The angels
(Luk 2:8-14 ESV) 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths 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, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
“Good news” has two references. To the Jewish readers, “good news” alludes to the prophets, especially Isaiah, who speak of the coming of the Kingdom as good news.
(Isa 40:9-11 ESV) 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
(Isa 52:7 ESV) 7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
(Isa 61:1-3 ESV) The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
“Good news” is the reign of God, the coming of his Kingdom.
To a resident of the Roman Empire, “good news” was the declaration that a new emperor had been enthroned. When Augustus became emperor, the announcement was “good news” that the Empire now has a new “lord” and “savior.” And, of course, the emperor was considered a god.
Thus, the angels’ assertion that the coming of Jesus is good news and that he is “Christ” (which means Messiah, which means Anointed One, which means king) and “lord” (means “God” to a Jew and “Emperor” to a Roman) was positively seditious. The angels were declaring that Jesus was the one true King, Savior, and Lord — not Augustus Caesar. After all, he could hardly fulfill the prophesies of old and yet be a good subject of Augustus.
Anna
(Luk 2:36-38 ESV) 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
“Redemption of Jerusalem” means “freeing Jerusalem from slavery.” Again, the allusion is to the Exodus, and the natural assumption is that the Messiah will free the Jews from Rome as Moses freed the Jews from Egypt.
We’ve spiritualized “redemption” to mean little more than “saved” or “get to go to heaven when you die.” But it refers to freedom from slavery.
The question, then, isn’t: how to get to heaven? But rather: what kind of slavery will we be freed from and what will that freedom look like? Today, we don’t see sin as slavery. We see it as temptation. We see it as bad and evil. But we don’t see it as enslaving.
The essence of slavery is the loss of free will. A slave does what he’s told by his master, and his master gives little concern to what the slave wants or what is good for the slave. And yet we see sin as doing what we want. That’s why the slavery metaphor is lost on us. We like sin.
Part of the reason is growing up in an age when “righteousness” is defined as don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t watch R-rated movies, and our teenage years were filled with preachers telling us not to do what we wanted to do.
But the key to understanding the words the Spirit has inspired is to see sin as slavery — not in some theoretical, abstract sense, but in the sense that sin takes us away from what we really want. How could that be?
Well, look around. Look at every social pathology in the US. How many problems of crime and poverty and misery come from sin? Does sin make the lives of the un-Christian world better or worse? Does it make society better or worse?
Now re-think that question in terms of righteousness. Rather than thinking of Christians as people who don’t sin, think of Christians as those who do righteousness and justice, as God’s covenant with Abraham leads us to do. Ah … now what kind of world would we live in if everyone in the Kingdom of Heaven were to do righteousness and justice? And what if the Kingdom’s borders were to spread — a lot? What if every knee bowed to God, not only by going to church, but by doing righteousness and justice?
Well, the impact would be far greater than the end of pornography and blasphemous movies. You see, you have to replace slavery with freedom, but freedom is to be what you were always meant to be.
Imagine that a person was born a slave and always lived as a slave. He might not much like being a slave, but being a slave is all he knows. A good day is a day when he has utterly obeyed the master and so he doesn’t get beaten. The more he surrenders his will to his master, the less he suffers (which is why sin leads to the abuse of alcohol and drugs — they are escapes from the suffering resulting from sin). The goal of a slave is to stop suffering. Living well is beyond his comprehension. He’s never seen it.
Slaves are therefore tempted by things that dull the pain: sex, drugs, alcohol … even apathy. And some slaves seek to escape slavery through the accumulation of power. Power over others frees — or so they believe.
Now, the law changes, the soldiers arrive, and the slave is freed. Freed to do what? To be what? To be like his master? That sometimes happens, you know. The slaves are freed and then they act just like the masters they hated. After all, they’ve only known slavery and cruel masters. How else might someone act?
But real freedom is freedom to be what you were always meant to be — even if you don’t know what you were always meant to be. Someone raised in slavery may not have a clue how to live as a freedman, with no models to follow other than other slaves and masters.
Therefore, God sent Jesus.
