And the shepherds returned
Dignifying common life
And then they returned to their fields, to their flocks, to their ordinary life; giving thus a beautiful example of pious diligence and fidelity in their vocation.
An extraordinary privilege has been granted to them. They are not lifted up by it into pride and pretension and self-sufficiency and idleness. They are cheered by it in their common toil. This is all the gospel that some of them would hear on earth. They would die, probably, as they lived, tending their sheep, before the Good Shepherd openly appeared. In their example, they sanctify, they glorify, what we call common life. They dignify the duty, it may be the drudgery of the day. But what, after all, is common life? It is a relative phrase. Common life to these shepherds is the keeping of the sheep on those very fields where David was shepherd-boy before them, where Ruth gleaned after the reapers. Common life to the angels lies in the heavenly spheres, serving at the bidding of the King. This visit to the earth, on such an errand, is a remarkable exception to their ordinary experience. It is, if we may use the phrase, a point of high romance in their history. (Dr. Raleigh.)
This is how all true-minded, simple-hearted inquirers have returned from their Christian investigations. It is questionable whether any man has ever closed the Bible in a mood of dissatisfaction who opened it with reverent determination to know how far it was a testimony from heaven. Christian investigation is not finished until it has brought into the heart a joy altogether unprecedented. The mere letter never brings gladness. Critics and disputants have found little in the Bible but a great waste of words; but penitent and earnest inquirers have returned from its examination with hearts overflowing with a new and imperishable joy. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Shepherds glorifying God for the birth of a Saviour
We will contemplate the things for which, and the manner in which, they glorified God, and will inter mingle some practical reflections.
I. WE WILL CONSIDER THE MATTERS FOR WHICH THEY GLORIFIED AND PRAISED GOD. These were the things, which they had heard and seen.
1. They glorified God that the promised Saviour was now born. They seem to have been some of those pious people who looked for redemption in Israel.
2. They rejoiced that this Saviour was born for them. The angel says, “Unto you is born this day a Saviour.” Conscious of their impotence and unworthiness, they felt their need of a Saviour, and esteemed it a matter of great joy that He was come to bring salvation to them. They doubtless admired the distinguishing grace of God in visiting them first of all with the glorious tidings.
3. The shepherds rejoiced that the Saviour was horn for others, as well as themselves. “I bring you good tidings,” says the angel, “which shall be to all people.”
4. The shepherds glorified God for what they had seen, as well as what they had heard.
II. CONSIDER THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY GLORIFIED HIM.
1. They glorified God by faith in the Saviour, whom He had sent. They believed the heavenly message. By faith in the Redeemer we give glory to God.
2. They glorified God by a ready obedience. Being informed by a heavenly messenger where the Saviour lay, they came to Him with haste. They made no delay, but immediately obeyed the Divine intimation. Faith operates in a way of cheerful obedience.
3. They glorified God by confessing and spreading the Saviour’s name. “When they had seen Him, they made known abroad what had been told them concerning the Child.” They were not ashamed to own Him as the Messiah, even in His infant state. You see that true faith will prompt you to honour Christ before men.
4. They glorified God by an attendance on the means of faith. The angel who announced the Saviour’s birth gave them a token by which they might know Him. “This shall be a sign to you. Ye shall find the babe wrapt in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And they came with haste, and found as he had told them.” God gave them a particular sign for the confirmation of their faith; and He has appointed standing means to strengthen and enliven ours. Jesus Christ is exhibited to us in His Word, in His sanctuary, and at His table. Here we are to seek Him, and converse with Him, that we may increase our faith and warm our love.
5. They glorified God with the voice of praise. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The changed world
The day after Christ’s birth was a new day in the world’s history. The old era had passed, the new had begun; and only the angels knew what a revolution had been wrought by the quiet power of God. The wonder has grown with the years. Christianity has been an increasing miracle of the Lord’s presence on earth. That song, which a few shepherds heard, has sung itself into the thought of the world, and is the keynote and harmony of all peace and goodwill on earth.
I. THE CHRISTIAN CHANGE OF THE WORLD’S HISTORY IS A FACT. The influx through Christ of a new power into the life of humanity is a known fact of experience, as certain as the battle of Gettysburg, or the dawn of day. This fact of the new power in the world, through the birth of Christ, belongs to a series of facts. The religion of the Bible presents a continued succession, and reveals an exalted order of facts. Christianity is a positive religion of historical facts from Moses to Christ, from Christ to the last Church organized and the last communion table spread.
II. THE NATURE AND REAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS FACT.
1. In Christianity we breathe a different air. Midway down the Simplon Pass the traveller pauses to read upon a stone the single word “Italia.” At this point he passes a boundary live, and every step makes plainer how great has been the change from Switzerland to Italy. The air becomes warm and fragrant, and vines line the wayside, and below, embosomed in verdure, Lake Maggiore expands before him. As that traveller rests at evening-time, he recognizes that the entrance into a new world was marked by the word “Italia” upon the stone on the pass. Humanity has crossed a boundary line: up to Bethlehem, bleak and cold--down from Bethlehem, another and a happier time.
2. This new transforming power was, to the disciples, Jesus Himself. He made all things new to them.
3. Jesus has been to the world a new revelation of God. God is essentially and eternally Christlike.
4. Jesus is also a new revelation of man. Man is in Christ another man. You pass a man in the streets, and you used to feel that you did not want to know or help such a poor creature--he lived below your world, and his name was not found in your book of life. Now it is different, for you have been baptized into the name of Christ, in whom our whole common humanity exists, redeemed and capable of a great salvation. CONCLUSION: We close by asking ourselves, “Am I living, by faith in the Son of God, in this changed world?” Is it, in the history of my soul, the day before, or the better day after, Christmas. (Newman Smyth, D. D.)