Bible Study Notes: St Luke's Gospel
Session 9: Chapter 2, 15-20
As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the shepherds
talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and
see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running,
and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was
believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about
this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within
herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising
God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the
way they'd been told!
© The
Message
We need to pay careful attention to this story; it has an important message for each of us. This is symbolism almost at its height in Luke's Gospel.
We are reminded first of the O.T. view of shepherds? Yes, the psalmist writes in the oft-quoted Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd" and the first showing of the Messiah other to Mary, Joseph and the animals, that in itself significant is to the shepherds. I wonder what these shepherds thought when they, themselves said the 23rd Psalm?
Or were they just godless, smelly people as many commentators like us to think? I think we need to take a little romantic licence as we look at these chaps out in their fields.
It is often said that this was a lonely life and yet we know from the narrative that there was a group of shepherds, but we can, I think assume that there was a degree of solitude involved. Solitude brings a greater sense of reality.
Henri Nouwen, one of my favourite spiritual writers said, "Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life." I think that in order to experience the power of God in life, we must experience the presence of God. In order to experience the presence of God, we need to make a habit of spending time in silence and solitude.
So solitude is something that can attune us to the mystery of nature and of God. These men on their lonely hilltops were visited by the angels and without thinking too much about it set off to visit the Saviour of the world. I guess that those who spend lots of time on their own become accustomed to odd happenings and, like me, might become a little odd themselves.
What a scene greeted them when they arrive at this cave or stable or whatever it was. As the hymn tells us:
"Tell of His birth at Bethlehem,
Not in a royal house or hall
But in a stable dark and dim:
The Word made flesh, a light for all."
Something in their lifestyle enabled the shepherds to absorb these amazing contrasts that sustain the secret of the Christmas story. That is their gift to us. If we forget God in a stable, we reduce the Bethlehem event to a funny little story about a birth with no special meaning. If we saw only God, we would endow the setting with an aura of magic and myth and rob it of any historical or salvific significance. The Christmas story is not if these paradoxes - seeming contradictions - are denied or ignored.
This story invites us to come to faith to behold the God-man in a stable. It is not enough simply to admire the child, for who cannot be moved by the intrinsic wonder of a new baby. But the shepherds did more than that. They worshipped the child with their faith. We could sing sweet little lullabies at the manger; on the other hand we could emulate the shepherds and join in the song of the angels about glory in the highest and peace on earth. Whilst as a visitor to this scene we might simply wish to rock the cradle, we are also called to believe that the contents of this cradle will rock the world.
Those of us are high-minded will miss the point and significance of Christmas. The shepherds are humble enough to know that they do not know everything, will find the truth in Jesus. The strong that trust only in power, will dismiss the very idea of the vulnerability of a God-child.
The shepherds in their simplicity represent the poor, the suffering, the despised, the desperate and the disturbed. They accept the wonder of One who sees such a lowly condition as part of the Kingdom of God. One who identifies with the trials, tribulations, hopes and sorrows of their life. Such a One can ransom, heal restore them.
With the shepherds we knee in the stable at Bethlehem and worship the God-child in the manger. We echo the songs of the angels by praising God's glory and begging for peace on earth and in our own hearts.
We can gaze at the humility of Jesus and pray that our own pride will melt away. We see the vulnerability of the child and hope that our own foolish defensiveness will disappear. As we witness Jesus' willingness to be dependent upon His parents so we can affirm again our desire to be dependent upon God.
As we contemplate a God who is willing to accept the limits of our condition, we can open ourselves to an honest embrace of life's boundaries. We will discover that the moment we do all of these things, a surge of unexpected freedom will fill us, a strength greater than any derived from our valued independence engulfs us and an inner sense of peace enter our hearts at last. We pray with the shepherds, the words of the old prayer, "A hold Jesus tenderly, dear mother, for He rules our heart".
The Christ child is born again today in the lonely, the sick, the poor, the dying and the forgotten. He asks us to love Him by loving and serving them. In this way we can fill every day with the warmth and joy of Christmas.
© Fr Michael Fuller: February 2008