There are some strange happenings in our world. Back in 1937 a street sweeper named Jospeh Figlock lived in Detroit Michigan. On day Jospeh was out walking, when out of nowhere he was struck in the head. No it wasn’t an attack, it was something very strange. A toddler had fell out of it’s fourth story window and struck Joseph on the head and shoulders. Both were injured, but there was no fatality. But that’s not the strangest part of the story. A year later, Jospeh was out again, this time doing his job, when a second toddler fell from his window. Again it struck Jospeh with injuries but no fatalities. This story goes to show you that even in our mundane living, extraordinary events can occur.
And it’s with this understanding of the extraordinary happening in the mundane, that brings us to our second week in our Christmas series, where we’ll be returning to Luke chapter 2, verse 1. And as we return to the Christmas passage found in Luke 2:1, let’s remind ourselves where we’re at in our series.
Last week we began our Christmas series by looking at one of three moments found within Luke’s Gospel. We looked at the angels’ announcement of Jesus’ birth. We noticed, how only when God was doing something extraordinary within human history, does the Bible record them singing. We saw that there were in fact three major historical moments that the angels sung about: the Creation, the Incarnation, and Salvation. The angles sung when God created the universe. They sung when God came down to take on human flesh. And they sung about God saving humanity from its sin that leads to eternal death. And so Jesus’ brith, God the Son wrapping himself in our flesh, is as important as the creation of the world, and sets in motion the saving of humanity through Jesus’ death on the cross.
And with the angels’ announcing such an important event as Jesus’ brith, let’s look at our second moment, as we return to our Christmas series in Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1.
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius [ke-i-re-nee-us] was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’
“15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Last week we talked about three groups that we were going to zero in on in this Christmas series. The first was the angels, now let’s focus on the shepherds. The shepherds are probably my favorite part of the Christmas story. The reason for this is because they’re the ones I can imagine the best. I grew up in the foothills of California. It wasn’t rural like Wyoming rural, but for the area it was rural. Farms and ranches took up the majority of the open land. We had local and county wide rodeos. And driving through the area, the unmistakable smell of the country was on the wind. And you know you’re from the country when just talking about that smell, fills your nose with it.
I can imagine the shepherds the best, because they’re the ones I feel closest to in the Christmas story. These guys were hard workers. Day and night, taking care of their animals. Keeping them safe from the predators and putting their own lives on the line for them. I’ve known people that have done this very thing, even some in our congregation. As the old saying goes, these were salt of the earth type of people.
But there’s more to these shepherds than just being the hardworking country folk, their job was important. Not just for the wool, milk or the meat that those sheep supplied, but they were important to the religious institutions that God had set up for the nation of Israel. Bethlehem was on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Those hills were the perfect place to graze animals, and so many of those sheep would one day wind up as temple sacrifices.
In the traditional writings of the Jewish Rabbis called the Talmud, it is said that one day, King Agrippa in the first century called the high priest to count the kidneys of the sacrificed animals as a way to take an informal census of the population. The number of kidneys was counted at 1.2 million animals slaughtered that day (https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/daf-yomi-48). Even if we cut that number by three quarters, as an estimate of how many animals were slaughtered on an average day, that means that the number could be about 400,000 animals that would be sacrificed everyday for the temple rituals.
And a lot of the sheep that were grazing on the hills in Bethlehem would being going to that fate. So the work of the shepherds was not only important for their own sake, but for the religious requirements of the Mosaic Law on the people.
This realization of what the shepherds were doing out in the fields, might give us an understanding of why they were specifically invited that night to see Jesus.
See in Genesis 22, God called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a test to see if Abraham was willing to sacrifice the one thing he had always wanted. In that passage we get this interaction between Abraham and his son. “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ 8 Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together (Genesis 22:6-8).’”
The passage goes on to tell us that Abraham bound Issac with rope, made an alter, surrounded it with wood, and then placed the boy on it. It was as Abraham was about to lower his knife on Issac that God intervened and supplied the substituted sacrifice of a ram.
In this passage we see the parallel of God the Father and the sacrifice of God the Son, Jesus, on the cross. Abraham might not have known that his words to his son Issac, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering…” were prophetic.
John the Baptist on seeing Jesus declared this as recored in the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”
In the passage we read last week, where the angels sang the praises of God in the book of Revelation chapter 5 verse 12, they sang this, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
In response, the book says that every creature in heaven, on the earth, under the earth and in the sea responded saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
On that first Christmas night, the angels came to the shepherds, who were surrounded by sheep that were future sacrifices. These angels came to these shepherds to announce the coming of the ultimate sacrifice. The Lamb, not given by sinful humanity to God, but rather given by God on behalf of humanity. Jesus was truly the substituted sacrifice that God provided, as prophesied by Abraham.
And do you think for one moment that when those shepherds went out that night they knew that they were going to meet both an angelic host and the Savior of the world? It was just another night to them, up until that moment that it wasn’t.
No where do we even get a hint that these shepherds were anything less than ordinary salt of the earth type of people. Anything less than just doing their job. They weren’t King Herod in his palace a few miles down the road. They weren’t governors, or Cesars. They weren’t anyone of note, but they were the ones who were recored as having a direct invitation from God on that night. These shepherds of sacrificial sheep were invited to witness the purest and most spotless lamb, the sacrificial Lamb provided by God himself, Jesus.
It can be so easy for us to miss the immensity of this moment in time. That these were ordinary people, going about ordinary work, until the extraordinary broke in. See we can easy forget that God doesn’t just work with the important people of this world, but rather he works with anyone who is willing to respond.
Right now in our society, we tend to think that those that represent us are the ones that need to be used by God to change the direction we feel like this world is headed in. But the reality is, it’s the everyday people of God who are called to do just that. It was the regular Joes that were Jesus’ first disciples. It was the ordinary, the mundane, the people just working to make ends meet, that were called to the glorious life of God. We are the ones being called to the stable, and we are the ones that are called to do as the shepherds did when Luke writes their response in verse 17, “When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child…” We are called to experience God in relationship and call people out of death and into his life.
The shepherds responded to the angels by going and meeting Jesus, then they got out and told others about their experience. That’s what you and I are supposed to do. We cannot rely on the leaders of this world to call people to God, because most of them care nothing for God. No, we must declare, as the shepherds did, the wondrous works of God. We, the ordinary people of this world, we must declare Jesus the Lamb provided by God for humanity’s salvation.
And so, here’s my challenge this week. First, recognize the Lamb who was slain for you. We must praise God for Jesus who was provided on our behalf, to be our sacrifice that brings us out of our sins and into a right relationship with God. And second, by verbal, or written communication, share the Christmas message of Jesus the Lamb of God. That there is a rift between us and God, which is our sin, our rebellion, that desire to do it our way apart from God. That rift leads us to both physical and eternal death. But God provided the Lamb Jesus to take our punishment for our sin. That he would be the bridge that would span the rift we set up between us and God. That the innocent Lamb of God came specifically to die for us. And that the Christmas story is the arrival of that Lamb on earth. I challenge you to share the Lamb part of the Christmas story, so that people would know the reason for the season, that God provided the Lamb and that the ordinary shepherds, who knew about that need for that sacrifice, were invited to come and see if first.
We are called by God to first come to him and trust him as our Savior and then to be his witnesses to the world, because the Lamb of God, Jesus, was given on our behalf, and now we are to share that sacrifice with others. If we really want to talk about the reason for the season, we must talk about the Lamb that God provided. Amen.
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