Pastor's Message

December 2004

Christmas from the Angels’ Point of View

The Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke is different from the Christmas story in Matthew. Mark doesn’t say anything about the birth of Christ and John has that very deep theological version about the Word becoming Flesh and dwelling among us. These are not different stories, but the same story, told from a different point of view. I am sure if we had a record of the Christmas story written by the shepherds it would be different – or how about the wise men? Their story would probably tell us a lot about the hardships of travel in those days, and their vision of God telling them to return home by a different route would certainly be a fascinating story.

Philip Yancy has written an intriguing article with the above title and he presents some thoughts about how the Christmas story would be told from an angel’s point of view. He begins by paraphrasing Revelation 12, which could be understood as a cosmic view of the birth of Christ but told using ancient symbolism. Revelation tells about a woman on the earth about to give birth to a male child, a child who would rule all nations (later referred to as the Messiah). But as she is in birth pains an enormous red dragon descends from heaven, sweeping away a third of all stars with his tail, and waits before the woman to devour her child as it is born. But the child is snatched away at the last moment and war breaks out between the red dragon and Michael and his angels. The dragon is defeated and cast out of heaven, setting the stage for the rule of the Messiah.

J.B. Phillips, the Biblical scholar who has written extensive commentaries of the Bible has also written an angel’s viewpoint of the birth of Christ, but in a more whimsical style, more like the writing of C.S. Lewis. In Phillips’s version, a senior angel is showing a very young angel around the universe. They admire whirling galaxies and blazing suns until they enter our galaxy and our solar system, where the senior angel points to a rather small planet, the third from the sun. The young angel is not impressed, thinking of it as not only inconsequential but rather dirty, but the senior angel tells him that this one is the renowned “Visited Planet.” The young angel is incredulous that the great and glorious Prince of Heaven would go to this little planet and asks, “Do you mean to tell me that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?” The senior angel responds firmly, “I do, and I don’t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures’ in that tone of voice. For strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up so that they might become like Him.” Phillips then states that the little angel is amazed. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension.

This is the one point in Phillips’s story that should resonate with us. The Christmas story is really beyond our comprehension, except for the fact that we have heard it so often. The Son of God being born in a manger, with bottom of the social ladder shepherds and top of the ladder Wise Men coming to worship, is nearly as incredible a story as the raging battle with the red dragon or Phillips’s story about the young angel learning about the “Visited Planet.” The amazing thing is not the grandeur of the red dragon or the insignificance of the Visited Planet, but the fact that God, who is God of the universe, should love us so much that he became one of us, through his Son Jesus Christ, to bring us salvation.

This is the wonderful message of Christmas – that God loves you! God loves you so much that he became a regular human being, just so He could tell us in plain words how much he loves us. May you hear this message this Christmas. May you joyfully receive God’s love.