Words of Life: An Enduring Legacyනියැදිය

Fear to faith – Angels and shepherds.

Throughout our exploration of Advent, we have seen again and again the reality of fear in the story. The shepherds were in good company, being frightened out of their lives by not just one angel but a ‘great company of the heavenly host’ (Luke 2:13 NIV), declaring the birth of Jesus. It is incredibly hard to imagine this event in some fields outside of Bethlehem, but it is easy to sense the fear it evoked within them.

Shepherds did not enjoy the best of reputations at this time. Not only were they regarded as unclean in the eyes of the synagogue, and thus prevented from participating in ceremonial law, but they were also considered to be unreliable and probably dishonest. How interesting that, so far, having chosen unlikely characters to be the recipients of good news – an unpretentious priest, a barren woman, a teenage virgin and her fiancé – God now utilises the gossip of untrustworthy farm workers. He was establishing an upside-down Kingdom from the onset.

The good news was that Jesus was born. The secondary news is that the shepherds got over their fear. One suspects that they headed off to Bethlehem, instilled with a mixture of curiosity and bewilderment, and they may well have peered ‘sheepishly’ around the entrance to the stable when they first arrived. But having seen the baby, just as they had been told, they set off gossiping the gospel. This had been a life-changing evening for them. It had begun with them gathered around fires, like every other night of shepherding, and it concluded with them glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard.

Note again the contrast between Mary, who kept all these things and treasured them in her heart, and the shepherds, who told everyone they met all they had seen.