Morning Devotions with Cap'n Kenny - The First to Hear

The First to Hear

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 (NIV)

When God’s Son was born in a manger in Bethlehem, an unlikely group was the first to hear the news. If it had been up to me, I would have chosen to dispatch an angel to the court of Caesar Augustus. “You call yourself the savior of the world, Caesar? Well, check this out. The real Savior of the world has been born!”

Or, the angel could have appeared to the high priest, scribes, and scholars and announced the news that the Savior had been born.

Instead, God chose to deliver His message to shepherds who were “living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night” (Luke 2:8). To be a shepherd in that culture was to be at the bottom of the social ladder. Shepherds were despised—so much so that the testimony of a shepherd wasn’t allowed in a court of law.

Shepherds basically did the work that no one else wanted to do. They had dirt under their fingernails. They were hardworking. And they probably felt right at home when they learned that this baby was born in lowly circumstances. They would have related to this. God was speaking their language.

This became the modus operandi of Christ throughout His ministry. He always went to the outcasts, to the hurting, to the ordinary people. He went to people like the woman at the well who had been ostracized because of her multiple marriages and divorces. He went to people like the tax collector Zacchaeus who was perceived by his fellow Jews as a traitor. Our Lord always had time for people like that. He was described as the friend of sinners.

In the same way, those lowly, despised shepherds who kept watch over their flocks, were visited by the Lord.

Jesus, the Light of the World, as I celebrate your birth may I begin to see the world in the light of the understanding you give me. As you chose the lowly, the outcast, and the poor to receive the greatest news the world had ever known, so may I worship you in meekness of heart. May I always remember my brothers and sisters less fortunate than myself in this season of giving. Amen

In Jesus,
Cap'n Kenny


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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Jesus comes to the ordinary, the outcasts, and the hurting!