Christmas Perspective: The Word of Love

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The Word of Love

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 (NRSV)

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And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 (NRSV)

This, this is Christ, the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary

From "What Child Is This?" by William Chatterton Dix

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that one night, in a field near the town of Bethlehem, some shepherds are watching over their flocks.  Suddenly, a heavenly messenger of God appears to them, and the glory of God lights up the sky, turning night into day.  The poor shepherds are frightened out of their minds.¹  The messenger says 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.  This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.²

The shepherds are then surrounded by a massive army of angels who are singing praises to God.³

One does not experience the kind of thing these shepherds experienced and then return to business as usual.  Naturally they decide to find the child the messenger of God described to them.  They go to Bethlehem and start searching stables until they find a swaddled Jesus lying in a feeding trough, surrounded by His parents Mary and Joseph.  The shepherds then proceed to tell everyone who will listen to them that their Savior has been born.⁴

In All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Christmas, Rev. Dr. Amy Valdez Barker notes that "each time you open the Bible, you will find some story of messengers who were called forth by God to deliver some message to God's creation that is intended to bring them back into alignment with God."⁵  In the story of the Nativity, a heavenly messenger of God informs some shepherds that their long-awaited Savior has just been born, and then these night-shift shepherds become some of the first earthly messengers to announce the birth of Christ to the rest of the world.

God's messengers are always entrusted with a "word" from God to share.

The Gospel of John begins with a hymn that describes the Word who was God and who was with God in the beginning, the Word through whom everything came into existence.⁶  This Word is compared to a light "which enlightens everyone" and a light that shines amid the darkness and can never be extinguished.⁷  The hymn tells us that "the Word became flesh and lived among us."⁸  In one translation of the Bible, we read that "the Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood."⁹

Preacher Brian Zahnd likes to say that, as the Word, "Jesus is what God has to say."¹⁰  On Christmas Eve, Zahnd shared with his congregation that one day, when he found himself in awe of creation, he prayed that he might live "in a constant state of wonder."  He believes that God immediately answered him, saying, "This is the greatest wonder of all: the Word became flesh."¹¹  It is indeed mind-blowing to think that the almighty Creator of the universe once became a helpless baby - a baby who was born in a stable, of all places.

A word is a message.  Valdez Barker suggests that Jesus is "the love letter to humanity from the Creator."¹²  She writes,

Jesus is the message of love.  God's unfathomable love for us is so deep that it took God's presence on earth for humanity to begin to understand the perfect nature of the Creator, a nature so deeply engulfed in love that there are very few other meanings or stories behind this message.  The heart of God's message through Jesus is love.¹³

God is love,¹⁴ so, as the embodiment of God, Jesus is the embodiment of love.

During these twelve days of Christmas, may you, dear reader, be filled with wonder as you remember the story of the Nativity, and may the love God has shown us in Christ inspire you to reflect God's love to other people.


Notes:

1. Luke 2:8-9
2. Luke 2:10-12
3. Luke 2:13-14 (NRSV)
4. Luke 2:15-18
5. Laceye Warner, Amy Valdez Barker, Jung Choi, and Sangwoo Kim.  All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Christmas.  2021, Abingdon Press.  p. 104
6. John 1:1-3
7. John 1:5, 9 (NRSV)
8. John 1:14 (NRSV)
9. John 1:14 (The Message)
10. Brian Zahnd.  "Jesus Is What God Has to Say."  BrianZahnd.com, 02/12/2015.
11. Brian Zahnd.  Christmas Eve Homily.  Word of Life Church, 12/24/2023.
12. All the Good, p. 110
13. All the Good, p. 111
14. 1 John 4:8

Announcement to the Shepherds was painted around 1600.