In the surrounding countryside, there were shepherds living in the field, watching over their flocks during the night. Suddenly, an angel of God appeared beside them, and God’s glory shone around them, and they became very afraid. But the angel said to them, “Fear not; look! I bring you wonderful news of great joy for everyone everywhere. This very day, in the city of David, a Savior is born to you, who is Christ, your Sovereign. And this is how you will recognize him: you will find a baby, wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.” Suddenly, along with the angel there appeared a whole host of heavenly beings. They were praising God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, let there be peace and good will among the people whom God favors!”
And so it happened that, when the angels had left the shepherds and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see for ourselves this marvelous event which God has revealed to us.” They hurried into town and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. And when they left, they told everyone they met all they had been told about the baby.
Everyone they spoke to was filled with wonder at what the shepherds said; but Mary kept all these things to herself, and dwelt upon them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for everything they had seen and heard, just as it had been told to them. (Luke 2:9-21)
Shepherds’ lives were strenuous and lonely. They were responsible for the health and welfare of their own or their masters’ sheep. They lived with their sheep 24/7 for weeks or months at a time, traveling from grazing field to grazing field, regardless of weather. They were expected to protect the sheep with their lives, if necessary. Unlike some other domesticated animals that more or less fended for themselves, sheep were rather helpless and depended upon their shepherds to find them pasture, water, shelter in bad weather, to rescue them from injuring themselves or from prey, and to keep them from straying from the flock.
Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people, along with all those who find they either don’t “fit in,” or aren’t made to feel that they fit in, should find much comfort in the fact that, as recorded by Luke, the first people to receive the announcement of Jesus’ birth were the shepherds. Shepherds were social outcasts. They were despised by the townspeople, especially the religious folk. Because their work kept them in the fields with their flocks, they simply were unable to follow all the ceremonial laws, rituals and traditions of their religion. Their inability to obey the religious law, of course, made then sinners in the eyes of the religious leaders.
They were despised even while the work of the shepherd was central to the economic life of the entire community, and of prime importance to the religious community in particular. Sheep were a valuable commodity. The wool a sheep provided made warm, waterproof clothing and shelter, their meat made good food, their bones were made into tools, their horns served as musical instruments and containers for oil, and their hides also were made into leather for clothing, and even writing material (vellum).
Sheep also were indispensable to the community’s religious rites and rituals. In the life of the temple, twice a day, morning and evening, an unblemished lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God (Ex. 29:38-42), and on the Sabbath, two additional lambs were offered (Nu. 28:9ff). Lambs were used for the sin offering (Lev. 4:32), for cleansing (Lev. 12:6), and lambs were offered for dedications and days of special religious significance, such as the Passover celebration. When one takes into consideration all that the shepherd had to offer and provide for the community, it boggles the mind to think that even so, shepherds were ostracized and rejected, simply because of what they were.
Shepherds may have been outcasts, but God honored them above all others. It was to the outcasts and rejected that God first brought the news of Jesus’ birth, and it was the outcasts and rejected that God chose to be the first evangelists. It should be especially heartwarming to everyone who has ever felt disenfranchised, that Jesus would later call Himself, the Good Shepherd.
Some scholars believe that since the shepherds were out at night the Nativity couldn’t have occurred in December, but Judean winters are mild, so it could have been then. However, the December 25 date was not chosen until some time in the fourth century to overcome a pagan festival.
It must have been startling to the shepherds to suddenly find an angelic being in their midst. Since they were outcasts, it would have been a rare occurrence for a stranger to show up, especially one they recognized as not from this world. One wonders if it was the angel’s appearance that terrified the shepherds, or if it was God’s glory shining around them that scared them so. One can only imagine what that manifestation of God’s glory must have been like.
The angel tells them…This very day… After all the years of praying for and waiting and wondering when Messiah would come, the angel tells them, This very day…nearby, right in the town of Bethlehem…David’s city…the Messiah is born. Further, the angel says, this will be a sign to you so that you will know that this is the right baby: it’ll be wrapped in the usual protective, comforting cloths that a loving mother usually wraps her babe in, but it will be lying, not in a bed or in a crib, but in an animal’s manger.
If the angel’s appearance wasn’t startling enough, suddenly the angel is joined by a whole army of heavenly beings, singing praises to God. In the scripture paraphrase above the author used the following words: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, let there be peace and good will among the people whom God favors!” Let us compare these words with the King James and with the New International versions:
KJV: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
NIV: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
These lovely words, regardless of translations, are pure poetry. But to what exactly do they refer? We often think of the heavens above and the earth below, and we find similar reference here, though the first phrase most likely signifies that the highest praises belong to God. The angels offer praises to God, and blessings to humanity. When one reads the second phrase as translated by the NIV, it seems to indicate that there are people who have God’s favor, and there are people who do not. Does that mean that God plays favorites? Doesn’t sound very much like something God would do, does it?
It isn’t that God has favorites. “God’s favor” rests on all those who ask for it. Remember that every human being on the planet has free will. Those who do not desire God’s favor don’t receive it. Those who reject God are allowed to do so. But those who desire God–who turn to God’s Anointed (that is, Christ) to be saved, will in no way be rejected. (John 6:37)
In a land that for more than two thousand years has been constantly ravaged by wars of one kind or another, the prayer for peace, even when offered by the angels, seems rather ludicrous. Perhaps the angels weren’t referring so much to the cessation of national war, but to the personal war that rages within so many of us. Perhaps the angels weren’t referring so much to world peace, but to the spiritual peace that Christ’s salvation and forgiveness of sins brings to individuals. As we later will read of the healings in body, mind and spirit that Jesus offered, Jesus often would say words such as “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace.” Those words would shock and offend the religious leaders, but Jesus was pointing out that people are not crippled by their bodies as much as by their spirits.
There is a saying: We are not stopped by the boulder in front of us, but by the pebble in our shoe. I wonder: Do you suppose that every cripple who came to Jesus picked up his or her pallet and walked away? Perhaps not. Even today, we see people who are struck down with paralyzing injuries or terminal illnesses who receive what we call a miraculous cure. And we praise God for the miracle.
Then we see many others, many we call “good” people, similarly struck down, but for them no miracle seems to occur. And we question God–why not them? Why not “save” them too? But perhaps we judge God wrongly. For some people, it takes a life-altering experience or illness to bring them to God. Because of their debilitating situation, they must learn to transcend their illnesses or physical barriers. They discover it isn’t their handicap (boulder) that keeps them paralyzed; it is their attitudes about their situations (pebble) which has stopped them. They can learn to live full, happy, joyful and abundant lives in spite of what has happened to them. While their physical health may not have been restored, they have been spiritually reborn. In effect, they have been healed. Their hearts are at peace. They have reconciled themselves to God’s will for their lives, and they are at peace. Regardless of the life situations we find ourselves in–no matter how painful or how difficult, if we can learn to reconcile ourselves to God’s will, if we can learn to accept God’s will, we can know peace. This is the peace the angels offered.
After the angels left, the shepherds looked at one another in shock, but quickly decided to rush into town to verify the story. People didn’t usually leave their babies in mangers, but sure enough, there he was! They couldn’t keep such marvelous news to themselves! Here he was, at long last: the Messiah! They ran around, knocking on every door and spreading the word of everything they had seen and heard.
Luke says that everyone they spoke to was full of wonder at what the shepherds had said, but Luke didn’t say that the people did anything about what they heard. Angels visiting shepherds? In the fields? At night? Yeah, right. Believe that, and I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. More than likely, after the initial wonderment, they probably assumed that the shepherds had had a little too much to drink. Besides, who listens to a shepherd anyway? They were the riff-raff of the community, so they most likely engendered little, if any, believability by the townsfolk.
The shepherds may have run around to share the news with everyone in town, but Luke tells us that Mary just listened and pondered on them. Her life had changed so drastically in the last year; she had much to think about, and to wonder about where her life would go from here.
This ends today’s study.
POINTS TO PONDER