Merry Christmas, dear friend!
I sincerely want you to have a Merry Christmas this year and I hope that after spending a few moments peering into God’s Word, you will come away filled with wonder and joy, infused with deep and lasting “merry” in your soul.
The richness of the first Christmas found its origin in the tender mercies of God, lived out, felt, and rejoiced in by individual people who belonged to him. Hope and joy and peace were not conjured by decorations but felt in the soul as one person after another experienced the light of God’s care, attention, and love directed their way.
I hope that you will come to believe God’s tender mercy toward you this Christmas, as you see in his Word with eyes of faith, his tender mercy toward the individuals we read about in the Christmas story.
Will you take a few moments to look with me at the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke?
Christmas According to Luke
In these two chapters of Luke’s Gospel, where we find his account of the first Christmas, two things simultaneously take place.
First, we read about several supernatural experiences explained as fulfilled prophecy—angels talking to people, a virgin and an old woman conceiving children, the curtain of heaven being pulled back to reveal the hosts of heaven, and most importantly, the birth of the Son of God.
At the same time, Luke introduces us to ordinary people who are much like us. This removes any idea from our minds that we are reading a myth. We meet relatable people here, which gives us hope that the story we are about to read may indeed have something to say about our own lives.
We meet several people who were dear to God’s heart, in the same way that you are dear to his heart. These people sought to obey God (Luke 1:6; 1:38; 2:22; 2:25; 2:37). They were people of faith—who took God at his word and lived as though what he said was true (Luke 2:19).
Now God’s relationship with each of these individuals differed, and his revelations to them differed, because they each harbored unique desires, hopes, and sorrows by God’s design. Luke, according to the compassionate heart of the Holy Spirit, gives us insight into the inner workings of each of these precious people.
Zechariah, an old priest who took care to live in ways that honored God, had given up hope of ever becoming a father.
His wife, Elizabeth, equally sought to honor God in all she did, as her heart broke over her barrenness, enduring the sharp pain of disgrace.
Mary lived in humble circumstances but looked forward to the sweet mercy of starting a family with a righteous man, Joseph, her betrothed.
The man Simeon occupied his aged mind with heavenly things, which created a holy emotional burden within him—a constant ache to see God’s kingdom come.
The prophetess Anna lost her husband after only seven years of marriage and had chosen not to invest all her love and time and labor from that point onward into ministering to others and communing with God.
Will you look with me at each one of these people—and see how God revealed his tender mercy to them at Christmas?
Zechariah – “I Have Heard Your Prayer”
Let’s start with Zechariah, for that’s where Luke starts. Here’s Zechariah—an old man who is as godly as they come (Luke 1:6), busying himself with the affairs of God’s house, and, while he is ministering to others, God sends an angel to speak to him!
Notice the first thing the angel says to him? “Zechariah, your prayer has been heard” (Luke 1:13 NIV). In other words, “Zechariah, you’re going to be a dad.” This man had forsaken all hope of his own dream coming true and busied himself with the needs of others. As he is ministering, serving others, God appears to him. When he encounters God, God in effect says, “I still care about you, Zechariah.”
God’s revelation gets even more tender.
Although the angel tells Zechariah many amazing things about his son—such as that he would be God’s promised prophet to introduce the Messiah to the world—the first way God describes John to his father is, “Zechariah, he will be a joy and delight to you” (Luke 1:14 NIV).
Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist, would play a key role in the plans and purposes of God. But do you see how part of God’s purpose in bringing John the Baptist into the world was to bring delight to a faithful man that God loved? While God worked to reveal his Messiah to the world, he made sure to reveal his mercy to Zechariah.
Elizabeth – “I Have Taken Away Your Disgrace”
So God knit the prophet John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb, filling him with God’s Spirit (Luke 1:15), and wiring him to be the perfect person to herald the coming of the Savior. As this baby grew in an aged womb, God was orchestrating eternal salvation for billions.
Yet hear how Elizabeth, John’s mom, received this miracle—as a personal gift of love. Hear the wonder and gratitude in her words, “The Lord has done this for me” (Luke 1:25 NIV).
Elizabeth is noted as a godly woman—not a bitter one—yet from her own mouth we hear an admission of her suffering. How many nights did she cry herself to sleep over one more social gathering where she could not relate, managed to answer insensitive questions with grace, and left the gathering gripped by emotional pain.
But God had taken account of this woman’s tears and tossing (Psalm 56:8). So while God worked to turn the hearts of a generation back to him, he attended to the aching heart of Elizabeth, and gently, tenderly took away her disgrace (Luke 1:25).
Mary – “I Have Done Mighty Things for You”
Luke next turns our attention to Mary, the young mom of the Savior. She hears that the impossible will happen to her (Luke 1:35). Since she was only betrothed when an angel showed up, this girl did not expect her young body to bear the burden of pregnancy for quite some time (Luke 1:27). What a shock she must have had.
Luke tells us how the news of what God would accomplish moved Mary—it moved her to sing (Luke 1:46-55). Her song reveals that she received this miracle as a sign of the mindfulness of her God.
She rightly sings, “He who is mighty has done great things,” but these wonders, she says, he has done “for me” (Luke 1:49 ESV). She feels humbled by God’s attention toward her (Luke 1:48), and it fills her young soul with wonder (Luke 1:46).
God became a man. The Word that took up dust and fashioned it into us, made himself “like his brothers”—became one of us (John 1:14; Hebrews 2:17; Genesis 2:7; Colossians 1:16). The King of kings chose his means of entry carefully—through the body of a girl who knew the Lord, but who seemed to need to know that he knew her.
Look back at Luke—twice Mary hears that she is favored by God (Luke 1:28, 30). She may have God’s Son in her womb, but to her little heart, this mattered most: she had God’s smile and God’s attention.
Shepherds – “I Bring You Good News of Great Joy”
Luke fast forwards his story nine months, where we then meet the shepherds. God loves shepherds—they have always played important roles in his story. On a night like any other, a few unnamed shepherds went about their ordinary business, until the stars gave way to a scene far more brilliant than any shooting star or heavenly wonder they had ever witnessed.
More angels! What does the angel say to the shepherds? “I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10 ESV). He had come to deliver God’s message to these few working men.
The news “will be” for all the people, eventually, and not for these shepherds alone, but it came to these shepherds first, as personal news. They received it as such. Listen to what they say to each other, “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).
What might have been happening in the lives of these shepherds that God would determine to personally deliver to them this good word? Who knows! But God knew. There before them the heavens opened, and they saw the host of heaven praising God (Luke 2:13-14). What a show for a few ordinary guys, alone on a hillside in the dead of night.
When God announced the coming of the long-awaited King who would shepherd his people and carry them forever (Psalm 28:9), he only chose a few to attend the ceremony—a handful of shepherds. But it gave God great delight to fill their souls with worship (Luke 2:20).
Simeon – “I Will Show You My Salvation”
We flip the page to meet Simeon, eight days after Jesus’ birth. Simeon is in the temple when baby Jesus arrives, but he’s not a priest or in a position of prominence. See how the Bible describes him? “A man in Jerusalem”—an ordinary guy (Luke 2:25 ESV). But the Lord saw his heart. Simeon longed to see God’s old, old promises come to pass for his people (Luke 2:25). God deeply cared for the holy reflex and pure longing of this old man’s heart. And so, he had made a special promise to Simeon— he would see the Christ (Luke 2:26)!
God made sure that he kept his soft-spoken promise to this old man he loved dearly. The day Jesus came to the temple for purification, the Lord proverbially tapped Simeon on the shoulder by his Spirit, and said, “Look, he’s here” (Luke 2:27).
As God prepared the means to peace on earth, in the care and ceremonial cleansing of this baby Messiah, he also made sure his peace visited Simeon’s righteous soul.
Anna – “I Will Be Found by You”
Simeon was not the only person God visited in the temple. We met Anna too—oh, what a delight it would be to meet her! She had loved once and lost her husband early on in marriage (Luke 36-37). The rest of her days, she spent in God’s house, finding her love and joy and glory in him (Luke 2:37). Consider this precious note about her experience that day: “And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38 ESV).
Notice how we hear nothing of Anna’s family, except for her loss of it (Luke 2:36). Yet, in her old age, God sent her a little baby to rejoice over. More than that—she had sought the Lord with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength. She had sought God, and he delighted to be found by her that day in the temple (Luke 2:38). As God fulfilled a myriad of promises to bring redemption to the world, on that day he kept one promise to this precious widow: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
God’s Heart for Redemption
Do you see the compassionate heart of God? How he personally attends to the heart of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna, and reveals his tender mercy to each of them?
What we know as “Christmas”—the birth and arrival of the Savior of the world , a shift in world history, something we strain to describe with eloquence and creativity to match the magnitude of what’s happening on a cosmic scale in the history of redemption—did not happen as a public occasion.
It was a tender mercy, delivered to each heart that played a role in God’s plan. After all, they were not just playing a role. As God’s people, they were not pawns in a grand-scale game of redemption. They were his beloved, whose hearts he came to redeem so that they might know him.
Does God Care About My Life?
Do you ever wonder whether or how you fit into God’s plan? I fear that sometimes we perceive God to be like some of us are—task oriented rather than people oriented. We may feel forgotten underneath the pile of spiritually significant to-dos on the Purposes of God list. Sometimes we hide the desires of our hearts from the Lord, assuming he disregards them because they won’t fit into his plan. Perhaps we wonder if our lives have any significance because we cannot reconcile how our situation could be part of God’s designs.
Yet Luke begs us to think differently!
You are part of God’s plan.
What did God send us at Christmas? God sent us a Son, a Person, because his plan has everything to do with your precious human heart and your relationship with God.
God sent us “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11 ESV). He sent us salvation, yes, but salvation came to us as a person (Matthew 1:21). This person would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). But he would be something else, too: “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
God planned from eternity past to redeem you, to pursue you, and reconcile your heart to himself. He sent Jesus to accomplish this mission.
God’s Tender Mercy for Us in Christ
What did Jesus come to do for you?
“to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising of the sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
(Luke 1:77-79 NIV)
Oh, would you linger over those beautiful words! What brilliant, miraculous things the Lord Jesus came to accomplish in your life!
Remember how his tender mercy took form for you in the past? How he willingly bore the punishment for your sins in his suffering and death on the cross, how he offered you new life and restored your relationship with God through his resurrection, and how he gave you the gift of his righteousness, so that the Father’s smile is always yours, and how he pledged his loving presence to you forever and ever by his Spirit?
Friend, curl up somewhere this Christmas and open your Bible to Luke 1-2. Think long over the tender mercy God has shown you in Jesus Christ. As you hear carols heralding his coming, let them into your soul. As you receive gifts, think on the gift God has delivered to you.
Jesus came for you.
Jesus came to bring you good news of great joy. There is a Savior for you—who has taken care of all your sin so that you might enjoy peace in the presence of God and know him (John 17:3). And because you have become his friend, he wants to show you his tender mercy too.
God’s Tender Mercy Toward You
God’s tender mercies for you did not end in the past with the coming of Jesus! Remember that wonderful promise in the Old Testament? His goodness and mercy will pursue you all the days of your life (Psalm 23:6).
Your redeemed heart is part of God’s from-eternity-past plan. He has good works planned for you (Ephesians 2:10) to do. But he does not unfurl those plans irrespective of you. He takes your hand and walks beside you through this life.
He hears the honest musings of your heart just like he heard Zechariah’s prayers to be a father. He counts your tears, and each time you toss about on your bed in distress. He sees when, like Elizabeth, you must walk through social shame. He is for you, as he was for Mary, though she felt herself to be no one of any importance. God’s plans for you, though ordained and pre-recorded in the brilliant book of All Our Days (Psalm 139:16), are revealed to you day by day, in ways that will reveal to you God’s tender mercy toward you.
As you walk with him and obey him, he will do mighty things for you. Perhaps like Zechariah, God will answer a prayer you gave up believing he could answer. Perhaps like Simeon, the Holy Spirit will lead you to witness God work profound salvation for others. Perhaps, like Anna, God will wash over your grief with unexpected joys and fill all the spaces in your soul carved out by loss with new visions of his promises kept. Perhaps like the shepherds, as you are going about your ordinary day, God will delight to surprise you with revelations of his glory in new ways.
These things God does for you will have generational implications. They will have spiritual significance. They will bear eternal fruit. But they will come to you as particular, loving tender mercies from a God of compassion.
This Christmas, as at the first, God delights to show you his tender mercy. Will you ask for it, watch for it, wait for it? And will you do as these dear people did—sing to him from the heart and praise him when he reveals to you his love?
May God’s tender mercies make your heart merry this Christmas.