Luke 2:8-20
They were the lowest on any
social register, these shepherds. In
some places, they were not even allowed in the city. It might have been safest for them to visit
late at night. Of course, we do not know
their names. We don't know how many there were or if they were young or
old. We don't even know what became of
them after this night when they walked briefly into history. Yet, they are mentioned in more than half the
carols in our hymnal and they are familiar figures in every Nativity
scene.
I do not know why God sent his
angels to announce the birth of Jesus to a band of shepherds, except that Luke
takes great pains to let us know that things are different now, that God's
grace reaches out to the lowest of the low.
Still, I can't help but wonder
is night after night as they gazed into the starry sky, they were becoming more
and more filled with awe and wonder at God's work in the world. After all, it was a shepherd who wrote, "The
heavens declare the glory of God."
Imagine them as they sat
through the long nights, watching the stars, listening to the sounds of the
night. There is something about the
nighttime sky that dwarfs a person and makes them feel insignificant, that convinces
them of the power of the Creator.
Perhaps the shepherds felt that way, perhaps these shepherds spent those
long nights talking about the promise of the Messiah. Every Jew knew that promise. Of course, most Jews wouldn't have engaged
them in such a conversation--these shepherds.
Whatever may have been in
their hearts and minds that night, when the angelic message came, they
responded.
Over two thousand years later,
they teach us how to respond to the message behind Christmas.
We Should Follow
the Shepherds in their Priorities.
The shepherds demonstrate their
priorities in two areas.
They teach that the spiritual
is sometimes more important than the material (15).
In this situation the
shepherds could have protested that their sheep would have been endangered if
they left them to go to Bethlehem.
That's why they were out there in the first place. Wild animals threatened the sheep. Thieves might steal them. They might wander away. So the shepherds spent their night in the
hills, protecting their sheep.
Nevertheless, when the angels
told them to go to Bethlehem, they went.
Without hesitation, they left the sheep to go to Bethlehem. By the way, notice how specific the angel
was. They would find the baby
"wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger." Finding a baby wrapped in such strips of
cloth would not have been unusual, but lying in a manger--that was odd. There would be no mistaking the baby the
angel was talking about.
So, they trusted God with
their material possessions while they acted in obedience to God's message. Jesus himself would state the basic principle
in what would be called "The Sermon on the Mount;" he said,
"Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and God will take
care of what you need."
I feel sure those seemingly
abandoned sheep were safe, for God has promised to take care of those who give
him priority. It doesn't mean we won't
face trial and difficulty; it means he'll be with us to sustain us and
strengthen us for the challenge.
It is God's promise to us as
well. That's hard to believe in our
culture of materialism. Such materialism
is always part of our lives, but it seems heightened at Christmas. But it has not always been so.
In 1905 in Portland, Oregon,
God sent a great revival. Hundreds of people trusted Christ. Almost 200 stores agreed to close for three
hours each day so employees and customers could attend prayer meetings. A contemporary newspaper account stated that
"...business was practically suspended, and from the crowds in the great
department stores to the humblest clerk, from the bank presidents to
bootblacks, all abandoned money for soul saving." (Orr, p. 79) I don't wish to be cynical, but it is hard to
imagine our modern store managers putting spiritual matters above profit. Remember how just a few months ago a clerk
was fatally injured in a local toy store and the store stayed open as the squad
came and carried the poor man away. We
have much to learn from the shepherds.
As we consider the shepherds'
priorities, we are reminded we ought to make Christ our central concern. Christ is the central figure of history. We Christians divide world history at his
birth. Christ was the goal of the
prophets. Christ is the hope of the lost. As the angels said, "to you is born this
day...a Savior." Rich or poor,
educated or uneducated, our great problem is sin and Christ came to deal with
the problem of sin. For this reason he
should be our focus at Christmas and all year long.
Sometimes our focus on Christ
is not as sharp as it should be. Lesser
matters obscure our vision. Finances,
politics, home problems, and even church problems may keep Christ from being
the center of our concern. We must take
a careful assessment our lives, reorder our priorities, and put Christ back at
the center. We must follow the shepherds
in their priorities.
We Should Follow
the Shepherds in Their Proclamation (17-18)
As the shepherds proclaimed
what they had seen and heard, they remind us that the Christmas story cannot be
kept quiet. Imagine the shepherds
keeping quiet about what had happened.
Never mentioning the angelic choir.
Never telling of the baby they found in the manger. Surely only the most callous and indifferent
could keep quiet about such matters.
They couldn't keep quiet
because the story is exciting. Think
about it. The God of heaven is so committed
to us, that he came to live as one of us, to be born into humble surroundings
rather than in a palace.
The very fact the angels came
to the shepherds is exciting for it demonstrates that God cares for those who
have been despised and rejected by society.
Implied in the angel's message
is the exciting news that Christ would give peace and freedom to those who have
been trapped all of their lives--trapped by fear, by guilt, and by sin. The Baby born in that stable would give
wholeness to those whose lives have been broken--by grief, by disappointment,
by despair, and by sickness.
If the shepherds had reason to
be excited about what they had heard from the angels, surely we have reason to
be even more excited. Unlike the
shepherds, we have the story of Christ's death and resurrection. Surely it is exciting to think of the depth
of God's love for us, that his Son should die for us unworthy sinners. It is exciting that a man who died on a cross
should return in resurrection power--a power we may share.
They had the Christmas
message; we have the message of Christmas and Easter.
Because of what happened at
that first Christmas and that first Easter there can be real "peace on
earth." Peace comes when the rift
between ourselves and God is overcome; when the rift between God and ourselves
is overcome, the rift between ourselves and others may be overcome. The work of Christ makes that possible. Yet, when we hear the angel's pronouncement
of "peace on earth," we tend to wonder about the reality of that
promise. Like Longfellow, we hear the
bells on Christmas Day and say there is "no peace on earth." Should the angels' promise be mocked? The Christian answer to this has always
included the truth that real peace on earth cannot come until that time when
"every knee shall bow and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is
Lord."
But Christianity has always
stressed an additional truth: When we experience the peace of Christ in the
depth of our being, we tend to become more peaceable. We strive to become the peacemakers Jesus
said would be blessed--blessed by being recognized as doing God’s work, reflecting God's character.
When we're at our best,
Christians take seriously the call to be peacemakers. We see it in the efforts of an
internationally-famous Christian leader attempting to pull two nations from the
brink of war. We see it in the
missionary attempting to bring feuding tribes together. We see it in the church member striving to
mend the divisions at her office, in her neighborhood, at her church. Ours is a message that changes things.
Of course, the shepherds
couldn't keep quiet because the story is so important. Sin has destroyed our relationship with God
and with each other. It has corrupted
God's creation. The Christmas story
tells how God has dealt with the great problem of sin. And that makes the story important.
We build churches, send
missionaries, support universities and seminaries, and pray for our unbelieving
family and friends because the story is important. Though they may have been simple and
uneducated, the shepherds saw how important the story was. Do we?
There is something else to see
here. As the shepherd's proclaimed the
story, they also praised God. We need to
remember that telling the gospel story gives honor and glory to God. When we point to the story of Jesus and say,
"Look at what God did," we are not only laying the foundation for our
hearers coming to Christ, we are declaring God's worthiness to receive our praise. It is yet another reason for us to tell out
greatness of our Lord.
CONCLUSION
As we stand at the threshold
of a new year, we ought to consider the shepherds' example.
Perhaps they never fully
understood what had happened in Bethlehem, never understood they had found the
Good Shepherd who lay his life down for his sheep.
We do understand who the Baby
was.
Because of this we need to
keep our priorities in order and our proclamation clear.
The shepherds who came to
Bethlehem believed God was doing something remarkable in the world. If we could capture their excitement, our
vision for the year before us would give us a joy that will sustain us through
the ups and downs we will face.
