CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 2:1. All the world.—I.e. the Roman world (orbis terrarum). Taxed.—Rather, “enrolled,” something like a modern census, but with a view to taxation.
Luke 2:2. This was the first enrolment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria (R.V.).—As Quirinius was governor of Syria in A.D. 6, ten years later than this, and then carried out a census, some have supposed that St. Luke made a mistake in referring to him here. This can scarcely be, as St. Luke himself mentions this second “taxing” in Acts 5:37. The most satisfactory explanation of the matter seems to be that Quirinius was twice governor of Syria, in B.C. 4 as well as in A.D.
6. This seems to be a well-established fact, though there is no other authority than the Evangelist’s for the “taxing” or “enrolment” during his first term of office.
Luke 2:3. Every one into his own city.—As Judæa was a semi-independent kingdom, the registration ordered by the Roman emperor was carried into effect in accordance with Jewish customs. The Roman custom was to enroll persons at the place of residence.
Luke 2:5. His espoused wife.—Rather, “who was betrothed to him” (R.V.). “It is uncertain whether her presence was obligatory or voluntary; but it is obvious that, after so trying a time, and after what she had suffered (Matthew 1:19), she would cling to the presence and protection of her husband” (Farrar).
Luke 2:7. First-born.—No inference can be safely drawn from this as to Mary’s having other children afterwards. The first-born had a peculiar position assigned to him in the law (Exodus 13:2; Exodus 22:29). Inn.—A mere caravanserai, affording little else than shelter. The stable may have been an adjoining cave, as reported by Justin Martyr and the apocryphal gospels.
Luke 2:8. Keeping watch, etc.—This affords no ground for concluding that the nativity cannot have taken place in winter. After the rainy season, at the end of December, shepherds in Palestine are still accustomed to lead out their flocks. The traditional date (December 25th) is of late origin. Christmas was not celebrated in the Church till after A.D. 350, and seems to have been substituted for a heathen festival. Their flock.—Dr. Edersheim has shown that sheep needed for the daily sacrifices in the Temple were fed near Bethlehem.
Luke 2:9. The angel of the Lord.—Rather, “an angel of the Lord” (R.V.). Came upon them.—“Stood by them” (R.V.). Glory of the Lord.—“By it we are to understand that extreme splendour in which the Deity is represented as appearing to men, and sometimes called the Shechinah—an appearance frequently attended, as in this case, by a company of angels” (Bloomfield). Sore afraid.—Lit. “feared a great fear.”
Luke 2:10. To all people.—Rather, “to all the people” (R.V.), i.e. to Israel. The wider import of the advent is foreseen by Simeon (Luke 2:32).
Luke 2:11. A Saviour.—The name Jesus is not given, but the title Saviour is equivalent to it. Christ the Lord.—Christ is the Greek word corresponding to the Hebrew word Messiah, and both mean the Anointed One. The Lord is the uniform name used in the LXX. as a substitute for the ineffable name Jehovah. It is twice used in Luke 2:9 of God.
Luke 2:12. The babe.—Rather, “a babe” (R.V.).
Luke 2:13. Heavenly host.—The army of angels which is represented as surrounding the throne of God (cf. 1 Kings 22:19; Psalms 103:20-21; Psalms 148:2). From this the title of Lord of hosts (Sabaoth) is taken.
Luke 2:14. In the highest.—In the highest places, i.e. heaven (Job 16:19; Psalms 148:1). Good-will toward men.—Rather, “among men.” By the insertion of a single letter the nominative case of the word translated “good-will” is changed to the genitive, and the rendering would be, “among men of [God’s] good-will,” i.e. in whom He is well pleased. This is the reading of the four most ancient MSS. and of the Vulgate (hominibus bonæ voluntatis), and is followed by the R.V. It yields, however, a somewhat awkward and unintelligible sense. The great mass of ancient authorities is in favour of the rendering in our A.V., which is more in accordance with the spirit of the passage than the other.
Luke 2:16. Found.—Lit. “discovered,” after search. Mary and Joseph.—Her name naturally comes first, in view of the peculiar nature of her motherhood. A manger.—Rather, “the manger” (R.V.), that spoken of by the angel.
Luke 2:19. Pondered.—I.e. revolved, put together the various circumstances. She had evidently not a full understanding of the matter.
The order of events: The flight into Egypt was from Bethlehem, and must have occurred after the presentation in the Temple. The forty days of purification (Luke 2:22) are too short for the journey into Egypt and a return to Jerusalem. The adoration of the Magi must have occurred immediately after the presentation. That it could not have occurred before it is rendered certain from the facts that the revelation of danger to the child Jesus would render a visit to Jerusalem unsafe, and the gifts offered by the Magi would have provided means for a richer sacrifice than that described in Luke 2:24. The return to Bethlehem after the presentation may indicate that the holy family would have taken up their abode there instead of returning to Nazareth, but for the danger to which they were exposed by the jealousy of Herod. Bethlehem was only six miles from Jerusalem.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 2:1-20
The Voluntary Self-humiliation of Jesus.—This history, it has been said, begins with great majesty, as it tells of the Emperor Augustus, at whose feet lay the whole known world, and to whose command obedience was rendered in every country, and city, and village. It descends to tell of the humble circumstances in which a child was born in one of the obscurest villages in one of his provinces; but it rises again into majesty as it describes the appearance of angels to celebrate the true glory and greatness of this child. But we may see in the passage a detailed account of that great act of self-renunciation of which the apostle speaks: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet … He became poor.” The Evangelist first records the lowly circumstances that attended His advent to earth, and reveals the true majesty that clothed Him even then.
I. There is nothing to distinguish Him to outward appearing from multitudes of other of His fellow-subjects in the kingdom of Herod, or the empire of Caesar Augustus. His parents are enrolled with their neighbours in the register at Bethlehem; for though they are of royal descent, their claim to exceptional rank has fallen into abeyance. It is now a mere genealogical curiosity, and the fact that the carpenter of Nazareth can trace up his lineage to David is not likely to trouble the peace of the most jealous of tyrants. It is as the son of an artisan that the name of Jesus would be enrolled.
II. Poverty and hardship mark His nativity.—Not even a house to shelter her can His mother find when the time comes for His birth. The inn was full: no friendly roof afforded the comfort and hospitality of which she stood in need, and it was a stable that first covered His head, and a manger that formed His first cradle.
III. He passed through the stage of helpless and unconscious infancy—being in all things made like His brethren. No preternatural glory shone about Him: it is by His wearing the first childish swathings, hastily extemporised perhaps by His virgin mother, and by the rude fashion of His resting-place, that the shepherds are to discover Him. Yet even while He lies on His hard bed in poorest guise there are not wanting signs of His great and unapproachable majesty. 1 Heaven opens, and angels descend to proclaim and celebrate His birth; the glorious light that breaks in upon the darkness of earth, the multitude of celestial beings, and the song of praise, bear witness to the greatness and significance of the event that has just taken place in Bethlehem.
2. In no uncertain terms the angel speaks of Jesus as the possessor of a mightier throne than that of Caesar. He is Lord of angels and of men. He is the Anointed One, whose power, and authority, and dignity are typified and faintly shadowed forth in kingly, priestly, and prophetic offices.
3. He not only deserves but receives homage and worship from men. The shepherds hasten to find the new-born babe, that they may kneel at His feet; and in them He receives the first-fruits of that loyal service which one day will be fully rendered to Him by all created beings.
It is by the eye of faith that the majesty of Christ is discerned; it is the loving heart that believes the heavenly message. If, therefore, we would follow the example of the angels and of the shepherds, and receive Christ in His true character as our God and Saviour, we must have a faith and love like theirs.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 2:1-20
Luke 2:1. “A decree from Cæsar Augustus.”—The providence of God is discovered to us in the Bible, overruling the actions of mankind, and adapting them to ends and purposes of which their authors were little conscious. Thus the present “taxing,” whether dictated by the ambition, or the curiosity, or the avarice of the Roman emperor, is shown to have furnished an occasion for drawing this holy pair from their remote home in Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem of Judæa—the village which the finger of Providence had long before pointed out as destined to be the place of Messiah’s birth; so entirely was Augustus ministering to the Divine pleasure, while in the exercise of imperial power he followed the dictates of his own unfettered will.—Burgon.
Cæsar’s Unconscious Obedience to God.—The unconscious obedience of Cæsar Augustus to the Divine will illustrates the statement in Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will.”
“The whole world.”—The whole habitable world is related to Jesus, who was willing to be enrolled in the same catalogue with them, and not with Jews alone.—Wordsworth.
A Testimony to Christ’s Greatness.—The whole world was moved to bring about the fulfilment of the prophecy: this a testimony to the pre-eminent greatness of Jesus.
“Should be taxed.”—Though Judæa was still under the rule of a king of her own, he was subject to Cæsar, and even this semblance of independence was now passing away. This “first enrolment” was but preparatory to the subsequent transformation of Judæa into a Roman province. “The sceptre was just departing from Judah” (Genesis 49:10) when Christ was born.
Luke 2:4. “Joseph also went up … to Bethlehem.”—It had been foretold that there Christ was to be born. Yet the fulfilment of the prophecy was not brought about by any human contrivance or plan. Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem in obedience to the emperor’s decree; and, so far as the fulfilment of the prophecy was concerned, were led like the blind by a Divine hand.
Luke 2:7. “She brought forth her firstborn son.”—As by a woman death had been conveyed to all mankind, so was now a woman made the blessed instrument whereby He who is our life came into the world.—Burgon.
“Swaddling clothes and … a manger.”—No man will have cause to complain of his coarse robe, if he remembers the swaddling clothes of this Holy Child; nor to be disquieted at his hard bed, when he considers Jesus laid in a manger. The lowly circumstances connected with the birth of Jesus served two purposes:
1. They concealed the great event from the eyes of the thoughtless, sinful world.
2. They revealed the Divine condescension—the Son of God, who, though rich, for our sakes became poor (2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:5-8). The humility of His birth was characteristic of His whole spirit and life. “For our sakes He was born a stranger in an open stable; He lived without a place of His own wherein to lay His head, subsisting by the charity of good people; and He died naked on a cross in the close embraces of holy poverty” (a saying of St. Francis of Assisi). His example rebukes the worldly spirit which prizes outward pomp, and wealth, and rank, and despises things that are unpretentious and lowly—which is captivated by the transitory and blind to the eternal.
Christ in the Manger.—In the manger, where lay the food for cattle, there now lies the bread of angels, the sacred body, which nourishes us for eternal life.—Bede.
“No room for them in the inn.”—“He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not” (John 1:11). The silent entrance of the Son of God into the world is very striking. “The unfathomable depths of the Divine counsels were moved; the fountains of the great deep were broken up; the healing of the nations was issuing forth; but nothing was seen on the surface of human society but this slight rippling of the water.”
The Purpose of Christ’s Humiliation.—We see what sort of beginning the Son of God had, and in what cradle He was placed. Such was His condition from His birth, because He had taken upon Him our flesh, that He might “empty Himself” (Philippians 2:7) on our account. When He was thrown into a stable and placed in a manger, and a lodging refused Him among men, it was that heaven might be opened to us, not as a temporary lodging, but as our eternal country and inheritance, and that angels might receive us into their abode.—Calvin.
Luke 2:8-20. “The herald angels sing.”
I. The angel is the first evangelist.—Mark how steadily his words climb up from the cradle to the throne. The full joy and tremendous wonder of the first word are not felt till we read the last. It was much that there was born a Saviour, a Messiah; but the last word “Lord” crowns the wonder and the blessing, while it lays the only possible foundation for the other two names.
II. The message is for men.—“To you” first, to Israel; but its proffer stretches far wider, and includes all mankind. The angel speaks as one who has no share in the blessing. There is no envy, but there is the consciousness of non-participation. Yet the blessed life and death which are our salvation are their instruction in depths of Divine love, which could not else be disclosed to them who never fell.
III. The confirming sign.—This might rather have seemed fitted to contradict the glad tidings. It is a strange mark by which to identify one born to such lofty tasks and dignities, that He is, like all other infants, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and, unlike the child of the poorest, lies in a manger. Humiliation is the sign of majesty, the depth of lowliness, a witness of the height of glory. The cradle that was too poor for a child of man is fitting for the Son of God.
IV. The angelic chorus.—The one angel voice has barely time to tell its message, when, as if unable longer to be silent, “suddenly” the “multitude of the heavenly host pours out its praise.” I adhere to the old reading which divides the angel chorus into three clauses, of which the first and second may be regarded as the double result of that birth, while the third describes its deepest nature. The incarnation and work of Christ are the highest revelation of God. The wondrous birth brings harmony to earth.—Maclaren.
The First Gospel Preaching.
I. The message is good news.—Christianity is not a mere re-enactment of the moral law, but news of salvation to those who have broken that law.
II. Of great joy.—Neither conviction of sin, nor admonition of punishment, is the gospel, for these are not messages of great joy; they are the groundwork of preparation for the gospel. Nothing is gospel that is not joy-producing in those receiving it.
III. To all people.—To all ages, all nations, all classes, in society. Primarily, to the Jewish people, but the larger meaning is implied in this and in the preceding chapter.
IV. The cause of this joy.—The advent of a “Saviour” to save His people from their sins. “Christ” the anointed High Priest of God; “the Lord,” the very incarnation of Jehovah Himself.
V. The sign.—The proof of His divinity—the very humility of love; that He should be found cradled in a manger.—Abbott.
Luke 2:8. “Shepherds.”—This employment of tending sheep had been honoured in the earlier times of the Jewish people by its having been that in which Jacob, Moses, and David had been engaged; but now it was a calling that was looked upon by the Jews with contempt. The prophets had often made use of it in figurative descriptions of the work of the Messiah; and our Lord frequently spoke of Himself as having that relation to His people which a shepherd has to his flock.
The Spiritually-minded first hear of the Advent.—It was necessary that, as Christ had been born into the world, the fact should be communicated to men. He must be known in order that men might be drawn unto Him. But the annunciation of His advent was not made, in the first instance, to the rulers of the people or to the priests; for, as far as we can judge, both these classes of men were under the influence of worldly thoughts and ambitions, which blinded them to spiritual things. These shepherds, on the other hand, if we may judge from analogy, belonged to the class of those who were “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” The character of the others, to whom the special revelations recorded in these first two Chapter s of St. Luke’s Gospel were given—of Zacharias, Elisabeth, Simeon, and Anna—justifies our coming to this conclusion.
“Keeping watch over their flock.”—It was while they were engaged in their calling that they saw the heavenly vision—a privilege denied the hermit-like Essenes, who forsook secular employments, and gave themselves up to mystical contemplations, and to what they regarded as exclusively sacred exercises.
Luke 2:9. “The glory of the Lord.”—At every period in the humiliation of Christ some notable declaration of His Divine glory is given. In this place, it is by the angel’s message; in His circumcision, it is by the name Jesus; in His presentation in the Temple, it is by the testimony of Simeon; in His baptism, it is by the protest of John; and the same fact was manifested in many ways in the course of His passion.—Bengel.
“They were sore afraid.”—The cause of their fear was a sense of sinfulness and of alienation from God, and a dread of His righteous displeasure. This fear could only be dispelled by an authoritative declaration, such as that now given, of God’s compassion towards the sinful, and of His gift of a Saviour. These good tidings were the source of true joy; for until men have peace with God, through Christ, all joy is deceitful and short-lived.
Luke 2:10-11. The First Christmas Sermon.—We are justified in calling it a sermon because of the angel’s words: “I bring you good tidings”; or, “I preach the gospel” (εὐαγγελίζω).
I. The preacher.—“The angel.” So great was the message that no less a personage was worthy to bear it. The angels desire to look into the things that concern the salvation of men. God’s dealings with men reveal to them the depths of Divine wisdom and love. They are intimately associated with the history of Christ’s redeeming work. Angels told beforehand of His birth, and that of His forerunner; here they celebrate and announce His birth; they ministered to Him after His temptation in the wilderness; an angel strengthened Him during His agony in the garden; an angel rolled away the stone from His sepulchre; and angels announce to the disciples the fact that He had risen from the dead, and at His ascension angels prophesy of His second coming.
II. The audience.—“Said unto them,” i.e. to the shepherds. As the message the angel bore concerned all men, any men might have been selected to hear it first: any on whom he chanced to come would have been qualified to receive it—for he came to tell of the birth of a Saviour of whom all stand in need. But there was special appropriateness in these shepherds being the first to hear of it. For they were Jews, and therefore acquainted with the promises of deliverance and redemption which now were to be fulfilled in Christ: they followed a simple mode of life, and were evidently of a devout frame of mind, so that they were not likely to be biassed by the prejudices and misconceptions which prevented so many from recognising the Divine glory of Christ; and then, too, they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the place where this great event had occurred.
III. The message.—“Be not afraid,” etc.
1. The first words are to allay their fears—“Fear not”; it is not ill news he brings, but good news: they are to be made partakers of a “great joy”—a joy so great as to gladden the heart of every member of their nation and of the human race.
2. Then the glad tidings are fully unfolded. “To-day,” in the village hard by, One has been born who is “a Saviour”—for the sick, the sinful, the lost, and the perishing—who is “Christ,” anointed of God to fulfil all the offices of expiation, enlightenment, and rule, prefigured and signified by priests, prophets, and kings—and who is of Divine nature, “the Lord.” Others had in some special emergency and for a portion of their lives been deliverers or saviours of God’s people from temporal evils; but He is Saviour from the first, and all through His life, and the evils from which He delivers are the worst which assail and destroy the bodies and souls of men.
The duties that rest upon us are to hear the glad tidings as specially concerning us, and as being the best news that could be brought to our knowledge, and to receive the Saviour sent to us from heaven.
Luke 2:10-15. Luke’s Narrative of the Incarnation.—The leading ideas of the narrative of the Incarnation in Luke’s Gospel, the aspects from which he regarded it, and from which he wished the Church to regard it, are suggested in a summary form by this glorious passage.
I. The Incarnation is real.—The Saviour is no shadowy, unreal being. He is really born, a real babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, in a definite place, at a definite date in human history. It was a true human birth; it was a true human body. There was with equal truth a true human soul. The reality of the Incarnation, according to Luke, was twofold:
1. Physiological (Luke 1:35). It is natural that the physician-evangelist should note the successive stages in the early development of Him who was so wonderfully born. He is “conceived in the womb of Mary”; “the fruit of her womb”; “the Holy Thing to be born”; “the Babe”; “Her Son”; “the Child”; “the Boy”; the Man “about thirty years old.”
2. Historical. See Luke 1:3. In the present section the reality is emphasised by a date which was intended to fix its place in the domain of history (“the taxing under Cyrenius”). This is supplemented by other chronological marks which touch upon the records of several governments, and which, when compared with the statement of the Saviour’s age, materially aid in bringing us to the period of His birth.
II. The universality of the Incarnation.—The remedy is not merely for the Jewish race, or for a selected few, the special favourites of Heaven. It is for the whole diseased material of human nature; for all the sinful, the weary, the suffering; for the whole great army of the miserable and guilty in every land. Hence in Luke’s Gospel Jesus meets all who cross His path with impartial sympathy. Hence just before He leaves the earth He commands. His disciples to preach “repentance and remission of sins in His name among all the nations.”
III. The Incarnation is joy-bringing.
When the voice of her who had conceived “the Holy Thing which was to be born” reached Elisabeth, the Holy Ghost filled her with a sweet surprise, and “the Babe leaped in her womb for joy.” The angel of the Lord upon the first Christmas eve struck the key-note not only of the Incarnation prelude, but of the whole gospel. “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” As it begins, so it ends. “And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”—Alexander.
Luke 2:10. “Good tidings of great joy … to all people.”—The word “joy” fills a larger place in Scripture than in ordinary Christian life. In Scripture we find joy not only as a promise, but as a precept, imperative, unconditional, oft-repeated: “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” Joy is the overflow of happiness. Before joy in the Christian sense there must be happiness.
I. The messenger of joy.—An angel. To a fallen being great joy can only come in the form of tidings from heaven. Earth is dark with sin and woe. Happiness is out of reach of the sinner, unless God shall say to him some entirely new thing. “Revelation” is the one hope for all that concerns happiness of the creature that has sinned. “Tidings” then—but what tidings? A new revelation of duty, or a new gospel?
II. The message of joy.—A birth. The gospel is a Divine incarnation; the removal not by us, but for us, through the death of the God-man, of human guilt. Believe this, and you have life. Christ born on purpose that He might die—this is the gospel.
III. The recipients of joy.—“All people.” Joy to the whole of each people. The Jewish people was only the sample of all peoples. “Whosoever will” is the gospel call. It is our bounden duty to present the gospel to the world as good tidings of great joy to all people. The gospel preached as joy for all people, so large and free that it has room for all, unites all, has a voice for all characters, and prevails already with all kinds—this is God’s gospel. Let this be the joy of each receptive heart.—Vaughan.
“To all the people” (R.V.).—While there is a seeming restriction, the word chosen, “to all the people,” would in due time bear its largest and most comprehensive application.—Pope.
“Good tidings.”—The words of the angel to the shepherds fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1), which Christ afterwards quoted as setting forth the greatest of the blessings He was to bestow: “The poor have good tidings [the gospel] preached to them” (Matthew 11:5).
“Great joy.”—These words show us that until men have peace with God, and are reconciled to Him through the grace of Christ, all the joy they experience is deceitful and of short duration. Ungodly men frequently indulge in frantic and intoxicating mirth; but if there be none to make peace between them and God, the hidden, stings of conscience must produce fearful torment. The beginning of solid joy is to perceive the fatherly love of God toward us, which alone gives tranquillity to our minds.—Calvin.
“To all people.”—The announcement is national in its character, for “the people” here referred to are the descendants of Abraham. Yet the message is sent to Israel in order that it may be communicated by them to all mankind. Both in Luke 2:14 (“good-will toward men”) and in Luke 2:32 (“a light to lighten the Gentiles”) the wider import of Christ’s birth is recognised. See how the circle widens:
1. Good tidings to the shepherds (“I bring you).
2. Joy for “all the people,” i.e. the Jewish people.
3. God’s mercy and love are for all mankind (“good-will toward men,” Luke 2:14).
Luke 2:11-12. “Christ the, Lord … the Babe.”—The angel of the Lord described Jesus Christ by most remarkable names—the Saviour, Christ the Lord, and the Babe! This marvellous combination of almightiness and helplessness has its counterpart in the whole doctrine and history of Christianity itself. Viewed in its merely human and literary aspect, what can be less pretentious than Christianity—expounded in the smallest of books, upheld by unlearned and ignorant men, without a temple, a priesthood, a ritual? On the other hand, viewed in its spiritual aspects, what can exceed in grace and glory the idea of subduing, regenerating, and glorifying the whole world?—Parker.
Luke 2:11. “Unto you.”—The words are emphatic, and perhaps may be taken as implying that the anticipation of a coming Saviour had been strong in these men’s minds.
“City of David.”—It is taken for granted that the shepherds were acquainted with those prophetic passages of Holy Scripture which
(1) declared that the coming Deliverer would spring from the house of David, and
(2) which pointed out Bethlehem as the place where He would be born.
“A Saviour.”—The name Jesus is not given here, but the title of the “Saviour “is equivalent to it.
Salvation.—It is a curious fact that “Saviour” and “salvation,” so common in St. Luke and St. Paul (in whose writings they occur forty-four times), are comparatively rare in the rest of the New Testament. “Saviour” only occurs in John 4:42; 1 John 4:14, and six times in 2 Peter and Jude; “salvation” only in John 4:22, and thirteen times in the rest of the New Testament.—Farrar.
Luke 2:12. “A sign.”—Rather, “the sign” (R.V.). A sign is not asked for by them, yet one is given them. God does not always call for the manifestation of a heroic faith, but is sometimes pleased, in His mercy, to strengthen faith when it is subjected to a test that might break it down. It put, indeed, no slight strain upon faith to be asked to believe that an infant, a few hours old, and born in poverty and obscurity, was Christ and Lord. The sign given served a twofold purpose:
(1) it enabled the shepherds to identify the child of whom the angel spake, and
(2) it confirmed their faith in the good tidings brought to them.
Luke 2:13. “Suddenly.”—As if eager to break in as soon as the last words of the wonderful tidings had dropped from their fellows’ lips.—Brown.
“A multitude.”—Among men the testimony of “two or three witnesses” (Matthew 18:16) is sufficient to remove all doubt. But here is a heavenly host with one consent and one voice bearing testimony to the Son of God.—Calvin.
“Praising God.”—It was the birthday of the new creation. A new corner-stone was being laid. Well, therefore, may the morning stars have sung together, and all the sons of God have shouted for joy.—Burgon.
Luke 2:14. “Glory to God in the highest.”—The song of the angels expresses the wonder and joy which God’s redeeming love towards mankind excites in their hearts (cf. 1 Peter 1:12). It consists of a twofold prayer:
(1) that praise may ascend from earth, and pass through the heavens to the throne of God exalted above them all;
(2) that all through the earth there may be that peace that comes from reconciliation with God: and it closes with a statement of the reason for this praise and of the ground of this peace—God’s good-will is now made manifest to men and dwells among them. “Glory [be] to God in the highest, and on earth [let there be] peace, [because of His] good-will toward men.”
The Worship of Angels.—The words of the angels present us with an example of the worship rendered to God in heaven, which consists, as we see, of praise and thanksgiving, without petitions or supplications. With it we may fitly compare the adoration rendered in heaven by redeemed souls (Revelation 5:9-10).
“Glory to God,” etc.—The hymn consists of three propositions, which may be taken either as expressions of desire or of actual fact: “Glory [be] to God”; or, “Glory [is] to God.” It seems more natural to take the first and second propositions as being of the nature of prayers, and the third as a statement of the fact upon which the devout aspirations which precede it are based. In the first—“Glory to God in the highest”—the angels who have come down upon the earth ask that, in the heavens above them up to the very throne of God, the blessed spirits of whom they are but a small company, should begin a song of praise in honour of the Divine perfections which shine forth in the wonderful gift bestowed upon men. The second—“on earth peace”—is the complement of the first. The angels ask that on this earth, troubled by sin and disturbed by strife, the Divine peace which they themselves enjoy may descend—a peace which should result from the reconciliation implied in this birth. And then the third—“good-will toward men”—affords justification of the two preceding prayers. This is the reason why praise should be rendered to God in heaven, and why peace should henceforth reign on earth. God has manifested in a signal manner His special good-will towards men.—Godet.
The Angels’ Song.—The whole life of our Saviour was a commentary on these words. His aim was to glorify His Father’s name, to establish peace between heaven and earth, and to manifest God’s good-will to men.
I. Glory to God.—This is the first thought in the angels’ minds, and should be our ruling motive in all our conduct. “Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus has taught us to utter prayers and aspirations for the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of His kingdom, and the doing of His will, before we offer petitions on our own behalf.
II. Peace on earth.—Christ was the ambassador telling us that God was willing to pardon our sins, and to lay aside His just anger against them, and seeking to lead us by repentance and submission to a firm and lasting peace with Him. His object was to abolish all fear, and anxiety, and enmity: to give our disturbed consciences rest; to free us from the cares, and doubts, and perplexities which so often distract our thoughts; and to fill our hearts with love to God and to our brethren.
III. “Good-will to men.”—God’s good-pleasure toward us, and not any merits of our own, forms the ground on which we look for salvation. His pity for us in our helplessness moved Him to send His Son for our redemption. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The thought of this great and undeserved love that has been shown to us should fill our hearts with humility, and gratitude, and faith.
The Angelic Doxology.—The angels themselves retire, no more to be seen until the second coming of the Lord—their Lord and ours. But their song of sympathy with man remains, to be studied and echoed in innumerable songs by those whom it most concerned. Their doxology is at once prophecy and hymn. Its strain makes heaven and earth one. In Christ, on the night beginning His new life in human nature, they behold accomplished redemption. “Glory” redounds to God in the accomplishment of His eternal counsel for the salvation of men; and that glory is declared by anticipation to be rendered on earth, as it is already rendered in heaven. As to man, the prophetic doxology of the angels speaks of “peace”—the peace of a reconciling gospel, proclaiming the Divine reconciliation to the world. We hear in the angels’ hymn the most perfect tribute to the finished work of “Christ the Lord.”—Pope.
Luke 2:15. “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.”—The angels withdraw from the scene; the shepherds at once seek the infant Redeemer. That which to the heavenly visitants is a matter of interest is to men a matter of concern, for He is their Saviour.
The Hidden Beauties of Bethlehem.
I. The darkness that enfolds the wonderful Incarnation by night.—We would have expected the “Light of the world” to be born in the sunniest hour of the day—the day most full of light in that brilliant Eastern land. Yet it is far otherwise. Does He not love to be born in our souls, now, not in the noontide of sin and passion, but in sad and lonely hours, in dark seasons?
II. Notice next the stillness around Bethlehem.—The strange, awful peace reigning in this cavern nursery. The villagers are not thronging the streets in wonder. What a surprise to the shepherds to find the streets empty, and none crowding in before them at the stable door! They look in. Only a poor Jewish maiden, and an old man, bending over a little child. In this silence we learn one of the greatest secrets of our holy religion. Jesus can only come to the silent, waiting, prayerful soul.—Mellor.
Luke 2:16. The Manger Scene.
I. The scene as a whole.—It represents pre-eminently the disclosure of Divine love, God’s self-disclosure. God’s revelation of Himself all through the universe has here reached its culminating point.
II. Each particular figure in the group.—
1. Jesus in His helpless infancy. The lesson of humility, the lesson of obedience. Realise the sin of man’s claim—utterly false claim—to be independent of God. Jesus teaches that the true worth of human life is just in proportion as men learn to obey. Look at the infant Saviour, and learn this dignity of utter, boundless dependence upon God.
2. Mary bending over the cradle. What is the secret of this majestic pattern of womanhood and motherhood? It is the same thing under another form. Eve’s disobedience was a demand to be independent of God. Mary reverses the disobedience of Eve. “Be it unto me according to Thy word.” Mysterious and majestic was the claim which came upon her. In principle the same claim comes upon us. God needs us, has work for us to do. Our self-surrender, our correspondence with God, makes it possible for God to use us. Will we correspond? Will we take Mary’s words into our lips, “Be it unto me according to Thy word”?
3. Joseph is the third in the group. We do not think enough of his glory in that he yields himself with such quiet dignity to the strange claims of God upon him. He accepted the extraordinary claim which religion laid upon him. He constituted himself the foster-father, the protector, of Mary and her Divine Child. And there is asked of us all an ordinary thing, which does lay upon men something of the same sort as was laid upon Joseph—the requirement that we should be the protectors of religion, even though it costs us much.—Gore.
The Beginning of Christian Worship.—When the shepherds with Joseph and Mary knelt at the manger-cradle, they inaugurated Christian worship, and the communion of saints: by making known “the saying told them concerning this Child,” they became the first preachers of the gospel. They received no commission to spread the glad tidings; but doubtless they felt like Peter and John, “we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).
Luke 2:17. “They made known abroad the saying.”—We see in the shepherds an example
(1) of faith in the message from heaven;
(2) of obedience to the command to seek the Saviour;
(3) of zeal in communicating to others the glad tidings concerning Jesus, and
(4) of attention to present duties; for after adoring their Saviour they return (Luke 2:20), with love to God in their hearts, and with praise to Him on their lips, to the duties of their daily life.
Luke 2:18-19. “Wondered … pondered.”—The impressions formed upon different hearts by witnessing these great events, or by hearing of them:
1. Mere wonder excited, which soon passed away.
2. A retention of them and meditation upon them.
Luke 2:19. The Grace of Meditation.—The text gives more than a mere feature of Mary’s character: it presents to us her main and distinctive quality.
I. She kept these things in her heart.—How marvellous the experience of that one year! The Annunciation, the Birth, the Angelic Choir, the Shepherd Visitors,—well can we understand how she, the blessed and honoured mother, kept all these sayings in her heart; lost not the remembrance by day or by night, but treasured it in her inmost soul as that which could not pass nor be forgotten.
II. She pondered them in her heart.—The word denotes putting together, combining and harmonising; that process which is a first condition of all true knowledge. Much, in her case, needed such harmonising. Who was she, to have such a destiny? Who was He of whom she had become the mother? The wonder is, not that she long pondered, but that she ever believed. The very possession of the earthly presence must have impeded rather than facilitated the realisation of the heavenly. Do we, however, follow Mary’s example? We have in its full compass, God’s revelation—our own individual history—our spiritual condition—our hopes for the future—abundant materials for meditation. But we must first realise such things before we can either keep them or ponder. One great temptation of our age is to neglect reflection. How different our restless modern life from the still, tranquil life of the villages of Palestine. We are in danger of dissipating even religious thoughts, and of drowning the very voice of conscience in the multitude of our professions and the variety of our doings. Let us then cultivate the peculiar grace which shone in the Lord’s mother. If we read little, let us keep it well: if we read much, let it be because we have time to ponder. Haste in Divine things is ever a sign of heartlessness. A moment spent in self-recollection is worth hours of sacred reading without it. The test of true religion lies, for every man, in this self-examination. Without this there cannot be a heart right with God, nor a mind resolutely set on things above. Where there is a want of this pondering, of this musing and meditating, on the things of God, there can be but a feeble hold upon spiritual realities. Mere familiarity with the sound of God’s revelation may lead as much to spiritual ignorance as to intellectual knowledge.
III. There are many ways of practising this grace of meditation.—Firm, resolute self-examination is one of these; and earnest, steady contemplation of God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit as revealed to us in the Scriptures is another one of these; and praying over a verse or two of the Bible, on the strength of their being true, and in reference to their spiritual teaching, is another of these. So, too, a most impressive exercise is the act of Holy Communion. There we ponder His truth in His presence; there in an especial manner is the Master with His disciple, and the Revealer with His word.—Vaughan.
Luke 2:20. “Glorifying and praising God.”—The greatness of the work, and the goodness of God, as manifested by it, are respectively implied in these two words, “glorifying” and “praising.”—Godet.