Verse: Luke 2:8-11
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Devotional Thoughts:
In the church today, we tend to speak highly of shepherds just because the church has much to say about shepherds. We know King David started as a shepherd, we see shepherds on our nativity sets, we hear sermons about how Jesus is the “Good Shepherd,” one of the most well-known verses begins with “The Lord is my shepherd.”
We know all these things, so one thing that gets lost in translation is the reality that shepherds were on the bottom rung of society. They were necessary, but it wasn’t a glorious job. It was a low-paying position that offered nothing in terms of social status.
So it’s really interesting that the angels came and said that they bring good news that will cause great joy for all people. The “all people” is really interesting when you think in the context of the whole Christmas story. First, you had the wealthy wise men from a foreign land. Then you have the lowly Jewish shepherds who lived in the small community of Bethlehem. The very ones who come to see Jesus in Bethlehem demonstrate the reality that the good news of Jesus, the good news of Christmas, is truly for all people. For the rich and the poor. For both the upper class and lower class. For the Gentile and the Jew. All people will be blessed through Christmas.
Points to Ponder:
Another point this part of the Christmas story alludes to is this – God often uses the lowly things of this world to accomplish His purposes.
Society and culture have a way of putting people into boxes. Or dividing them into levels of ability. Perhaps you’ve experienced this in some way. Growing up, maybe you made the All-Star team, or perhaps you made it into the advanced education groups at school because you were perceived to be gifted academically. Or maybe at work you were one of the people who reached an incentive or were sent on a retreat, all because you’d performed your job exceptionally well.
Society is constantly breaking us up according to abilities and potential. History, Bible history, is no different. But one thing you’ll notice in the Bible is that God is constantly using the lesser person.
Think about Abraham’s family and who God used in Jesus’ lineage. He used Abraham and Sarah, who was unable to have kids (which was looked down on in that society). He then used Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, who also was unable to have kids. He used the younger brother Jacob (who would have been considered the less important of the two brothers); He used the less attractive wife Leah – who Jacob didn’t even want!
Just in that snippet of Jesus’ family history, you see a common theme. At every turn, God is choosing to use what the world rejects. He’s going to use the woman that can’t bear children. Not the firstborn son, but the second son. Not the attractive wife, but the one that wasn’t even wanted in the first place.
And if you read throughout the entire Bible, you’ll find this time and time again – God does incredibly important things with people society labels as insignificant.
It’s not that God doesn’t care for the older son or the attractive wife. He does, and He cares deeply. It just that things work differently in God’s economy. He cares just as much about the last one picked for a game of kickball as He does the first.
Listen – you’re not so significant that God can’t accomplish His plans without you, and you’re not so insignificant that God can’t use you to accomplish great things.
We have to come to a place where we just offer ourselves for God to use as He sees fit. Smart, not so smart, athletic, not athletic, wealthy, not wealthy, a wall lined with college diplomas, or no college diplomas at all. Wherever we fall on that spectrum, we need to realize that it’s only in the hands of God that we can truly accomplish His purposes for us.
Christmas demands a response. So how do we respond? The one and only God emptied Himself for us. How, then, should we respond to the reality of Christmas?
