Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow

This year, as I’ve remembered the Nativity Story, my thoughts have been drawn to the Shepherds, humble men who were blessed to witness marvels.  While they were watching their sheep in the fields, which I’m sure was an everyday experience, an angel appeared and spoke to them!  Can you imagine?  In the darkness, while they went about living their lives as they always did, a messenger from the Lord appeared to them.  And the message he gave to them!  That their Savior and Lord was being born only a short distance away and they, the lowly shepherds, could go see him.  They must have been humbled and overwhelmed by this marvelous invitation!

I love imagining the shepherds in the fields on that dark, starry night.  I love to imagine the wonder they must have experienced when the angel appeared to them and then when they saw “a multitude of the heavenly host”¹ singing praises to God on High!  One of my favorite Christmas songs by John Denver says, “And they sat there, and they marveled, and they knew they could not tell whether it were angels or the bright stars a-singing.”²

As I’ve thought about the shepherds, I’ve thought about what they can teach us.  They must have had faith, for Moroni teaches us “it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men”³.  In the Christmas Devotional, Elder Ronald A. Rasband said this about the shepherds,

“On the hills of Judea surrounding Bethlehem, Luke tells us shepherds were abiding in their fields. These were not common shepherds but ‘just and holy men’ who would bear witness of the Christ child.”⁴

His description of the shepherds as “just and holy men” comes from Alma 13:26. 

“And it shall be made known unto just and holy men, by the mouth of angels, at the time of his coming, that the words of our fathers may be fulfilled...”⁵

I wonder if the shepherds knew they were written about in prophecies.   Somehow, I doubt it.  I think these men were not much different than you and me—individuals who quietly lived their lives in righteousness.  I like to think they were surprised and overwhelmed at the angel’s appearance unto them.  Perhaps they asked themselves, “Why us?  Why were we chosen to witness this holy event?  Were there not ones more worthy than us?”

 If we know of Christ, we understand why shepherds were chosen to view his birth.  Jesus declared, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”⁶ The Lord often teaches through symbolism, and He began teaching us who He was from the very beginning of His life on earth by inviting shepherds to his birth. 
A story I read or heard one time about a shepherd's love has stuck with me.  It is from an address by Elder John R. Lasater of the First Quorum of the Seventy that was included in the May 1988 Ensign entitled, "Shepherds of Israel."

Although the song entitled “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow” encourages the shepherds to “leave your sheep and leave your lambs…leave your ewes and leave your rams,”⁷ I don’t for one second believe those shepherds left behind their sheep.  Much of the reason Christ compares Himself to shepherds is because shepherds love their sheep.  This love means the shepherds would never leave their sheep unprotected, even to see their God.  And Christ, the Lamb of God, would certainly not be offended to have sheep at his birth.

Much like Christ is both a Shepherd and a Lamb, we are both sheep in the Good Shepherd’s fold and assistant shepherds who help care for the other sheep and bring more sheep into the flock.  As follow the angel’s invitation to the shepherds to come unto Christ this Christmas season, I hope we can bring other sheep with us that we may all feel the love of the Good Shepherd.

               

Shepherds

by Teresa Bateman

There was no little drummer boy at Bethlehem that night.

The animals did not know how to talk.

The wise men didn’t make it on time to see that sight.

But shepherds,

ah yes,

shepherds with their flock

of lambs who needed tender, watchful care

were out upon the hill ’neath starry sky.

To them the angels came with message rare—

Glad Tidings Of Great Joy … to shepherds.

WHY?

A man who tends a flock of sheep by day,

watching over them all through the night,

searching for the one that’s gone astray

until again the lost one’s in his sight;

Who leads his followers to pastures sweet

and keeps them safe from perils they can’t see—

This kind of man, this kind was first to see

the King of Kings. They knew that it was He.

Why shepherds?

Why were they the first to view

the babe?

Because,

He was a shepherd, too.⁸

Merry Christmas!!!

Resources

1 Luke 2:13

2 Denver, John.  “Noel: Christmas Eve, 1913.”  John Denver & The Muppets A Christmas Together.  Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, Inc., 1979.

3 Moroni 7:37

4 Ronald A. Rasband, “Glory to God,” Christmas Devotional, Dec. 2013.

5 Alma 13:26

6 John 10:14

7 “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow”, African American Spiritual

8 Bateman, Teresa.  “Shepherds.”  New Era, Dec. 1979.