Shepherds Hear the "Good News"
In the fields near Bethlehem there were some shepherds spending the night keeping a watch on their sheep. All of a sudden, a messenger from the Lord appeared, and because of the dazzling light that surrounded them, they were extremely frightened.
But the messenger said to them, "Do not be afraid. On the contrary, I am here to bring you good news of unbounded joy that will be for the whole people. For there was born today in the town of David for your benefit a saviour, none other than the Lord, Messiah. This is the sign by which you will recognize him: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger." [Luke 2:8-12]
Following the proclamation, these down-to-earth, hard to impress characters hurry off to see what has been proclaimed, and they find Mary, Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
In Jesus’ time shepherds were often considered dishonest and non-practising in their religious obligations, yet they became the model evangelists that Jesus was to call for in his adult ministry, for "... everyone who heard the report the shepherds gave them found it to be wonderful." [Luke 2:18] Did Luke choose shepherds to be the first visitors because Jesus tirelessly proclaimed that the good news he brought was precisely for the downtrodden and the outcast, or because Bethlehem was David’s town, the shepherd who became king and founder of the dynasty from which the Messiah was to come?