To See: Intention, Fulfillment, and Benediction (Luke 2:1-20)

To See: Intention, Fulfillment, and Benediction

December 24, 2024

 Luke 2:1-20

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  For the shepherds, Christmas Eve began with an announcement from heaven. An angel of the Lord appeared, telling them about the birth of a Savior in the town of Bethlehem, and then the shepherds stood awestruck as the sky was filled with whole ranks of these heavenly messengers singing their Christmas song. Once the angels had withdrawn again into heaven, once the sounds of proclamation and praise had faded once more into holy silence, the shepherds had a decision to make. Would they rest content with having heard the news, or would they go and see things for themselves? We know their choice; they chose to go: “Let us go now to Bethlehem,” they say to one another, “and see this thing…which the Lord has made known to us” (2:15). But let’s not miss that it was a choice. They talked it over. Word of mouth, word even of an angel’s mouth, was not enough for them. If there really was a Savior born that night for them, they wanted to see the truth with their own eyes.

In telling the story of the shepherds, Luke uses the verb “to see” three times. I’ve already quoted the first instance from the shepherds’ words, “Let’s go and see this thing.” The second instance occurs after they find the holy family: Mary, Joseph, and Jesus wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. “When they saw this” (v. 17), Luke says, they began to tell their story. They tell Jesus’ family and everyone else within earshot about their encounter with the angels. Mary gathers these precious details into her heart and imprints the shepherds’ words on her memory. Finally, as the story ends, the shepherds return to their fields, glorying God “for all that they had heard and seen” (v. 20).

Let’s go and see.

When they saw.

For what they had seen.

Intention. Fulfillment. Benediction.

Intention—they decide to go. Fulfilment—their going is rewarded. Benediction—they say Thank You.

                In many ways, living this cycle over and over again is what it means to be a person of faith. Somewhere along the line we decide that what we’ve heard – from parents, teachers, preachers, culture – isn’t enough. Our longing for a personal encounter with the truth propels us out on a quest. We are set upon by a question that won’t let us go. And then somewhere down the line there is a fulfillment, a resolution, though it often arrives in a form and a manner that we don’t expect. This is followed by a period of integration and reflection whose mood is praise. We return to our “fields” with new eyes and a change of heart until, once again, a holy restlessness sets us on the move.

Intention, fulfilment, benediction.

                If you were to imagine yourself there with the shepherds on that first Christmas night, which of these three moments do you see yourself in? Are you huddled with the others in the field, deciding if you will respond to the words of the messenger? Are you in the manger, staring wide-eyed at the holy child and spilling your side of the story? Are you heading back into the fields with songs on your lips, a changed person?

If your heart is begging you to go to Bethlehem and add firsthand sight to second-hand word, then tonight I think God would want you to set an intention. Jesus, in his kindness, has promised us so many things if we would but seek him for ourselves.

Things like – release from our efforts at holding it all together. He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Maybe you are finally ready to go and seek the truth of that word. He has promised us unconditional love – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” – and maybe tonight there’s nothing left to do but coming to him at last and learning how to abide.

Or maybe you look at the world today and struggle to believe in the goodness of it, to look hopefully toward its future, and you’ve heard Jesus say, “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), and now you are ready to seek that strong peace. Or you have been held captive by old grudges and have heard him say, “Forgive others, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37), and tonight you are ready to take the first step on the hard road of forgiveness.

Whatever it is that you most desire from God – peace, hope, forgiveness, communion, purpose – the shepherds invite you to stand in their company and be moved by their courage to go and see for yourself.

The good news for you this Christmas is that if you seek him, you will find him. You will find him because he has already drawn near to you. He has already bridged the distance between heaven and earth, his divinity and our humanity. He has already chosen to be with you. And his decision is irreversible. He has made himself inseparable from us. And he has united his perfect life with the stuff of creation. He has met us far more than halfway, and he will meet you far more than halfway. Indeed, it’s his Holy Spirit stirring up this restlessness in you from the start, awakening your longings, lighting the spark of your desire. “Everyone who seeks, finds,” Jesus says. I hope this Christmas that you will make it your urgent intention to know God for yourself.

Now, perhaps you are here during a time of fulfilment. You’ve waited faithfully through the darkening weeks of Advent – or far longer: you’ve been on a journey, you’ve been looking for the promised sign. And here he is, and here you are. You are standing face-to-face with the truth, or a facet of it, and something new and precious is being opened for you, unlocked in you. You quest has been rewarded. Christmas is a time of adoration and contemplation.

If that’s you, I want you to notice that in their own moment of fulfillment, the shepherds became messengers. Just as the angel made known the birth of Jesus to them, so they made their experiences to Mary and Joseph. The shepherds become message-bearers, heralds, angels, in their own way, to Mary and Joseph. They pass the great announcement along about who this child is. Mary and Joseph didn’t get heavenly angels, they got these earthy ones who smelled like sheep and campfire and dirt.

In their going, the shepherds found that they had a gift to give. They discovered a vocation. They found their voice.

So, your journey is never just for you. You may set off on a very personal quest, a need to experience the truth of God’s goodness, the reality of God’s nearness, for yourself. But in your going, you will be prepared not only to receive a fulfilment but to give a gift: the gift of your story. You never know at the beginning who else will benefit from your journey, whose heart will someday become a storehouse for your words. But if you are here tonight in a moment of fulfilment, I want you to ask God who your story is meant to bless. How might you encourage someone else with what you have experienced.  Isn’t God good, that the very questions and conundrums and longings that caused us to plunge into the unknown of our seeking were the very things that led us into our power? We went to learn something true for ourselves, and we arrived just in time to strengthen the truth in somebody else. Who is your story for?

Finally, maybe tonight you’re on the return journey, and this Christmas is part of an ongoing benediction for you. You’re looking back on a year, a season, a time of profound growth and change, and you’re here to simply say Thank You. You’ve seen what you went to see, and you’re returning now a different person. You’re learning what it’s like to live in this new skin, to see through these open eyes.

If that’s you, you task is simply to praise, to give gratitude and joy the space they deserve. Don’t underestimate the importance of this movement. The questing is full of turmoil and intensity, high highs and low lows. The fulfilment is a rapture, a time to be fully present and in many ways overcome. But the benediction – the thank you – is a time for memory and praise to do their work. You have a bit of distance from the events and can now turn them over and over in your heart, pondering the meaning of them all. You are here to infuse the darkness with songs of triumph, songs of hope, and if there is a task for you, it is the task of learning to let your praise shape and mold your so-called ordinary life. What will it mean for you to be a shepherd – a mother or a father, a son or a daughter, a colleague or a friend, a teacher or a neighbor – whose eyes have seen the Christ?

Intention, fulfillment, benediction.

What is the call of Christmas for you?

A final thought: Notice how every step of the shepherds’ journey unfolds in community. The shepherds decide to go and see together. They behold the face of Christ together and they tell other people their story. They return to the fields singing songs together.

I pray that God will provide every one of us with a community.

I pray that we find solidarity in our seeking and companionship in asking our questions.

I pray that our fulfillment will arrive among surprising company and that our journey will overflow in blessings for others.

I pray that in our times of return our reflections will be sharpened and our praises amplified by the corroborating witness of others.

In other words, I pray that we will each find a church, or better yet, that we will become the church for one another. For what is the church, if not a people who will say to one another “let us go and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us,” and then make the journey together.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Amen.