This week in our Advent reflections, we take some time to learn more about the shepherds who were the first witnesses to the Messiah’s birth.
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 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. 10 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. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[d]15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:8-20)
It is widely accepted that at the time of Jesus’ birth, whatever their exact standing in society was, shepherds were generally not looked upon with great favor. This was not always the case, however. A look back into the Old Testament reminds us that Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Job, and David, just to name a handful of Israelite patriarchs, were all shepherds of great esteem.
But by this time, shepherds’ standing had declined. Their testimony held no sway in court, they were often uneducated and illiterate, deemed little better than wandering vagrants or gypsies. In fact, due to their very job in overseeing the flock—their ordinary day-to-day work of caring for dirty animals—they were considered ceremonially unclean under Mosaic Law. They held no hope of being seen by the very people who would benefit from their everyday obedience.
In Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative, Russ Ramsey says,
“A good shepherd was someone who cared deeply for the lambs under his watch, many of which were appointed to die on the altar of the Lord for the sins of the very people who looked down on the shepherds. The shepherds’ lives were, in effect, sacrifices.”
Close your eyes a moment and consider what this holy night must have been like for these men—outsiders in every way, alone in the world but for their flocks of sheep. Each day spent faithfully doing their job with no fanfare or applause. Think what that moment just before the angel came to announce the Messiah’s birth must have been like—just like every other night. And in an instant, everything changed.
“Though they lived most of their lives on the outside looking in, they would not be outsiders to this gift. They were the recipients of it.” (Ramsey)
This Advent season, do you find yourself feeling alone? Do you feel like an outsider? Forgotten? Overlooked in your ordinary work—work done outside the home or inside, in the classroom, in the office, in the playroom—that goes unseen or unappreciated? Do you feel like your life is made up of the ordinary stuff of life as opposed to the highlight reels of social media?
Take heart, because like the shepherds, you and your everyday faithfulness, is seen. It may not meet the fanfare mountaintop of the angels announcement to the shepherds that first Christmas Eve. But you are seen by the One who, like the shepherds were expected to lay down their lives for their sheep, laid down his life for us. His gift of presence and your salvation is for you, the day you put your trust in him and every day after.
But this is not the extent of the beautiful layering of the shepherds’ Christmas story. At the surface level, it gives us hope that we are not alone, that our ordinary faithfulness is seen by the Lord, and that the gift of our Savior’s sacrifice is for us all. But digging deeper into the choice of these shepherds as the first witnesses of Jesus’ arrival, the role of the shepherds foreshadows who had made his arrival—the Good Shepherd. Immanuel, God is with us, came to a motley crew of shepherds to be our Great Shepherd.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:14-15
Our comfort, our hope. If this Advent season feels heavy and hard, or you feel alone, may you find the comfort of our perfect Shepherd and remember his gift of presence and eternity for you.