It’s Christmas time!
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”, as a song sings. I guess the song says it right. For someone who lives in this part of the world we call Malaysia, Christmas is somehow, the 2nd most celebrated festival in the country (the 1st is the National day-lah for sure!).
Why? Take a walk in one of those mega shopping malls, you will be amazed by the amount of efforts they put in to transforming their mall into a Christmas wonderland, as if they saved all their best decoration for this time of the year. Wowing the shoppers has been a constant contest among the shopping malls. Take a look at the shoppers: you can easily see multitude of people, regardless of race and religion, are busy doing Christmas shopping either for themselves or their loved ones. It’s a celebration for everyone! It’s another season to show some love to people we care!
Do you celebrate Christmas? How do you celebrate Christmas? Christmas Party? Gift exchange?
As a Christian, I celebrate Christmas together with my family and friends in the church. We go to the church early in the morning for Christmas service, and the rest of the day is usually spent having fellowship with our friends over a meal or two. But, frankly speaking, having celebrated the Christmas for more than 25 times now, I can almost predict what’s going to happen even before I get to my church. I know most of the songs that will be sung. I know the message will be about the baby Jesus, with references to the usual supporting cast: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds or the wise men, maybe some angels. I’ve heard it all before.
Talking about angels! Have you ever envy the shepherds of Bethlehem?
Sometimes I do. I mean, their Christmas was a lot more exciting than ours. You see, they had a surprised visit! They were amazed by the most comforting proclamation! They had the best choir around (I mean, who can beat the angels who have been created and trained for that?). Ah, not to mention all the visually stunning appearance! They were treated to a dazzling supernatural display. Heavenly light dazzled their eyes. Heavenly choruses rang in their ears.
In Luke 2:8-14 the Bible tells about that first Christmas night. Mary gave birth to baby Jesus, wrapped in strips of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room anywhere else.
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 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. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.“
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.“
I love that story, but sometimes I envy the shepherds. Wouldn’t it be great if we could see what they saw, if we could hear what they heard? What if angels came this Christmas?
Reacting to Real Angels
O, why not? Try to imagine our nice, predictable Christmas celebrations (church service, party, or meal fellowship) being interrupted by real angels. Suddenly everyone in the room is squinting at a brightness their eyes cannot handle. Our ears are filled with a voice like none we have ever heard. It’s the Christmas angel, come back to tell us the same thing he once told the shepherds.
“Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…”
Imagine that…. how would you react?
Well, the Christians, or the follower of Jesus Christ may have heard those words many times in many different Christmas celebrations, but coming from the mouth of the angel, it’s like hearing the message for the first time. Don’t be afraid! Good news! Great joy! Yes, indeed! Amen and amen!
For non-Christians, you’ll probably can’t help but think over this supernatural phenomenon: Angels do exist? Why is the birth of that little Jewish baby boy is a good news to me? “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…”
If it really happen, I bet you’ll leap with gladness, some may even cry because of over-excited, some more cool-headed ones might take the camera, take a shot and upload onto facebook or twitter 
“Do Not Be Afraid”
But wait… let me go back a little bit! Did I hear “Don’t be afraid” instead of “Merry Christmas” or “Felice Navidad” from the angels? No, you heard it right. If the angels ever appear, they’d probably repeat the same message to us: “Do not be afraid!”
“Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.”
We are all familiar with the joy and peace in the end of the story, but how about the first statement of the angels? Doesn’t this tell us something?
Yes, the Angels are right. We are fearful, worrisome, terrified people. You see, the birth of Christ took place in the midst of fearful people. The Christmas story started with the father of John the Baptist, Zecharias:
“But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John.” (Luke 1: 13)
Then to Mary, mother of Jesus,
“The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.” (Luke 1:30-31)
Then to Joseph, father of Jesus :
“While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.” (Matthew 1:20)
And now, the shepherds
Here, four times the angel of the Lord spoke to mankind announcing the coming of the Messiah. These passages are so familiar we often miss the first message given by the angel. Fear Not! This is not just a clearing of the angel’s throat. (You know, they say this instead of “A-hem” or “Uh, hello!”)
It is a command. “Do not be afraid! Fear Not!”
You might say, well, the angel said that because those people were afraid because an angel showed up. Who wouldn’t be afraid? But as we will see from the scriptures, Old Testament, and New, from Abraham, all the great Bible heroes, to the prophets, the Gospels and Letters: The message is repeated. For Zechariah, he afraid that God played fool on him, that he’ll be a laughing stock for people around him. For Mary, is the fear of unworthiness/ or low self-esteem. For Joseph, is the fear of rejection and misunderstanding from his friends and relatives. For shepherds, maybe, that their sheep will run away because of the supernatural appearance of the angels, and that would cost them a fortune!
You see, our God understands that the natural human condition is FEAR, and our Lord tells us, DO NOT BE AFRAID!
Let us pause a moment. What is your fear? What is your fear right now?
Fear is the thing that robs away our joy in God, and Christmas is all about embracing the coming of God instead of embracing the fears in our life!
God With Us
The great news of Christmas is not simply that a glorious, all—powerful God exists. That’s true, of course, but our greatest need is not just to know that God exists somewhere out there, but to know that He is present right here: to realize that he has lived and walked among us 2 thousand years ago, that he has known our grieves, that he has carried our sorrows, that he has felt the temptations we feel, that he understand the fear of falling, that he knew how uncertainties in the future terrifies us… that he was made like us in every way except for sin, that he can help us in our weakness.
That’s why Christmas matters. That’s why the Son of God became one of us. He had been through what we are going through! In Jesus, God understands people totally, and he saves them completely.
Someone once said: “Peace is not the absence of problems; it is the presence of God in the midst of our problems!”
God wants to let us know: He is with us. He understands. And He will walk us through our fears, and grant us that peace and joy. “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.” “…and he will be called Immanuel” (which means, “God is with us”). (Matt1:27)
Message of Christmas is very personal!
So Christmas isn’t just a sentimental break from our difficulties; it’s a time to celebrate that God is with us, that He has entered into our difficulties himself. Jesus came to enter our fear, to walk with us in the midst of it, and ultimately to lift us out of it.
Coming back to that imagination of angel appearing in our midst today. It is not a dazzling angel to pronounce that proclamation to us again that we need. What we need is for God to be with us. We need God to convince us that he loved us so much he became one of us. We need him to convince us of our sins and inadequacy to handle our life and help us receive the salvation, joy and peace that only Jesus Christ, can provide. That by doing so, you’ll be set free from your fear, and venture into a joyful and peaceful future with the Lord!
But actually, for the past two thousand years God has sent an angel every Christmas. In the original language, the word angel simply means “messenger”. In fact, you’re reading the words from one of God’s messengers right now. I’m not an angel of heaven, but as God’s messenger I bring you the same good news the angel brought the shepherds. “Don’t be afraid…To you has been born a Savior. He is Messiah. He is the Lord.”
It’s the same news the shepherds heard, and it calls for the same response. The shepherds immediately went to Jesus, and that’s what you must do: go to Jesus.
Do you want to do that right now through a prayer to God?
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