Day 19 - Luke 2:8-9
18 Dec 2023
You can listen to an audio version of this blog post here -
“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 fear.”
The news of every birth changes the lives of those closest to it. A new arrival brings joy and excitement to parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family and friends. But while most people smile at the news of a new arrival (however distant the connection is to them), a baby being safely born is generally not earth shattering news for the whole planet. After all, there have been many births every day throughout the whole of history.
We left Luke telling us about a simple domestic scene. Mary had just given birth in a home in Bethlehem. It would have been a relief (both mother and child had survived the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem). The safe arrival would have brought great joy to all who knew about it.
What happens now underlines what Gabriel had told Mary about her child. Jesus is no ordinary baby. He has come to be a Saviour (that’s what his name means ) and the King (given the throne of his father David). And so the world must know he has been born. But who should be told first?
The Lord does not declare the message to the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Zechariah, a faithful ordinary priest, had been the first to know that the Lord was no longer silent. But the message that Jesus has been born first goes to humble shepherds.
It is possible to overemphasise the view that Shepherds were seen as untrustworthy in the 1st century. It may have been that some people looked down on them as they worked in the fields, on the margins of society. But it is certainly true that they were ordinary working men. Unlike Zechariah, they had no reason to expect that God would show up and speak to them as they worked.
Yet, he did. “An angel of the Lord” appeared. A messenger from God himself. If you disbelieve an angel you are disbelieving God himself. The angel displayed all the glory of God. The Lord put his stamp of authenticity on his messengers.
To their great credit, the shepherds knew what they were seeing and hearing. Their instinctive response was to be “filled with fear”. Of course, this is not a surprising response to so unexpected a sight. But it is also the common response of people throughout Scripture when they find themselves in the presence of the Lord himself.?
We will examine tomorrow what message the angels brought the shepherds. But the fact God sends his messengers to shepherds in the first place is itself an application of the message. The good news isn’t to be mediated to the world through the rich and the powerful. No - Jesus came into this world as an ordinary man. Born into an ordinary family. So the announcement of his birth first comes to ordinary working men.
None of us are too insignificant or ordinary for the Lord. None of us are too important for the Lord to be singled out as better than others.