Luke 2:8-15
There is such a danger in being TOO familiar with a portion of scripture. First off, we will probably forget or ignore the context of the too familiar verses and thereby forgetting or ignoring important background for a thorough understanding. Secondly, the passage may take on associations from the repetitions of weak interpretations of the verses. In other words, perhaps the passage has been layered with so many popular associations that many important truths have been filtered out. The narratives regarding the Incarnation are perfect examples of passages that have fallen victim to an artificial context that has blurred the rich truths contained in them. Let’s face it, the events of 4BC have nothing at all to do with Christmas. Christmas is a manufactured package of Christian and pagan images and rituals that was used as a tool to trivialize and absorb pagan religions into the Church. Marketing the church and trying to appear relevant to culture is not a technique invented by Joel Osteen, it goes back nearly two thousand years.
Ok, I don’t want to start sounding like Scrooge and give the impression that I’m trying to undermine your Christmas traditions but I do want you to see an important teaching on spiritual warfare. It will require that you forget the trappings of Christmas; peel away the layers of Christmas applications and associations that have been slapped on over the years. This kind of focused thinking is going to take discipline but the reward is worth it all.
My purpose in these next few articles is to demonstrate that the angels who ‘suddenly appeared’ to the shepherds were not there only to make a birth announcement, they were not there to merely sing a Christmas carol, they were there TO MAKE WAR. The ‘Host of Heaven’ is not a choir, it’s an ARMY and this event was the most massive grouping of warriors the world had ever witnessed. Their song was not a holiday wish, it was a battle cry and they had come to make war, ‘to plunder the Strong Man’s house.’
So in the words of Dicken’s, Ghost of Christmas Past, “"Your reclamation, then. Take heed. Rise. And walk with me."
(Go to Part Two)
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!”15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
There is such a danger in being TOO familiar with a portion of scripture. First off, we will probably forget or ignore the context of the too familiar verses and thereby forgetting or ignoring important background for a thorough understanding. Secondly, the passage may take on associations from the repetitions of weak interpretations of the verses. In other words, perhaps the passage has been layered with so many popular associations that many important truths have been filtered out. The narratives regarding the Incarnation are perfect examples of passages that have fallen victim to an artificial context that has blurred the rich truths contained in them. Let’s face it, the events of 4BC have nothing at all to do with Christmas. Christmas is a manufactured package of Christian and pagan images and rituals that was used as a tool to trivialize and absorb pagan religions into the Church. Marketing the church and trying to appear relevant to culture is not a technique invented by Joel Osteen, it goes back nearly two thousand years.
Ok, I don’t want to start sounding like Scrooge and give the impression that I’m trying to undermine your Christmas traditions but I do want you to see an important teaching on spiritual warfare. It will require that you forget the trappings of Christmas; peel away the layers of Christmas applications and associations that have been slapped on over the years. This kind of focused thinking is going to take discipline but the reward is worth it all.
My purpose in these next few articles is to demonstrate that the angels who ‘suddenly appeared’ to the shepherds were not there only to make a birth announcement, they were not there to merely sing a Christmas carol, they were there TO MAKE WAR. The ‘Host of Heaven’ is not a choir, it’s an ARMY and this event was the most massive grouping of warriors the world had ever witnessed. Their song was not a holiday wish, it was a battle cry and they had come to make war, ‘to plunder the Strong Man’s house.’
So in the words of Dicken’s, Ghost of Christmas Past, “"Your reclamation, then. Take heed. Rise. And walk with me."
(Go to Part Two)
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