The Twenty-Second Persons of Christmas are the Shepherds

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Luke 2:8

In that time, shepherds were often wage earners, hired by farmers to keep watch over their sheep.  Sheep needed to be moved from pasture to pasture, and a farmer simply did not have the time to do that with his other responsibilities. 

So shepherds would have been nomadic people, living apart from society.  Wikipedia.com says, "It was mainly a job of solitary males without children, and new shepherds thus needed to be recruited externally. Shepherds were most often the younger sons of farming peasants who did not inherit any land."

Shepherds could have also been the youngest member of the family - such as David - who couldn't help with the more difficult, more physical work. 

Whichever kind of shepherd you were, it would have been a lonely job.  Just a man and some sheep.  They did not have access to societal "niceties" such as very clean clothes, good food, or even baths.

The shepherd would have been one of the lowest classes of society.  They were dirty, smelly, and uncouth.  Not being around people on a daily basis, if they would have had any societal "niceties," they would have easily been lost by being alone for days on end. 

Why on earth would the angels appear to the shepherds first? 

For the same reason the Jesus is often referred to as the "Good Shepherd."  Because He came for the least of these.  He came to save us all - the king and the pauper, the farmer and the shepherd, the Jew and the Gentile, the man and the woman.

These shepherds, these dirty, unkept men, were the first to see the Messiah.  God bestowed that blessing on them!  And why?  Because they were so taken with what they had seen - this heavenly host - and what they had heard - "Glory to God in the highest!" - that I think they literally ran into Bethlehem.  I think they tripped over themselves, laughing, crying, panting - trying to get there, get to the manger, see this baby.

And after the loudness that must have surrounded them when the angels sang . . . the manger must have been so still.  So quiet.  Just, perhaps, a baby's cries, a mother's coos, and father's sighs. 

The shepherds are important to the Christmas story because they remind us that no matter who we are, where we come from, how bad our past is - Christ came for us, too.  They remind us that no one is "lowly" to hear from God.  They remind us that when we hear this good news, we must respond - we must go to Him! 

The Christmas story is about kings, and shepherds, and everyone in between.