Four Shepherds - Luke 2:8-20

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Advent. Our yearly journey towards Jesus' birth. It's the season when we head off down the road to Bethlehem to meet Christ as He comes to earth.  

We each travel that journey in different ways.  

• As an individual—our own unique personal journey, coming to find Christ.  
• As a church together, hearing the voice of the Spirit as He guides us and unites us.  
• As a family of believers around the world, together with all of those who came this way before us, those who follow with us until Christ returns.  

Some people mark the days of Advent by marking the days on a calendar, checking them off as they pass, counting down to December the 25th.  

For some people, counting down in Advent means buying an Advent calendar, opening a ‘window’ and eating a chocolate a day (assuming a certain level of self-discipline).  

We have the tradition of each week lighting one more candle and seeing the light slowly grow as we come closer and closer to our destination.  

So... For our Advent series of messages this year, we will be counting down. 

This first week we’ll look at 4 shepherds. Next week, at 3 kings. The week after that, at 2 lovers. The week after that, at 1 promise. On Christmas Eve, we are going to celebrate the fact that we have reached Ground Zero, where everything ends and everything begins again.  

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Our focus here is on shepherds: beyond our nativity scenes, beyond the costumes and the figurines. 

Who were they? What do they have to teach us? 

Shepherd #1: I’ll call him Jeri. 

In 1993, a team of archaeologists found in a long, narrow cave near Jericho something they weren’t exactly looking for: the burial place of a man about 50 years old (a pretty good age for his time). His skeleton bore evidence of a fibula broken and healed a few months before his death.  

They also found some items buried with him.  

• His sandals preserved by the dry desert air, with the uneven wear of someone recovering from an injury. 
• A walking stick about a metre long (40 inches), cut from the branch of a willow tree,  
• A bowl hand-carved from oak, 20 cm (8 inches) across, and 7 cm deep (3 inches) for eating on the road. 

The first conclusion was that he’d been buried about 100 years before Christ was born. 

They also named the location “The Cave of the Warrior” based on some of the other things buried with him.  

• A knife made from flint stone, about a foot long.  
• A smaller blade, 1.5 inches long.  
• A bow, about four feet tall and shaped from a single branch of a wild olive tree.  
• A few arrows, cut from lengths of reed and wood.  

It seemed logical that these were the weapons of a warrior. 

Until they did some more testing, which revealed that he had actually been placed in his cave 3,500 years before Jesus was born.  

Testing for particulates showed that his sandals were the footwear of someone who had spent a lot of time walking where sheep had walked.  

His bow was not a weapon of battle used once or twice. It was worn smooth from his hand after long use. The arrows were not designed for sharp heads of stone or iron, but for wooden heads, blunted and used for hunting small animals and birds for food. Jeri was not a warrior. Jeri was a shepherd. 

We might think that those two things are very, very different.  

But sheep cannot defend themselves from predators, or thieves. The shepherd had to be prepared to protect them.  

A shepherd must be ready to fight.  

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Shepherd #2 - Rachel.  

We meet Rachel for the first time in Genesis 29:9. She is remembered by many for being a beautiful woman, for her struggle with infertility, and for her very complicated family.  

Rachel's family lived a life of subsistence, working the land to put food on the table. Young women learned skills, depending on their family's farm or business. They would work in the fields, whether raising crops, or caring for animals. Rachel, unlike almost any women in the Bible, is introduced by her occupation.  

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. Genesis 29:9 

“She was a shepherd.”  

Which means that she protected her flock from weather or predators, retrieved straying animals, provided veterinary care when they were injured or ill, managed pastures and resources. She would have learned to travel light, to feed herself out on the range for weeks or months at a time.  

Rachel would have known how to use a bow and arrow, and to be accountable for her mistakes. One commentary writer writes that a successful shepherd would have to be “strong, devoted, selfless, and honourable.” She would have carried a bowl and a knife. Worn good, solid, protective shoes. Carried a rod (for protection against predators) and a staff (for guiding the sheep and keeping them close). 

She was a shepherd, with her sleeves rolled up and ready to go to work, doing what needed to be done for her flock and her family. 

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Shepherd #3 - Moses. He grew up rich, and privileged, and sheltered, but his life took a turn, which you can read about in the book of Exodus. 

Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Exodus 3:1 

Moses was tending his flock in the wilderness, anywhere from 20 to 100 miles from home base. And his life changed. 

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed. So Moses thought, “I must go over and see this marvellous sight. Why is the bush not burning up?” When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. Exodus 3:2-4 

Shepherd Moses, in the wilderness, far from the familiar comforts of home, far from the foods, the music, the voices that were known to him, doing the work of a shepherd with nobody else around, just him and his sheep and the hills encounters a flame that is not a flame.  

He hears for the first time the voice that he would follow for the rest of his life.  

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Shepherd #4 – another whose name we don’t know, but I'm going to call him Shimon.  

He is one of our Bethlehem shepherds, recreated in our nativity scene figurines. They don't look much like warriors; they are far too tidy and tender. 

Imagine them gathering around a fire on that Bethlehem Judean night, taking turns keeping watch at a sheepfold. Sitting around a fire, comparing notes. Like, is that river running low yet, or is it still okay to go there for water? What happened to that pack of wolves that you were telling me about last week? Hey, is that a new staff? Nice, olive wood or oak? Have you tried one of those new recurve bows? 

Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid!...” Luke 2:9-10 

Shimon worked with a team: with people who were doing the same work. And he was awake when he was supposed to be awake. 

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So what do we know about these four shepherds?  

About Jeri, a man who died nearly 6,000 years ago, and buried in a cave with ritual and care?  

About Rachel, the second daughter of a complicated family, who was buried with great love by her husband of many years?  

About Moses, the younger son of a slave family who was buried by God Himself.  

About Shimon, our Bethlehem shepherd, in whose company we spend about 5 minutes, maybe 10. Only long enough to know that for him, the news of Christ's birth, of God's coming to earth, was more important than anything.  

What do we know about them?  

We know that they lived: actual people, heart and soul, flesh and bone human beings. Not just tropes or myths or fictions wished into being by some author who wants to make a point. These were people like us, ordinary people doing ordinary things, living ordinary, wonderful lives.  

We know that they dared.  

They all lived with courage.  

• Jeri with the courage to limp along with the sheep, leaning on his walking stick while his broken bone healed.  
• Rachel with the courage to do whatever was needed to care for her flock and her family.  
• Moses with the courage to lead his flock into new territory, and later his people through the wilderness, following the voice of Yahweh god.  
• Shimon, our Bethlehem shepherd, with the courage to run off into the night, to find an impossible child.  

We know that they were loved. Not because we know them, but because we know Yahweh God.

God loved the world in this way... that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but would live forever with Him. John 3:16 

God proves His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 

Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 

All of our shepherds—all four of them—they were loved.  

They were loved by the God who gave them life.  

By the God who calls us to dare.