The Provision

Luke 2:14                                The Provision

12/13/15          D. Marion Clark

Introduction

If there is anything that amplifies the difference between the very young and the growing older generations, it is found in the contrasting perspective about the coming of Christmas. Every year, we older persons will say the same thing in November: “What! November already? Christmas is coming again!” The one common reaction we can count on is how “surprised” we are that Christmas comes so fast. We are not ready. There is too much to do. How will we get through it all?

But if we can turn back to the time of being children, we might remember how agonizingly slow the weeks and days went by before the wonderful, wondrous day appeared. We had a problem; we did not have what we were hoping for. We were given a promise; Santa would come through! But, oh, Christmas was so far away.

Even so, Christmas Day did arrive. The promise that would solve the problem turned into the provision. Our text leads us to the Promised Provision that solved our great problem.

Text

 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 great 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!”

Sam Smith discussed the problem of sin two weeks earlier. Last week he spoke of the promise. This angel announces that the promise has arrived. “For unto you is born this day.” He doesn’t say that the good news is that the promise has been placed on the schedule. This is not another message of what will take place sometime. It, rather, he has arrived this very day.

The Humble Provision

He is the promise that everyone has been yearning for. “…in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” He is the Messiah. Christ is the Greek term for Messiah. He is born in the city of David. That promise made centuries earlier to David – And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16) – is now being fulfilled. Here is the One from the lineage of David to sit upon Israel’s throne. He is the Savior. The shepherds would understand Savior to mean the one who will deliver Israel from the Romans. The Christ/Messiah is the Lord. Yes, that makes sense, for the Messiah is expected to be what we today would call a superhero. This all so great. Just what the Jewish people were longing for and expecting in their long-awaited promised Messiah.

The next line would have seemed a bit odd.

¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

A manger? Really? King Messiah is in a manger. The shepherds may not have thought about the oddity, especially when, before they’ve had time for reflection, the sky is filled with thousands of angels speaking forth their doxology to God. But Luke thinks the manger is significant. It is the one element in Luke’s narration that appears three times. In verse 7 is the account of Jesus being laid in a manger, then the announcement of the angel, and finally in verse 16 in the account of the shepherds finding the baby.

For all of the fanfare of the angelic announcement, the actual circumstance of the Messiah’s birth is as humble and seemingly insignificant as a birth can be. The Messiah is born in poverty, and however illustrious his lineage might be, he is born a nobody in the eyes of the world.

The very visit of the angels is an odd case. Why do they go to the shepherds, of all people? Why not the leaders of Israel – the priests, the members of the Sanhedrin, even Herod? That would have been logical; it certainly would have had more impact. The shepherds do the best job they can of spreading the news. But after that, we hear nothing more of anyone acting upon the news other than wondering about it, one reason being is that the shepherds themselves are of little account in their society.

Think of it this way. If someone wants to be a candidate for president of the United States, he makes his or her announcement in such a way as to produce the most publicity. He doesn’t head out to a cattle ranch at night and ask a handful of ranch hands to get the word out for him.

The appearance of angels in the sky is worthy of the announcement of the Messiah. But to waste such glory and wonder on a few shepherds? It certainly seems that God is hiding his light under a bushel. Or closer to the truth, he seems to emphasize that however glorious the birth of the Messiah is, the Messiah comes in humility, and he comes to the humble.

Meanwhile, the long expected Provision, when it finally arrives, doesn’t seem to be such a great provision. We are given, not a Warrior-King, but a baby. The baby does not arrive in glorious dress, but wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a feeding trough. There is the fanfare of the angels, but no one other than peasant shepherds who hear them. This is the great Provision?

Such a question would be raised throughout Jesus’ life, for, truth be told, he never fulfilled the expectations of his people. The miracles were something, to be sure, but he didn’t take advantage of them. The one time that people were ready to make him king, he sneaks away. He has nothing to say about the Roman oppressors other than to turn the other cheek. He takes up no weapon, he leads no army, and ends up dying ignobly on a cross. This is the Provision?

It is the question raised today. The Christmas carols are nice; the nativity scenes are sweet, but really, we in this post-modern, scientific age are to believe in this fairy tale? This is the Provision for mankind, the hope of the world? Unbelievers look at the churches and they are not impressed. They see a mixture of superstition, lack of education, backward ways of thinking. They see a hodgepodge of belief systems and behavior – from high church aristocratic ways to back country revivalism, and they find it amusing. This is the church that possesses the Provision for mankind?

Are you that way? You find the people nice and you like singing the carols, but, really, who could believe that there was a baby in history, who was the Son of God sent to save the world from sin? It is too farfetched. It is too imperfect, considering those who profess such a faith. For they have their too obvious faults. To put it in the terms of the Apostle Paul – would God entrust such treasure in jars of clay?

The message of the first Christmas is that God did do just that. The Provision arrived. He arrived in a humble looking package; nevertheless, he came. He did not fulfill the expectations of his people at that time; nevertheless, he carried out the true mission of the Messiah – to save his people from their own sins. What appeared to be ultimate failure was ultimate victory. He accomplished in his death what he was born to do. And now, what he calls upon all of us in each generation – whatever our social status, whatever our education level, whatever our ethnicity or race or nationality – what he calls upon each of us to do is to exercise faith in him.

This is not a modern Christmas message encouraging you to believe in the magic of Christmas or to have faith in some vague idea of everything having a purpose. Jesus Christ – the baby born in a manger – calls you now to believe that he is the Son of the living God, who died upon the cross for your sins so that you will have eternal life. That is the gospel, the great Provision. And though it admittedly remains dressed in the humble packaging of the church and of frail people; though it is proclaimed by ministers who at best are jars of clay – it is the Promise made at the beginning of mankind to solve the problem that has beset men and women throughout history. It is the promise proclaimed by the angels as provided.

The Doxology and Blessing

Consider next the doxology and blessing of the angels.

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

“Glory to God in the highest!” What else can the angels say? They must break forth in adoration of God. They, by the way, do see God’s glory. There is nothing hid from their eyes. They know the treasure of the Provision. They know the glory of the Son of God.

And then comes the benediction, the blessing to mankind. “And on earth peace…” Well, what do they say? Where is the “good will toward man” in the King James Bible? What is this “among those with whom he is pleased.” (The New International Version has “to those on whom his favor rests.”)

The cause of the difference in translation is one letter in the Greek language. It is the matter of the letter sigma, what we would write as the letter “s.” I will not go into the technical arguments, only to say that the KJ translation is based on manuscripts that do not include the sigma. Modern translators have access to manuscripts that are actually older and which do include it. That sigma, or lack of it, determines how the two Greek words, which make up the final phrase is translated.

So which is correct? I personally like the KJ version. It reads better and is certainly more poetic. The modern versions almost read like language added in by the angelic legal department. But that is mere preference on my part. Textual scholars lean toward the modern version as the more likely original wording.

The difference in translation affects how we understand the announcement. If we take the KJ – peace on earth and goodwill toward man – we have a blessing on mankind in general. Let there be peace throughout the world and may God show his goodwill to everyone. Or, as Tiny Tim would say, “God bless us, everyone.”

Does God bless everyone, and does he bless the world through his Son? We can affirm that. Jesus himself taught that God the Father shows mercy even to the wicked through common grace (Matthew 5:44-5; Luke 6:35-6). And surely we can see how the coming of Christ and the spread of the gospel and of the Christian faith has benefited mankind in general. For all of its troubles, the world is a better place because of a religion that exalts peace, love, and mercy as displayed and taught by its founder. And if that is what the angelic benediction is about, then good.

The second translation, though, gives a more focused slant on who receives the blessing and what that blessing is. To understand the blessing, we have to understand, as our pastor taught us two weeks ago, the problem that Christ came to solve. The problem is that we do not love God. In fact, we are in rebellion against God. We would deny such a charge, nevertheless that is Scripture’s verdict. The result is that there is enmity between us and God. We are guilty and are lying under his condemnation with no hope of escaping the punishment.

The peace, then, that is needed is the peace of reconciliation with God. That is true and lasting peace. Peace on earth, in the sense of peace between the peoples of earth, is tenuous at best and never lasting. Even so, life can carry on. Life cannot carry on eternally if there is not the reconciling peace with God. This problem has eternal consequences. Solving this problem is the most critical matter for every human being. The angel’s message is that it is such peace that this baby in a manger will achieve for…for whom?

To everyone on earth? To those with whom God is pleased? To those on whom his favor rests? In other words, is there a limit to who receives this peace? Obviously not everyone does receive this peace. At least most people do not believe in this baby as their Savior and indeed do not even believe there is a problem between them and God, if there is a god. They are getting along just fine, thank you.

So there is a limited number of men and women on earth who do actually receive the peace that the Christ-child came to provide. For them, the angels’ reference to peace has much deeper meaning than it does for the others who see a general expression of God’s peace and goodwill to humankind.

There is still another question. Has God already limited who would receive the blessing? The angels’ give a blessing on those whom God already favors and is pleased with. This happens before the infant grows up, accomplishes his work, and people are able to respond. Is the angelic announcement only for them?

But I put the question to you. Is the announcement for you? You determine if the peace includes you or not. It rests with you now to receive or to reject. You are the revealer of whether God is pleased with you or not, if his goodwill is upon you or not. You have been led to the water of life; it is up to you to drink. You have been offered the bread from heaven; it is your choice now to join in the feast.

You are not being asked to figure out if you are chosen. You are being asked to respond to the call. What holds you back? Is the Provision not what you expect it to be? Are you afraid of how you will appear to your friends and peers? You might be laughed at, looked down upon, even shunned. Are you concerned with what might be expected of you as a follower of this Savior? What will you have to give up? What will you have to take on?

It can be unnerving, I admit. Even Jesus himself said to count the cost of following him. But the peace – the real peace of reconciliation with God our Creator, the peace of knowing that we belong to him, that we are loved by him – it is joyous blessing indeed and worthy of the song of angels. There is the peace that something is real in this post-modern world where we are taught that all beliefs and all religions are merely points of view. To know that this story of the infant in a manger is true, really true; that the babe literally was the Son of God; that he actually was the Promised One and that he did indeed win our reconciliation on a wooden cross – it takes us up into marvels far beyond all the fables and myths and fairytales of this world.

This is the peace of the Christ-child, the babe who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. This the peace of the Son of God who walked upon this earth, and who offered himself for the salvation of whosoever would believe in him. Will you believe?