Peace on Earth!

 

“And there were shepherd abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night…”

So begins the passage from Luke 2 about visitors who traveled – not from eastern lands, but simply from pastures outside of Bethlehem.  They were field workers who watched over sheep and goats and the only notable thing about them was that they saw a group of angels and then went to see Jesus.

They seem to have been pretty impressed by what they saw.  “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” (Luke 2:20)

Surely, not all of the shepherds went.  Some of the shepherds must have stayed back to watch the sheep and I wonder how they responded to the excitement of their compatriots.  “What’s the big deal?”  They might have said.  “It’s just a baby – and more than that, a baby with parents too poor to have room inside.  They’re living in a stable – nothing kingly about that, is there?”

Some of the others may have gotten excited from the stories they had been told.  Between groups of angels proclaiming the Good News and the excitement of the shepherds who had visited the stable, they knew that something had changed.  Centuries of oppression by foreign empires was going to end with the birth of God’s anointed One – the Messiah.

Of course, we today are in much the same boat as the shepherds who stayed back.  Since the first century, no one has walked dusty trails with Jesus or watched Him walk on water or eaten bread that He broke to feed the ten thousand.  We only have the stories that those early followers of His left behind and can sense the excitement they experienced in His presence.

For many people, it is all too much to believe.  “What’s the big deal?”  They ask.  “A poor Galilean carpenter lived and was crucified, and His followers blew Him up into a big deal He never was during His lifetime.  There’s nothing there for me to be excited about.”

They go on their ways unmoved and unchanged by the message the angels brought to the shepherds.  They have jobs to take care of and chores to do and no time for any of this Messianic silliness.

On the other hand, some of us read the stories and catch the excitement.  There is something more – Good News, not only for first century Jews, but for All People! 

Those of us who believe can look back and realize that Jesus came to bring peace to the nations. 

If there is one thing that is needed it is peace.  For nations rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom.  Even in the United States, polarization rules supreme and men attack each other in anger and even school children are not immune to the fear of shooters showing up to kill teachers and students.

This Christmas season, I pray for peace to the One who came to bring peace.  With the shepherds, I rejoice, because God’s Messiah has come to bring peace to a world torn by war and conflict.