A King Who Came to Shepherds
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." - Luke 2:11 (KJV)
"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." - Luke 2:11 (NIV)
The entire course of history is changed in the sound of a baby crying in a humble dwelling in Bethlehem. This is where the Father’s love story begins to turn in a redemptive direction. Micah the prophet had declared that this town would be the birthplace of a ruler in Israel, and this decree was regarded by the earliest Christians as a messianic prophecy (a prediction concerning the coming Messiah). Luke, who engaged in a meticulous process of historical research, discovered that a group of shepherds out on the hills had been visited by angels. This is a surprise because the shepherd’s profession was a poor and despised one in that culture. Not so in heaven. It’s the humble, marginalized, and grubby shepherds who get to hear the news first! The angels tell these shepherds that the one who has just been born in Bethlehem is none other than the Lord. In the world of the shepherds, only one human being was called “Lord” by the people of the day—the Roman emperor, and he ruled through force. But there is one now born in Bethlehem who is greater than Caesar, and who will rule the world with the power of love, not the love of power. This is the Father’s Son—the One who has come to show us the way back to the Father’s arms.
Mark Stibbe
