What We Can Learn From Jesus’ Nativity: The Shepherds (Luke 2:8-20)

Luke 2:8-20

In the countryside close by there were shepherds out in the fields keeping guard over their sheep during the watches of the night. ⁹An angel of the Lord stood over them and the glory of the Lord shone round them. They were terrified, ¹⁰but the angel said, 'Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people.¹¹Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.¹²And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.' ¹³And all at once with the angel there was a great throng of the hosts of heaven, praising God with the words:

¹⁴Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace for those he favours.

¹⁵Now it happened that when the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us.' ¹⁶So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.¹⁷When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him, ¹⁸and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds said to them.

¹⁹As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.

²⁰And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as they had been told.

The events described here illustrate multiple patterns that run throughout the gospels and/or scripture generally.

1.    God moves outside the ordinary.

A.   He announces this tremendous, cosmically significant, event in an obscure place.  It’s not announced in Rome, or even Jerusalem, but near Bethlehem. Micah 5:1 described Bethlehem as “the least of the clans of Judah” (NJB).  And this announcement is not even made in Bethlehem, it’s made outside of it, in the surrounding country side, in the middle of the night. That’s typical of Jesus’ ministry; it mostly occurred in obscure settings in the Galilean countryside. It’s also typical of scripture generally. Moses’ ministry began in the “backside of the desert,” Exodus 3:1(KJB) and mostly unfolded in the desert wilderness. Gideon’s began in Ophrah, wherever that was. Judges 6:11.  David was drawn into his ministry from this same obscure country side. 1 Samuel 16:1, 11.  God acts everywhere, not just in the centers of power, population, or popular culture.

B.   God makes this announcement to obscure folks. It is not made to the emperor, the governor, or the high priest, but to shepherds, shepherds junior enough to have pulled the night shift.  That is typical of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. His earthly parents were peasants.  He filled His inner circle with blue collar guys, mostly from the country. He mostly ministered to country folk whose names are lost to history, and to the lowest status folks amongst them (the ill, the handicapped, and thus “unclean;” prostitutes; tax collectors; etc.). That is typical of how God operated prior to Jesus’ incarnation. Moses was a has-been fugitive. Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute.  Gideon was the least of the lowest clan in a second-tier tribe. Ruth was a destitute foreigner separated from her people. Hannah was a barren second wife. David was the least among his brothers.  Jeremiah was young and inarticulate.  Status in God’s kingdom is not determined by social standing.

C.    Indeed, scripture explicitly states that God’s ways are distinct from man’s. See e.g. Isaiah 55:8-9, 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:10, Ephesians 3:20.

2.    We have to be willing to deviate from our ordinary to fully realize what God wants from and for us.

A.   The shepherds had to vary from their routine to accomplish the mission God gave them. They had to either leave unattended the sheep they were “keeping guard over” or make arrangements for someone else to guard them. They had to rework their sleep schedule from a night shift pattern to go communicate with folks who were likely operating on a more conventional schedule (the folks in town). They had to interact with folks they didn’t know. They had to take on a role (messenger) they probably were not familiar or comfortable with (at least at first). They had to travel there and back.  That was true of folks who encountered Jesus in the gospels. The disciples left their old ways of life to follow Him. Luke 5:1-10.  The beneficiaries of His healings/mercies had to change their life patterns. See e.g. John 5:14, John 8:1-11, We see the same pattern throughout scripture. Abraham had to leave Ur. Moses hade to give up the life he had settled into to answer God’s call.  Isaiah and Jeremiah had to take on tasks they felt were beyond their qualifications. Isaiah 6, Jeremiah 4:1-10.

B.   Mary and Joseph had to be open to the extraordinary to receive the blessing God intended. A significant part of the shepherds’ mission seemed to have been to reassure/ratify Mary and Joseph as they were experiencing tough circumstances, circumstances that probably seemed very different from what they expected based on what Gabriel had told Mary. See Luke 2:19 and more generally, What We Can Learn from Jesus’ Nativity: Mary and Joseph’s Journey to Bethlehem and Jesus’ Birth There (Luke 2:1-7). To receive that ratification/blessing they had to receive strangers into their company during a very intimate, and very trying,  situation. That required them to accept the unexpected, the not readily understood. That too is consistent with what the gospels tell us about what folks had to do to receive/give the full blessings Jesus intended. Think about, for example: Nicodemus encounter with Jesus, as described in John 3:1-21; Peter, James and John’s call in Luke 5:1-10; the disciples administering the feedings of the multitudes described in Matthew 14:13-21 and parallel passages; the apostles receiving Jesus invitation to accompany Him as He dealt with Lazarus’ (temporary) death, as described in John 11:1-16. They had to be willing to vary from their expectations/routines to receive the full measure of what Jesus intended for and from them. That dynamic is reflected throughout scripture. Consider the miracles received by the widows Elijah and Elisha ministered to, 1 Kings 7:7-16, 2 Kings 4:1-7, and Naaman. 2 Kings 5:1-14. They had to be open to matters beyond their expectations to receive those blessings. We too must have that openness to fully participate in what Jesus wants from and for us.  

C.    There is sometimes real fear involved in such circumstances. The Shepherds, like Mary, were very upset by God’s call. Luke 2:9, Luke 1:29. That too is something we see throughout the gospels and scripture generally. See e.g. Isaiah 6:1-7, Luke 5:1-10; Acts 9:1-19  

D.   Folks doing God’s will/work often don’t fully realize what impacts their actions will have.  The shepherds didn’t know Mary and Joseph, their tremendous role in salvation history, their likely need for reassurance/ratification, or that their (the shepherds’) actions would help them fulfill that role by providing that reassurance/ratification. Mary and Joseph didn’t know that their openness to the shepherds’ intrusion into their very intimate circumstances would give rise to a gospel account that has blessed millions/billions over the years.  That dynamic is explored in Unexpected Fruit From Long Dormant Seeds.

3.    The Shepherds were the first people, outside the Holy Family, to accept Jesus and have their lives visibly transformed by Him. Luke 2:20 tells us that the shepherds took their message with them when they “went back” or “returned,” indicating that they continued to be affected by their encounter with Jesus and continued to fulfill their specific task of spreading the news about Him.  That they did so in confirmed by the fact that folks still knew about their actions when Luke wrote his gospel decades later.

4.    The shepherds were only able to fulfill their extraordinary mission because they were faithful in doing their ordinary work; that put them where the angel was going to be. That is a dynamic that we see elsewhere in scripture, as discussed at Preliminary Work: What we can learn from Joseph and Daniel.

5.    The shepherds’ reaction to the angelic announcement has parallels to the response of the good servants in Matthew 25:14-30: 

A.   Alacrity. The shepherds “hurried” to share the good news the angel said was to be shared with the whole people. Luke 2:16. The good servants likewise got right on the tasks assigned them, they went to work “immediately” (NASB), “promptly” (NJB), and “at once” (NRSVCE, NIV). Matthew 25:16.

B.   Fortitude. Luke 2:9 tells us that the angel’s announcement was terrifying, and the prospect of sharing this extraordinary news with persons likely to be skeptical of shepherds generally and this very unusual news in particular must have been intimidating. The shepherds none the less boldly did what was expected of them. We can infer from Matthew 25:25 and Luke’s version of the same parable (Luke 19:12-27) that the good servants faced intimidating circumstances, but the good servants were not deterred.  That trait is praised throughout scripture as a whole. See the scriptures collected at Wisdom Principles--Fortitude.

6.    The angel’s description of what the shepherds will find (Luke 2:12) is worth consideration:

A.   It amplifies the dynamic described in Philippians 2:6-7: Jesus complete relinquishment of His divine perquisites.  The Greek word translated as “manger” (phatnē) does not mean a barn or building, but is even more humble. It means a stall within a barn.  It doesn’t get much lower than that; that uniqueness is probably why the angel used it as a sign. The contrast between that and the other images of God given in scripture (See e.g. Exodus 19:16-25, Isaiah 6:1-7, Revelation 1:10-18) is stunning; it shows that Jesus truly “emptied” Himself, as Philippians 2:7 put it.

B.   It is another instance of a prospective sign, one that will only become effective in the future. That interesting—and comforting—dynamic is discussed at point 5 of What We Can Learn From Jesus' Nativity: The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38).

Other meditations on Jesus’ nativity are collected at What We Can Learn from Jesus' Nativity: The Annunciation through Simeon & Anna