[AI translation] What struck me most about the whole Christmas story was that there, on the night of Bethlehem, the Christmas angel proclaimed great joy to the astonished shepherds. It is a great thing when someone comes with good news from somewhere. For the world is full of so much bad news: from our newspapers, through the airwaves, from each other's mouths, we hear so much frightening, worrying, sad news that one could almost say that there is nothing humanity longs for more than some truly welcome, reassuring, hopeful good news! But not that everyone's salary will be doubled, or that the great powers have found a way of mutual understanding that will rule out the possibility of war for generations, but some reliable, authentic, truly great good news! I often get the feeling that God allows all kinds of bad news to intimidate mankind so that we finally understand that there is no other gospel than what He proclaims and announces!1) Well, the Christmas event is nothing but a great good news! "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be a joy to all the people". In the original text of the Bible, this is different from the Hungarian translation. There the word "joy" is almost piled on top of each other, so that it can hardly be translated literally into Hungarian. It's something like this: 'I will tell you with joyful tidings of great joy, which will be a joy to all the people. It's almost as if the human word cannot bear the overflowing joy it wants to proclaim. I would like to proclaim this good news on Christmas morning. Would to God that many joy-thirsty souls would be filled with true Christmas joy!
First of all, we learn from the Word to whom this message of joy is addressed. The angel says: "I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people." It is addressed to everyone to whom it reaches, without exception. I would particularly like to stress this, because we have quite wrong ideas about the joy of Christmas. In the popular imagination, the joy of Christmas means the family being together, the candles on the decorated Christmas tree, the joy in the eyes of the children, the touched thanks for the gifts, the happy holidays, the sitting down at the table. These are truly blessed, happy moments in a family's life. But if that were the only joy of Christmas, then those who proclaim that Christmas was a celebration for rich people would be right. Those who have no family, or who are separated from them, or who cannot afford a Christmas tree and presents, cannot have a happy Christmas? The elderly woman was right, when I wished her a Merry Christmas a few days ago, she sighed and said sadly: 'My son is a prisoner of war, I don't know if he's still alive, my daughter has emigrated to America, my husband is in his grave, I'm all alone. I'm dreading Christmas Eve, it's going to be one of the hardest days of my life, I wish I could get it over with!
Will this old woman, left alone, really not have a ray of the great joy that the angel of Bethlehem proclaimed to all the people? Is it such a joy that must be topped up with a Christmas tree, gifts bought with money, the warmth of the family circle, for otherwise it is not enough to brighten a sad heart? Well, my brother, the true joy of Christmas is not bound up with money or family fellowship, but with the Lord Jesus alone. Without Jesus, even the most lavish Christmas is poor and sad, and with Jesus, even the most dry and miserable Christmas is rich and happy! Moreover, if your heart is still full of the joy of the otherwise pleasant externals of Christmas, you are afraid that there is no room in it for the real joy of Christmas! The more unadorned your Christmas, the quieter it is. By worldly standards, the poorer it is, the fewer the obstacles to the great good news to your heart that a Saviour has been born to you!
The apostle John describes the miracle of Christmas in his gospel, "The light shines in the darkness." (John 1:5) So Jesus, the light, shines in the darkness. It is not that he puts an end to darkness, but that he shines in the darkness. Only those who know what darkness means can have true Christmas joy. In broad daylight, no one is happy when the gas lamps are lit, but a candle's flame will cheer the wanderer in the darkness. A man lay in a hospital bed, seriously ill. He was surrounded by a great, thick darkness full of terrors: the fear of death. I began to talk to him about Jesus, the friend of sinners, the holy blood that wipes away sins, the atoning death that forgives. Suddenly, as if a light shone in the darkness of the stalking death. The patient's anguished face brightened, heavenly joy sparkled in his eyes as he said it: Then I can die in peace! Yes, said I, you may die in peace, if God wills! That is the joy of Christmas, when light begins to shine in the darkness! It is not that you don't have to die, but that the light of eternal life shines through the darkness of death. It's not that there will never be sadness again, but that there is always comfort in whatever sadness there is! In poverty there is strength, in desolation there is support, in the most desperate situation there is sure hope, in darkness there is light! This is what is meant by "I proclaim to you great joy". The light of life in all the darkness of life!
Do you sense how Christmas is not a celebration of the rich, as the world wisely observes, but of the poor? For the poor in spirit, for those who sit in darkness, for those who have no joy in their lives, or who have already realised, as the writer of Ecclesiastes has already realised, that all other joy and happiness is vanity! The angel's message is for everyone, a happy Christmas can be for everyone whose heart desires true joy!
2) But how can I have this joy, how can I get it, how can I possess it? This question is also answered in our Word. Let's see what the shepherds did when they heard the good news. First of all, they believed it! They didn't doubt, they didn't say: we'll see what's true first! If they had not believed beforehand that the Lord had sent them a message, they would have gone in vain to seek the Saviour, for the miserable sight that met them there in the poor stable was also contrary to the majesty and divinity of the message. But they had already believed the message of great joy, the message of the Saviour, and that is why they could see in the child found in the beggarly surroundings what can only be seen with the eyes of faith: the Saviour, the Son of God, and that is why they were filled with joyful awe and praise to God! Out of their faith grew a happy experience.
You too must first believe what the Lord has said, and then you will experience that it is true! You must first believe that Jesus is your Savior, and then you will receive His saving grace. You must believe that there is forgiveness for you, and only then will you experience its sweetness. First believe that the message of Christmas joy is for you too! Believe and rejoice in the message in advance, now, when you may not yet see or feel it! Then a great well of joy will well up inside you! Believe that you have all power in Christ, and then you will have it indeed! From your faith can only grow a happy experience!
Believing the great good news, the shepherds set out immediately for Bethlehem. "Let us all go to Bethlehem and see this thing which the Lord has revealed to us." (Luke 2:15), they said to each other. You know why we don't usually have real Christmas joy? Because we only ever go as far as the Christmas tree, the candle-lit atmosphere of Christmas Eve, but not as far as Bethlehem! If you believe in the great Good News, then break through the nice habits of Christmas, the glittery or sad exteriors, and go all the way to the Lord Jesus Christ! But do not go empty-handed! A true encounter also requires that you take something to Him, and then give it to Him. I have often wondered, what could I give to the Lord that is not His? For He owns this world and all its riches. He has my heart, my soul, my life, my everything. What do I have that I can say is mine, that I can give Him what He does not have? Then I realised that if I wanted to give Him something that was all mine, it could only be one kind of thing: my sins! Brother, if you want to give Him something that you want to be all His and no longer yours, then give Him your sins! Even the most hidden ones! Believe me, this is the gift that pleases Him the most. You will always find Him most surely when you can walk towards Him with such a gift! Try it, and you will see how true the angelic report of great joy and the Savior is!
3) And finally one more thing. The great joy the angel spoke of is not a passing joy, but a real, permanent, great joy. How can this great joy be made permanent? As the shepherds did. We read, "And when they saw it, they proclaimed what was said to them concerning the child." (verse 17) So they too became rejoicers, spreaders of good news. They perpetuated their joy by sharing it with others. They continued in it by proclaiming it everywhere.
Once a woman went to a pastor and complained bitterly that no one loved her. After telling her how alone she was, how joyless her life was, the pastor found himself saying. That is why no one loves you. The woman protested vehemently, for she was relatively well-off, and no one had ever called her miserly. "Yet," said the pastor, "you are very poor in faith and joy! So poor that you not only cannot give to others, but rather take from them what little they have. Yes," the pastor continued, "people need faith and the joy that comes from it in this life. They are also involuntarily drawn to those who strengthen them in this. But whoever steals even that little bit of faith and joy from them, they involuntarily pull away. In your environment, people become poorer in faith and joy than they could have been without you! The woman understood why she was so alone.
Even worldly wisdom knows that the greatest joy is to be able to please others. And the only way to remain in the joy of Christmas is to radiate it unceasingly, to share it with others. It multiplies by sharing! It's so great when someone has good news to share! There is so much bad news in this world anyway! You do the greatest good when you spread good news! If your love, your words, your look, spread the Christmas gospel to this joyless world, and proclaim to everyone outside the church, friend and foe, family member and stranger, what the angel said on the night of Bethlehem: "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people: for unto you is born this day the Saviour"! That Jesus Christ has come into this world as Saviour for you too - then Christmas will last a lifetime for you!
Amen
Date: Christmas, 25 December 1948.
Lesson
Lk 2,1-20