Christmas Candlelight Shepherds
Notes
Transcript
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!”
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.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Scripture: Luke 2:8-20
Christmas Candlelight Service Homily
Brothers and sisters in Christ, one of the primary sets of characters in any good Christmas play or Sunday School program is the shepherds. It can be a fun part to act out if you get to carry a staff or a shepherd’s hook. They were an important part of the events of the Christmas birth, though. We’ve heard about them throughout our lessons and carols tonight. The shepherds were people who lived and worked, not in the cities, but in the fields. It was there that they herded and cared for and protected flocks of sheep. They were common people, usually hired hands; there wasn’t much that was special or elite or popular or attractive about them.
Yet angels from God appeared to them with history-shattering, lives-changing good news. It was a message not just for them, not just for a few people, but for everyone on earth! That’s incredible—a spontaneous appearance of the divine to people who were possibly moments before just trying to keep their eyes open. The appearance of this angel of the Lord and then a great company of the heavenly host, the multitude, brought fear and then jubilee. As a result of this appearance, these shepherds would at least for a time become ministers and missionaries, spreading the wonder and the gospel of what they had heard and seen. They became important.
Consider what they were first sent to, though. “‘Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’” A baby wrapped up might not be too extraordinary, too unique—but the identification of their Savior, of the Christ, of the Lord, is that he would be in a manger. I’m not real sure what happened with their sheep, but those shepherds rightly decided they needed to “‘go…and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’” They had gotten the message that they needed to get to this newborn child.
In the meantime, baby boy Jesus, had been born. There were no hospital check-in procedures or nurses or doctors assumedly. There was no scanning of the patient’s wristband barcode or keeping things properly sterile or giving an any meds for pain or an epidural. It appears it was Mary and Joseph, and they brought this healthy baby boy into the world.
At some point, here come the first recorded visitors. I wonder what that must have been like. Mary and Joseph hadn’t gotten a call or a text or email asking if someone could come visit. No hospital employees or receptionists had asked if they were family or friends and held them in a waiting room to make sure it was okay for them to visit. There was little privacy. Tradition tells us that this family was most likely in a stable or a cave. They were there experiencing the wonder, the miracle, of this birth and all they’ve been told, but it wasn’t necessarily the freshest of places.
Who comes to visit? Not their parents or siblings or closest friends. It wasn’t even the landowner who permitted them to stay on his property. No, it was these strangers, the shepherds. Maybe they came in with a knock on a door frame or a slab of rock. Maybe Joseph saw them coming towards them, if they had a torch. Maybe they just walked right in, a little sheepish and yet excited, not quite sure what to say or how to say it. But upon their first glance, they saw, there he was! Their faces must have lit up—the angels had told them the truth! Here was the Christ!
I’m guessing they didn’t just walk in and walk out, but they likely visited with Joseph and Mary. They explained why they were there. Maybe they told them how beautiful Jesus was. Maybe they even offered these new parents part of their food or something of value—we don’t know. Eventually they left, and when they did, they became evangelists. They spoke to other people like the angels had spoken to them, and they became, or they grew as worshipers of God.
As we consider these events, maybe we think they’re a bit odd, but maybe it doesn’t strike us as all that big of a deal. Yet we must understand what this entails. Studies tell us that shepherds weren’t just low in social status, but they weren’t even credible in court. A shepherd could not be a trusted witness. They also tended to be religiously unclean, because of their work, but also because they couldn’t make it back to temple often to be purified. Maybe we think of lepers as outcasts, but shepherds don’t seem to have been viewed much better. This is who the shepherds were, and yet the angel of the Lord spoke “good news of great joy that [is] for all people” to them.
This wasn’t the only time or even the first that God had used shepherds for a major task in his plan. Think of Moses—even though he was raised in Pharaoh’s palace, he left and encountered God at the burning bush, the start of the Exodus redemption plan, as a shepherd in the desert. Think of David—when God sent Samuel to Jesse, a man of Bethlehem, Jesse neglected to even bring in his youngest son, David, who was tending the sheep. Yet God made just a shepherd into one of the greatest kings—a man after his heart, leading God’s people to do the same. It was also while he was herding sheep at Bethlehem that David left to take food to his brothers, who were in a stalemate against the Philistines. He used a shepherd’s tool or weapon, the slingshot, to slay Goliath, proving the power of God. Think of the prophet Amos, who said, “I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I…took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock, and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”
God trusted the shepherds in Luke with significant news. The shepherds received it and believed it. Like how Jesus’ disciples would become fishers of men, they in a way became shepherds of men. Yet they weren’t the last important shepherds.
Even though we never find him farming or raising animals, Jesus took on the title of the Good Shepherd. We find that “I am” statement in John chapter 10. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…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.” That’s a message of love and care—a shepherd and a Savior, who cares for us, common people and sinners.
In all the festivities of our Christmas celebrations, in all the strange happenings of the first Christmas, this is what laid ahead. This is what it all points to—we are sheep in need of a shepherd! The truth of Christmas is in who God has given us, one who willingly laid down his life and rose again and because of that keeps us in himself. This newborn baby is who our Good Shepherd is. It is for him and to him that we join the shepherds of old glorifying and praising God. We don’t worship the angels. We don’t over-adore the nativity setting. We don’t make more of Mary and Joseph than we ought. We glorify and praise God for truly good news, for the gift of our Savior, the only Savior. Jesus has come. Amen