And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
This is a familiar text to most of us. It’s the Charlie Brown text, and everyone loves Charlie Brown unless you’re Dutch Reformed and hate everyone. But for the most part, we’re familiar with this text because we love Charlie Brown and because we love shepherds. Everyone loves shepherds, they’re a staple in every nativity scene and every single children’s Christmas play. Shepherds have become the perfect prop. All the leftover kids that don’t have a part, you can just dress them up like a shepherd (throw a rob on them and put a stick in their hand and you’re good) and throw them in the back corner of the stage and you’re good.
All this to say that when we think of shepherds we have nice sentimental feelings because we think of Charlie Brown and every kid that has been dressed as a shepherd at some point in their life if they grew up in the church. Because of this, we just think shepherds must be cute, like everything else surrounding Christmas, right? We so sentimentalize Christmas that we lose much of the grittiness of it, and because of this, in many respects much of its power.
We minimize what it must have been like for a young godly virgin girl betrothed to be married but is now pregnant and what that meant for both Mary and Joseph. Of course, Mary and then Joseph understood what was going but do you think anyone else did besides Zachariah and Elizabeth? It’s highly probable that Joseph had Mary travel with him to Bethlehem, a 100 mile-ish journey with Mary who was uber-prego by then, because that trip was less dangerous than leaving her behind. We don’t think of the fear and the isolation they must have felt, nor what it must have been like knowing that one of the most powerful people in the area wanted to murder your baby. Nor do we think of the murder of all the innocent babies butchered in Bethlehem and Rachel weeping for her children because they are no more.
In many respects, it’s the same way with the shepherds who were not so widely loved at the time of Jesus’ birth. They were considered to be gruff and uneducated and because they had to watch their flocks seven days a week they were considered ceremonially unclean and were treated as such. And because their flocks didn’t understand property lines they often had to trespass on other peoples property earning them the reputation of often confusing mine and thine. Needless to say, that being a shepherd was not a widely respected profession, nor did anyone think shepherds were cute and certainly no body dressed their kids up like them.
If you want a modern day equivalent think of roofers. Being a roofer is a very difficult,
physically exhausting, dangerous and thankless job. Because of this, roofers are generally a pretty gruff group. If you wanted your children’s Christmas play to be more accurate you’d tell little Billy to take his shirt off and give him a cigarette and Red Bull. This would be the most spectacular Christmas play ever. Also, if we required actual roofers to participate in every live nativity scene, we could end, once and for all these stupid live nativities.
Why do I say all of this? Because I think it’s important for us to remember that these are the first guys to hear about the birth of Jesus and then went and told others that the Christ had come into the world, some of the first evangelists if you will. Either way, these were not the neatest, cleanest, nicest, most polite little boys in Sunday School. Certainly, not like Kevin DeYoung or Owen Strachan.
I’m convinced that most reformed churches think of the working class in a similar way today. We’re fine having them come to church as long as they learn he secret Baptist hand shake and dress like a Presbyterian making them ceremonially clean, but we’re still surprised when they can read and write. These are the guys that the angel of the Lord appeared to. Shepherds, not the evangelical establishment, not the intelligentsia, not the power players, not the Pharisees or Sadducees. These are the guys that the glory of the Lord shown around, not the respectables among us.
It's amazing, right? What is even more amazing is that we still think it’s amazing. After two
thousand years of gospel penetration in the world and we often think it would have been more respectable to have the angels appear to more respectable people. The coming of King Jesus into the world was flipping the world upside down and right side up and inside out, which is terrifying to those who don’t want to let go of their own sense of self.
If you live in the country you know how dark and quite it can be at night and just how piercing light and sound can be. So then, as the song says, “While shepherds kept their watching, o’er silent flocks by night, behold, throughout the heavens, there shone a holy light.”
If you can put yourself in the position of the shepherds you can hardly imagine how terrifying that must have been, to all of a sudden, have angel in front of you and light all around you. Angels, in the Bible are not like fat baby-people with little wings. They are terrifying in their splendor and power. So we read that, “they were filled with great fear,” which is a wee bit of an understatement. Again, these are not the nicest boys in Sunday School, and could probably handle themselves alone at night, and they want none of this.
And then we hear some of the most blessed words in Scripture, “Fear not.” Why not? Because the angel comes bearing good news of great joy that will be for all people. What is this good news of great joy? “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The prophet Isaiah said it this way,
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9:6-7.
The shepherds now hear, not that the Lord will do this, but that the Lord has done this. The Christ has come into the world and with Him the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. This is the song of Christmas; the Savior has come. He is not just an anointed one like prophets, priests and kings of old. No, He is “the” anointed one, the Christ, who is also the Lord.
Luke has already used the term, “Lord” over a dozen times in his gospel in relation to God. This Savior, is God come in the flesh who has come to preach good news to the poor and set the captives free. From earthly tyrants like the Herod’s and the Caesars? Sure, I believe that is the inevitable consequent of the reception and living out of the gospel. But that is not what makes the good news good but rather a good consequent of what is truly good. That is, liberation and rescue form sin, from shame, from guilt, from the lifelong fear of death and the condemnation of the devil which the guilt of sin beings because of the just wrath of God.
The glorious Son of God came into the world in humility, taking on flesh, being born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. How? Through His life that we could not live and His death that we deserved to die. The Son of God took on flesh so that the sons of Adam could cloth themselves in righteousness and become sons of God. He came to die so that we may live!
Where will they find this newborn King? In a lowly house, in a lowly town, wrapped in lowly garments, and born of lowly parents. And who will be the first to see this newborn King? Lowly shepherds. Amen and Amen. God is no respecter of persons. The shepherds, go and see Jesus and tell Joseph and Mary about everything that they just saw and heard, and they returned glorifying and praising God.
When Christ came into the world, He was turning everything inside out and upside down and right side up. We ought not minimize and sentimentalize the effects of this. It is amazing that God picked shepherds to see His Son first. Perhaps, more amazing still is that “shepherd” is a term that the early church used to describe the work of an elder. Yes, shepherds were often gruff and rough and probably used words that would make DeYoung and Strachan cry and long for their therapy hamsters, but they also clearly understood what it meant to give up everything to watch over and care for their sheep. They carried a rod and a staff for a reason. To beat to death any wolf that threatened their sheep. And they also knew what it would cost them, that is, any form of respectability.
It's usually the over-active, rambunctious little boys that don’t really want any part in the
Christmas play that we make the shepherds. I suppose there is probably a much bigger lesson in there for us all. Merry Christmas.
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