In December 2025, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) in Indonesia reported a death toll exceeding one thousand people caused by the Sumatra flood, with Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra provinces as the areas with the most devastating conditions. In these three provinces, 218 people were reported to be missing, and 5,400 people were injured.¹ The devastating floods and landslides in Sumatra have caused vast territory in the island to be destroyed, causing 1.2 million residents to take refuge in temporary shelters.² Agus H. Yudhoyono, the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, estimates that the cost of restoring infrastructure in Sumatra due to disasters will be more than 3 billion USD.³

In a recent forum, titled “Forest Management and Disaster Mitigation” at Gadjah Mada University, Dr. Hatma Suryatmojo states that the Sumatra floods are not a mere natural disaster. It is rather a combined result of extreme weather and human action, such as extensive deforestation, land-use conversion, and failure of spatial planning regulations.⁴ In another interview, he summed up the massive deforestation in three provinces in Sumatra that were affected by flooding. He stated that more than 700,000 hectares of forest were lost in Aceh between 1990 and 2020. In North Sumatra, the Batang Toru ecosystem is the last remaining forest stronghold. However, its ecological condition is continually degrading owing to illegal logging, plantation development, and gold mining. West Sumatra has lost 740,000 hectares of primary and secondary forests combined from 2001 to 2024. He further stated that the Sumatra flood is the accumulation of long-standing ecological sins.⁵

Flood victims in Sumatra are impoverished, helpless, sick, and displaced. Many of them expressed deep disappointment with how the government managed to allow massive deforestation of the island. The terrifying situation experienced by flood victims in Sumatra requires Christians, especially in Indonesia, to reflect on Christmas in solidarity with the victims. In other words, Christian conscience forces us to ask what Bethlehem has to do with Sumatra.

Christmas and Divine Solidarity

Let us begin our reflection with the Christmas story told in Luke’s gospel. Luke narrates how a great company of the heavenly host appeared with an angel praising God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14, NIV). Ming Gao, a professor of New Testament and a teaching pastor in China, refers to this praise as a “heavenly hymn,” noting that the Lukan narrative highlights how the heavenly glory of God has invaded the earth through the birth of Jesus.⁶

But Jesus was born in a manger, not on a throne, because on the night of his birth, Joseph and Mary could not find a guest room in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7, NIV). The German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, notes the importance of Christ’s manger, writing: “His [Jesus’s] poverty in the manger is his might.”⁷ Bonhoeffer emphasizes the difference between worldly and heavenly glory by stating that on Christmas day, no priest, theologian, king, or any powerful person stood in front of the manger.⁸ The glory of God, as revealed in the manger and the cross of Christ, is not suitable for the great and powerful of this world, because in those places thrones are shaken, mighty people fall, and the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly and poor.⁹

An Indonesian theologian, Joas Adiprasetya, makes an important connection between the manger and the cross by expanding our understanding of Christ’s sacrifice. He argues that the sacrifice of Christ should not be limited to the cross, because the whole life of Jesus Christ is the self-giving act of God for creation.¹⁰ Thus, Christians can witness the sacrifice of Christ long before the cross, even as he was lying in the manger. Jesus already gave his life for us even from the day that he was born.

Furthermore, Adiprasetya makes a noteworthy observation that the word sacrifice in Bahasa Indonesia is korban, which means the same as the Hebrew word qarab, to come near. Thus, Christ, as sacrifice, refers to his power of bringing God, humanity, and all creation closer.¹¹ In other words, Christ was born to show divine solidarity with creation.

This understanding demonstrates how the good news of Christmas is immensely relevant for flood victims. The Christmas story shows how Jesus shared the experience of suffering with victims who were helpless, poor, and displaced. Jesus was also helpless, poor, and displaced or homeless, as signified by his birth in a manger. Through Christ, God shows solidarity with flood victims. The Christmas message for them is that God is present amid their suffering.

Lowly Christmas for the Lowly People

In the face of suffering and despair, such as the Sumatra flood, Christians are required to celebrate Christmas in a way that would extend divine solidarity through Christ to others in need. Bonhoeffer’s reflection on the right way to celebrate Christmas could help us as we reflect on our current situation. He wrote:

Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness.¹²

Celebrating Christmas means celebrating the God who cares, feels, and shares in our suffering through the lowly birth of Jesus Christ. In other words, Bonhoeffer calls us to celebrate a lowly Christmas. He sees power, honor, reputation, vanity, arrogance, and individualism standing in stark contrast to the core of the Christmas message. As he asserts, celebrating Christmas means seeing the glory of God, “precisely in his lowliness.”

Considering Bonhoeffer’s powerful Christmas reflection, it is not an overstatement to say that Christmas celebrations nowadays are lamentable. Christmas seems to be celebrated with excessive food, lavish displays, consumerism, and lengthy holidays. Where is lowliness in all this? As Christians, we have to watch our hearts during Christmas, asking ourselves, “Do we accept the Christmas message in faith or oppose it?” Without emphasizing lowliness, excessive Christmas festivities could offend the conscience of those who suffer, such as the Sumatra flood victims.

For those who sincerely seek to celebrate Christmas rightly, Bonhoeffer’s exhortation brings comfort: “Then go to the child in the manger and receive there the peace of God.”¹³ His exhortation is highly relevant. The Christmas message tells us that true peace does not come merely from the merriness of life, but from the lowliness of Jesus Christ in the manger. In other words, what we need now is not to celebrate a merry but a lowly Christmas.

The Gospel of Luke narrates how the angels invited the shepherds to come before the manger of Christ (Luke 2:9-14, NIV). The heavenly invitation to the shepherds plays a central role in the Lukan narrative in expressing God’s closeness and solidarity with lowly people. R. C. Sproul wrote:

The shepherds of Palestine were considered to be the lowest class of people. The nature of their calling prohibited them from frequent participation in the religious rituals of their day, and there were discriminating practices against them with respect to the law courts, for a shepherd was not permitted to give testimony. They were considered to be so unscrupulous and untrustworthy that their testimony was of little value. But although their contemporary society hated them, it seems that they held a special place in the heart of God.¹⁴

Despite the discrimination faced by the lowly shepherds, God remembered them. Thus, to follow the example of divine solidarity, as expressed in the Christmas story, we must always remember others in our celebrations. As mentioned earlier, Bonhoeffer saw individualism as opposed to the Christmas message. Christmas is not about “me” alone, the things that I want, or the places that I want to go to. It is rather about how God shows solidarity with the lowly through the baby in the manger and how he remembers lowly people such as the shepherds.

Jesus Our Shepherd

The appearance of the shepherds in Luke’s Christmas story also has symbolic importance. It symbolizes God himself, who shepherds his people (Ps. 23:1; Isa. 40:11; Jer. 23:14; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet.2:25; 5:2).¹⁵ The symbol of God as a shepherd plays a central role in Luke’s gospel. Luke narrates that Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem because he belonged to the house and line of David (Luke 2:4). His move to Bethlehem was to fulfill the prophecy in Micah 5:2-4 that the Messiah who will shepherd the Israelites will be born in Bethlehem. Johan Ferreira notes that:

Although Bethlehem is insignificant from a political, economic, and military perspective, Israel’s most beloved King David came from this rural settlement. The original readers of Micah would have been very familiar with this history and would therefore naturally associate the future ruler with the house of David.¹⁶

The birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, in Bethlehem fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah will “shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord” (Micah 5:4, NIV). Colin Semwayo argues that in its original context, “Micah utilizes certain aspects of the Zion/Davidic traditions to offer hope to a seemingly powerless remnant and to the obedient nations through the reestablishment of Yahweh’s kingship in Zion, the restoration of Zion’s temple, and the promise of a new Davidic king.”¹⁷ Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem is a display of God’s restorative power for his people, a ground of hope in times of despair.

Thus, lowliness does not equal powerlessness or hopelessness. In remembrance and solidarity with the Sumatra flood victims, Christians are called upon to pray and hope for God to restore the affected areas and its people. Although restoration seems insurmountable at present, we should believe that nothing is too difficult for God.

The symbol of God as a shepherd can also be a ground for political critique of the Indonesian government. In Micah’s context, the people of God longed for the Messiah who would shepherd them because they were not satisfied with the rulers of their time. The prophecy of the Messianic shepherd in Micah 5 is set against the backdrop of Micah 3, which contains a severe rebuke of the leaders and prophets of Israel, described as “the ones who abhor justice” (v.9).¹⁸ This rebuke is also relevant in the Indonesian context. As noted earlier, the Sumatra flood was not purely a natural disaster but resulted from the accumulation of ecological injustice. Professor San Afri Awang of Gadjah Mada University states that the oversight of forests in the country is weak due to poor coordination between regional and national governments. The local government continuously fails to enforce regulations vital to nature preservation, such as the Soil and Water Conservation Law. In some cases, nature preservation is not even included in regional budgets.¹⁹ While evoking the symbol of God as a shepherd, Christmas reflection should lead Christians to sound a prophetic voice against any form of injustice, including ecological ones. The Lord is the shepherd who cares for both his people and the world that he created.

Conclusion

Christmas reflection calls Christians to care for whom God the shepherd cares. Combining all our previous biblical and theological reflections, there are a few practical points that we can do to manifest the shepherding heart of God to the flood victims:

First, just as the Gospel of Luke gives the lowliness of Jesus and the shepherds a central place in the story, we can celebrate Christmas by giving the Sumatra flood victims a central place in our spiritual reflection. The lowly people are not an addition to the Christmas celebration. Jesus came into the world precisely to demonstrate divine solidarity with them. Christmas services in Indonesia should not neglect the Sumatra flood victims; instead, churches should find a way to draw the attention of worshippers to them.

Second, we can extend divine solidarity through Jesus Christ to flood victims by concretely practicing a lowly Christmas. Donations can be made through churches, and individual Christians can also dedicate their time to volunteer work in flood-affected areas. This Christmas is the right time for us to give up more, so that flood victims can have more. We can travel less, spend less on expensive food and gifts, and perhaps have a less “merry” Christmas celebration. In the face of the devastating result of the Sumatra flood, the best thing we can do is to go to the child in the manger in lowliness. There, we shall find our peace.

Third, based on the Christmas story, churches could seek to sound a prophetic voice against the ecological and humanitarian injustice caused by massive deforestation in Sumatra. Christmas shows how the almighty God incarnated into a human being to bring the whole creation closer to God. The birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem demonstrates the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy about the Messianic shepherd who will bring peace to the land. In short, Christmas shows the shepherding heart of God, who cares for all his creation, both human and non-human beings and things.

Finally, we should pray that people affected by the flood in Sumatra would come to Bethlehem spiritually, so that they may find power in powerlessness, hope in despair, and light in darkness. Let us extend our hands to those in need with faith and hope that God’s restorative power in Christ is at work in Sumatra.

Dr. David Kristanto is a Contributing Fellow of CTIA and a lecturer in theology at Harvest International Theological Seminary and Bandung Theological Seminary. He received his PhD from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam with a dissertation on Abraham Kuyper and religious pluralism in Indonesia.