A, Birth of our Lord, Christmas Day - Luke 2:8-20 "Shepherds of Good News"

The Christmas story of the angels and the shepherds and the visit at Bethlehem is one which most people seem to know quite well. If you are ninety years old, you’ve probably heard it nearly just as many times, and even a child of ten would have heard it a few times by now too!

So we have arrived at this text again, and it fills us with all the warm images of Christmas: The shepherds lovingly caring for their sheep, on the lookout for people and animals that might threaten the flock. Then the arrival of the angel with the great news of Christ’s birth — and the great company choir of heavenly angels singing Glory to God in the highest. And not to mention the nativity scene — God watching above, with angels surrounding Mary and Joseph at the manger — cattle lowing while shepherds and sheep watch on with great delight, mystery, wonder and awe.

However, as good and wholesome as these images are, this text holds so much more. And we do well to examine it; to see how the depths of Old Testament ritualistic Judaism impacted all Jewish people back then, including the shepherds. And how the Law and Christ’s birth have and are benefiting everyone ever since.

We can do this by looking at the shepherds throughout the narrative, investigating and digesting the transition of their state of being. Observing the shepherds is the key for our deeper understanding, but as we know, the message and worship of the angels, the Christ child, and the object of the shepherds’ worship are the active agents of the narrative.

The shepherds are in the field watching over their sheep at night. It was night in the usual sense, but often in the bible night has deeper implications. Luke is most likely just talking about it being night in the usual sense; however, the shepherds were aware of a greater darkness. We know this because of their reaction to the glory shining all around them when the angel of the Lord appeared.

The shepherds were terrified; literally in the Greek it says they feared with great fear. When we think of the fearlessness of David the shepherd boy also outside Bethlehem some hundreds of years earlier, fighting Goliath and rescuing his lambs from the mouths of lions, the fear of these shepherds in contrast, stands out as quite unusual.

Having seen God’s glory and the angel’s appearance the shepherds were terrified with an unsurpassable fear of imminent death. But why? These fellows would have lived with the constant threat of death every night they stood to defend their sheep!

Recorded just before the birth of Jesus in Luke’s gospel is Zechariah’s Song, and he concludes his praise towards God by stating …the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

Bound by their continual shepherding duties, the shepherds were unclean before God. They lived in darkness and the shadow of death so when the light of glory shone on them they feared with great fear. This is because their work meant they had no opportunity to take a Sabbath and make sacrifices to God in the temple at Jerusalem.

The shepherds would have also come in contact with many ritually unclean situations involving death and unclean animals. To make a sacrifice at the temple altar before God would have also meant a time of ritual cleansing. Time shepherds just didn’t have, who instead were obligated to remain with their sheep out in the fields surrounding Bethlehem.

But it’s not death the shepherds receive. Rather it’s a three fold message of good news. First the angel comforts and announces, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10) Then secondly the herald of good news locates and declares, “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 10:11) And thirdly the messenger of God reveals and directs by saying, “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2: 12)

Rather than receiving the wrath of God when his glory illuminated them, these shepherds living in darkness and the shadow of death, now were being guided by God’s messenger into the path of peace, just as Zechariah had earlier prophesied in his song of praise.

But before they were led by God’s Word to Bethlehem, a defining moment for creation occurs when the heavenly choir of hosts sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” (Luke 2:14)

This may not appear to be very extraordinary for us today; we sing this piece of scripture, or a paraphrase of it, most Sundays in the church. But the shepherd’s were privileged earthly witnesses, and for a very important reason: This was the choir of heaven which always sings in the presence of our glorified God, and now God was born to Mary and this heavenly hymn was heard on earth for the first time. Therefore, what we sing in church is a proclamation with the angels and archangels to the reality of God on earth and in heaven. But the reality of his presence is hidden from our sight and only seen by faith as we gather to hear and worship him.

The angels and the choir dissipate and re-enter heaven, fear with great fear is replaced by joy with great joy and expectation as the shepherds act on the Word of God that has filled their ears. They didn’t just go but we’re told they went with haste and found Mary, Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. The Greek word for haste used here is spĕudō (pron: spew-dow) from where we get the well known name of swimmers, Speedo, and literally means: they went with speed; they put the foot down and wasted no time.

After witnessing Christ the Lord in the manger, the Shepherds made known what had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. All who heard this were amazed to the same degree that the shepherds were gripped with great fear. They were surprised with great surprise because these sheep-herders who witnessed these events were in no way worthy viewers due to their lack of ritual cleanliness. Nevertheless, those who heard were encouraged by their proclamation and marvelled with them at what they had seen; even if they were stunned that the news came from smelly shepherds.

Alternatively, Mary pondered all this in her heart. She wasn’t bewildered at all by these events which occurred before the lowly shepherds. She meditated on the incomparable reality of the situation over which she, Joseph, and the shepherds had no control, because of prior revelation to her.

Mary had already testified to this revelation in her glorification of God, known as the Magnificat, or Mary’s Song, saying, “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.” (Luke 1:50-55)

So the shepherds return home having had the Christ child revealed to them by God’s Word spoken through the herald angel while being surrounded by God’s glory. They return home having acted on the Word they heard and seeing the Word Made Flesh in the manger, then proclaiming how they came about knowing the Christ child was born. And now they sing with joy as they return to their flocks because of the three-fold message of Good News that gave them a light within the darkness they dwelt.

Finally the Good News for us this Christmas is revealed through the irony of this perfect holy child lying in a dirty manger, in a filthy animal enclosure, out back of a sleazy Bethlehem inn, with a bunch of ritually unclean shepherds who probably smelt more like sheep than humans looking down into the manger. As these shepherds lent over baby Jesus, the reality is this: It is Christ who is the true shepherd, and like the dirty shepherds who looked on this holy child, he would grow into a man and be cast outside Jerusalem bearing all the dirtiness of humanity, cursed on a cross, even though he was God’s one and only Son.

But as he hung on the cross looking down at the children he has redeemed from our mangers of darkness and death — he sees the Bethlehem shepherds, you, and me, all those who trust him despite our deadly reality, now walking without fear and glorifying God with all the company of heaven as he the risen shepherd and Christ child guides our feet into the path of peace. Amen.