Flabbergasted Field Hands! 

Abraham was a shepherd.
And Isaac.
And Jacob.
And Joseph, the dreamer, who saved the brothers who stripped him of his coat of many colors and sold him into slavery.

Moses was a shepherd.
And Amos.
And Jesse.
And David, the shepherd boy, whose skills with the slingshot, learned while keeping watch over his sheep, came in handy against Goliath. When Samuel was looking to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as Israel’s king, Davey had to be called in from the fields where he was tending the sheep. It was David who wrote: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.”

Zechariah spoke of shepherds.
And Ezekiel.
And Isaiah.
And Jeremiah, the prophet who voiced God’s promise, saying, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” The image of the Shepherd was a good one thanks to Moses and David and the Prophets. The measure of a leader caring for people, whether prophet, priest or king, was the shepherd providing and protecting, guiding and directing the sheep through shadowy valleys to green pastures and still waters. God chose those shepherd leaders. God gave those shepherd images to the poets and the prophets. It was God’s doing!

But somebody had a better idea…at least they thought it was better. As the people of faith became less and less people of the land…and more and more a settled people…the image of the shepherd faded. By the time Jesus was born, the rabbi’s had compiled a list of occupations that a law abiding, Torah studying Jew should not pursue or pass on to their sons. On three of the five such lists scholars have uncovered, shepherds were included on the list of don’t do jobs!

According to those same scholars, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day decided shepherds were unable, by virtue of their jobs, to be faithful. They couldn’t attend worship, they could not participate in the festivals on the high holy days, and they couldn’t fully repent of their sin.

What they meant by that last statement was this: Shepherds roaming the hills where there were no fences to separate one plot of land from the next, had no idea when, if or how often they trespassed on someone else’s land. Since they didn’t know how often they trespassed, they could neither make full confession of their sin, Or begin to make reparations to the landowners.

On top of that, the shepherd’s nomadic life often brought them in contact with foreigners and non-Jews; and it kept them in contact with sheep, which left them emanating offending odors. And all this led to the decline of the image and position of shepherds in society.

Until that night the angels came “to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay keeping their sheep on a cold winter’s night that was so deep.” Noel, indeed! Knowing they were considered lower than dirt and unworthy, you can understand why these field hands would be flabbergasted by the angel’s visit to THEM.

The shepherds were the first to be told of the birth of the long-awaited descendent of the shepherd king, David. In addition, they were the ones entrusted to tell Mary and Joseph their son would be Savior, Messiah and Lord. What the angel had told Mary and Joseph individually, was now confirmed through the visit of the angel to the shepherds and the trek the shepherds made into town to see the child.

Jesus reclaimed the image of the shepherd as valuable and noble. Once again it is the standard for measuring leadership. By his birth…and by his use of the image to describe himself as the Good Shepherd, who knows his own and whose own know him…who lays down his life for the sheep, the helpful picture of the Good Shepherd once again describes God’s care for us.

Abraham was a shepherd.
And Moses.
And David.
And Jesus, the Savior, who was born to lead us back to the paths of righteousness!

Like those flabbergasted field hands so long ago, we are blessed by the gift of the one we call The Good Shepherd, whose first and last moments are imagined in this poem, As it Was In the Beginning. https://youtu.be/uyPZgwtJP74