What does it mean to live with questions?

Sometimes questions evoke urgency, and inspire an action-filled response!

In this year’s advent series, join me as we look at four Advent questions from the gospel of Luke. We’ll look at the question in its context of their ancient day, and how that question might relate to us in our times.

This week’s question:

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.”

(Luke 2:15, ESV)

Have you ever been told something that is so outrageously unbelievable, so amazing, so far beyond anything that you might have hoped would be true, so incredible that if it were true, would change your life, so you had to drop everything, and go check it out immediately? 

Let’s look that the birth announcement of Jesus.

In last week’s post, when Mary and her relative Elizabeth greeted one another, that connection was a holy moment, focused on amazement and praise to the Lord for what He was doing in both women’s lives, and the promise of God using both of these yet-to-be-born babies to change the world.

Now, approximately nine months later, Mary and Joseph end up in Bethlehem, away from family and friends, due to a government-ordered census. Unable to find a room in a local inn, the only available space is an animal barn. Mary gives birth to Jesus, and lays Him in a feed trough carved from stone to protect Him from the animals accidentally stepping on Him.

At the same time, in pastures outside Bethlehem, the angels announced the birth of Jesus to an unlikely audience – a group of shepherds tending their sheep.

Imagine, for a moment, being in the pasture with the shepherds… out in the open, a seemingly quiet night, then the glory of God lights up the sky, the ground, and everything in between! Completely terrified, you want to run, but instead, are frozen in place, nowhere to go, nothing to do except bow in reverence and pray for mercy!

Then the angel speaks, assuring you that this is good news – that Messiah has been born, and he gives instructions on how to find this baby who will one day be King of Kings, Lord of Lords!

After experiencing God’s glory and the angel’s words, followed by a heavenly choir giving glory to God, the shepherds’ questions were implied, and followed immediately by an overwhelming desire to go see what the angel had just told them.

Another paraphrase of this verse captures both the implied question, and the urgency to take action in order to see the miracle that the angel announced:

As soon as the heavenly messengers disappeared into heaven, the shepherds were buzzing with conversation. Shepherds: Let’s rush down to Bethlehem right now! Let’s see what’s happening! Let’s experience what the Lord has told us about!

(Luke 2:15, The Voice paraphrase)

Now, two thousand-plus years later, the miracle of God coming to earth to be one of us stands alone in history, then and now. 

May we be filled with the same question, and the same excitement to experience Immanuel, God with us, as those shepherds did the night of Jesus’ birth.

A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Like the shepherds, Jesus coming to be like us, in human form, is worth dropping everything and checking out. It will change your life.

Blessings,
~kevin