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Out Our Way: The First Noel - Luke 2:10-20

Out our way, ranchers, farmers and cowhands are generally well-thought-of. Even in the city, a cowboy is treated well and even admired by folks who live nearly all of their lives indoors. But it was different in Judah 2,000 years ago. Folks who worked with livestock were the lowest of the low in society and treated as such.

Now, as I have noted before, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, shepherds were out with the sheep in the hills. I am told that as dumb as cows may be, sheep are far worse, and just like the modern rancher or farmer, there was no such thing as a day off, especially in those days of the open range. Not only did shepherds have to constantly watch to keep critters from wandering off, but they had to be on high alert for predators on the prowl. Wolves, lions, bears and other hungry types were always lurking about. Young David was a crack shot with a sling when he took out Goliath because he had faced many a dangerous critter as a boy. The “rod and staff” he mentioned in Psalm 23 were necessary tools of the trade — the staff with the shepherd’s crook to pull a dumb sheep out of danger, and the rod — a hard club — to defend and beat off those fierce beasts which preyed on sheep and occasional shepherds.

Point being, it was not a 40 hour a week, 9-to-5 job, it was a 24/7 life, much of it set in the fields. Sheep smell — and so did shepherds, as hot showers and laundry facilities were not to be found out with the flocks. But even more “disgusting” to the upper classes — and especially to a good many so-called “religious folk” — was that shepherds could not afford to observe all the religious rituals the Pharisees demanded, nor come to Jerusalem and make regular offerings in the Temple. And then there was the Sabbath Day. It was to be a day of rest, prayer and reflection.

Shepherds might be able to pray and reflect, but they couldn’t take the day off. So many of the so-called religious condemned them as sinners for not observing the Sabbath properly.

Well, while some of the folks in the temple and the synagogues condemned the shepherds, God did not. On the night Christ was born, He sent His angels to proclaim the long awaited Messiah had come. But notice these angels were not sent to the high priest or the Pharisees. God set them to the despised and scorned shepherds. The first proclamation of the long awaited Messiah’s birth and the fulfillment of all those prophecies was not made in the Temple or the synagogues, but in the open fields of the sheep pastures. Just as Christ was not born in a palace or even a decent home, but in a stable; and instead of being placed in a soft cradle or crib, He was placed in a manger — a feeding trough.

The point was to remind us that Christ came for all, not just the top rung of society. It is so easy to look down on others whose lives differ from my own. I find myself so quick to judge, scorn and even condemn. Then God reminds me of the shepherds, the “scum and bums” so many “religious” folks of the day scorned as unworthy of God’s love. Am I so different from those priests and rabbis in Jerusalem and Bethlehem who self-righteously despised the shepherds? I now remember who it was God chose to honor and why with the first Noel and try to do likewise. Whoever you are — shepherd or wise man — Christ came for you.

Be blessed.

Brother John Bruington

 

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