At Christmas time, "angels" surround us in seasonal decorations, looking like nothing so much as mythical fairies playing modern musical instruments.

Monday, December 13, 1999

At Christmas time, "angels" surround us in seasonal decorations, looking like nothing so much as mythical fairies playing modern musical instruments. Actual angels did play a prominent role in the event that has been crafted into the Christmas story, but sentimental imagination has distorted both their nature and mission. The angels, rather than being some fanciful creations for a winter fantasy, were God’s messengers of the coming to earth of the Christ.

The Greek word the New Testament writers used is angelos, which is as accurately translated "messenger" as transliterated "angel." Although their heavenly task was to sing praises to God, according to the many references in the Bible, when they were sent to earth it was to carry a message from God to humans.

Yet, people who have paid little attention to Bible statements about angels speak so thoughtlessly of them. "That child died because God wanted another little angel in heaven," but angels are not departed human spirits. Contrary to cartoons, they do not, having sprouted bird wings, frolic leisurely on clouds holding lyres. "Oh, be an angel and do this for me," even though angels are not perfectly behaved people. Angels do not swoop down to earth to intervene into stupid things we do, even though a driver might remark after running a red light, "I guess my angel was watching me."

A New Yorker cartoon, and it takes the New Yorker to do it, exposes such defective thinking. A young mouse is walking with his mother and points to a bat flying overhead: "Look, Ma, an angel!"

Angels were present even as the birth of Jesus approached. One who identified himself as Gabriel, appeared to Zechariah in Jerusalem while he burned incense in the temple. The angel announced that the priest’s elderly wife, Elizabeth, would give birth to a son and that they were to call him John. The son would become the forerunner to prepare the way for the coming of Israel’s Messiah. (Indeed, he came to be known as John the Baptist, or Baptizer).

The same angel, six months later, appeared also to Elizabeth’s cousin Mary in Nazareth and shocked her with the announcement she too would give birth. The name of this son must be Jesus ("one who saves"). An angel, unnamed this time, also went to Mary’s betrothed Joseph to reassure him that this unnatural situation was nothing less than the work of God.

After this couple arrived in Bethlehem at census time, Jesus was born. A single angel, again unnamed, announced this prophetic birth to shepherds on the nearby hills who then visited Jesus. After the visit of the foreign magi, about three years later, yet another angel went to Joseph and directed him to Egypt to escape the execution that King Herod would order of all children under three years of age. Finally, when Herod’s eventual death rendered it safe for the family to return, an angel again delivered this message.

The Bible’s picture is simple and clear and entirely free from silly sentimentality. God is God and not the chief angel. Angels are angels and neither little gods nor supermen. Humans are human and neither gods nor angels. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, and the Bethlehem shepherds heard angels but none were or ever became angels.

Yet, Zechariah repeated Gabriel’s message about John’s name. Mary meditated for Elizabeth on the angel’s message about Jesus. Joseph followed the angel’s message to accept Mary. The shepherds spread the word about the birth. Without being actual angels, all these were, in fact, messengers of the good news of the coming of the Savior.

May I now say it?: Be an angel. This Christmas carry the message of good news to others. Wish them a merry Christmas, but gift them with the message that alone can make Christmas authentically merry.

Wallace Alcorn’s column appears Mondays