Fear and Favor

Introduction

When you think of Christmas, what comes to mind?

Maybe it’s the decorations, the ornaments, and the lights. I recently saw a 2020 Christmas tree ornament. It was two face masks creatively fashioned into an angel. I thought that was hilarious. It also seemed oddly appropriate for the year we’ve had.

Then again, maybe you think of the delicious foods - candy canes, Christmas cookies, peppermint mocha lattes, or the Christmas ham you’ll eat tomorrow.

You might also think of the music - sacred time-honored Christmas carols like those we’re enjoying tonight or more gimmicky songs like, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” or “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.”

Or, then again, maybe its the movies. What are your favorites? For the time-honored classics, I try to catch Jimmy Stewart in, It’s a Wonderful Life. Molly likes, A Christmas Story. As a family, we like Elf and, of course, Christmas Vacation.

Needless to say, there was none of that on the first Christmas. So, what was there? Well, for one, when you take a close look at the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible, you soon realize that there was a lot of fear that first Christmas.

Jesus’ story involves fear.

Over and over again, we read that the news of Jesus’ birth prompted great fear.

Zechariah was afraid.

First, there was Zechariah, Jesus’ elderly uncle. He served as a priest in the Temple at Jerusalem. There were thousands of temple workers like him, perhaps as many as 24,000 - 1,000 per priestly division.1 However, one day, it was his turn to officiate at the altar of incense - a statistical improbability and indescribable honor.

Carrying a covered ladle of approximately a gallon of incense, Zechariah, accompanied by another priest bearing hot coals in a similar ladle, “entered the Court of Israel, offered the incense, prostrated himself, and retired.” Afterward, the priests’ custom was to pronounce an Old Testament blessing (the Aaronic blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26). However, according to custom, this was the only occasion in which a priest could say the divine name YHWH instead of substituting Adonai. All the while, assembled worshippers prayed and chanted outside.2

Zechariah took a little longer than expected though because, as he offered incense, "there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him” (Luke 1:11-12, emphasis mine).

A couple of weeks ago, Jeffrey Hoy, our Director of Worship Arts, and I were alone here in the church building together - but we didn’t know it. When I exited the staff kitchen, our paths crossed. We both jumped back, startled. Like Zechariah, I thought that I was all alone and was scared to discover that I wasn’t - at least for a moment. However, unlike Zechariah, I didn’t confront an angel from heaven - though we all think Jeffrey is the next best thing. Can you even begin to imagine the fear?

And while an angelic vision was terrifying enough, the angel’s message was a bit scary too. Zechariah, an old man whose wife, Elizabeth, was also well beyond child-bearing years, would soon have a son - but not just any son. He would be the long-awaited forerunner of God’s messiah. From that moment, everything would change for Zechariah and Elizabeth, their nation, and even the whole world in amazing and even fearful ways.

But that’s not all. Jesus’ story involved fear in a second way.

Mary was afraid.

It was that same angel, Gabriel, who came to Mary “and said, 'Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!' But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be" (Luke 1:27-29).

Interestingly, Luke described Mary’s fear with a Greek word (diatarassein) occurring only here in the New Testament. It is even stronger than the word Luke used to describe Zechariah’s fear (tarassein) and that Matthew used to describe the fear of Herod the Great at the news of the messiah’s birth (Matthew 2:3).3

Notice how Luke records that Mary wasn’t as much troubled by her angelic visitor as she was at his saying. Favored? The Lord is with you? There was nothing - nothing - in Mary’s circumstances that would necessarily indicate either.

And yet, Gabriel continued. Mary, though a virgin, would conceive a child through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Named Jesus, he would rule from the throne of his father David forever. This child would be the long-awaited messiah.

Young, betrothed (not yet married), and alone, Mary faced what seemed like certain rejection from Joseph and his house. It was a scary place to be.

We find a third expression of fear in the birth story of Jesus, among Zechariah and Mary’s neighbors.

Their neighbors were afraid.

As news and rumors of supernatural occurences spread, fear came over the community. Responding to the spectacular events surrounding John the Baptist’s birth, we read that, "fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, 'What then will this child be?' For the hand of the Lord was with him” (Luke 1:65-66).

People had a sense something significant was happening, but they didn’t know exactly what. The uncertainty was unsettling, the possibilities frightful.

And, finally, we read about another expression of fear, this time among the shepherds outside of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

The shepherds were afraid.

Luke records that months later, on that first Christmas night, "there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear" (Luke 2:8-9).

Fear, fear, fear, and more fear at the birth of the Prince of Peace. What are we to think about all of that?

All had good reasons to fear.

The first thing we should acknowledge is that all of these people had good reasons to fear.

Zechariah

Did you know that Zechariah lived after four-hundred years of what some call, “prophetic silence?” There were no prophets in Israel. The great majority of Jews didn’t expect to hear from God. The sudden appearance of an angel was unnerving, to say the least.

Beyond that, Zechariah and Elizabeth were old. They were in their golden years, ideally a time of rest. Even so, God told them that their lives’ greatest work lay in front of them, not behind them.

Mary

Now imagine that you’re a young peasant girl - poor and unmarried. Suddenly, you’re pregnant and your alibi is that the Holy Spirit overshadowed you. People have a hard time believing that now and they sure did back then. What will people think? What will your fiancé think? Poor and inevitably abandoned, how will you raise this child?

The Neighbors

And what was it like for the people of the surrounding region? Something extraordinary was afoot. Things were changing, but they didn’t know in what way or what it all meant. Would this mean good or bad? Considering the hard history of Israel’s captivity to Assyria, Babylon, Persia, the Seleucids and Romans, the people were primed to dread rather than delight in future possibilities. Uncertainty produced anxiety.

The Shepherds

Now consider the shepherds. As a class, they had a bad reputation back then. Due to their occupation, people viewed them as dirty drifters and thieves. Due to their demanding work with animals, they were too unclean and too unavailable to be religious. When angels appeared and the glory of the Lord shined around them, they instinctively feared judgment. They weren’t worthy and they knew it.

Your fear has reasons, too.

Maybe some of those fears resonate with you tonight.

Maybe you feel like Zechariah. God’s seemed silent for a long time. Maybe you fear that he’s done talking to you.

Maybe you’re like Zechariah and Elizabeth. Tonight, you fear that your best years and efforts are behind you.

Maybe you have something in common with Mary. You fear what others think of you. You fear a lack of relationships and resources. You don’t know how God’s plans for you will come together.

Then again, maybe you’re feeling like the people who heard this news second and third-hand. In 2020, that would be understandable. We all have a sense that things are changing in significant ways - socially, economically, politically, technologically, and more - but we don’t yet know how. It’s unnerving, even frightful.

And some of you tonight might be here on Christmas because, like the shepherds, you don’t come to church very much. Maybe you don’t feel worthy. Maybe you fear exposure - that God drawing near and shining a light on your life is terrifying, not comforting.

And yet, God said to all, “Do not be afraid.”

The angel reassured Zechariah. Luke tells us that, "the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord" (Luke 1:13-15).

The angel reassured Mary. "And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:30-32).

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Zechariah reassured the people that his son’s birth was good news for them - not bad. Over his son, he said, "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God" (Luke 1:76-78).

To the shepherds, the angel declared, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

This Christmas, God offers the same message to you: “Do not be afraid.”

Christmas is a powerful reminder that Jesus came to save us, not scare us. Christianity is not bad news. It’s not only good news. It’s the best news. We can fear God without being afraid of him.

Why does it matter?

Let me give you two reasons this matters.

Fear holds us back.

Sure, not all fear is bad. However, some is.

It can hold you back from enjoying God.

If can hold you back from enjoying others.

It can hold you back from enjoying yourself.

Favor sets us free.

The antidote to toxic fear is favor. Knowing that God is with us and for us free us.

Favor won’t make us fearless, but it can help us fear less.

Favor is a fact. Fear is a feeling.

Favor won’t make it easy, but it will always make a way.

Christmas is God’s invitation to live in favor, not fear.

SOURCES:

1 James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 33.

2 Ibid., 35.

3 Ibid., 45.