The Shepherds

Introduction

You know, it’s so easy to take Jesus’ birth for granted. Christmas comes around every year, and there is so much tradition associated with it that it’s easy to forget what we are supposed to be remembering. Atalia observed the crowds in our corner shopping centre this week, and commented that she normally appreciated crowds, but at Christmas there is too much sanctimony.

sanctimony

[ sangk-tuh-moh-nee ]SHOW IPASEE SYNONYMS FOR sanctimony ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

pretended, affected, or hypocritical religious devotion, righteousness, etc.Obsolete. sanctity; sacredness.

If shopping were religious, I would agree with her.

But the Jesus actual birth wasn’t like that at all. It was brutally and shockingly unromantic and decidedly not epic.

We have already heard our Bible passage from Luke’s gospel, chapter 2, which describes the announcement of Jesus’ birth. The announcement itself could possibly be described as epic. But any spectacle seems to have been wasted on a few shepherds. It’s almost as if Apple launched the next iPhone but only invited the free suburban paper from Burke. What’s the point?

Well, let’s watch this dramatisation of these events. It helps us understand a bit more of what was going on.

[Play The Shepherd]

Application

How was that? Pretty impactful, right? “People must know!”

The reason God announced the coming of his Son, a perfect sacrifice to cleanse everyone’s sins, to the shepherds was simple: the shepherds knew that they needed a saviour.

Luke 1:46–53 ESV

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

Mary understood what God was doing before Jesus was born. She, like the shepherds, was low in society, and she recognised that God was bringing redemption to those who knew their need. She uses the language of poverty and riches, but Jesus also used the language of health and disease when challenged over why he ate with sinners.

Mark 2:16–17 NLT

16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” 17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

He said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.”

The shepherds knew they were sick. They could take joy in the discovery of a healer. And they could share that joy.

This Christmas, let us remember that the joy of Christmas is not gifts. It is not food. It is not family time!

The joy of Christmas is the realisation that Jesus sets us free from our darkest desires, our determination to rule our world our way with no concern for collateral damage. The joy of Christmas is discovering the Lamb of God, lying in a stable, come to die for us.

Tomorrow, as we celebrate with all these other good things--gifts, family, food—let us take our ultimate joy in Christ.

Let’s pray.

Lord, as we go out tonight for the last sleep before Christmas, capture our hearts and minds as you captured the hearts and minds of the Shepherds two thousand years ago on a Judean hillside. Send us out full of the joy of your salvation. Remind us that Jesus birth is the greatest expression of love possible, topped only by the other end of his life on earth, his death on the cross.

Help us to know deep in our hearts, “People must know.”

In Jesus’ name, Amen.