The People of the Advent: Shepherds

 

Luke 2:8-20

Luke 2:11(ESV)

¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

 

 

Bethlehem was full of people doing their job just like always on that day Jesus was born.  There were shepherds who were outside tending sheep in a sheepfold of some sort on the hills around the town.  Some were most likely dozing; others may have been chatting, or star gazing.  Whatever they were doing that night they had the most extraordinary experience of their life.  The sky was suddenly filled with angels giving a live newscast.  “Wake up guys!  Here is amazing good news.  God is sending you a Savior.  He is being born this very night in a stable of all places.  Now we are going to praise God for this great event.  We will just do it here in front of you.  Join in if you can.”

Those shepherds were watching for intruders on the ground.  How shocking to be invaded from the sky.

The shepherds were low class on the social ladder.  They were distained by higher strata of society.  They were smelly because they were with sheep all the time.  They were not showering every day.  Yet God chose to reveal His Great Plan to the shepherds.  Yeah God!  He chose the low class shepherds, the ones society distained, to be in the know.  It was a great present for the world, and the shepherds were in the forefront.  The Lord cares about the distained.  He loves us and reveals His love to even the outcasts.  I find this encouraging because as an intellectually disabled person, we are outcasts also.  Yet the Savior is for us, too.  And this same Savior is for you!  He is for all peoples! Absolutely all.