Poor Shepherds
At the time of the birth of Jesus, the people of Judea were living under the rule of an empire centered in a city on a different continent nearly 1,500 miles away from Jerusalem. While there were certainly crueler empires to live under and Roman administration and engineering were second to none at the time, there is always tension when one group of people rules over another group with an entirely different culture, language, and religion. While Jerusalem had once been the capital of a prosperous kingdom, the Romans moved the capital of the region to Caesarea Maritima at some point early in Jesus’s life. Furthermore, Judea wasn’t even a major province itself, but rather was a satellite province of the larger region of Syria, whose legate ruled over Judea. Jerusalem had become the second most important city in the province of a province of the Roman Empire. And compared with Jerusalem, Bethlehem was a tiny, backwater town. The people of the area had little, if any, major political power of their own. Insignificant people dwelling in the hill country, largely forgotten by the world. Furthermore, between the taxes and military might of Rome and the dangerous and unstable local leadership from the Herodians, the people would likely have experienced more hardship and worry when looking to the halls of power than help and relief for the struggles of daily life. I wouldn’t want to be a Judean at the beginning of the first century.
We don’t have a lot of information about the shepherds Luke describes, but we do know they are keeping watch over their flocks by night. This may prompt some questions in the reader. Why were the shepherds out with their sheep at night? Why wouldn’t they be brought into a safe place to rest while their shepherds slept? Do they need to graze at all hours? In his commentary on Luke, Joel Green argues that even if the shepherds owned some of their own land, it wouldn’t have been enough to keep up with expenses and taxes. They likely would have hired themselves out during the day. It is quite possible that these shepherds had already worked a full day. They sat there in the cold night air, still sticky with the sweat of the day, half asleep, watching their sheep. Perhaps they talked with each other to pass the time and keep one another awake. Perhaps they simply let thoughts of their families give them the energy they needed to push their achy muscles through another leaden step, counting the seconds until they could get out of the wind, take a little water and a crust of bread, and lay down on a bed of hay. I wouldn’t want to be a shepherd tending the flock by night.
And yet, these poor Judean shepherds are some of the first in the world to hear the good news of God’s revelation. A Savior has been born! While the rich and powerful sleep in their beds, while Emperor Augustus rests in a palace a thousand miles away, poor, overworked shepherds bear witness to the singing of the heavenly host, and suddenly their weary muscles and tense joints find new life. Suddenly there is something in this world more important than sheep and a warm bed. While Mary and her family already knew about Jesus, on this night, here among the poor and weary, God’s good news first arrived to the wider world.
God could have chosen different circumstances for incarnation. God could have made Jerusalem the most powerful city on earth, being born in a magnificent palace to a court full of royal admirers. God could have been born during the day, so that heralds could move through the streets full of eager people to tell the news. Nevertheless, God chose to first appear by night to the poor and oppressed. In fact, God’s choice of time is exactly what made the poor the first witnesses. Because of the late hour, few people would have been awake, certainly not the rich and powerful who would be in comfortable beds by this point. This was the hour of guards and the working poor who couldn’t afford to live comfortable lives. God’s choice of timing centered the poor in the story, not the rich and powerful. This is a beautiful thing by itself, but having just finished the Matthew year in the lectionary, the story of the shepherds makes us think of an important theme that Jesus hit upon a few times in Matthew: keeping awake. The shepherds were able to hear the angel chorus because they had stayed awake.
The shepherds probably didn’t want to stay up that late. They didn’t know they were looking for something. They didn’t realize an important, world-changing message awaited them that night. They stayed awake simply because they had to. Someone needs to be awake. On the one hand, there is some tension here. Surely, God doesn’t want to perpetuate systems that unfairly keep the poor and oppressed from getting enough sleep. Sleep is important for health, and God gives people the gift of Sabbath so that they do not need to toil endlessly. Eternally saddling the poor with restlessness seems unfair.
At the same time, we can also interpret this more positively. God created both the day and the night. Both are good. And perhaps God also ordered the world in such a way that some people will be awake, whether working or fretting over their personal business or looking up at the stars with awe and wonder. God ensures that someone is awake when it is time for God’s message to be delivered, whether they are expecting it or not.
This stands in stark contrast with the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of Jesus’s arrest. Jesus told them what was about to happen. They knew what to expect. Jesus specifically asked them to stay awake with him. And yet, they couldn’t fight off the temptation to sleep. The most faithful and dedicated friends and followers of Jesus couldn’t stay awake when they needed to. What hope do we have of keeping ourselves awake for when the time comes?
As with so many facets of our journey with God, when left to our own devices, we will fail. We will fall asleep on the job. Even when we know what to expect and watch for, we will miss it. However, God doesn’t rest the entire fate of salvation history on our ability to keep watch. God made a world that ensures that someone will be there to receive the good news when it comes. We hope and pray that everyone gets the rest they need, especially with all the travel and busyness that comes with the holiday season. And we take further comfort in the assurance that we don’t need to maintain eternal vigilance on our own. God will make sure that someone is awake when the time comes.
