This article explores the biblical story of the angel appearing to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus, inviting reflection on the meaning of this event for us today. It also highlights a painting depicting this scene, focusing on the awe and adoration of the shepherd in the center.
The little season of Christmastide lasts 12 days, until Epiphany on January 6, when the Christian tradition celebrates the visitation of the three kings to the newborn Jesus. Most of us use this Christmas week to visit family, eat holiday leftovers or try to figure out how to set up our children’s complicated new toys.
But one of the things I love about Christmastide is that it’s a season full of biblical stories in which the divine spirit delivers unexpected but life-changing news to people at all levels of society. I’ve always appreciated the part of the story that appears only in the Book of Luke, one of the four Gospels. According to this narrative, the shepherds are lying in the fields tending their flock when an angel appears and tells them about the birth of a baby. It’s a part of the tale that most of us are familiar with. Many a child has played the role of a lowly shepherd in a school or community Nativity play. But I’ve been trying to imagine these events from the perspective of the shepherds and wondering what this chapter of Christmas could offer us. Especially as the year ends and we have a few days for reflection and rest. I found myself surprised by the mid-18th-century painting “The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds” by French-born artist Philip James de Loutherbourg, which is housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. A small group of shepherds and animals are resting on a rocky patch of earth in the middle of open and uncultivated land. The sky is full of dark clouds, except for an opening where golden light filters through to the figures below. While the other men are on the ground in various states of fear, sleep or seeming bewilderment, the shepherd in the centre of the work stands as if compelled by the light. With his arms straightened, his clasped hands resting in front of him, his right leg extended slightly behind him, his body conveys a sense of awe. There is a look of adoration on his face
CHRISTMAS SHEPHERDS ANGEL BIBLE ART
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