Emmanuel

Homily December 24. 2024

            I find it fascinating that the opening verses of the story of the birth of Jesus include shepherds.  Shepherds had dirty jobs.  I mean REALLY dirty jobs.  The contact with animals that these shepherds experienced in the performing of their duties rendered them ritually unclean.  And as long as they worked as shepherds, they were perpetually ritually unclean.  Let’s stop for one moment and think about what this means.  Shepherds were, as a result of their profession, NEVER permitted to set foot in the temple and never permitted to participate in worship.

And their ceremonial uncleanness also separated them from the rest of the Jewish community because, as we all know, ritual uncleanness was contagious.  If you were to touch someone who was unclean, that made you unclean also.  And not only was the shepherd’s job dirty and alienating, but apparently, the people who worked as shepherds didn’t exactly have the best reputation.  In fact, according to Jewish law, a shepherd’s testimony was inadmissible in a court of law, presumably due to the character, or lack thereof, of those who were drawn to this profession.

            And so, with this in mind, the Christmas story takes on somewhat of a new dimension.  I mean, why were the angels sent to shepherds?  God could have sent the angel chorus to anyone He chose.  He could have sent that chorus to Caesar Agustus.  In the dark of night, He could have lit the imperial palace up as if it was midday and filled that space with the sound of heavenly praise.  But He didn’t.  He could have sent the angels to the temple and to the priests to herald the arrival of their long-awaited Messiah.  But He didn’t.  He could have sent that heavenly chorus directly to the high priest’s house and let the high priest be the one to tell the world the good news about Jesus’ birth.  But He didn’t.  A few weeks back we read that Luke identified 7 of the most influential men in the Roman world, but the angels didn’t visit any of them.  Instead, it was shepherds.  Why?

            Well, when WE hear good news, who is the first person that we want to tell?  We share our good news with those who are the most likely to delight with us over the news.  And so, we share our good news first with our closest family and friends, So, God’s choice to tell the shepherds first, is telling us something about God Himself.  God first told the Good News to those who He knew would be the ones who would rejoice with Him. 

The kings, the dignitaries, the religious rulers, they weren’t going to rejoice with God over the birth of the Messiah.  In fact, they would end up opposing Jesus because he threatened their power.  And so, God sent the heavenly host to tell the shepherds, and what did the shepherds do?  When they saw the baby Jesus in the manger, Luke tells us that, “they made known what [the angels] had told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them,” And what did the shepherds do after they returned to their fields?  Luke tells us that, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.”  God told the shepherds first because God knew that they would be the ones who would be rejoicing with Him.

            Isaiah tells us that the Messiah will be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us”.  And Jesus truly is “God with US”.  He is not God with the kings and the well connected.  He is not God with the religious authorities.  He is God WITH US!  He is God who doesn’t require His followers to have an elite position in society.  He is God who doesn’t require elite training in the Bible or in religion.  He is God who does not require an elite income or elite status to be His follower.  He is simply God with us.  And if we ever, ever doubt our worthiness to come before God, just remember that He came to the perpetually unclean shepherds first.

            It’s not possible to read the Bible and not come away with the understanding that God holds a special place in His heart for the poor and the marginalized.  The shepherds who were rejected by the people, excluded from worship, and deeply distrusted, are the very ones that God embraced.  It’s almost impossible to comprehend the fact that unclean shepherds, led by God to a baby, lying in a sheep’s feeding trough, wrapped in strips of cloth, and in a cold and damp cave, is the way the creator of the universe chose to enter the world.  No power, no influence, no friends in high places, just Emmanuel… God with us.

            God’s kingdom is not about power and authority, though God has those things in unfathomable abundance.  God’s kingdom is about God choosing to reconcile the world to Himself.  It’s about bridging the gap between God’s holiness and our sinfulness which God accomplishes by assigning the sinlessness and goodness of Jesus to us… and making it as if our sin never happened.  And this transaction, this free gift of a loving and gracious God is available to absolutely everyone who chooses to accept God’s gift of new life in Him.

            It doesn’t matter who we are.  It doesn’t matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done.  It doesn’t matter how far away from God we think we are.  It only matters where our hearts are right here and right now.  This is the message of the shepherds.  God comes to the unclean, the unwanted, the unappreciated, and the rejected, and out of the difficulties of their lives, He creates something unimaginably beautiful.  He creates a life that He teaches to love Him and to love others.

            Here is the simple truth… If Jesus was willing to be born into an environment as dismal and as smelly as a manger, there is no heart into which He will be unwilling to be born as well.