Christmas: A Gift to the Criminal Class (Part 1)

The medium is the message. Who experienced the first Christmas were enlisted by God to explain what the Gospel was. The results are always surprising.

For instance, the Archangel told the shephards of a baby was born in Bethlehem that was given to them. This baby was the long awaited Messiah. The angel described the child as “the savior for all people. Christ, the Lord.” As if to punctuate the moment, a choir of angels appeared and sang a chorus: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his peace on Earth.”

The shepherds were an unlikely audience to receive an angelic serenade, and not just because men who make a profession of living in the fields with sheep are less likely be cultured. Shepherds had a poor professional reputation. Today, you’ll find soft news stories cataloguing the most and least trusted professions. Our society tends to trust doctors, nurses, and homemaker. But we’re suspicious of lawmakers, mechanics, and members of the media, and clergy. If polled like these were conducted in Bible times, shepherds would belong to the latter list. In fact, they earn such a poor reputation that they weren’t allowed to testify in court. If a shepherd had witnessed a violent crime or a burglary his testimony would have been inadmissible in court. They were that distrusted.

Shepherds were known for having issues with property boundaries. When town folk noticed a flock of sheep too near, they’d take the laundry off the clothes line and lock the tool shed. Shepherds lived a semi-nomadic life and they weren’t able to pack everything they needed to exist. So they just stole as they go. They had reputations similar to that of gypsies—they’d roll into town, create criminal mischief, and then leave. Shepherds earned a place in the same social circle as tax collectors, prostitutes, and other high-flying sinners.

These were the people who God chose to be the first witnesses to the Nativity: rough workmen whose testimony was inadmissible in court. Their story would be received as a hostile prank or the set up to an outlandish swindle. God chose these people to be the legal witnesses to the birth of his son and the angelic interpretation of his entry in the world: This child was the Messiah, the savior of all people, the one whose life would glorify God and finally bring peace to God’s people on earth.

Continued tomorrow.