Audio Link: Sermon – 4 Jan 2026 – by Neville Gardner by tawabaptist
So, here we are at the start of a new year. Christmas is just about over. Well, in a sense that’s true, but the birth of Jesus is not really something we leave behind us; we carry its consequences with us.
I sometimes think of the Christmas story as being like an episode in a long-running TV series. Each episode may be viewed as a separate story, but it only really makes sense if you have seen what happened earlier. And at the end of each episode, you sit there wondering what’s going to happen next.
In a way, the Bible is like a series of episodes that takes place over a very long period of time. Many episodes can be read on their own, but they also need to be considered as part of a continuous narrative. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait for each episode to come along – they are all in the Bible for us to read now, from the very beginning. Having said that, we will have to wait for the last episode – the release date has not been announced yet!
We often (but not always, of course) start the Christmas story with an angel appearing to Mary, and end with the wise men heading back to their homes somewhere in the east. It is an important episode, but it only makes sense when we consider what happened earlier. The period of Advent, which led us up to Christmas, helped us do that. It can be hard for us to understand the joy of the first Christmas if we don’t realise the longing that God’s people felt.
The Christmas story is about the birth of Jesus of course, but it’s also about some normal people made special by God. I mentioned that for any episode in a TV series, we love to know what happens next. Today, I’m going to look briefly at ‘what happened next’ to some of the ordinary people in the Christmas story. I hope you already know what happened to Jesus!
The Bible tells us that an angel visited some shepherds in the fields, and told them where to find the new-born Jesus. After they had seen the baby and his parents, Luke’s Gospel tells us that “The shepherds went back, singing praises to God for all they had heard and seen; it had been just as the angel had told them.”
And that’s it; we aren’t told how many shepherds there were, or what their names were. “The shepherds returned”; after all, they still had sheep to look after. But I doubt that they returned to just ‘business as usual’ – their lives would never be the same again. Can you imagine anyone meeting Jesus in such a way and not telling others about it?
There were the wise men from the east too, who followed a star to the child Jesus. They worshipped him and gave him gifts. In Matthew’s Gospel we hear that “Then they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.” Again, we aren’t told how many wise men there were, exactly where they came from or what their names were. Like the shepherds, it’s hard to imagine that the wise men arrived home the same as when they left.
There are many times in the Bible when we are not told the names of people involved. Just a few examples: the Samaritan woman at the well is not named; the two criminals on either side of Jesus when he was crucified are not named, nor is the boy who donated his lunch to feed a large crowd. The recipients of many miracles are not named. For the host of unnamed people, including the Christmas shepherds and wise men, they only appear once – so knowing their names is not needed for later identification.
God knows everyone’s name, but it’s what people did that mattered, not what their names were. The shepherds were obedient to God and they spread the word of Jesus’ birth – their names didn’t matter. The wise men showed that Jesus would welcome non-Jews from a different culture – their names didn’t matter.
There are times when it seems God does want us to know the names of people he used in his plan for us all. In the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph come to mind. They both played an important part in what came next.
Mary and Joseph were changed by the Christmas story. On top of staying obedient to God, they now had the responsibility of bringing up Jesus. The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the early life of Jesus, just enough episodes to create (together with a bit of guesswork) a picture of the roles Mary and Joseph played. They raised him up in the Jewish religion, making sure he kept the traditions and learned the writings and teachings. They protected the infant Jesus by taking him to Egypt to escape the murderous King Herod, returning to be part of a supportive community in Nazareth when God told them it was safe. They fed him, spent time with him, encouraged him, dealt with his childhood problems, taught him a trade, worried about him when he went off without telling them. And at the same time, Joseph worked for a living and Mary organised a household that included numerous brothers and sisters.
You know, they did all those things parents do. Despite having the Son of God in their family, Mary and Joseph were normal parents, juggling work and family life. If you ask someone today what they like best about Christmas, they’ll often say “family”. I think Mary and Joseph were an example of why we might agree with that. Of course, some of us aren’t parents, or we aren’t able to enjoy being with family at Christmas. We can still look to Mary and Joseph as examples of faithfulness and obedience to God.
Joseph is not mentioned in the Bible after Jesus reached the age of 12, and it’s normally assumed that Joseph died. But Mary kept on without him, supporting Jesus and witnessing some of his ministry, along with the rest of her children. She was present when Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine at a wedding. She also saw Jesus die on the cross. The last time we hear of Mary was after Jesus had risen and been taken up to Heaven – Mary and some of her family met with the disciples to pray.
Mary and Joseph didn’t know God’s plan, but their faithfulness, sacrifice and trust are examples to us all. For Mary and Joseph, the first Christmas was not something they could just put behind them; it was the start of a huge new episode in their lives. We can be encouraged to stay faithful in our own journey, even when we don’t see where God is leading us.
And let’s not forget the shepherds and the wise men; they got to see Jesus, and their lives would never be the same. For most of us, our lives also changed when we first met Jesus.
Christmas is over. Will you carry on with life as normal?
Or perhaps you’ll be like Mary and Joseph, and take the opportunity to deepen your faith and obedience.
Perhaps you’ll be like the shepherds, and pass on the good news of Jesus to others.
We could all be like Mary right after the visit of the shepherds. They had told her of the angel’s message, that Jesus would be a saviour, good news to all people. Luke 2:19 tells us that:
“Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.”
What will the next episode in the Christmas story look like for you this year?
Tawa Baptist 