God appeared to the shepherds

Jewish society at the time of Jesus was very highly stratified from the Roman emperor at the top to slaves at the bottom. Everyone knew their place in this hierarchy, and anyone attempting to climb a level was soon cast down. Everyone knew it was wrong to do so. And associating with anyone from too low a level was also thought wrong.

     Shepherds were near the bottom of the social order. The reasons were simple enough: they were considered unclean because of many aspects of their job. For example, they would often touch blood and dung. They did not attend the Temple often enough because they were always in the fields with their flocks. Some synagogues refused to admit shepherds because they had no education and would have mangled the local dialect when repeating the Jewish liturgy. They had probably not memorised the Torah (the Law of Moses).

     It’s demeaning being near the bottom of a social order. We have records of shepherds running wild through small, out-of-the-way Judean villages, demanding not to be treated as ‘non-people’. And they had a point: the people needed wool and milk from the shepherds’ sheep, as well as lambs and sheep for sacrifice in the Jerusalem Temple.

     St Luke in chapter 2 of his Gospel describes Jesus’ birth, and makes a truly amazing claim. He says the very first people to hear the good news were shepherds:

There were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terrified. The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord’ (Luke 2:8–11).

     It’s amazing because it demonstrates the upside-down world that Jesus came to bring about. Although the shepherds were the least important in most
people’s eyes, God chose to tell them first.

     This social inversion became a feature of Jesus’ ministry, and is demonstrated repeatedly in the Christmas stories:

• Jesus is born to an unmarried mother from a provincial backwater.
• He is born in a cattle shed and a feed trough is used as a bed.
• The magi greet him. They are gentiles and astrologers, so doubly unclean.

So as we read the Christmas stories, we need to understand that God intends us to read the stories surrounding Jesus’ birth as being deeply subversive. He is changing absolutely everything.