Amy C Walters

The Shepherds and the Angels – Luke 2:8-20

The first people to hear the earth-shaking news of Jesus’ arrival were simple shepherds. And they had a decision to make: will they pause what they’re doing, take the risk, and look for Jesus? The Christmas shepherds teach us that the risk of not following Jesus is far greater than the risk of following him.

Luke now introduces us to some familiar Christmas characters; the shepherds. They are an integral part of the Christmas story.

You may already know that shepherds at that time were not high status people in society. They lived out in the fields with the sheep. That also gives us a hint to what they looked and smelled and acted like. They were probably quite dirty and smelled a lot like the sheep. Maybe they didn’t always have the best manners or social graces.

So these young men were not the highly influential, powerful men of their day. And for Luke’s early readers, his first audience, this would come as a surprise, that the first announcement of Jesus’ arrival would come to shepherds.

This announcement was not subtle! Angels show up in the middle of the night, filling the sky with bright, blinding light. They talk about “glory to God in the highest and peace on men to whom his favor rests!” This is a loud, bright, huge celebration.

In fact, the angel has to tell the shepherds, “don’t be afraid,” because once again, we see that an angel showing up is a terrifying experience for people. The angel also tells them that “today, in the city of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.” 

This is big news–the biggest news possible! It’s what the Israelites have been waiting centuries to hear, and now it’s come.

Have you ever waited for something for so long that when it finally happens, you don’t entirely believe it? Like, “no, no, no, no, I’ve waited forever for this. This can’t actually be happening now!” And yet, there it was.

The angel goes on to say, “this will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” He doesn’t say, “hey, if you’re curious and want to learn more, you can go and check it out. Or maybe later, if you have time, you can go and try to find this child.” 

The angel assumes that the shepherds will go to find the baby. He has given them this incredible invitation to go and meet Jesus face to face.

And so, when the angels have left and gone to heaven, the shepherds have a decision to make. There are a lot of options for what they could have done instead that would not have been as wise.

They could have said, “This is unbelievable. The fact of angels showing up right here, right now, that’s incredible. It can’t really be happening. And that the Messiah is in a manger means he’s in a barn. That’s unbelievable too.” They could have written the whole thing off as maybe this group hallucination. It’s too far-fetched to actually believe.

Or maybe they could have said, “It’s too risky.” Their job as shepherds was to protect those sheep. Nighttime is particularly dangerous. The sheep could wander off in the dark and get lost. There could be predators that come in and eat the sheep. There could be thieves that come to steal the sheep. The shepherds have a responsibility to be there with those sheep and protect them. If they go walking off to Bethlehem to go explore this thing, then they risk losing those sheep.

There could be a financial cost to it. They could lose their job from this.

They could have even said, “Ah, this is great news and all, but we are so busy. We’ve got a lot going on. 

We are in the middle of watching these sheep. And so, maybe we’ll go later to check this out. We’ll finish what we’re doing first. And then maybe when we’re done, maybe at the shift change, then we’ll go see.” 

Thankfully, our shepherds are smart guys, and they make the right decision. Because as soon as that angel goes into heaven, they say to one another, “let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that the Lord has told us about.” 

They recognize that the invitation that they received is not something that they can just push away. They have to go and take this chance to meet Jesus face to face, to be there just after he’s been born, and to see him and celebrate him. They recognize the importance of that invitation, that it is far greater than any other thing that they could be doing at that moment. It is far greater than what they risk.

The risk of ignoring Jesus is far greater than the risk of following him.

These shepherds teach us our key truth for today, and that is that we too must seek Jesus first.

Maybe you are responding to the invitation to seek Jesus in one of those other ways. Maybe you’ve said, “I just don’t think I can believe it. It’s too crazy. It’s too much to believe that God himself came to earth, that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that he rose from the grave. It’s too much to believe.”

Or maybe you say, “It’s too risky. If I follow Jesus, then I could lose my job, I could lose my family, I could lose my life. There is a cost to following Jesus.”

Maybe you’re too busy. Maybe you are pursuing all the things that you want to do first, and once you’ve done all of those things, then maybe you’ll consider Jesus. But first you have important things to do that he would get in the way of.

Or maybe you have been following him, and there was one point where you loved him so much and were just so excited to be his child. But you’ve lost your first love as the busyness and the cares of life have come in.

Wherever you are in that, you need to take this lesson from the shepherds and seek Jesus first.