Today’s Gospel text is full of Christmas gifts for us, but I’d like to unwrap the words which the angels proclaimed to the shepherds, especially focusing on the words, “Fear not!”
We may not always admit it, but you and I are afraid of many things. Some things we ought to be afraid of, while other things we are irrationally afraid of. For example, I’m afraid of getting to close to fire or walking around in a high crime neighborhood. I think these are both rational fears. But I’m also afraid of heights and of what might be lurking below me, if I’m swimming out in the ocean. We fear failure as well as success, marriage as well as divorce, losing a home as well as purchasing one, being employed as well as being unemployed. People who are perfectly healthy fear getting sick, going to hospitals, getting old, and dying. Of course, this would be an endless sermon if I went on to list all the things we are afraid of in this life.
But the greatest fear we all have (whether we choose to recognize it or not) is the fear of God’s wrath. It is a fear we all have since mankind’s fall into sin. And even though we might hold this fear in check most of the time or even deny it, it comes out when we come face to face with God in His glory. The Israelites demonstrated this fear when they came face to face with God’s glory at Mt. Sinai. And the shepherds in today’s Gospel text demonstrated this fear as well when they came face to face with this glory on the night of Christ’s birth. The text says that they were filled with fear. The word St. Luke uses can be translated, “They feared a great fear; they were terrified, frightened, and seized with fear.” It’s the kind of fear you would experience if you knew you were going to die immediately. And that’s why God’s glory is such a fearful thing, because it means death for sinners, not only temporal, physical death, but also eternal death under God’s wrath in hell. No wonder the shepherds “feared a great fear.” And they were justified in doing so, because they like us were sinners.
But it doesn’t seem like they should have been so afraid. Here was this beautiful angel standing before them with the glory of the Lord shining all around them. The event is depicted in artwork as a marvelous sight, one we wish we could have seen ourselves. And yet, we would have been terrified, too. Why? Well, back in O.T. times, you didn’t want angels coming around. Today people think they are these cute, cuddly beings that are like your invisible buddies or pals. But more often than not, the accounts we are given in Scriptures about angels show them to have been not only the heralds of God’s judgment, but also the ones who carried it out. And so, in the very beginning, once Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, God placed an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to keep them from reaching the tree of life. It was angels again that God sent to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And Ps. 78 tells us that God let loose on the Egyptians His burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. The book of Revelation tells us that God will use angels again in the same way in the last days as His instruments for pouring out His wrath on the earth. So, the shepherds rightly feared the angels. Even the Virgin Mary trembled with fear at the sight of Gabriel, as did the women at the Lord’s empty tomb on the day of His resurrection, when the angels appeared to them.
But fearing the angels as the shepherds did, their ultimate fear was that of God, whose will and command the angels were simply carrying out. Angels didn’t act on their own. It was God’s wrath that they were given to pour out in the O.T. It’s His wrath they’ll pour out in the last days. The great fear, then, that the shepherds feared was God’s sentence of judgment and the death that would surely follow. Basically, the shepherds were thinking, “We’re dead!”
The surprise was that this time the angels hadn’t been sent either to announce God’s wrath or to carry it out. Instead, the first words out of this angel’s mouth was, “Fear not!” Why? Because this time he was sent with good news. It was good news of a great joy (not judgment) for all people (no matter what age, race, or gender). It was the news that in Bethlehem, the city of David, a Savior had been born to them - Christ the Lord. And with these words not only was the shepherd’s fear of angels taken away, but more importantly so was their fear of God. As Jesus explained to Nicodemus in the Gospel according to St. John, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” And so, all the angels together glorified God and proclaimed His message of peace on earth, goodwill towards men. With these words they assured the shepherds that God was not angry with them or that He had come to destroy them and send them to hell. This is certainly what they and we deserved on account of our sin and rebellion against Him. But God had sent His Son in human flesh, in order to reconcile us to Him with the shedding of His blood on the cross. Through the sacrifice of our Mediator, Jesus, God worked peace for us before Him, pouring out His wrath on His Son instead of us, so that we might no longer have to fear that wrath ourselves, but live under His good will now and forever. The glory of the Gospel has overcome the glory of the Law, so that we who are in Christ might now stand in God’s glorious presence without fear.
And so the words “Fear Not!” are given to you, too, today, just as they were given to those shepherds on the night of Christ’s birth. No longer spoken by angels, they are spoken by pastors, the messengers God uses today to proclaim His peace and good will towards you. God’s wrath was completely spent on His Son, for whose sake your sins are forgiven. There is no more wrath or judgment for you, nothing to fear from God or His angels, either now or on the last day to come. No matter what other things you might fear, the fear of all fears has been removed by Jesus. You may be facing a financial crisis in your life; fear not! You may be suffering the loss of a loved one; fear not! You may be sick, troubled, or hurting; fear not! Even though the devil and his angels might be attacking you, even though the world might be against you, even though your own sins might be overwhelming you, fear not! A Savior was born for you on this day, in order to take the sting out of every kind of fear that you might face in this life, especially the fear of death and God’s wrath. The holy Child born of the Virgin Mary on that first Christmas grew up to give His life for you on the cross and take it up again on the third day, so that you who believe in Him and are baptized in His Name might live under God’s declaration of peace and good will now and look forward to the resurrection of the dead and life under God’s peace and good will face to face with Him in His heavenly kingdom forever.
And so, St. Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Fear not! A Savior has been born for you - He is Christ the Lord. You’ll find Him wrapped in the swaddling clothes of His Word and lying in the manger of His Sacraments - Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Come and see, and receive the peace and good will that God gives you in Him. Enjoy the gifts! Merry Christmas! Amen.