Reflection on Luke 2:1-20

 

Luke 2:1-20

1In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And 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!”

15When 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.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Reflection

One Christmas, when I was young, I saw my grandma staring at the Christmas tree.  I asked her, “Are you looking at the star?” looking way up to the top of the tree myself.  The star was there, casting a burst of crystalline illumination on the ceiling. 

“The star is really nice,” she said, “but I was looking at one of the lights in the tree.  Do you see that light that somehow got shoved way in toward the center of the tree?”

I looked, and sure enough there was a lonely light that had haphazardly been pulled into the center of the tree. 

“I like how it lights up all of the needles and branches around it.  It is in its own secret little spot.  It is pretty.  Even though it is in a forgotten place, it still lights everything up.  I think God works that way.”

Grandmas are amazing.  At least mine were.  I love how my grandma just plopped that little insight, that little piece of heavenly wisdom, into this little boy’s heart, and then just walked away to serve some pumpkin pie.

“Even though it is in a forgotten place, it still lights everything up.  I think God works that way.”

That makes me imagine the angel Gabriel making his way through the skinny city streets of Nazareth, dodging houses, wagons, and people, like he is working his way through his own jumble of pine needles and branches, in order to find the young, forgotten Mary whose faith shined bright.  Later, that faith breaks out into a song about how God is working to change the cruel world, pushing down the proud and raising the lowly, leaving the rich empty but filling the poor with all that is good. 

She is a forgotten light, in the despised trade city of Nazareth, which was full of unseemly characters.  Even one of Jesus’ disciples, Nathaniel, later replied with an eye roll, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).  But the amazing thing is that God has made Mary to shine on everything around her anyway.  The place is not forsaken by God.  The place is the place God chooses to shine a light through Mary.

As I gaze into the memory of all of those pine needles and branches being illuminated by that forgotten light, I think of “shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8)  And, how in those forgotten fields God caused a light to shine even on them.  “Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 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: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord’” (Luke 2:10-11).

I said that God caused a light to shine “even on them” because hired shepherds were despised, and viewed as homeless nobodies.  No one wasted any time thinking about shepherds, except to make certain their purses were still hanging off their sides after passing by a shepherd.  But, God thinks about them.  In fact, God uses them as the first people to start declaring Jesus’ birth.  God makes them shine as they run back home “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” all along the way (Luke 2:20).

We like to stare at the bright stars on the top of the tree, and there is a bright star later on in Jesus’ story too, but first we get to see God’s lights, Mary and the shepherds, shining through the needles, from within the forgotten part of the tree.  Of course, they may have been people who were forgotten by the world, but they definitely were not forgotten by God.  In fact, it is they who God chooses to be a part of one of the biggest things that God ever planned to do: bring his Messiah into the world in order to rescue it and to take “away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

And that leads me to imagine the scene of the shepherds finding the baby Jesus lying in a manger; in a feeding trough. “They…found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16).  You cannot get any more out of the way and obscure than being housed in a feeding trough.  The baby Jesus, then, is also found way back through the needles of the tree, but he lights up all that surrounds him.  “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5).

“Even though it is in a forgotten place, it still lights everything up.  I think God works that way.”

This is a hard time of year to suddenly find yourself in a forgotten place.  It is not uncommon for people to feel like there is a lack of “holiday cheer” running through their veins.  It is not uncommon for people to feel like they have been forgotten, obscured by the branches and needles of the Christmas tree, with the ornaments and the stars and the angels getting all of the attention. 

And, if that is where you are this Christmas, or you know someone who is in that forgotten spot this Christmas, just remember, the forgotten places are where God is.  The forgotten places are where it all began.  The places forgotten by us are not forgotten by God. 

Instead, the forgotten places are the starting place for God to shine a light.  The forgotten places are where eternal love and forgiveness take their baby steps.  The forgotten places are where God chooses to come and live, in the flesh, as Jesus.  Emmanuel, God with us, lies in that manger, with a life of salvation straight ahead.  We will see him again in another forgotten and despised tree, the cross, and even there he shines a light of life in the face of sin and death.  On that tree he shines a light of merciful love that shines out from a forgotten place and rescues us all. 

Even you.  Even you, who are hidden behind the branches and needles of the tree.  Even you, who finds yourself in a forgotten place.  God’s light is there in that place.  “The light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5).

Just as my grandma taught me while staring at that little, lost light: “Even though it is in a forgotten place, it still lights everything up.  I think God works that way.”

God does work that way.