“Do Not Be Afraid”
It’s that time of year when we love to watch all those holiday movies. What’s your favorite? Hmm… hard to pick just one as there are so many to choose from! There’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (from 1946!), and “A Christmas Story” (with Ralphie and his dream gift of a Red Ryder Carbine-action 200-shot Range Model Air Rifle). What about “Elf” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”? Or “The Polar Express,” or “Christmas Vacation,” or “The Nativity Story”? And, of course, there is the classic 1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” with its wonderful music that is still so popular after all these years.
You know the story here: Charlie Brown can’t figure out why he’s not happy at Christmas time. With all of the decorations, caroling, and gift giving, he knows he should be happy, but he’s not. So he decides to visit his psychiatrist, Lucy van Pelt, who begins to analyze him, trying to help him figure out what he’s afraid of and what it is that keeps him from being happy. After a lot of back and forth, Lucy asks Charlie Brown if he has pantophobia, the fear of everything. And he shouts, “That’s it!” Maybe there’s something of Charlie Brown in each one of us. What are you afraid of? Sometimes we’re rather embarrassed to admit the things that we are afraid of because they may seem rather childish or silly, but still we’re afraid. It may be shots and needles, going to the dentist, standing up in front of people, public speaking, or a host of other things that make us fearful. The truth is that whatever our age, there are things in life that make us afraid. The Christmas message is all about God breaking into our world and our lives in the person of his own Son, Jesus. In Jesus, God himself confronts our deepest fears and our greatest need.
Throughout the Christmas story, we hear those words: “Do not be afraid.” They crop up at different points in the Gospels, but they are there. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, telling her that she would be the mother of Jesus, Son of the Most High God, we read that “Mary was greatly troubled at his words” (Luke 1:29). In other words, Mary was afraid. And who wouldn’t be? Being visited by an angel of God would make any one of us fearful. In Scripture, that is always the reaction of humans when visited by an angel of God. But the angel said to Mary: “Do not be afraid…” (Luke 1:30). When Joseph learned that his fiancé was pregnant and the child was not his, he planned to break off his betrothal (a legally binding arrangement far different than engagement) to Mary and call off the wedding, not publicly, but privately, for Mary’s sake. We read in Scripture: “But after he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife’” (Matthew 1:20). In Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus, as the angel brought this good news to shepherds who were out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night, we are told: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid’” (Luke 2:9-10). Mary, Joseph, shepherds—all of them were afraid. But the message to all of them was the same: “Do not be afraid.”
The Lord speaks these same words to us today: “Do not be afraid.” In the midst of a world that looks and feels like it’s spinning out of control, our fears may be ratcheting ever upward. Our world today may look very much like the world when Jesus was born: suspicion and distrust of those who differ from us; increasing “tribalism” in our culture that further divides people; instability and unrest; greed and exploitation; violence and bloodshed. But this is the world that Jesus entered into so that He might save and redeem it. This is the “good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). We have a God who did not choose to remain lofty and removed from the fears of his people. No, we have a God who willingly chose to come into our broken and messed up world to become one of us in every respect, except for sin (Hebrews 4:15). This is Jesus, whose very Name means Savior, as the angel told Joseph: “He will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). This is Jesus for you.
Back to Charlie Brown: after he tries to direct the Christmas pageant and even that doesn’t go well, he cries out in frustration: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” And his good friend, Linus, steps up and tells him (and all of us) what Christmas is really all about. Linus tells the Christmas story from Luke 2 about the birth of Jesus. There are lots of people like Charlie Brown who are all around us. They, too, are afraid of a great many things in life. They, too, want to know what Christmas is all about. If ever there was a time of year when people are open to hearing this good news of great joy, this is it! Now in this month of December, be ready to point people to the Christ of Christmas. Be ready to invite people who are hungry for Jesus (but may not even know it) to come with you to worship at Christmas. Be ready, like Linus, to share that good news of great joy that is for all the people.