I Dropped Baby Jesus

Monday, Dec 21 - Who Am I (3)?
So far, gotta tell ya, I’m no Mary, and I’m definitely no Joseph! However, next on the scene are
the shepherds. Simple men. Smelly (they spent their entire day around sheep, for goodness
sake!). Here's what I've learned about shepherd's during Jesus day.** Once shepherds held
some level of esteem, and the occupation noble, as during the days of Abraham and a young,
pre-king, David. By the time of Jesus' birth, this was no longer so. Shepherds were at the
bottom of the social ladder, sharing the same status as tax collectors and dung sweepers.
(Bummer!) They are only mentioned in Luke's gospel. Shepherds were marginalized, belittled,
and stereotyped. In the Mishnah, Judaism's written record of the oral law, it is written that no
one should ever feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who has fallen into a pit. Such prejudice
extended to civil rights - shepherds were completely deprived. For goodness sake, a shepherd
wasn't even admitted into a public court to testify as a witness. Some shepherds came by their
reputation rightly, others not so much. Regardless, to be a shepherd was to be despised.
In order to relate to a shepherd on the hillside, I had to think of the most marginalized, illthought-of
people in current society. Not wanting to admit to my own social prejudices, I asked
"Google." I typed into the search engine, "most despised people group in American society."
The first fifteen (that's what showed up on my page #1) entries popped up the following answer:
atheists. I found that intriguing. So, picture a group of atheists sitting on a hillside, chatting about
whatever atheists find to chat about, and a group of angels surround them with the birth
announcement of a Savior sent from a God-they-don't-even-believe-exists. All of a sudden, we
have atheists-no-more! All of a sudden, David Silverman, Peter Singer, Richard Dawkins,
Michael Martin (and a host of Hollywood actors & actresses) are showing up in churches and
singing the praise of God the Father, and telling unbelievable stories. All of a sudden, the
religious leaders of our day are baffled! What's happening? Not only are they baffled, their
noses are totally out of joint. God wouldn't unveil the greatest mystery of all time to these men!
Don't lose sight of this irony... However, it was the least expected that Jesus came to save. His
mission was to move among the lowly and the outcast, to seek and to save the lost! Not the
healthy, but the sick, needed the doctor!
To be a shepherd around the manger required a miracle of brokenness. To be a shepherd
around the manger meant I recognized my lostness. To be a shepherd around the manger
meant that I set aside all my worries about what people thought, and desired to SEE the
SAVIOR more than I FEARED REJECTION. To be a shepherd around the manger meant that
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