GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY, 1
FROM St Luke’s Gospel (2:8-20) we learn that when the Son of David, Who would later call Himself the Good Shepherd, was born in the city of David, the shepherd boy who became king, the news of His Birth was first made known to shepherds. To the Gentile astrologers the birth was announced through a star, to the Jewish shepherds by an Angel. God spoke to each group of men in the way most easily understood by them, through thought-forms familiar to them.
St Luke tells us that on the night of the Nativity, “in the same country,” that is, on the plains around Bethlehem, most likely in the same pastures where David had long ago spent his youth minding his father Jesse’s sheep, shepherds were “keeping watch over their flock by night.” He does not tell us what season or month of the year it was.
The shepherds were going about their usual work, which at nighttime involved taking it in turns to be on watch, probably for three hours at a stretch. Unlike the youthful David, they would not have to contend with lions or bears, as these animals were extinct in Palestine by that time, but there were still jackals, foxes and wolves, and also robbers, to be guarded against. So in addition to the simple flute , for the enjoyment of their traditional pastime of piping to their sheep, these shepherds would have been armed with clubs and slings.
In Old Testament times the shepherd’s occupation was an honoured one among the Hebrews, as in all pastoral societies. Sheep were then a main source of wealth. Extensive flocks had fed in the wilderness near Bethlehem, kept mainly for milk and fleeces, and later for wool, which was in great demand for clothing. The shofar, or ceremonial trumpet, used in religious services and to announce the approach of the Sabbath, was made from the large, curved horn of a ram. Abel had been a “keeper of sheep” (Genesis 4:2), the Patriarch Jacob had been a shepherd - indeed the Patriarchs had counted their sheep by the thousands. Moses the great Law-giver and David the great King had both been called from minding sheep to take a special part in God’s plan for His people. As people became more settled, and agriculture became more widespread, the care of sheep was considered of less importance. In the New Testament times shepherds seem to have been regarded with considerable disfavour by the Rabbis because the nature of their work made strict observance of the many man-made, religious regulations almost impossible.
The shepherds in the Bethlehem region that night were men in close and constant contact with nature, their lives spent in the untiring care of their flocks. They went in front of their sheep, calling to them - the sheep knew the voice of their own shepherd and would not follow a stranger - finding pasture and water for them, healing their wounds with oil, carrying tiny lambs in the folds of their garments close to their chests, playing music to their sheep, knowing each one and calling them by their individual names, seeking the straying ones, lifting them out of dangerous places with the crook, prepared to fight and if necessary die for the sheep.
In the Old Testament God had been likened to the Shepherd of His people by the Prophet Esaias (Isaiah): “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Es. 40:11). King David had composed the greatly-loved psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd.” Our Lord would say, “I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). The leaders of the Church are charged with being faithful shepherds of the rational sheep, the flock of Christ.
