Waiting for the SaviorSample

Waiting for a shepherd: The shepherds

It is clearly noteworthy that the proclamation of Jesus' birth came first to shepherds. Though Matthew relates that the news is expressed later to the wise men—no doubt representing the privileged and educated—via the means of an astronomical phenomenon, the lowly shepherds in Luke were informed by direct revelation immediately after Jesus’ birth.

There is a propensity to romanticize the shepherds, making them in our imagination good, gentle, humble figures. In actuality, shepherds at the time were often viewed upon as unclean and outside the law, sometimes even as deceitful, because they often grazed their flocks on other people’s lands. In this case, they fit well with Luke’s emphasis elsewhere in his Gospel, where Jesus declares he has come not to the righteous but to the outcasts and sinners.

Others have noted, however, that many of the flocks of sheep near Bethlehem, which is only six miles from Jerusalem, were intended for temple sacrifices, in which case one sees an entirely different symbolism. Jesus came as the Lamb of God, to die for the sins of the world, and it was perhaps to the shepherds of the temple flocks his birth was first proclaimed.

Embedded in the fabric of various cultures all throughout history has been the misconception that power belongs in the hands of the privileged. What the God of the universe has been communicating for centuries, however, is that the gospel of the Kingdom subverts traditional beliefs about power. Power which comes from God is that which exalts the humble, gives grace to the lowly and advocates for the marginalized.

As we wait for the return of our shepherd, whenever that may be, we wait with the understanding that we have received power to, in our going to the "ends of the earth," not forget about those on the margins. It was here that the gospel was first proclaimed and it is here that the revivals for which we long will continue to occur.