Christmas 2025: The Good News of a Disruptive God

“In the same region there were shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord flashed and shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For this day in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (the Messiah).” (Luke 2:8-11, AMP)

Could you imagine being in the middle of a work shift and being confronted by an angel?

The shepherds were out in their fields, watching the sheep, pulling the night shift. I can’t imagine the job was all that riveting. After all, the old bedtime hack is to count sheep, isn’t it?

When I try to picture it, I can imagine a few fires lit so the shepherds can see the sheep and make sure none wander off or are taken by predators. I can picture maybe a few lazy conversations between co-workers trying to keep each other engaged and awake. Maybe someone was playing music, maybe someone was telling a story. Or maybe the field was silent; maybe there was truly nothing going on but sheep-watching. Maybe no one even looked up from their work.

Until a literal angel came to stand among them. And it’s not like this angel came in with no other crazy displays. Scripture says this angel suddenly stood before them: BAM! And the glory of the Lord flashed and shone around them. This wasn’t a quiet, gentle encounter. This angel came in with a bang, disrupting all semblance of a quiet, dim field on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

The angel knew this, because the first words that were spoken were: “Fear not!” The angel didn’t want these shepherds to miss a moment of the excitement because they were too busy freaking out over the upheaval to an otherwise uneventful shift on the job.

It’s like being at work when there’s very little actual work to do. Your eyes get heavy and you start thinking about how great things will be once you can clock out, and then all of a sudden, heaven rips open above your cubicle!

But that angel wasn’t just there to jump-scare a bunch of shepherds and their sleepy flocks. The angel was there to relay a very important message: the birth announcement of the very Messiah that Israel had been waiting for since Adam and Eve were tossed out of the Garden of Eden.

“Behold, I bring to you good news of great joy for all people.”

Why? Because Jesus came irrespective of any particular people group. The Jews thought the Messiah was coming to liberate them from Roman rule and exact vengeance on their enemies. They thought the Messiah was coming to their benefit, as the chosen nation of God. 

What they failed to understand was that Jesus, the Messiah, had come not to put Israel’s enemies to shame and glorify them for being Israel. Jesus came to liberate those ordained by God to believe from their sin. He came to wash away the sins of the nation that God was building, Jew and Gentile. That night, in a ordinary, unremarkable field, heaven burst forth to celebrate the long-expected coming of the Savior of the World. 

Soon, God’s grace would be freely available to all who believe and turn from their sins. Finally, that plan was coming to pass. These were the days that creation held its breath for and generations of people had prayed to see. 

And these shepherds and their sheep were the first to be invited into the excitement.

Isn’t that how God shares all His best-laid plans? With a disruption? He shakes us out of our sleepy routine, changes our course with flash and clatter, and snaps our attention back to His glory. You could lose your job, you could meet someone new, you could get word that you are about to relocate, you could lose a family member– there are so many things that God uses to give us a jolt.

And even though some of those things seem like heartaches, He works all things according to His good and what pleases Him. Even the worst of all news can’t take Him by surprise or work against His will.

He takes care of all His children. He made a way for our sin to be forgiven, and He made a way for us to come to Him. He has given us all good news, for anyone whom He draws near. 

To have been in that quiet little field that night would have meant you were a part of the biggest surprise party in history. Could you imagine? Because immediately after the angel told those shepherds about the newborn King lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, a multitude of angels– a whole heavenly Gospel choir– appeared and celebrated, singing praises to the God who finally deemed the world ready for the best gift we could ever receive.

Glory to God in the highest! He has given us His Son, Jesus, and because of this gift we no longer have to live in bondage to sin.