Why Angels Appeared to Shepherds on Christmas

This video takes a close look at one sentence in the Christmas story. A great company of angels appeared to the shepherds in the field to announce the birth of Christ, and they sang, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests”. To many people this statement seems meaningless or abstract, but in celebration of the nativity I took some time in this video to take it apart and explain how it applies to our daily experience.

📱 SOCIAL MEDIA

My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

[barbararussell]

I love this video. When I was a little girl (I am now 75) my mother told me many times about the shepherds and the angels in the Christmas story. She said that the shepherds knew the night sky in all its mystery because they needed to understand everything that happened above in order to properly tend to their flocks below. Even though they were poor shepherds they were more aware than most of their environment. For this reason it is appropriate that the angels appeared to them, bringing light to the darkness and further defining the celestial patterns. My mother was the most cosmic woman I have ever known. In her deathbed I asked her if she was afraid and she told me she was not at all afraid because it was her next adventure.

[calatianupriser]

This was very useful and very timely as well. Merry Christmas Jonathan and everyone else! ☦

[wtfsattawtf]

Understand understand understand understand

[clarencedaniels_]

You are wrong, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob aka Israel a Sheppard. Remember Jacob went to find the wife and after he saw Rachel he agreed to work for his father-in-law Laban for 7 years tending his flocks at the end of his 7 years he was tricked into going into Leah and became upset he got mad and his father-in-law said I could not marry off the youngest daughter before the eldest so Jacob could work for 7 more years for Rachel. All the patriarchs down to David who became King was a Sheppard. Adam was a shepherd in the garden, Abel his son was killed because God showed his favor on Abel's sacrifice of his flock and Cain killed his brother because Abel's food offerings from Adam to Christ were all Shepherds. That is why Egypt had the Israelites living in a separate area from the city so that they could tend their flocks. Joseph found favor with the pharaoh and Pharaoh gave his father and brothers an area that was open because from Abraham down down the patriarchal line they were all Shepherds.

[sbenkimmie]

don't have pees amongst yourselves 🤮

[riggel]

Had a, "symbolism happens", moment recently I would like to share with yall.

I recently found myself in profound financial difficulty. To save my house and hold my family together I took a 3 month travel job in San Francisco/ sodom and gomorrhea. I'm working about 80 hours a week, driving alot and living away from my family. I'm also sleeping /living in a van so I can save the money I'm compensated for housing.

I've been skateboarding and reading the OT on my downtown (leviticus and numbers). One morning i was getting dressed and noticed both my ankles and both my palms were bloody and scared from skateboarding. I intuitively thought about the role of sacrifice in the OT and and the symbolism of the stigmata. It gave me a chill. All the self pity i was feeling evaporated and I saw my situation symbolically in the role of sacrifice.

I've been skating my whole life and it's exceptionally odd that i am as scarred up as i am now.

I am grateful to experience the ups and downs of life as a member of a tradition and not as an isolted individual. It has given me strength that is sustaining me during my hardship.

P.s. San Francisco is as bad as they say but it's also more beautiful and welcoming than I was expecting. I don't have a simple opinion on the situation in SF.

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays!

[CheeseSteakJimi]

Light is synonymous with truth, reinforcing the understanding that Jesus, as the ultimate source of truth (light), guides us away from evil (dark).

[troyhavok]

Shepherds are also those who gather in the flock, that keep the flock together, and keep them safe from the monsters that lurk in darkness.

I posted this before I had listened to the whole video. After listening to the whole thing I realize the shepherd and his relationship with his flock is showing the very thing Jonathan is trying to explain with sports metaphors.

The shepherd gathers in the flock and continually directs them toward the highest goal of the shepherd. When they are all aligned toward his aim, the sheep will live a peaceful existence, but as soon as one member of the flock gets separated, that individual is at risk of attack by wolves, lions, etcetera...

The shepherd and his flock necessarily exist as one body. The shepherd holds the purpose, or logos, of the flock in his mind and directs that body toward it.

If we expand that symbolism, we can see how having all individuals in the world being aligned toward the highest possible good, and Logos of all things, (God) would lead to peace. The Glory, or the light of truth, shines down on the shepherds to bring light to the symbolic truth they represent.

God bless.

[HeinrichCrux]

I've recently associated it with the sign of the cross

Above (the Father) is Glory to "God in the Highest"
Bellow (the Son) is "Peace on Earth"
And spreading through the cosmos (the elbows) is the Holy Spirit, as in "good-will among men" (Pentecost)

[gnosticmonk]

Tu m'a fait pleurer avec ton message de Noël. J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé ton entrevue avec Russell Brand. Joyeux Noël à toi et ta famille. Je suis financièrement pauvre ces temps-ci et suis incapable de supporter ton merveilleux travail, mais j'espère bien pouvoir un jour y contribuer. Ta voix, ton message, et ton art inspirent beaucoup. In Terra Pax Hominibus Bonae Voluntatis.

[ImTheSlime]

It’s like we are all existing inside of a Divine Song. Like we are musicians surrounded by an orchestra, and these beautiful harmonic vibrations are encompassing all of reality.

[JJDSports]

You’re phenomenal and a real blessing. Prayers for you and for Jordan Peterson, through whom I made your acquaintance. Merry Christmas

[citymonkmusic]

Thank Jonathan
Your Christmas videos are very refreshing. The old Christmas tree video and now the universal history one are worth returning to every once in a while

[calebcreates]

I am now a Catechumen for the Orthodox Church in large part due to your videos. (Jordan Peterson, and Jay Dyer's Transcendental Arguments for God also helped me a lot.) Thank you so much for all your work. My life has completely changed.

[CranyumHipHop]

Orthodoxy has changed my life over the past 5 months 🙏☦️👑🙌

[cathydombrovske]

Thank you, Jonathan. I'm 78 and live in Montana. I've just become aware of your work, and know I've got to find out a lot more. This stuff seems to really address me where I live.

[SempreGumby]

Sheppards were not only the lowest of the low, but they were raising sheep for sacrifice in the temple in which they were themselves not allowed to enter because they were unclean. So God makes an example of this wrong by proclaiming the Good News to the Sheppards first. God, throughout the bible, is consistent by announcing to the poor, the down trodden, the slaves, the barren, Good News.

[zita-lein]

It always strikes me how God deliberately sets things up so that He shows His all-encompassing love. Here, it looks like the highest is reaching down to the lowest with a pronouncement that will attend to the widest. Glory to God!

[charlesvgrife]

The shepherd's job was to report to the priests which lambs were the firstborn and therefore suitable for the sacrifice. The angels showed the shepherd's that a new "lamb" had been born. The firstborn of Mary, without blemish. And therefore suitable to be the infinite sacrifice.

[missh]

12:28 I saw this today. People of different cultures and faiths gifting a small part of themselves to be together as a common people as the year comes to another closer, in celebration of a unity that is named Christmas Day.

🎄 We wish you a Merry Christmas Johnathan. 🎁Suprise!!! Santa is real.