I’ve been playing Christmas music for a full month, but next Sunday is the official start of Advent. I love this season so much. Here is an advent reflection on the shepherds from my book, The Characters of Christmas:
Today shepherds are romanticized in every single Christmas pageant. Many of us have donned a modified pillowcase, grabbed a walking stick, and appeared in a Christmas pageant at church or school. But in the first century, nobody thought shepherds were cute. And certainly, nobody thought they were important. But there they were, the first to know at Christmas.
Shepherds were not really considered part of polite society in those days. They were required to tend their flocks outside the city gates. The only reason shepherds had any significance was because sheep were a valuable commodity, especially as it grew closer to Passover when many lambs would be sacrificed in the temple.
The work of a shepherd was (and still is) extraordinarily difficult. They had to wrangle obstinate sheep. They had to ensure their flocks were well-fed. And they had to fend off predators: wolves or even larger animals like bears or lions. Sometimes unsavory characters would come in and try to steal the sheep. This is why shepherds were awake on this night. Most likely they were sleeping in shifts, ensuring the livestock was not compromised.
And yet there is something significant and powerful about the inclusion of the shepherds in the Jesus story. Luke is reminding us, by mentioning the shepherds, that the kingdom of God isn’t just for the insiders, but for outsiders, like shepherds, like the poor classes where Mary and Joseph came from. It reminds us that the kingdom of God is often made up, not of the noble and wise, but of the underclass, those people that have no business being near royalty. Immanuel, God with us, means God is truly among all classes of people, not simply the connected or well-resourced.
The presence of the shepherds in the Christmas story also tells us a little bit about just what kind of Messiah Jesus would be. He would come to us as a Savior, as a King, as a Lion, but also, as our shepherd. Though their vocation was not viewed with respect by their peers, Scripture always portrays shepherding as a high calling, perhaps the most repeated image of leadership in the Bible.
God refers to himself as Israel’s shepherd (Genesis 48:15; 49:24; Jeremiah 31:10). In David’s famous psalm, he is grateful that “the Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23). And the prophets Ezekiel (22) and Jeremiah (10; 23; 50) often warned God’s people about poor shepherds—bad leaders who exploit rather than lead. To shepherd, in God’s world, is to sacrificially care for those vulnerable in your care. Shepherds in those days didn’t drive their herds, but they gently led them.
Today, even in Christian circles, leadership as shepherding is viewed as negatively as it might have been among the sophisticated in the first century. Though spiritual leaders in Scripture, from Old to New Testament, are often compared to shepherds, many evangelical leadership texts dismiss this idea. I once heard a prominent pastor mock the idea saying that a CEO or a General is a better description of Christian leadership. But it’s hard to dismiss how intentional the Holy Spirit is in including this vision of gentle, yet firm leadership both as the way God leads his people and how God intends those who follow them to lead. Jesus’ last words to Peter were “Feed my sheep (John 21).” This is how we demonstrate God’s love, by taking care of others with soft hands and compassion.
This is why I believe the announcement of the coming of Jesus—himself the Good Shepherd (John 10:10) had to happen in a shepherd’s field among those who lead sheep. Luke is telling us that this ruler who is to come would be different than the rulers his people were used to seeing. He wouldn’t be a Caesar who ruled only by brute force. He wouldn’t be a Herod, who literally governed by treachery, murder, and paranoia. No, Jesus, would be, among all of his attributes, a shepherd. And he would trust himself and his message to the shepherds.
The Lamb of God would first be held and handled and touched by those who knew how to appreciate and care for a Lamb. And yet more than anybody, these shepherds knew the ultimate fate of each lamb for which they cared. I imagine they heard the prophecy of Isaiah more keenly than anyone in Israel. They tended the very lambs that would be sacrificed at Passover. And yet a Lamb was come, who would be the final sacrifice. This Lamb wouldn’t simply cover their sins as the sacrifices did, but he’d actually become sin. John the Baptist said about Jesus later, “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.”
The good news of the coming of the Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world, was announced among lambs set aside for the temple sacrifice and in the city of David, Israel’s last great shepherd. This is God declaring to his people that Jesus, both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God, was coming to make true peace between God and man.
You can order my book, The Characters of Christmas in time for your advent reading this year. Moody has a 50% off sale through this weekend.