The night Jesus was born wasn’t about God changing the Jewish religion or creating a new religion. It was about God walking toward humanity in order to establish a personal relationship with us. God became flesh and was among us. He came to us when we could not come to Him. It was an invitation to those who had turned from Him to come back to Him, not to a religion but to a relationship. Jesus came to show us that our Heavenly Father was better than we could ever have imagined.
Nothing in the Christmas story illustrates this truth more clearly than the shepherds. In the Christmas story, we meet a priest and his wife whose pedigrees went all the way back to Moses’ brother Aaron. Then we meet a young virgin, familiar with the prophets and their Messianic predictions, and her husband, a man of such faith and character that he stayed with his pregnant fiancée. We also meet Caesar Augustus and King Herod, political leaders who were part of the surrounding events. Then suddenly we meet the shepherds.
In the first century, shepherds were outcasts. They were almost always unskilled and uneducated. Society considered them dishonest, unreliable, and unsavory people. They weren’t even allowed to testify in court. Every day, they were required to do things that labeled them as unclean and were barred from the Temple for being unable to comply with religious law. These were not the cute children we see in church Christmas programs. These were renegade men to whom religion had not been a friend, who were constantly reminded that they were not good enough. However, these shepherds were the first to whom God announced the message of Jesus’ birth. They were going about their normal routine when an angel appeared to them with a message of inclusion for all people, regardless of social class.
The Savior’s birth was about God letting the shepherds know He wanted a relationship with everyone, including those society wanted nothing to do with. Later, Jesus would invite people to follow Him in much the same way. He said, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28-30 MSG).
The shepherds spread this wonderful news near and far. They were overwhelmed that they had a place in God’s story of grace and forgiveness even after religion wrote them out of the narrative. Christmas is about God’s gift to us of a Savior who would bring joy to the world by offering forgiveness and grace.
Perhaps the greatest gift for you this Christmas is to receive the forgiveness and grace that comes from our Savior. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus, it begins not with a command to behave but a request to simply believe. The message of the Gospel is this: God loves you. God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for you. Jesus was buried, and on the third day, He arose from the dead and conquered the darkness of sin and death. That’s all you have to believe to start following Jesus. If you have already placed your faith in Jesus, take a moment to consider what a gift God gave us when He sent Jesus to be light in our world of darkness. Christmas is a reminder of the moment that light came into the world.
