Why Shepherds?

 

Chapter 13 Why Shepherds?

From Other Little Ships

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night." Luke 2:8

If you've ever been to a Christmas pageant or seen a Christmas play you've met these shepherds. The angelic host makes a surprising, glorious appearance to this band of men to announce to them the birth of the Savior.

They are frightened and astonished but they leave their flocks and become the very first visitors of the infant in the manger. They become such a fixture of the nativity scene that we may never have questioned its wonder.

Up in heaven God sits upon His throne. He calls the commander of the Host before Him.

"Human history is at it's crossroads," God declares. "The appointed time has come. My son is born upon the earth. Write the songs! Light the Star! And go tell the shepherds!"

The angel gets all of it but the last part.

"Shepherds, Sir?"

"Yes, tell the shepherds the glad tidings of great joy." The herald departs to gather the Host, obedient to the letter, mystified.

But he is accustomed to mystification and wonder. He is a seraph after all.

Why shepherds?

Well, shepherds were the guardians of atonement and forgiveness in a sense. They were not mere herdsmen or keepers of livestock. You see, the people of Israel were not great consumers of wool for clothing or of lamb for food. Almost every sheep, each lamb, each ewe, each ram would be used by the people of Israel as a Temple offering.

Every year thousands of pilgrims would travel to Jerusalem to offer up sacrifices for their sins, their disobedience to God. Thousands upon thousands of lambs would die to symbolize the death, loss, and waste of their contrariness to the will of God.

And Jesus was the Lamb of God. The final sacrifice. Once for ALL.

The only time of the year that shepherds would be out in the fields during the night was when the ewes were lambing. And while the lambs were being born, one honored hillside received an angelic invitation, to the birthday celebration of THE LAMB.