Sermon Tone Analysis

God calls the Marginalized at Christmas

The main text we’ll be speaking out of is Luke 2:8-20:

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Context of the Passage in Luke 2:

It is always important to make sure we understand contextually what is happening when we begin to explore the Biblical Text.

Sometimes when we preach topically it doesn’t matter as much because we’re not grounded in one particular passage, however, today were doing an expository sermon - and therefore context is vital before we venture further!

Historical Context:

First, the historical context of the text is what we’ll discuss first and foremost.

The first clue for us within the text itself is at the very beginning of the second chapter in Luke.

In Luke 2:1, Luke gives us a big clue into the political happenings of the time:

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

So if we want to begin understanding the historical context we need to ask who some of these important political figures are?

Why are they important enough to be mentioned by Luke?

What I love about the Bible is that it never wastes words!

Meaning, every detail given is there for an important reason.

So who is Emperor Augustus and who is Qurinius?

Caesar Augustus

While not being anywhere near the place Christ’s birth, Augustus brings a wealth of context to the birth narrative of Christ.

You see, Augustus was not just any Roman Emperor - he was the first.

Before he was known Octavius and he was adopted by Julius Caesar, which is why he adopted the name Caesar.

At 19 years old, Octavius’ adopted father was assassinated - which sparked an intense civil war against the conspirators .

The civil war waged for many years until Octavius was triumphant and his ally, Marc Antony was then the only one in the way of him having complete domination over the entire Empire.

You see, before Octavius, the Senate was the governing body of Rome.

The idea of a monarchy or an empire was actually quite tabboo because, to the Romans, their only King was Jupiter.

However this civil war was the beginning of Rome’s shift from a republic controlled by a body of hundreds of politicians - into a system where complete power of the civilized world was wielded by one man.

Qurinius

He was a celebrated military leader.

He held various governmental positions throughout the Roman Empire - and he was handed responsibility of the newly annexed Roman Provinces of Judea and Samaria.

Meaning, this guy was put in place to make sure these freshly conquered lands had zero resistance to Rome.

One way to do so was to take a census, so after Augustus ordered that the entire Empire be registered - the responsibility fell on governors of provinces to handle that locally and report back to Rome.

Imagine for a moment, if a civil war began in Canada.

The governmental system from our branches of government to the role of the Prime Minister to the division of power between Federal, Provincial and Municipal governing bodies - all torn down in the blink of an eye and replaced with a Monarchy.

This is effectively what Rome was enduring right before the birth of Christ.

This political strife is palpable throughout the New Testament.

It is important to also bare in mind that there was a deep seeded attitude of antisemitism among Roman officials.

In fact, governors of Judea and Jerusalem were chosen for their distinct hatred of Jews.

They would often try to bring Roman Imperial images and banners into places like Jerusalem to begin to break down Judaism and convert Jews to the cult of Augustus.

So as we venture forth into the text - keep in mind the peak levels of stress, uncertainty, persecution, alienation, and outright violence the Jews were facing at the time.

THESE ARE DISTRESSFUL TIMES!

So .... this is a good place to back up!

Imagine for a moment, what these Shepherds must have been thinking:

We are oppressed

We are poor

Our lands are occupied by a foreign empire

....and Angels have just appeared to us.

I mean really… these Shepherds are the lowest of the low on the social totem pole - living their lives under an Imperial Empire looking to completely dominate them.

There is no promise of tomorrow for these people and yet God chose them to call to the manger, where the messiah would be born.

This is a glimpse of how God operates.

Because not only were these Shepherds under fear of political violence and uncertainty - they had Jewish cultural customs also working against them.

Cultural Context:

Randy Alcorn, Founder of Eternal Perspectives Ministries said this about Shepherds:

In Christ’s day, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the Palestinian social ladder.

They shared the same unenviable status as tax collectors and dung sweepers….

During the time of the Patriarchs, shepherding was a noble occupation….

When the twelve tribes of Israel migrated to Egypt, the encountered a lifestyle foreign to them.

The Egyptians were agriculturalists.

As farmers, they despised shepherding because sheep and goats meant death to crops….

In the course of 400 years, the Egyptians prejudiced the Israelite's’ attitude toward shepherding.

Some shepherds earned their poor reputations, but others became victims of a cruel stereotype.

The religious leaders maligned the shepherd’s good name; rabbis banned pasturing sheep and goats in Israel, except on desert plains….

‘To buy wool, milk or a kid from a shepherd was forbidden on the assumption that it would be stolen property’….

Shepherds were officially labeled ‘sinners’—a technical term for a class of despised people.

So now that we have a bit more context we can see how this just doubles down on the state of the Shepherd.

Their historical, political and cultural context that they find themselves in all disfavor their class!

Theological Context:

Remember Back to the Minor Prophets:

Back in the summer, I spoke on the book of Malachi, the final book of the Old Testament.

If you remember, that book takes place a generation or so AFTER the Israelites return from exile, rebuild the Temple, and have continued on living as a nation.

However, their disposition and devotion to God became stale and stagnant.

The Israelites stopped experiencing the glory of God as a nation like they once did!

They accuse God of not loving or caring for them, to which YHWH responds through the prophet.

Word Study: “Messenger/Malachi”

What is interesting here as well is that the word “Malachi” means My Messenger or His Messenger:

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says “His name means “my angel” or “my messenger”(מַלְאָךְ) and is so translated in Malachi 3:1 and elsewhere.

Apart from the book which bears his name, nothing else is known about him from the Bible.

In the apocryphal book of 2 Esdras 1:40 he is identified as “Malachi, who is also called a messenger of the Lord.”

Rabbinic tradition suggests that Malachi may be another name for Ezra the scribe, although there is no supporting evidence for this identification.

HEBREW:

The word “messenger” in general written in Hebrew sheds light on what this word means in a Jewish context as, typically in English it means to literally deliver a message - something inconsequential in most cases:

mal’ak: Refers to a prophet, priest, angels, the angel of YHWH.

biser: Refers to bringing of good news, glad tidings - it is sometimes made a verb to suggest you are receiving good news!

malay: Refers to a priestly consecration - a priestly action which declares something is Holy

GREEK:

aggelos: Refers to an angel

apostolos: refers to an apostle

Both of these Biblical characters carry out an action on behalf of God in the New Testament.

So, we have now a better understanding of what is happening in Luke 2.

This story is not a stand alone, random occurrence of Angels appearing to some Shepherds to give them instruction - but the continuation of God’s plan from 400 years prior in the book of Malachi!

The previous messenger, beckoning a nation to wake up from their slumber!