by Zach Kincaid
In those days of Caesar Augustus, you could see the Temple from the nearby fields where shepherds tended sheep, raised as a ready sacrifice for a person’s sin. Since the Roman census ordered families to register in their hometowns, the paths that connected Jerusalem with outlying villages seemed exceptionally busy. If one knew to cut through the throngs of people to see a very pregnant woman and a man by her side, you might assume a few things, but nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps they came from somewhere up north and journeyed through the bustle of Jerusalem, passing close to the Temple and its priests, as well as in the shadow of the client king of Rome, Herod. By afternoon, the couple looked back at the Holy City before heading further south. Whatever their previous trek, their faces showed an overwhelming hope they would arrive at a stopping place soon.
But the shepherds didn’t see the couple. No one did. No one paid attention, not even Simeon or Anna who looked on that day as feverishly as they did a few days later. Everyone went about whatever business the day held. For the shepherds, it meant a long night ahead. As customary, they ate together before the night grew too heavy and dark. And in an everyday rhythm, they headed out to hem in their flocks after dinner.
As the sky fell into darkness, it happened. A figure approached with sudden force, giving the shepherds no time to pose a defense. They knew their scripture. The figure carried the same glow as Moses coming down from Mount Sinai – the shekinah glory, as the rabbis called it. And the light appeared to inundate the entire field as the figure came in closer. This must be an angel from Yahweh. They became afraid, nervous, and threatened. “Don’t be afraid for I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people,” the angel said. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
And then, like Elisha exposing the eyes of the servant too scared of Aram’s surrounding army, the sky flung open with a host of angels, and the hills bursts full of horses and chariots of fire. And then God gave a new song to the angels, and it rang clear to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
The angels left and the skies shrunk back. Everything seemed normal again, but everything had changed. The shepherds who attended the sheep for the Temple now went to find the great shepherd of the sheep, as the writer of Hebrews calls the Messiah. “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened,” they said to one another.
May our eyes be opened to this thing that has happened – to the skies aglow with God’s glory found just off the path from Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, where a Savior is born, Christ the Lord. He will make our paths straight if we let him.
Luke 2; 2 Kings 6:17-23; Psalm 40:3; Hebrews 13:20; Matthew 3:3