The Right TimeSample

The Shepherds Marveled 

We finally come to the last of the characters in the Christmas story. We have looked at Mary, Joseph, Simeon, the Magi, and now we take a look at the Shepherds to see how they prepared for the birth of Jesus. Luke, the historian and physician, brings us this account which takes us to the hillside outside of Bethlehem on that wonderful night. Let’s join these unlikely and unheralded characters.

Luke tells us that there were “shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night.” They were contract laborers who lived in the fields and who drew the night shift—the worst possible shift watching over smelly sheep. In terms of society, they would have been considered outcasts. 

But an amazing thing happens to these lowliest of the low: An angel appears and declares to them that there is good news of great joy which is for all people. A Baby has been born—a Savior—who is Christ the Lord! Here is how you will find Him: He will be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Following this incredible announcement, the heavens exploded with an angelic army singing praises to God. What an unbelievable spectacle that was given to the shepherds—the outcasts. 

The sign that they were given was threefold: First, they would find a Baby who is Christ the Savior, God in human form—Immanuel—God with us. Second, He would be wrapped in swaddling clothes. These clothes were traditionally worn around the waist of the mother so that if the child were to die they would then become burial clothes. So, the shepherds would find this Baby already wrapped in His burial clothes. Third, He would be lying in a manger. Not in a palace, but in a manger. If He had been born in a palace then only royalty would have had access to Him. Instead, He was born in a stable and laid in a feeding trough. He was accessible even to outcasts like these shepherds.

When the angels departed, Luke tells us the shepherds marveled at what they had seen and heard and could not wait to go find Him. Is that how we are at Christmas? Do we marvel at the birth of our Savior? Perhaps the gift of a marvelous Savior should bring out the marveling in us. 

For more Advent resources—podcast and booklet, please visit www.gsot.edu/advent