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“A less worthy soul could not be found,” Samuel muttered to himself, not as if anyone in earshot could make out what was said under his breath, much less yelled aloud, as he warmed his hands over a small fire overlooking the city below. Culturally, or socially speaking, in 1st-century Jewish society, his assessment was not wrong.
"Worthless" was not a quality any Jewish male aspired to. Samuel, hurtfully so, was all too aware of that fact. And it’s not as if he had much say in his future occupation. In his day, sons, like apprentices, got slotted to work in their dad’s trades, and their dad’s dad's trades before them, and so forth. It was cyclical, or as Samuel’s Rabbis from childhood instructed, “Being a shepherd is God’s call on your life,” although it was a harsh cultural reality that appeared particularly cruel to an ambitious young man seeking a higher station in life.
“We’ve always done it this way," they constantly reiterated-a maddening notion he found completely absurd. How else could he see it?
Shepherds, according to many Israelites, were socially contemptible. Their constant contact with animals meant they rarely maintained the purity expected in Jewish life. Getting shunned, therefore, wasn’t uncommon. Unlike lepers, they were not bound by law to cry out “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever they went. But considering them to be more than a rung or two higher on the societal ladder would be a stretch.
A shepherd’s ability to bear credible testimony before the Sanhedrin after witnessing a horrendous crime? No chance.
Offering a sacrificial animal to the glory of God in the Temple? Even a one-year-old, unblemished male Passover lamb you raised from birth? Suspect.
Attending Synagogue to worship on Shabbat? Frowned upon. More scrupulous parishioners may have run you out of town and back to the hills.
The Sunday school portraits of shepherds exuding respectability you may have seen as a kid could not be further from the truth. A total misconception-a farce. Samuel and his kind were viewed as ruffians, rejects, outcasts, sinners, if ever there were any.
Adding insult to injury, as if things could get any worse, the sky this particular night was exceptionally bright, which illuminated quaint homes in the valley below.
Watching from a distance, families praying together, singing songs, most likely the psalms, laughing, delighting in pleasant company among themselves, Samuel recited sarcastically, from memory, as he had done as a child every Passover Seder, "Why is this night different from all other nights?” “It isn’t,” he thought, “every evening is exactly the same.”
“If by coveting community like the happy one I see below is sin,” he bemoaned, “then so be it.”
Samuel, along with the other shepherds who were staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night, had an angel of the Lord suddenly stand before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them:
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Stunned, Samuel wasn’t sure if he had seen, much less heard, the angel correctly: “Today, in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
“Wait, does that mean the long-awaited Savior was born specifically for me?” I believe the answer would have been a resounding “Yes, Samuel! Jesus came just for you!”
How touching that he, along with the others who were accustomed to being last, were at the head of a line-long of seekers wishing to behold the Child King, years before any wise men ever showed up.
As they approached the place where the newborn lay, I can picture Samuel tiptoeing ever so gingerly towards the manger. Whispering, as if his lamentable lot in life had suddenly become clear, “A less worthy soul could not be found,” the wind over his lips hardly producing a sound. “Yes, that is true,” he grinned as widely inside as out, which had not taken place in years.
Samuel continued, “Thank You Most High God, for revealing Yourself to a lowly man like me. Tonight, for the very first time, I see it, Lord—Your call on my life is perfect: that could not be clearer still.”
