Meeting Jesus in the most unexpected places

The well known account of the shepherds in the Christmas story has a huge amount to reveal to us about meeting Jesus for the first time. Have another read of it from that perspective and you’ll see what I mean.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.  Luke 2:8-21

Here’s a summary of what I feel we can draw from this account of the shepherds meeting Jesus for the first time.

1. They weren’t searching for an experience of Jesus. They were just getting on with life, getting on with the job they had been given to do. God reached out to them and told them where to find Jesus.
2. It was a glimpse of glory (full on glory as I wrote about yesterday) that revealed to them that there was more going on in their world then they could possibly have imagined.
3. The good news that will cause great joy for all the people is that a Saviour has been born as a baby. That was the sign they had to look for. This baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger was a sign of salvation.
4. They put in the effort and went to find Jesus. They followed the instructions to the letter. They took the risk of  walking away from their job, from what they knew, to venture into the unknown in search of this Saviour.
5. They found Jesus in the most unlikely place an unlikely form for the Saviour of the world. And yet they recognised him for who he was.
6. When they’d seen him, they spread the good news about him. They told everyone about this encounter. They couldn’t help themselves. And the people who heard them were amazed.
7. When they’d met him, they praised God for this encounter. Jesus pointed them to God.
8. And in that last verse, it says that Jesus was officially named Jesus at that stage – eight days after his birth -, which leads me to wonder whether the shepherds knew that this was Jesus. The angels didn’t tell them this baby was named Jesus. They’d had an encounter with the divine in the form of a human baby in humble circumstances – maybe that was all they knew. And yet they had still met Jesus.

I told you there was plenty to learn from this encounter!

Over the years, the Christian church has developed a very narrow way of encountering Jesus, it seems to me. We’ve packaged Jesus in a certain way, presented him in a certain way, surrounded him with a load of rules about how and when to meet with him. For some, because of the way Jesus was presented to them, this encounter with ‘Jesus’ has been a negative and painful experience. The humiliation, rejection, exploitation they experienced was done to them in the name of ‘Jesus’. No wonder they have spent their whole lives since that encounter doing everything they can to avoid another encounter with Jesus.

Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’  John 14:6

Some people take this to mean that the only way to truth and life and ultimately through God is through the narrow construct they have built around the person of Jesus. This has caused suspicion and condemnation and arrogance and division, as far as I can see.

But how about turning this on its head and looking at these words of Jesus the other way round?

If you are walking on the right path for you, in the way you were created to live, then you are encountering Jesus. Jesus is that way.

If you are embracing integrity and honesty and integrity in all that you say and do, then you are encountering Jesus. Jesus is that truth.

If you are discovering what it is to live life to the full, making life-giving choices that lead to life (for you and for others) rather than death, then you are encountering Jesus. Jesus is that life.

If you have an experience of the divine (a glimpse of glory) that helps you to understand yourself, your place in the universe and a sense that there is something far bigger than you outside of your understanding (some call this God), then you are encountering Jesus. The only way to God is through Jesus.

Before you think I’ve gone completely off track, hear me out.

Jesus appeared to the shepherds in the most unlikely form in the most unlikely place. They may not even have known his name was Jesus.

When the apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he alludes to the same point as I’m making here. He’s reminding the people of God’s provision for their ancestors who were led out of slavery into the wilderness by Moses.

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4

That rock was Christ.

How can that be? Jesus as we know and understand him had not been born into the world then. Is Paul saying that Jesus appeared to the people as life-giving water and not as ‘Jesus’ at all? Jesus was with God from the beginning of time – we see that in John 1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5

This is Jesus. The Word. The creative energy. The life. The light. And the name ‘Jesus’ is not mentioned here at all.

Back to Jesus in that rock.

Paul finds Jesus there, in that rock, because Paul finds Jesus everywhere.

Paul’s interpretation that Christ was present in the Exodus raises the question: Where else has Christ been present? When else? With who else? How else?  From ‘Love Wins’ by Rob Bell

And so what does that imply for the rest of us?

Like Paul we can come to see Jesus everywhere—in the rocks and trees, in the person seeking a handout at the busy intersection, in the smile of a child, or perhaps even in the face staring back at us in the mirror.  Seeing Creation

Now that’s something to get excited about! That’s something to shout about!

When the shepherds encountered Jesus for the first time, they could have dismissed this as too ordinary, too humble, just not right for the son of God at all. They could have missed the significance of the whole thing – chosen not to go and find him, chosen to dismiss the angels as a hallucination, said they were too busy, explained it all away….

And yet they took this encounter just as it was. They saw the significance. They had a genuine encounter with Jesus that they then could not keep to themselves (which leads me to wonder why we find it so hard to talk about our encounters with Jesus. Why do we need strategies and events to invite people to when keeping quiet about these incredible encounters should feel impossible to do?!)

Maybe it’s time for all of us to pray that God would open our eyes this Christmas to encounter Jesus in the most unlikely of places. Let’s not be dismissive of the encounters of others with the divine, either, because they don’t quite fit the model we have come to accept as the only way.

Let’s celebrate all that points us to God, just as the shepherds did.