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- - Matthew 22:1–14NLT
Peace
Last time we studied God’s Word together we started a series that focused on Jesus’ first coming. We watched a clip from the TV series, The Chosen. Specifically, we watched a possible conversation that Joseph and Mary could have had as they were expecting Jesus. Their lives had been completely transformed by God’s promise to bring His Son to the world through Mary. We can only imagine what might have gone through their minds as they experienced the excitement, nervousness, joy, and possibly even a fair amount of panic.
In current day United States, we often go through a series of crazy emotions when we burn our toast, Joseph and Mary are given the responsibility of raising the Son of the creator of the universe! Last week we watched as they settled in to the hope that they had in the truth that “nothing is impossible with God.” Today we are going to watch some scenes from the Christmas episode as we look to the peace that Jesus brings. In this first scene you will be introduced to the ‘shepherds of Christmas.’ You are about to be introduced to one shepherd in particular.
Before we watch, let’s go to God in prayer.
Pray
Show Clip #1 “Social Rejection”
We don’t know much about the shepherds of Christmas, but we do know that it was hard out there for a shepherd at the time of Jesus. Back then shepherds were pretty low in society. In comparison to others they were seen as working a very average, unspectacular, uninspiring job. They were often deeply impoverished. They were rather out-of-the-loop with everyday life, given most of their time being spent with animals all day long and into the night. Since they spent most of their time with animals they were seen as a bit awkward and often unhygienic. They were assumed to be uneducated.
They were considered subservient to just about everyone, every demand, and the marketplace. From a religious standpoint they were often deemed ‘unclean’ due to their work with animals and perhaps even their inability to worship as regularly as others. All of this left them in an incredibly dire place socially.
In the clip we watched, the creators captured this pretty well. When the shepherds arrive at the well to provide water to their flocks and refill their own canteens, thee townspeople are clearly dismissive of them. They were clearly disgusted by them, always moving away from the men and refusing to engage them in conversation. This was probably a regular occurrence for shepherds at the time of Jesus.
Imagine what may have gone on within these shepherds hearts and minds. We all have a lot in common with a shepherd, especially you animal people! Have you ever been working cattle, accidentally stepped in something, then for the rest of the day people tend to give you a wide birth? Maybe you’ve been cleaning chimney’s all day and you are covered in soot and smell like creosote, so people dismiss you? Maybe it’s something else that is out of your control so you experience the dismissal and even disgust of others.
That is the reality of an unjust world. We are all in socially-dire situations that are deeply painful. If not now, at some point you will feel the pain of it in life. What goes through your mind in those moments? “I am worthless. I am unwanted. Unloved. Unclean.” Regardless of your profession, we all have something in common with shepherds. These shepherds had it even worse than we’ve already talked about though.
I want to show you another scene from the show. At this point in the episode, the shepherds have found their way into the Town of Bethlehem, and they’re visiting the marketplace to see if anyone would like to purchase a lamb or two from their flock. Do you remember the one shepherd we were pushed to focus on in the earlier scene? He had a pronounced limp. You are going to watch him interact with a religious leader over the possibility of his lamb serving as a pleasing sacrifice to God. Watch how he is treated…
Show Clip #2 “Spiritual Rejection”
It was even worse for these shepherds than we’d previously acknowledged. Theirs wasn’t just a socially-dire situation. It was spiritually-dire too. Notice a couple of details from that scene about how the religious leaders treated the shepherds…
The Pharisee told the shepherd that “it’s because of people like you that the Messiah has not come.”
The religious leader’s assistant spit on the ground where the shepherd had been standing with his lamb in order to pass a clear message to the shepherds: “Due to your sin — due to the things you’ve said and left unsaid, done and left undone — it’s not just people who are disgusted by you, but God himself, too. And so it’s not just people who are dismissive of you, but God himself, too. He’s done with you, because you’re just too far gone.”
These are messages that wouldn’t have too hard for the shepherd to understand and believe. Especially the one who was limited by a physical condition. Having a physical condition would inspire a similar message and conclusion about his spiritual condition. Just like the blind man Jesus encountered in John 9. The disciples asked Jesus who sinned to make such a condition a reality, the man or his parents? That was a prominent line of thinking at that time. If you are hobbled in any way, surely you must be horrible in some way.
Then at the end of the scene the shepherd falls and wounds his arm. That poor shepherd is clearly nursing wounds that run much deeper than a scratch on his forearm, isn’t he?
While there is much in the behavior and words of the religious leader that needs to be confronted and corrected, sin is a very real thing and God is never pleased with sin. As hard as it is to reckon with, God does mete out judgement on sin, sometimes in “real time” and certainly at the end of time. The death that each person has brought into the world is deserving of death. Only a perfect sacrifice can cover it, and that is what the religious leader was getting at in seeking a lamb “without blemish.”
However, a perfect lamb could only do so much. What was needed was something greater. Someone. Someone to lay down their life as a sacrifice on behalf of others. All others, not just the lowly shepherds. What the religious leader was missing is that he needed someone greater for his forgiveness too. Sin and the spiritually-dire situation that it creates is not only relegated to some small corner of society that includes shepherds and a few other people. It is a problem for ALL mankind.
Romans 3:23 ESV
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Can you imagine the battle going on in the minds and hearts of the shepherds? Of course you can, because while you might not be a shepherd, you are a human being. Coming face to face with your sin is never pleasant. That’s probably why the religious leaders simply ignored their’s. The shepherds probably faced a lot of anxiety when they couldn’t come up with a perfect sacrifice. Similarly, you have probably faced some anxiety when you don’t feel good enough or like you are a failure.
There is a battle deep within you that is telling you that you aren’t good enough. That there is no way forward. That you stand defiant against the only one who is perfect and can deliver you. You may not be a shepherd, but you are a human being.
So far we’ve looked at how things just get worse and worse for the shepherds. Suddenly, on that holy night when Jesus was born, things got better.
Luke 2:8–15 NLT
8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” 15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
Good news that will bring great joy to ALL people. Even shepherds!
If you just had a baby, who would you tell? Your family. Your close friends. Think about who God could have first announced the Jesus’ birth to...
Joseph and Mary’s family
some of the nearby townspeople of Bethlehem
the religious leaders
Jewish men and women who had long proven themselves to be devout
a Roman nobleman or emperor or soldier
the wise men
How perfect is it that the first people to hear of Jesus’ birth are the shepherds? It was THE way for God to drive home the idea that the Messiah was for “all the people.” We’ve been trying to get in the heads of these shepherds all morning, how might it have made them feel to realize that they were the first to receive this news? How could it not have brought them peace.
It’s as if God is saying, “I know your battles within. The war you’ve waged against yourself. But you are of great worth. You are wanted. You are loved. You have not been overlooked, forgotten, passed by, or dismissed. Yes, you have waged war against me an my ways, but I am making peace between us through my Son, the Messiah, the rescuer. By Him you will be forgiven. He will be the perfect Lamb, sacrificed for you.
Let’s watch one final scene. It shows the shepherds arriving at the stable where Jesus was born. Watch what happens…
Show Clip #3 “Wounds Cared For”
I’m not crying, there is something in my eye. After seeing what this shepherd went through in the other scenes, I love the imagery in this scene. Yes, the shepherds physical wound is being bound up and cared for by the very swaddling cloths of the baby, but the baby’s arrival is binding up the shepherd’s deeper wounds. The baby will grow to be a man who will once-for-all bind up the deepest wounds by laying down His life. By HIS wounds, the shepherd’s will be healed, just as it was promised in the OT prophecies. The shepherd is being given such a peace.
You might not be a shepherd, but all of this is for you, too. This peace is for you. The first week we talked about Jesus’ coming allows us to turn from hopelessness to hope. Today we see that Jesus’ coming also allows us to turn from shame and toward peace. We rejoice that as he came even for shepherds, He also came for us. He came to bring us peace within because he makes peace between us and God as well as peace between us and ourselves.
Let’s close in prayer.
Pray
- - Romans 3:23NIV2011
- - Luke 2:8–15NIV2011

Matthew 22:1–14NLT

Peace

Romans 3:23NIV2011

Luke 2:8–15NIV2011