrate the sign.  The gift wouldn’t be fulfilled until 3 decades later at the holidays we call Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 

Thirty years!  And we get frustrated by 2 weeks with Amazon.  Will a gift arrive in time for Christmas?  Or will we have to make a card with an IOU for when it shows up finally?

Baby Jesus was not God’s IOU.  The angel was proclaiming that the Savior HAS BEEN born to you.  He IS Christ the Lord.  But the baby in a manger is just the sign that points to His identity.

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Be Still, angels.  The Incarnation is exciting news!  Share it with all the joy His birth offers.

Be Still.  It will be thirty years and you can pace yourselves.  Jesus would not rush straight from the manger to the Cross.

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  It will take thirty years of living, teaching, and revealing so that the world will know that Jesus is My Son and He finishes the work of revealing Me.  John 14: 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Be Still and Know that I AM God.  Matthew 11: 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 27 All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Questions for Reflection:

1. How often are we tempted to worship the sign, the wrappings-if you will-rather than the gift?  Do we grasp the profundity of God’s giving us the Savior?
2. Thirty years is a long time to wait.  Were the angels and the shepherds premature in their celebration?  Why or why not?
3. What was the purpose of the proclamation of His birth? 
4. What was the purpose of the thirty years?  How much could the Incarnate Christ actually reveal of an infinite Father in that period of time?

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Still Christmas, Advent 2017 Devotionals began December 3, 2017 and are archived from that date.