Have you ever experienced a surreal situation – a time when it seemed impossible that what was occurring was real?  The mind struggles to comprehend what the senses are relaying.

For the shepherds outside of Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born, surreal didn’t even begin to describe what they were experiencing.  One moment they were wrapped and resting in their goat-skin cloaks; the next they are seeing and hearing a heavenly being!

Luke describes the scenario with these famous words: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified” (Luke 2:8-9).

Humans don’t generally respond well when exposed to the “glory of the Lord.”  Where holy glory appears, whether God himself or his angelic messengers, sinful people cringe in abject terror.  And that’s what the shepherds did as well.

Understandably, the angel tried to reassure the stricken shepherds. ‘“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger”’ (Luke 2:10-12).

A gloriously-beaming angelic appearance was surreal enough.  The angel’s message even more so!  “The Messiah, the Promised Savior, the Lord himself is born.”  But there’s additional astounding information shared: “The Lord is wrapped in rags and resting in a grungy feeding trough for livestock,” as unlikely and seemingly inappropriate as that might be.

In short measure, the surreality is compounded.  The men were already cowering from the brilliance of the one angel; then that splendor is magnified and intensified, and their experience ratchets up yet another degree.  “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests”’ (Luke 2:13-14).

I’ve always been fascinated with the shepherds outside of Bethlehem.  There are so many questions regarding this account.  Not questions about whether it happened, but questions about how it happened and why it happened.

How many shepherds were there?  What were their ages?  Their names? 

And when the first angel appeared, did it approach them gradually from a distance, or appear suddenly in close proximity?  Was God’s messenger standing on the ground or hovering in the air above them? 

How did the angel look?  We know the traditional representation of angels in art, but the descriptions of angels in the Bible vary quite a bit.  In fact, sometimes their appearance was beyond extraordinary.  (Undoubtedly, angels can take on any appearance they want.)  What did the initial angel’s voice sound like, and how amplified was it? 

How large was the “great company of the heavenly host,” and how did they approach and appear?”  Were the shepherds even able to gaze at the glorious host at all, or did they just sense them and hear them?  What an overwhelming view the multitudes of angels must have presented, and what a chorus their united voices must have made!

After the angels’ departure, and while their eyes readjusted to the night, surely the shepherds must have wondered, “Why us?  Why did these marvelous creatures appear to us?  Why did they entrust this incredible message to us?”

At the time, shepherds were essentially outcasts.  They provided a necessary service, but were otherwise disregarded by most.  Sheep-herders were considered untrustworthy; they were generally despised and deprived of basic civil rights. 

“The Mishnah, Judaism’s written record of the oral law, also reflects this prejudice, referring to shepherds in belittling terms. One passage describes them as “incompetent”; another says no one should ever feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who has fallen into a pit.” (“Shepherd Status,” by Randy Alcorn, in Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, pp. 85-89.)

Which leads back to the shepherds’ introspection.  “Why us?”  The question would be natural for anyone who experienced a vision of an army of angels and was entrusted with the greatest message the world would ever hear.  But it was especially pertinent when the experience occurred to social outcasts like them.

Why didn’t the angels appear to the religious leaders in Bethlehem?  Why not to the town leaders?  Why not to more “acceptable” citizens?  Why not to the entire town all at once?  Of course, most people were sleeping.  But that wasn’t a hurdle an angel from heaven couldn’t overcome, much less a “great company of angels.”

Perhaps the answer was as simple as this; these societal outcasts had little to lean on outside of the Lord.  Maybe they were the most devoted to God and his promises to send the Savior in all of Bethlehem?  Or could it be that the Lord was showing already here that Jesus would associate with the lowly (because the haughty would generally disregard him)?

Alfred Edersheim, the highly regarded Jewish Christian scholar, shared this remarkable viewpoint about the shepherds: “Close by Bethlehem, on the road to Jerusalem, was a tower, known as Migdal Eder, the ‘watch-tower of the flock.’  For here was the station where shepherds watched their flocks destined for sacrifices in the Temple. … It seems of deepest significance, almost like the fulfillment of type, that those shepherds who first heard tidings of the Savior’s birth, who first listened to angels’ praise, were watching flocks destined to be offered as sacrifices in the Temple.”  (Sketches of Jewish Social Life, pp.76&77).

In other words, if Edersheim is correct, these keepers of the sheep for the sin sacrifices in Jerusalem were the logical ones to be told that the ultimate, once-for-all Sacrifice was now born.  And they were the obvious ones to first lay eyes on “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

What an intriguing possibility!

But finally, God had his own reasons for sharing the news with the shepherds.  Regardless of those reasons, the fact remains that these lowly positioned shepherds were highly honored on that night.  And they have been highly honored ever since.