I’ve been thinking about the nativity story again, and how wild it is that God chose to announce Jesus’ birth to a group of shepherds.
They weren’t priests, or kings, or influencers of the day. Just ordinary people working the night shift.
What do you think that says about God’s heart, or the kind of kingdom Jesus came to bring?
One suggestion is that the sheep they cared for produced the lambs used in the temple sacrifices.
They were told because the need for those lambs was coming to an end.
Why Did God Send Angels to Shepherds First?
I suppose God offers revelation to those who will listen (have ears to hear).
Because the message of the manger is ridiculous to those who are perishing…
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
But remember, it is of God that you are in Christ Jesus.
Jesus became for us wisdom from God–and righteousness and sanctification and redemption– that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)
A single shepherd in the fold of God is mightier than a thousand armies of men.
KP
When I read the gospels I understand that Jesus didn’t come to change the current politics or set Himself up as a ruler of the people. He came to call those who’s hearts were ready to receive Him and that was not found in the proud or powerful, but in those who were lowly in position and humble in heart. He came for those who knew they needed Him. The rich and powerful felt no such need. Even His birth was lowly. An obscure Jewish girl and manger cradle.
Money, prestige, man’s authority and power are not what the kingdom of God is about. It’s about our hearts and what God is looking for is often found in those who have none of the things we look at. That the angels announcement to shepherds is not so much because they were shepherds, but because they would receive it. They didn’t have the trappings of most kings and religious rulers. They were simple men who welcomed the message and went to find the newborn King. I think that still holds today.
The Bible is so rich in metaphor and imagery, and I think this is a great example of that. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, so I think there is so much meaning and foreshadowing in God announcing Jesus’ birth to shepherds because of that. Shepherds are caretakers or we could say stewards, which is what God commissioned Adam and Eve to be in the Garden of Eden. Jesus is a shepherd or steward of our souls and we are stewards or shepherds of his Creation.
This also reminds me of this verse:
“For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).
Our God has demonstrated through all ages that He stands with, and is in the midst of, and identifies with the least, the broken, those we consider unimportant. In Christ this is made profoundly prominent.
We don’t serve the gods who are just big kings lording over the small people. We serve the true God who is in the midst of the weak, the lowly, the worthless, the unwanted.