Christmas is once again upon us. For Christians it is a time that we should contemplate upon the birth of the Savior, Jesus, God in flesh. Traditionally we meditate upon Christmas by reading about the birth of Jesus in Luke’s gospel and singing the sacred Christmas songs that we all enjoy like Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Joy to the World, and other songs that were written from the perspective of Luke’s narrative. We also celebrate Christmas by spending time with family and friends over a meal and the giving of gifts. Wherever Christians are, Christmas is celebrated in some form or fashion.  
            One thing our family does is to put up a Christmas tree. To be honest there is no theological or spiritual reason we do it, it’s simply something that we do out of tradition, and must be accomplished the day after Thanksgiving as a family! We hang lights on it, and place ornaments on it that remind us of our parents, friends, pets, our children, and now our grandchildren. And for the Johnson household, don’t forget the angel on the top of the tree! I did that this year, I didn’t forget really, I just didn’t want to go back out in the shed to look for it. However, encouraged by Mrs. Johnson, I braved the freezing elements and found the angel. As I was placing the angel on top of the tree (a task that I might add is as cumbersome as well as dangerous), I asked my wife why we needed to have the angel on top of the tree anyway? Her answer “Because we always had one when I was a little girl.”  AH! I get it now; that angel brings back memories that warm her heart.
            So being the husband that I am, I completed the task that I had previously considered insignificant, with some new insight. I didn’t think much more about that angel on top of our Christmas tree until just a day or two ago when I was reading Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 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. 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. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

The word angel basically means messenger. This angel had a direct message from God, not about himself but about Jesus, the Christ, the Savior of the world.  The prophets of Israel had long ago foretold of a day when the promised Messiah would come.  Yet upon His arrival God used an angel to declare the good news about Jesus. Who was this angel? Luke doesn’t tell us here in this text, but I believe there are clues in the first chapter of Luke that give us a pretty good idea.

Luke begins the story of the birth of Christ with the declaration of the birth of the John the Baptist. Luke’s story begins with John the Baptist’s future father, Zachariah, a priest and his wife Elizabeth. They were both “advanced” in years- old, an unlikely couple, to have a baby. God sends an angel, not a prophet, to declare to Zachariah that in their old age he and his wife will have a child that will be the forerunner of the Messiah. This angel is named Gabriel.
The angel Gabriel is mentioned by name only twice before this event in Daniel 8:16, 9:21.
Why should Zachariah believe that such a thing could happen? By what authority does the angel say this?
The angel Gaberiel then declares to Zachariah something that gives me chills every time I read it.

And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. (Luke 1:19)

“I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God.”

Gabriel is no mere angel, he is the “the one” who stands before God, face to face with God in the throne room of heaven. He is the deliverer of the Almighty’s messages, and particularly those messages regarding the messiah.

Gabriel is also the angel that delivers the message to Mary that she is to conceive through the Holy Spirit and be the human instrument through which Christ would come into the world. (Luke 1:26-38)

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothedto a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

What an incredible encounter!  Gabriel, perhaps the most important angelic messenger of God, appears to deliver a personal message from God. Yet as incredible and awe-inspiring of a picture we can paint in our mind of what Gabriel must have looked like, one needs to remember that the story is not about the angel Gabriel, it’s about Jesus.

In every named appearance of Gabriel in Scripture and those texts that imply his appearance, Gabriel is only the messenger, not the main event. He is the Holy Heralder who carries the sure word of God.

The divine message about the birth of Jesus could only be effectively delivered by a divine messenger, which in turn was spread by the voices of men. It is by no consequence that Jesus’s resurrection was also heralded by angels and spread abroad by the preaching of men.

This Christmas, if you have an angel on your tree let it remind you about the message of Christmas and share that good news of great joy that will be for all the people!