Seeing, Believing

(For the audio version of this blog, go to this link at FAB’s Podcast.)

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the shepherds talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the shepherds were impressed.

Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The shepherds returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told! (Luke 2:13-20)

~~~~~

Have you ever heard an angelic choir? My mother did.

She was very sick, lying in a hospital bed in my home town. She suddenly told my father who was in the room with her to go open the window so she could better hear the choir of angels who were serenading her.

My father ran and got the doctor.

Her illness had taken a further downturn, and things were getting serious. Maybe she was preparing to cross over to the other side? Whatever the reasons, causes, and purposes of her angelic interaction, one thing is certain: When someone says “Go open the window, I hear angels singing,” that kind of pronouncement will definitely get your attention, and demand that you take action.

The angel who appeared to the shepherds had their full attention. But adding to that heavenly being’s interaction with them, “At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises.”

We have the content of their singing: “Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.” But I wonder what that choir sounded like? Was it in a musical key that we would recognize today? Was it so loud, that anyone within a mile could hear it? Or was it just heard by them? Maybe they were so far out in the fields with their sheep, there was no one else around within earshot.

We aren’t given any other details about this first Christmas cantata. We do have the response of those who were in attendance: They ran to the hills! When the choir wrapped up—and I can imagine while the choir was singing, the hairs on their arms were standing up, their mouths were open, their eyes were not blinking—they had a quick debrief session, the gist of which was, It’s time to go to Bethlehem and find this baby. Now! They got the message! The angel appeared with news to act on. They all saw and heard the backup choir. For those wanting an engraved invitation before taking action, this was as close to that as you can find.

So, they ran to Bethlehem, and found the baby, lying in a feeding trough. It happened just as the angel said. They knew God had revealed something special to them. And while their minds were trying to process all that happened—and you don’t see that every day, an angel appearing with a specific message, backed up by a choir—all doubt was erased. For them, the text says, “Seeing was believing.”

They reached a point where they didn’t have to convince each other that the angel had appeared. It wasn’t just a vision that one of them had seen. Nor was it a dream, dreamed in the context of one of them having fallen off to sleep in the chill of the night, and it was “so real” (and we’ve all had those, haven’t we?) that for a moment they couldn’t discern the difference in a dream and an actual angelic visitation. No, they all saw it. They all heard the choir. They weren’t dreaming. They were wide awake. But beyond that, they went and saw for themselves that this was true. It wasn’t just a revelation, or some kind of mysterious set of instructions with clues to discover, leading them on what we used to call a wild goose chase. This was the real deal. They believed after seeing because when they saw the child, they knew that this was true.

Their response consisted of a couple of actions. One is that, “They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child.” It is interesting to me that the focus of their reporting was not on how it all happened: “Well, we were on night duty, as always, and this angel appeared, and then this glorious choir, and I wish you could have seen it!” I might have been so overcome with how things unfolded, I might have neglected to shine the light on the purpose of all this. Their reported focus, as recorded in Scripture, was the content of what they heard, and that’s what they talked about: Messiah Baby has been born.

Another part of their response is that they “let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen.” They erupted into loud praise. They had heard the message. They had ventured to a place where they verified the message. They knew this was true. They couldn’t keep it to themselves, as they told everyone they met, and then just overflowed with their response. God had broken into their world. And into all of ours in a way never before done.

I love how God revealed this to shepherds. They were not in a job that required education or literary skills. Opposite from the star-scholars, who studied the skies and were some kind of early scientists, these were just ordinary, common laborers, eking out a living in a non-specialized vocation. We aren’t told they were theologically astute. They weren’t rabbis who studied the scriptures, trying to determine where, when and how the Messiah Baby would be born. They were just ordinary folks going about their nightly business when God showed up. They embraced his message. They didn’t say, “Wait! We are just shepherds!” (I wonder if anyone reading this is saying “I am just a particular something, nothing special.” If that’s how you feel, then look at the shepherds, and be careful before dismissing your self-imagined inadequacy.) “We can’t possibly know these things! We aren’t worthy of hearing them or acting on them.” None of that kind of analysis came from the lips of the shepherds. They heard, they saw, they believed.

What will it take for us to reach this point of belief? Are there mental stumbling blocks that get in our way? Are we bold enough to ask the King of Kings to remove them?

The final verse of this section says, “It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!” God didn’t disappoint them. He didn’t lead them on to a cruel joke. Or a bait and switch ending. It wasn’t some kind of cat and mouse game. “Oh! You actually went to Bethlehem and expected the Messiah Baby to be lying in a feeding trough; really?! You didn’t think that was strange! I was just testing you…” No, it actually happened exactly as they had been told.

If anyone reading this is doubting the identification of Jesus as Messiah and Master, the one who came to deliver his people from their life of separation from God, I pray that they will take heart. God is wanting to burst in to their lives and remove any doubt. He’s bringing messages that verify His truth, messages that pierce hearts and change minds. He’s bringing into their lives people who have encountered this Messiah and who have experienced life change. These changed-ones haven’t yet been perfected, but they have been turned from a path of death to life. They have seen, and believed.

Just as the shepherds did.

“Father, thank you for revealing to these shepherds the advent, or the coming, of your Messiah. We are in awe of how you put all this together, and even so, we are aware there is so much more in this story that we haven’t considered or received insight on. We thank you that they saw and believed. May we do the same!”