LIFE LESSONS
THE CHRISTMAS STORY: SHEPHERDS
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 2:8-20
DECEMBER 7, 2003
In 1979, 24 years ago, Barb and I took our first trip to Israel. We walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We had a baptism service in the Jordan River. We stood on the Mount of Olives looking across the Kidron Valley at the Golden Gate and the ancient walls that surround the Holy City. We went to Bethlehem. We went to the Church of the Nativity. Then we went outside to the shepherd’s field where the Angel of the Lord had appeared to those shepherds on that holy night; where the angelic hosts had descended on a Judean hillside. We went to the shepherd’s field where the shepherds had watched their flocks. It was kind of a cool deal.
Since that year, 1979, Barb and I have returned to Israel five times with groups from the church. Four of those times, we again went to the shepherd’s field but there’s one problem. Every time it was a different field. Of course, it wasn’t the same sheep. It wasn’t the same shepherds but it wasn’t even in the same place—not the same grotto, not the same cave, an entirely different location. The truth is no one has any idea where the shepherd’s field is, where the place was that the angelic hosts descended on that holy night. Nobody has a clue, but it’s somewhere in the region of Bethlehem.
The truth is we don’t know much about the shepherds. We don’t know their number. We don’t know their names. Sometimes people want to know, “Why are there shepherds in the Christmas Story anyway?” “Why did the Angel of the Lord appear to shepherds?” “Why did the angelic hosts appear to shepherds?” “What’s the deal with shepherds?” God wants us to understand that it’s all about love.
We have two teachings this morning, two life lessons. The first concerns the scope of God’s love. God’s love has global scope. Shepherds were poorly regarded in Israel and throughout the Middle East in biblical times but particularly in Israel. If you were a good person and if you were a successful person, you didn’t invite a shepherd to your party. You didn’t invite a shepherd for dinner. You might hire a shepherd to take care of your flocks, but you would not become one. Good people kind of looked down on shepherds because shepherds did not keep the Sabbath. They could not. They could not cease their labor because shepherding of sheep is a 24/7 job.
Most shepherds never went to the synagogue. They didn’t go to religious services. They were looked down upon by the religious. They were dirty. Their job, the very nature of their job was such that their clothes were soiled. They slept outdoors. Their skin was dirty and grimy. They were, generally speaking, poorly regarded and thought of as lowly in Israel. They were kind of viewed as crooked, almost thieves. They had a way of adopting sheep that didn’t belong to their flock. That’s the reputation that shepherds had.
You’ve got to love the Christmas Story because God knows He’s about to send His Son into the world and He’s going to herald it. He’s going to announce it. He’s going to do it big time. He’s going to send the Angel of the Lord, perhaps the greatest of His angels. He’s going to send the angelic host. So, who’s He going to send them to? God chooses lowly shepherds on a Judean hillside that holy night. You’ve got to love that because you see the scope of God’s love. God loves everybody. “God so loved the world…” And so, we take this glimpse of the scope of God’s love. It includes you. It includes me. It includes shepherds.
Many of you have heard of King Louis IX. King Louis IX, also called King Louie, was born in the year 1214. In the year 1226, at the age of 12, he ascended the throne of France, just 12 years old. His mother functioned as regent until King Louis was 21 years of age. King Louis ruled over France for 44 years. Historians tell us that he was perhaps the greatest of the Christian kings of France and perhaps the greatest Christian king in history. King Louis IX built the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. He built it not to exalt himself, but he built it out of a sincere love for Christ, a pure love for Christ. His piety was not false. He was a king who had compassion for the poor and reached out to liberate the oppressed. He was a king who was renowned for his wisdom.
People in foreign governments came to him. They sought his wisdom. He was known for his justice. He was known for his fairness. He was a man of faithfulness. He was 20 years old when he fell in love with Marguerite. He married her. He was faithful to her all the days of his life. Unheard of for a French monarch. Faithful to his wife all the days of his life. A good man. He died in the year 1270. Just 27 years later, in the year 1297, Pope Boniface VIII canonized him. He became Saint Louis. Louie IX became Saint Louis.
Of course, here in America there are many places named after him from St. Louis, Missouri to San Luis Obispo in the State of California. There are some who believe even the State of Louisiana is named after King Louis IX although that’s a matter of controversy. It was named by Rene Robere Chevalier, a Frenchman. He’s the one who named the Louisiana Territory. He named it during the reign of King Louis XIV. Most people, most historians, assume that Louisiana was named after King Louis XIV but, you see, Rene Robert Chevalier was a member of a religious order that was established by King Louie IX, Saint Louis, and he had sworn that he would honor Saint Louis all of his life. Some historians believe that Louisiana is named after King Louie IX.
One thing we know is that King Louis IX had a ring. It was a wedding ring. On his ring he had these words inscribed: “God, France and Marguerite.” Perhaps you’ve heard of that ring. “God, France and Marguerite.” He often said, “I have no love outside of that ring. That is the scope of my love: “God, France, Marguerite.” Certainly, he was a good and godly man but clearly King Louis IX did not understand the scope of God’s love, did not understand the nature of God’s love. You can’t put boundaries on God’s love. You· can’t limit the scope of God’s love. God loves Communists living in Cuba. God loves Communists living in North Korea. God loves Communists living in Vietnam. God loves Muslims living in the Middle East. God loves Muslims living in Northern Africa and wherever they live in the world. God loves gays and lesbians. Wherever they live, God loves them. You can’t limit the scope of God’s love.
Perhaps God does not love Communism. Perhaps God does not love Islam. Perhaps God does not love homosexuality, but you can’t limit the scope of His love for people because God loves people. God loves all people, and God loves you. That’s the amazing message of Christmas. God loves us all. We’re all within the scope of His love. Even shepherds are within the scope of His love. You’re within the scope of His love. Even I am within the scope of His love. This is an amazing message. Of course, we live in a world where love is so limited and love is so restricted.
As we approach Christmas, many of our children and grandchildren are going to sing songs like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and we know the words. “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose. If you ever saw it, you would even say it glows. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.” Isn’t that what life is like in this world? Children learn that very early on, that they just don’t fit within the scope of some people’s love. Children learn that very early on. They often feel like they are on the outside looking in, like they’re excluded from friendship with people that they would like to have as friends. Love in this world has a very limited scope. You might be feeling that today. You might just be feeling today like you’re on the outside looking in and you’re outside of the scope of someone’s love that you long to love you. The incredible message of Christmas is that the scope of His love is so great that it covers the world. It covers shepherds. It covers you.
There is a second teaching, a second life lesson, from the story of the shepherds. It relates to the depths of God’s love. I think in a real sense this is even more important, the depth of God’s love. God’s love has incredible scope universal. God’s love has incredible depth.
There are some Bible scholars who believe that these shepherds were not normal shepherds. In the Talmud, in one of the Jewish sacred writings (and more specifically, in the Mishnah), we are told that there are two different types of shepherds. Normal shepherds were those shepherds who tended their flocks and reared their sheep for the purpose of food and clothing, that they might provide mutton for the masses and that they might provide wool for clothing, that people might be clothed. These were normal shepherds and this is why they had flocks and why they tended sheep. But there was a different category of shepherds according to the Talmud, and these were shepherds who reared their flocks, who tended their flocks, for the purposes of sacrificial animals that their sheep, that their lambs might be offered in sacrifice in the temple at Jerusalem in accordance with the Jewish sacrificial system. These were shepherds that tended sacrificial flocks for the purpose of atonement for sin and all the blood offerings relating to atonement for sin. According to the Talmud, in two different places in the Talmud, all of those flocks between Jerusalem and Bethlehem were sacrificial flocks with flocks dedicated to the temple and to the sacrificial system and to the blood offerings for atonement.
We don’t know whether the shepherds relating to Christmas were tending sacrificial flocks, because we only know they were in the region of Bethlehem. They may have been within that radius from Jerusalem that included sacrificial flocks. Maybe not. We don’t know. But it’s possible that these shepherds were attending sacrificial sheep who were being cared for and fed that they might ultimately be sacrificed in the temple in Jerusalem for the sin of the people.
How amazing the Christmas Story then becomes because the Angel of the Lord descends and the angelic host appears. And what is the message? “Your job is done. You don’t need to tend sheep anymore. No more sacrificial system. It’s over. The Lamb of God has come into the world and He’s come to offer His blood in atonement for the sin of the world and one last final offering, the death of God’s love. “God so loved the world,” the scope of His love, “that he gave His only begotten Son.” The depth of His love, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. “Unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior.” The very name “Jesus” means, “a Savior,” “for He will save His people from their sins. He is the Lamb of God and in Him we see the depth of God’s love.
In England some years ago, there lived a man named William Dixon. That’s how my last name is spelled. I’m not aware of any connection with my family. I don’t believe William Dixon is related to my family or my relatives, but he was a man who lived an amazing life. It was filled with sorrow. It was filled with tragedy. William Dixon lived in a little village of Bracken Waite, England. A little village. A small town. William Dixon had experienced the death of his wife who he had loved with all of his heart. She died in a long slow illness with a great deal of pain. He watched her life slip through his fingers. He watched his wife die. I think that’s one of the hardest things that anyone can ever experience in this world. Only one year before his wife died, their only child had died in a tragic accident. William Dixon was a widower and he not only lost his wife but he lost his child. He was not bitter at God. William Dixon had a great love for God and he was highly respected in that little village of Bracken Waite.
Next to William Dixon’s house there was a grandfather, an older man, and he was taking care of his grandson because his son and his daughter-in-law, his son and his son’s wife, had both died in an epidemic that had swept through Bracken Waite. I think we’re sometimes kind of spoiled today. We don’t realize how hard it was in prior generations when there was no penicillin, no antibiotics, when epidemics could sweep through a village and just snuff out countless lives. How fortunate we are to live today. But this grandfather, living next door to William Dixon, was taking care of his grandson because the parents had died.
One night William Dixon was sound asleep. It was in the middle of the night and suddenly there was a hard knocking, a panicked knocking, at his door. William Dixon went to the door and it was the grandfather from next door. He said, “My house is on fire. My grandson is upstairs. I can’t get to him. The fire began in the region of the stairs and there is no way up. My grandson is up there screaming, and I can’t get him. Help me!” William Dixon ran out of the house with the grandfather. The whole community was coming because the fire was blazing. Everybody could hear the child screaming upstairs but they could not get to him. There was no way up and then William Dixon noticed a drainpipe coming down the side of the house. The flames were intense and partly engulfed a section of the drainpipe, but he knew he could get up that pipe. He climbed up the pipe. The heat of it just literally seared the flesh right off of his hands but he did not care. William Dixon went to that upper floor of the house and, amazingly in the midst of the flames, rescued this little boy and brought him back down the drainpipe.
Just three weeks later, the grandfather died. There were no relatives. The town council decided that it was their prerogative to decide who could adopt this little boy. They had a town meeting. People stepped forward. This is a true story. People stepped forward and they would explain why they should be able to adopt this little boy. They would say, “Well, I would love him and I’m capable of a great deal of love. I have other children. I have proven that I can love. I can provide for this child.” Each would give their reasons. Then, after many had stepped up, William Dixon came forward. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t talk about his love, didn’t talk about his means, his ability to provide. He simply held up his hands. Everybody saw the seared flesh in his hands. They all knew him. They all knew what had happened and they all agreed that he could adopt this little boy and so, he did. William Dixon reared that child for Christ.
I read that story a number of years ago. In a sense it reminds me of Christ when He appeared to the disciples after His resurrection and He showed them His hands and His side. In a sense He showed them His love, the depth of His love. You can go to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London today. Outside of St. Paul’s Cathedral there is a statue of the crucified Christ. The nails pierce His hands and the nails pierce His feet. There’s a plaque beneath the statue outside of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the plaque simply says, “This is how much God loves you.” Isn’t that great? “This is how much God loves you.” The depth of His love… We see it in the Lamb of God. We see it in His atoning death for us, the price He paid for us, to rescue us, to save us, for He is the Savior.
I think in terms of a life lesson, the message is pretty clear. It’s pretty clear that we who believe in Jesus Christ and who take His name and call ourselves Christians are called to love. We’re called to a broad scope of love. We’re called to a great depth of love. We’re called to express this love in all of our relationships. We’re called to express this love in a long-suffering way if necessary. This is the love that we’re called to in our marriages. This is the love we’re called to in our friendships. This is the love we’re called to in our parenting. This is the love we’re called to in all the arenas of life, a great depth of love.
Tony Campolo was here at the church just a few weeks ago. Of course, Tony is a Professor of Sociology at Eastern College in St. David’s, Pennsylvania. Tony is an amazing speaker with incredible stories and he has a lot of stories. One story I heard him tell that he didn’t tell when he was here a few weeks ago was of a time when Tony went to speak at a Pentecostal college in Pennsylvania. He went to this Pentecostal college to speak at their chapel service. Before the service there was a prayer meeting, some of the faculty, and Tony was asked to join. They prayed for the chapel service and they prayed for Tony. A number of people went around and they prayed that the Lord would anoint Tony and that the Lord would use Tony as he proclaimed God’s Word. Tony was very grateful that they were praying for the message and the service and for Him.
Finally, some guy in the group began to pray for somebody named Charlie. Tony is thinking, “Who’s Charlie and what does Charlie have to do with this chapel service or any of this?” This guy keeps going on and he’s praying for Charlie. He said, “Lord, don’t let Charlie leave his wife. I know Charlie thinks marriage is hard and his wife is hard but Lord, encourage him to hang in there. Don’t let him leave his wife and don’t let him bail out on his children, his three children. I know it’s tough, but Lord, don’t let him run away. Lord, you know where he lives, just one mile from here.” Then the guy went on in his prayer and he gave the Lord the address of Charlie. Campolo was thinking, “What’s wrong with this guy? Doesn’t he know that God is omniscient? God already knows Charlie’s address.” Again, he’s thinking, “Who is Charlie anyway?”
Well, after the prayer meeting, Tony goes in and does the chapel service. After the service, he gets in his car and he’s heading back towards St. David’s, Pennsylvania. He’s on the highway and he sees a hitchhiker. He stops and picks the hitchhiker up. The hitchhiker says, “What’s your name? I’m Tony Campolo.” He says, “What’s your name?” The guy says, “My name is Charlie.” Tony just knew this was the Charlie that had been prayed for. He just knew that. He said, “Charlie, you’ve run away from your wife, haven’t you?” Charlie was just stunned. He was speechless; couldn’t say a thing. Tony said, “You’ve left your three children, haven’t you?” The guy was just amazed. He said, “How did you know? How do you know that?” Tony said, “God told me.” Of course, in a sense God did, and then Tony did an amazing thing. He turned the car around and he drove right to Charlie’s address. He drove right to Charlie’s house and Charlie is just like so stunned. Truly he thought, “Tony Campolo is a prophet!” He invited Tony into the house and Tony sat down with Charlie and with his wife. They talked and they prayed and Charlie recommitted his life to Christ. Charlie recommitted his life to his marriage, recommitted himself to his children as a father. He recommitted himself to love, to a greater depth of love.
Today Charlie is a minister. He’s given his life to the vocational gospel ministry. It’s an amazing story, but you see, all of us are called to a deeper love. Sometimes we’re not that lovable and some people are particularly hard to love, but we’re called to a great depth of love as Christians and it’s to be reflected in our marriages and in our friendships and in our parenting and in everything, this great depth of love that I think is really described by the Greek word “agape,” “divine love, God’s love.”
In a moment, I’m going to show you a clip from the movie, “A Beautiful Mind.” The movie tells part of the story of John Nash, just part of the story. John Nash was certainly a brilliant mathematician. For ten years, from the age of 20 to the age of 30, he astounded the mathematical world with his beautiful mind. At the age of 30, he had a mental breakdown while teaching a class at MIT. He was a professor there. As he was giving the lecture, suddenly he told the class that he was on the cover of Life Magazine disguised as the Pope. He told his class that he was receiving secret messages from foreign governments and from the heads of European nations through coded messages in the New York Times. He told the class that he had been invited to accept a professor position at the University of Chicago that was extremely prestigious, but he turned it down because he was about to become the Emperor of Antarctica. I mean it must have been the most amazing class experience those kids had ever had in a university setting. A breakdown. He was institutionalized in a mental institution. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and he was treated with psychoanalysis. He had some very hard and harsh therapy.
When he got out of the mental hospital, John Nash resigned from MIT, he cashed in his pension fund, and he just took off to Europe. He traveled from nation to nation, renouncing his American citizenship and claiming that he was the victim of vast Communist conspiracy. He was ultimately brought back to the United States by the State Department. He was put in the New Jersey Lunatic Asylum. Of course, you know that ultimately the story of John Nash is a story of triumph. You know that ultimately John Nash received, in 1994, the Nobel Prize in the Economic Sciences. Through it all, through all of the experiences of his life, it was his wife who had the depth of love to hang with him, to encourage him, to support him, to see him through all the craziness.
I want you to see two clips from “A Beautiful Mind.” In the first clip, Alicia, the wife of John Nash, is young and in the second clip she is older and John Nash is receiving the Nobel Prize:
Doctor: “So, Alicia, how are you holding up?”
Alicia: “The delusions have passed. They’re saying with medication and environment…”
Doctor: “I mean, how are you?”
Alicia: “what I feel is obligation or guilt over wanting to leave. Rage, I guess—against John, against God. But when I look at him and I force myself to see the man that I married he becomes that man, he’s transformed into somebody that I love and I’m transformed into someone who loves him. It’s not all the time but it’s enough.”
Doctor: “I think John is a very lucky man.”
John Nash is speaking to audience: “I’ve always believed in numbers, in the equations and logics that lead to reason, but after a lifetime of such pursuit, I asked, “What truly is life and who decides reason? My quest has taken me to the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back. Now, I’ve made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life. It is only in the mysterious equations of love that logical? biological? reasons can be found. I’m only here tonight because of you. You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons. Thank you.”
That’s a powerful scene in a powerful movie. What amazing love the wife of John Nash had. What a depth of love, a love that hung in there with him through good -times and bad, valleys, mountaintops, sanity and insanity, a love that did not fail, a love that was not easy. I think it really is a demonstration of what the Bible calls, what Jesus calls “agape love,” the love of God. This is the love God has. This is the love we celebrate at Christmas. It’s the love that we’re called to as Christians. We see the scope of God’s love. We see the depth of God’s love. Jesus is the Lamb of God and He married His Bride, the church. He is faithful to us even when we’re not faithful to Him.
I know many of you have been to Egypt and you’ve gone to Giza, a suburb of Cairo, and by the banks of the Nile. You’ve seen the pyramids, the Great Pyramid. You’ve seen the Giant Sphinx, 240 feet long, 66 feet high. The Giant Sphinx is 4500 years old. For decades and centuries, scientists and archeologists have debated the purpose of the giant Sphinx with its body of a lion and its human face. Why was it built 4500 years ago? Most scientists today agree… I mean there’s significant unanimity. They agree the Giant Sphinx was built to ward off evil spirits so evil spirits could not assault the tombs of the pharaohs. You can go to the Temple of Karnak near Luxor. On the avenue of the temple, you see the Sphinxes on either side. They also have this purpose of warding off evil spirits so they would not reach the temple. We think, “That’s pretty primitive.” Maybe we forget that in the Middle Ages, the Christian church, on virtually every cathedral, put gargoyles and chimeras and little monsters that they thought would ward off evil spirits and keep the evil one, keep Satan from attacking the church of Jesus Christ.
I believe that Satan is real. I believe the demonic is real. There is no doubt; Satan does attack the church of Jesus Christ. Satan does attack us as Christians. He seeks to lead the Christian church into theological apostasy. He seeks to lead the Christian church into moral misconduct. He attacks the church. Sometimes even through the media he attacks the credibility of the Christian faith and through academia. I think most of all, Satan seeks to destroy the love of Christians. I think most of all that’s what he’s about because, you see, he’s filled with hate. He knows God is love. He knows that all the law is summed up in love. He knows that Jesus said. “The world will know you are His disciples by your love.” Satan, therefore, seeks to destroy love, the love of Christians, the love of the church. He wants to limit the scope of our love. He wants to limit the depth of our love. Christmas is a story of love, the scope of God’s love, the depth of His love, an announcement to shepherds. They were included within His love. An announcement to shepherds, the sacrificial system is done. The Lamb of God has come. Look at the depth of God’s love.
It’s a call to those of us who are Christians to broaden the scope of our love and to deepen the depth of our love. This is the call of Christ upon His people as we approach Christmas. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.