There’s nothing that makes you happy to be alive like almost being dead.
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This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is December 12, 2024 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Emotional Whiplash. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2. There’s nothing that makes you happy to be alive like almost being dead. Have you ever had a really close call? Maybe almost had a car accident, the kind where immediately afterwards, you’re out of breath and your knees are all wobbly?
I experienced that feeling one summer when my entire family was almost hit by lightning. We were sitting on the screen-in porch of a lakehouse during a thunderstorm, playing UNO. Lightning hit a tree about 20 feet from the corner of the house. It was the brightest, loudest thing I’ve ever seen. Temporarily blinded, ears ringing, we all just stared at each other for a minute: “Whoa. Can you believe that just happened?”
In a moment like that, the terror of thinking you’re about to die is quite the contrast to the sudden and rather happy discovery that you are still alive. It’s a kind of emotional whiplash: you stretch so far into fear that when you rebound, you shoot way past normal and end up in the heights of elation. Being alive never felt so good!
In our Scripture for Students today, we’re going to look at a few verses that describe the same kind of experience, but far more dramatic.
Let’s read Luke 2:8–12.
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
So you know this scene well: the shepherds are out minding their own business one night. If the Christmas Carols are anything close to accurate, it was a Silent Night. All was calm. All was bright. From the moon, I guess.
I don’t think we should picture the shepherds as timid or fearful guys. It’s not like you could have been a very good shepherd if you were prone to fear. These guys worked outside all the time, I think it would have been very dark in the middle of the night. David was a shepherd and he killed a bear and a lion to protect his flocks.
So that makes it even more dramatic when the angel appears to them. The angel’s arrival on the scene is quite sudden. [I really want to say “Shazam!” here. If you know, you know.] And did you notice that when the angel appears, he gets leveled up? The angel of the Lord appeared to them, but it says in verse 9 that the glory of the Lord shone around them. They’re seeing the angel, but he is clothed in something more than creaturely glory. Apparently, he is shining with the brightness and the purity and the radiance of the Lord himself.
Understandably, this was terrifying to the shepherds. When Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord in God’s throneroom, in Isaiah 6, he fell on his face and said, “Woe is me, I am undone!” No wonder then, that these shepherds were filled with a great fear. This is a powerful phrase in the original language; you could translate it, they feared with a great fear. This was really scary!! Do you think these shepherds picked up their heads and looked around at each other? “Are we dead? Doesn’t seem like it?”
And then comes the emotional whiplash: the angel commands them to not be afraid. Why not? Because he comes with tidings of great joy! This is a much bigger rebound than almost being hit by lightning!
The angel announces, “behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
The angel is saying, not only are you not dead, I’ve come to announce to you the gift of eternal life!
We need to try to imagine this scene, but the best we can do is imagine this scene.
But the more that we think over this scene and better we do and picturing what this experience was like for the shepherds, the more we will feel the emotion of it.
We need this, especially at Christmas. The word “joy” is everywhere at Christmas. In songs, on cards on the door of your fridge, on decorations in the grocery store. But it is easy for Christians of all ages to lose the joy of Christmas. It’s easy to become distracted by decorating and finals and parties and gifts.
If you start to lose your sense of joy and gratitude at Christmas, think about the lightning that just missed you. Think about the great reversal of being saved from sin, spared from judgment, and welcomed into God’s family.
We deserve to die for our sins. God could have sent a judge, an executioner, or an army against us. Instead, he sent his son to be born as a baby, to live as a man, to die in our place, and to rise in victory over death. Sure, that’s emotional whiplash, but it’s the very best kind.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!
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