The Shepherds were summoned!

Shepherds aren’t the first people you would expect to be told to attend a royal birth but they did take the invitation seriously.

At Christmastime more than any other we often set out to visit people we haven’t seen for a long time, especially if we are separated from family.  We don’t look forward to all the visits and may even look at some as simply ‘doing our duty’, but we can also end up on journeys we didn’t intend to take.  This is what happened to a group of working lads minding their own business.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.   An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Luke 2v8-11

Bethlehem as we saw in our last blog is only 8km (5miles) from Jerusalem and supplied many of the sheep used in the temple sacrifices.  Shepherds worked the prime grazing land day and night all year round and lived out in the fields.  These shepherds were quite often despised because they would be considered ceremonially unclean, rough and probably ‘ready’, as we imagine they could handle themselves when it came to thieves and wild animals trying to raid their flocks.  Yet these shepherds are chosen by God to not only receive the message of the imminent coming of the Saviour but also two clues how to find Him.

Let’s go back to Mary, who had initially been preparing for the arrival of her first-born son in their home in Nazareth.  Now she finds herself in a strange town and not only that, but one so full because of the census that all the rooms are taken.  They end up in makeshift quarters which are also half in public view with only a manger in which to lay her newborn son.  Not what she imagined and not where the Jews expected to find the Messiah.  But is there a reason they find themselves in that specific situation?  With the sudden increase of people there must have been more than one baby born in Bethlehem, so how would the shepherds know which baby was the right one?

“This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2v12

We can see how God uses His angels as messengers first with Mary, telling her who the baby she would carry was, and then to give the shepherds the exact information they would need to find the correct baby.  Perhaps Mary took comfort in recognising that God was shepherding them all; her and Joseph to Bethlehem and the lowly shepherds to the manger.

First published in 2023