Good News is Bad News is Good News

The angel said, "Fear not, I bring you Good News, Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth, Peace and Goodwill toward all people." —Luke 2:8-14

It is interesting that the announcement of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would be an occasion for fear. But to the lowly shepherds who knew a world of confusion and calamity, of despair and despondency, of futility and fear, the angelic message was sheer Good News. This fear of the Lord that came upon them transformed them into creative personalities and caused them to take an adventure of faith. They journeyed to Bethlehem to see the Savior and Lord and we last see them returning, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen. The shepherd's fear was the gateway to life.

"Fear not!" Why? "Because I bring you Good News." The Good News is that man and woman are not alone in this vast universe, in this mean world, for God has come to us by a babe born in Bethlehem. In this message lies humankind's true security. Our hunger for security, which currently is obsession, shows how deep our fear is. This hunger is really a perverted expression of our hunger for God.

Without God we have no security, but are lonely and tormented by the awareness of our ultimate futility. The material security we seek, however desirable, is not the answer. As Jesus so truly pointed out, man cannot find security in bigger barns, "much goods laid up for many years." God will say, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." Man and woman need some height. They need to look up to God. Their only security is in God. Their real glory is a reflected glory of the transcendent God. And this is the Good News—God has broken into history, we are not alone. His name shall be called, "Immanuel, God with us."

Now, to Old King Herod, the Good News was Bad News because he perceived the Christ child to be a potential political rival. Even though it happened almost 2000 years ago, it seems strangely similar to the present political plight of the powers-that-be. Herod's fear and insecurity caused him to immediately devise a plan to affect the death of Jesus. His fear led to the slaughter of infants and children, and his fear was a door to death.

Herod was imprisoned by his own fear. During the most significant moment in all of human history when God comes to humankind, because of one man's fear, the murderous massacre of all children two years and under occurs within the district and town of Bethlehem. Because Herod was walled-in by his own fear, he became a useful instrument of Satan. Whenever we act out of fear rather than faith, good news becomes bad news. We too, in a sense, run the risk of being like Herod when we become prisoners to our own human-inspired fears.

The Good News was a blessing and a curse; it brought redemption and judgment. We fear inflation, job loss, financial insecurity, war, sickness, disease, each other and fear itself. In George Bernard Shaw's play, “On the Rocks,” there is a dialogue between Jesus and Pilate that expresses well our predicament with fear. Jesus speaks as follows to Pilate: “Speak no more vain things to me about the greatness of Rome. The greatness of Rome, as you call it, is nothing but fear; fear of the past and fear of the future; fear of the poor and fear of the rich; fear of the Jews and Greeks who are learned; fear of the Gaul's and Goths and Huns who are barbarians; fear of the Carthage you destroyed to save you from the fear of it and which you now fear more than ever. Fear of Imperial Caesar, the idol you have yourself created, and fear of me, the penniless vagrant, buffeted and mocked; fear of everything except the rule of God; faith in nothing but blood and iron and gold.”

These words also speak to us whose motivation for much that we do is fear. How many of our domestic and foreign policies are based on nothing but fear? What about this Iraqi war, the costs of which we can't even calculate? Let us not fall into Herod's trap of receiving Good News as Bad News because of our own slavery to fear. Because of his own distorted fear-infested world, good news became bad news, wrong became right, evil became acceptable.

"But thanks be to God who gives us the victory," the Good News is still Good News. Our God is sovereign and He reigns. For nineteen centuries it has been hailed Good News. We still celebrate the Jesus of History, the Christ of Faith, King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. God is with us.

As I look back on 2005, a year of chaos, calamity and catastrophe—a year of Bad News, I have got Good News. "But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Good News is still Good News. His name shall be called, "Immanuel, God is with us."

Dr. Griffin is pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Brooklyn, and president of American Baptist Church USA.