The Scandal of the Witnesses

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!'” – Luke 2:8-14

Last week, we explored how the incarnation itself—God becoming human—was profoundly scandalous, a stumbling block (σκανδαλίζω/skandalizō) to human expectations about divinity. Today, we turn to another scandal of the Christmas story: God’s choice of witnesses.

If you were orchestrating the most important birth in human history, who would you select as the first witnesses? Prominent religious leaders? Government officials? Respected scholars? People whose testimony would be widely believed and whose influence would spread the news effectively?

God chose shepherds.

This divine choice represents another stumbling block, another inversion of human expectations that reveals the upside-down values of God’s kingdom.

To appreciate the scandal of God’s choice, we need to understand the social position of shepherds in first-century Palestine. While we might have romanticized notions of shepherds from pastoral poetry or Sunday School illustrations, the reality was quite different:

1. They were ceremonially unclean

The nature of their work made it impossible for shepherds to observe ceremonial washing and purification rites. They couldn’t leave their flocks to participate in religious festivals. This relegated them to a perpetual state of ritual impurity.

2. They were considered untrustworthy

Shepherds had such a reputation for dishonesty that they were not permitted to testify in court. Their word was considered unreliable. The Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral traditions, listed shepherds among those whose occupations rendered them untrustworthy.

3. They were socially marginalized

Shepherds lived on the outskirts of society, both literally and figuratively. They spent most of their time in the fields, apart from community life. Their work was considered undesirable—necessary but not respected.

4. They were economically poor

Contrary to images of shepherds as independent operators, most were hired hands working for wealthy landowners. They received minimal compensation for difficult, dangerous work.

In short, shepherds occupied one of the lowest rungs on the social ladder. They were the overlooked, the marginalized, the disregarded. Their testimony would carry little weight in respectable society.

This makes God’s choice all the more striking. The first announcement of the Messiah’s birth—the news that would change human history—was entrusted to those whose word would be questioned or dismissed by the religious and social establishment.

The Divine Reversal

This choice of witnesses wasn’t accidental or merely practical. It represented a deliberate divine reversal of human value systems. Throughout Scripture, we see God consistently working through the unlikely, the overlooked, and the marginalized:

He chose Abraham and Sarah, an elderly childless couple, to become the parents of a great nation
He selected Moses, a fugitive with a speech impediment, to confront Pharaoh
He anointed David, the youngest son watching sheep, to become king
He called Amos, a herdsman and dresser of sycamore figs, to prophesy to Israel

The selection of shepherds as the first witnesses to Christ’s birth continues this pattern. It embodies what Mary had proclaimed in her Magnificat just months earlier:

“He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53)

This divine reversal is σκανδαλίζω—scandalous, a stumbling block—to human systems that value power, wealth, education, and social standing. It suggests that God sees value where humans often don’t, and that His kingdom operates by different principles than our social hierarchies.

The Scandal of Divine Access

Beyond challenging social hierarchies, the choice of shepherds as witnesses reveals something profound about access to God. In the religious system of the time, access to God was mediated through a complex system of purification rituals, temple worship, and priestly intercession. One’s closeness to God was thought to correlate with one’s ritual purity and religious knowledge.

The shepherds, being ceremonially unclean and religiously untrained, should have been far from divine revelation according to this understanding. Yet they received direct divine communication through angels and were granted immediate access to the newborn Messiah.

This represents another scandal—the scandal of unmediated divine access. God bypassed the religious establishment entirely, bringing His message directly to those on the margins. This foreshadowed Jesus’ later ministry, where He consistently provided direct access to God for those whom the religious system excluded:

Tax collectors deemed too corrupt
Women considered inappropriate conversation partners for rabbis
Samaritans viewed as religious heretics
Lepers judged to be under divine punishment
Gentiles thought to be outside God’s covenant

The shepherds’ experience anticipated a new kind of relationship with God—one based not on ritual purity or religious credentials but on divine grace and human receptivity.

The Scandal of Unlikely Messengers

There’s yet another scandal in this story: not only were the shepherds unlikely recipients of divine revelation, but they became the first evangelists of the Christian message.

Luke tells us that after seeing the baby Jesus, “they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them” (Luke 2:17-18).

These men, whose testimony wasn’t even accepted in court, became God’s chosen messengers to announce the Messiah’s birth. Those deemed unreliable by society were entrusted with history’s most important news.

This pattern would continue throughout Jesus’ ministry and the early church:

Samaritan woman with a questionable reputation becomes an evangelist to her town (John 4)
Former demoniac proclaims Jesus throughout the Decapolis (Mark 5:18-20)
Uneducated fishermen become apostolic leaders (Acts 4:13)
Former persecutor becomes the greatest missionary (Acts 9)

The scandal is that God consistently chooses unlikely messengers—people whose credibility would be questioned by conventional standards. As Paul would later write, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The Content of the Message

The scandal extends beyond who received the message to what they were told. The angelic announcement contained elements that would have been shocking to first-century Jewish expectations:

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

“Unto you” – The personal nature of this birth—that it was specifically for these marginalized shepherds—would have been surprising in a culture that expected the Messiah to come primarily for the religiously observant.
“A Savior” – While Jews expected a Messiah, the term “Savior” (sōtēr) had particular resonance in the Roman world, where it was applied to the emperor. Using this title suggested a rival claim to the emperor’s authority.
“Christ the Lord” – Combining “Christ” (Messiah) with “Lord” (kyrios, a term used for God in Greek translations of the Old Testament) made a bold claim about this baby’s identity that went beyond traditional Messianic expectations.

The message itself challenged both religious and political power structures, making it as scandalous as the messengers who carried it.

The Shepherds’ Response

What’s remarkable about the shepherds is their response to this scandalous divine choice. Despite their social conditioning that would have told them they were unworthy of such revelation, they:

Believed the message – They didn’t dismiss the angelic appearance as hallucination or question why they would be chosen.
Acted immediately – “They went with haste” to find the baby, not delaying or second-guessing their experience.
Shared what they had seen – They became witnesses, spreading the news despite their lack of social standing.
Returned glorifying God – They continued their humble work, but with a new perspective, “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”

Their response models how we might respond to God’s scandalous grace in our own lives—with simple faith, immediate action, willing testimony, and transformed perspective as we return to our daily responsibilities.

The Scandal Continues

The pattern established in the shepherds’ story—God choosing unlikely witnesses—wasn’t limited to the Christmas event but became characteristic of Jesus’ entire ministry and the early church:

Jesus selected fishermen, tax collectors, and political zealots as His inner circle
Women were the first witnesses to His resurrection, despite their testimony being devalued in that culture
The gospel spread first among the poor and slaves before reaching the wealthy and powerful
Paul boasted that “not many were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” among the early believers (1 Corinthians 1:26)

This consistent pattern suggests that God’s choice of shepherds wasn’t incidental but intentional—a revelation of how His kingdom operates.

Living with the Scandal Today

This aspect of the Christmas story challenges us in several ways:

1. It questions our criteria for credibility

Who do we consider reliable witnesses today? Whose voices do we value and whose do we dismiss? The shepherds’ story suggests we should be cautious about dismissing testimony based on social status, education, or conventional credibility markers.

If God deliberately chose those at the bottom of the social ladder as His first witnesses, what does that suggest about how we should structure our communities and churches? Perhaps our leadership and influence should not mirror worldly status systems.

3. It offers hope to the marginalized

For those who feel overlooked or undervalued by society, the shepherds’ story offers profound encouragement. God sees those whom society ignores and often chooses them for special purposes in His kingdom.

4. It invites us to examine our own response

Like the shepherds, we face a choice when confronted with God’s unexpected work: Will we believe despite our sense of unworthiness? Will we act immediately? Will we share what we’ve experienced? Will we return to our daily lives transformed?

The Upside-Down Kingdom

The scandal of the shepherds reveals a fundamental truth about God’s kingdom: it operates by different values than human kingdoms. As Jesus would later teach:

“The last will be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20:16)
“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.” (Matthew 20:26)
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

These aren’t just nice spiritual sayings; they represent the actual operating principles of God’s kingdom. The choice of shepherds as the first witnesses wasn’t an anomaly but a manifestation of these kingdom values.

This Christmas, perhaps we need to let ourselves be scandalized anew by God’s choice of witnesses. Perhaps we need to question our own value systems and ask whether they align with the kingdom revealed in the manger—a kingdom where shepherds receive angelic revelations, where the marginalized get front-row seats to divine action, and where those deemed unreliable by society become God’s chosen messengers.

For in this divine scandal lies an invitation—an invitation to see the world and each other through God’s eyes rather than through the distorting lens of human status systems. An invitation to value what God values and to recognize His work in unexpected places and through unexpected people.

Next week, we’ll explore our final Christmas scandal: “The Scandal of Extravagant Gifts”—examining the Magi’s lavish offerings and what they reveal about the nature of true giving in God’s kingdom.