Overcomer for the OVERLOOKED: Jesus’ birth announced to the shepherds
Can you feel it? Christmas is just two weeks away! For most, this season is a time for great celebration. It includes family, friends, and tons of Christmas cheer! But about 30% of people don’t share these feelings. Instead, Christmas can be a time that highlights their absence of family, friends, or cheer. These overlooked people can feel even further forgotten.
If we jump back into the arrival of the Overcomer, or the arrival of Jesus – God the Son in human form, we find some people there who can relate. They were also overlooked, ignored, or forgotten. In fact, we can track them being pushed ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ all the way back to Genesis 46. While they weren’t the outcasts marred by a disreputable past or dishonored culture, they were looked down on despite being righteous, hardworking, and of Jewish descent. They were often excluded from the temple and society because their work left them ceremonially unclean (as they were around manure, insects, and animal carcasses daily) and historically, they had been pushed out to the outskirts of society. They were shepherds and they were overlooked. So how do they fit in the Overcomer’s story?
In Luke 2, Mary and Joseph, outcasts who have traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, have been rejected from all places of lodging, seemingly because the rooms are already taken by other travelers. The pregnant couple is disregarded and overlooked, despite Mary’s labor! As Jesus, the Overcomer and King of Kings is born, He is wrapped up snugly among the animals (just like the unclean shepherds!). Luke 2 continues--
Luke 2:8-9 | That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified…
Just like Jesus’ family tree would have struck a chord with the Jews of the day, an angel appearing to shepherds would have done the same. But right after Jesus’ birth, it is to the overlooked shepherds that the Good News is first proclaimed—
Luke 2:10-11 | …but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!”
From the heavens, this message is proclaimed to the overlooked – God has not forgotten you. He is here and He is Good News and Joy for all people, even you. The Messiah has overcome, even for the overlooked.
But the angel doesn’t just stop there! Without hesitation or telling them to wash up or to undergo ceremonial cleansing, he says—
Luke 2:12 | “And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
In other words – go see him! The shepherds, shunned and overlooked by others, are invited to the bedside of the Savior, straight to the presence of God Himself! As if that’s not enough, they are privy to a true Hallelujah Chorus – a choir of angels proclaiming praise to God and the majesty of the moment because the Overcomer (and bringer of peace) has arrived.
Luke 2:13-14 | Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
As far as we know, the shepherds are the first people outside of Mary and Joseph to meet Jesus. But God doesn’t stop there. He recognizes this overlooked group again later in His life when He relates Himself to them saying –
John 10:11 | I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.
The truth is, much like the overlooked shepherds, the Good Shepherd, Jesus, was also overlooked. The prophet Isaiah told us he would be --
Isaiah 53:7 | He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
He knows exactly what it feels like to be overlooked, forgotten, abandoned, or alone. But our Timeless Truth today reminds us that it is for these very people – the overlooked, that Jesus overcame.
Psalm 146:7-8 | He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The Lord frees the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the godly. The Lord protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
Jesus is the Overcomer for the overlooked. If you feel overlooked this Christmas season, remember, God sees you. He hears your cry, and you are never alone. The Overcomer Himself promises—
Matthew 28:20b | …be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
What does it mean to feel overlooked?
How were the shepherds overlooked by their culture/society at the time of Jesus?
Why did God choose to announce Jesus’ birth to the shepherds? What would this have communicated to other people who heard about God’s inclusion of the shepherds?
What hope does Jesus offer for people who feel overlooked? What are some promises God makes to them in Scripture?