Peace on Earth

I am currently teaching a unit on the stylistic differences among the gospels, with a focus on each writer's treatment of the nativity. I am decidedly more excited about this than my students. Anyhoo, today we looked at Luke, and I called attention to the poems. Most students had overlooked the song of the angels to the shepherds as poetry. So, we read this simple verse aloud, and I asked, what makes it poetic?

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth, peace and goodwill to men
with whom he is pleased!"

And then I am suddenly struck with a theological question which I pose to my students: "Is the goodwill to those few men with whom he is pleased, or for men in general, with all of whom he is pleased?" In other words, is this a Calvin verse about the elect, or the opposite? One girl notes the similarities between this verse and Genesis, in which God proclaims he is well pleased with all he has created. I like this idea! But it doesn't fully answer my question, so we send for the Greek teacher.

Mr. Ed pops by and tells us the Greek preposition translated as "to" actually means something closer to "among." The idea is that now, with the birth of Christ, peace and goodwill are finally among us. Click! The beginning of the verse says that glory belongs with God up high, and NOW, peace and goodwill belong down low with us. We, the created, with whom he has been pleased since our moment of creation.

So what makes it poetic? The parallel contrast of God above and then God come down. Also, the riff from Genesis. And the rhythmic nature of the proclamation -- better appreciated in the KJV. And, as a final note, it is the first nativity poem from God to man (both Mary and Zechariah had uttered poems to God), directed at the lowest of the low, working class Joes out in the field, with no idea of the magnitude of what God was up to. Now if that aint a reason for average Joes to study a little poetry, I don't know what is.