I stare at the small figurines on my mantle and don’t question why they were there. What would the manger scene be without the shepherds?!

But why did God choose this group of men to be the first to hear His greatest announcement in history?

Pastor and teacher John MacArthur shares in a sermon on Luke 2, “You know, it’s the most unlikely group of people to make this proclamation to. If you were orchestrating this, if you were a PR agent and you were designing a campaign to announce that the Savior of the world had been born, the last people you would go to is a bunch of shepherds. I mean, literally the last people you would go to.

You might say…Well, we want to get this thing out, we need to go the people who have the greatest influence. We want to go to the influencers, as they would be called today. We want to go to the movers and the shakers. We want to go to the people who have the ear of the world….Shepherds? Not on your life.”

To the high priest? Sure, that would make sense.

To the chief religious leaders? Absolutely.

But never to the shepherds.

The Lowliest of Tasks

MacArthur explains this reasoning: “It isn’t that there was somehow a shameful profession, it was just a lowly profession, it was the lowliest of tasks. Shepherds were insignificant. They were basically ignorant. They were uneducated. They were unskilled. They did the kind of work, shepherding, that was generally given to children to do because it was so simple to do…They really were the lowest of low…the least special of all people.”

To Whom Does Jesus Come?

Jesus will always come to the lowly in heart, the least of these, the hungry, the poor, the lost, the broken, the spiritually, emotionally, and physically wounded.

In fact, He promises us that “…not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence” 1 Corinthians 1:26-29.

Isn’t it just like God to come to the outcasts of society?

I close my eyes for a moment and try to imagine what happened to the shepherds of Bethlehem that night. They stood dirty and weary from dusty days on the hills tending their sheep without much rest.

They were rejected people. They were lonely people. And out of the blackest of night, a heavenly light burst forth and the angelic choir of all choirs began to serenade them with the divine announcement: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).

With Whom is Jesus Pleased?

Let it touch us afresh that God doesn’t necessarily come to the most beautiful, educated, religious, or well-dressed.

He comes to the lowly. To those who will bow down and worship Him, rather than themselves.

He chooses the people that the world throws away.

He picks them up, gives them a new heart, shows them they are loved – and they find they don’t care anymore whether or not they are praised and received by men.

They have an audience with Heaven.

Let us wake up to the reality of a God who visits lonely people in humble places.

The God who will come to all who make room for Him in their homes and hearts.

Come to us, Lord. Even unto us. And then let us go and do likewise.