As this year’s Christmas season comes to an end, let’s take one final look at the shepherds, those often favorite characters in the Nativity account in Luke’s Gospel. As you take down your Nativity set, wrapping each figure and putting them away for another eleven months, as you look at the shepherd figures, here are a few more thoughts to think about.
As our Scripture opens, the angels have just left the shepherds, after having brought them the good news of the birth of the Savior, and telling them where they could find the baby. This was astounding news for them, and even more astounding were the messengers that brought the news! One can only imagine what was going through their minds right then! Yet we see that they not only listened to what the angels had told them, they decided to do something with what they were told. The shepherds had a choice to make. They could have decided to compliment that night’s “entertainment”, and then just curled up in their cloaks, taking turns with the night watches and getting a little sleep. Or they could decide to do as the angels had implied that they should do, which was to go and find the baby.
What would you do? Some might question whether what they had just seen was real or not. Then many, even if they did believe the legitimacy of what they had seen, would decide that it was too much trouble to do something. People can come up with all sorts of excuses, such as: “It’s cold out!” “I’m tired! I need to get some sleep for my busy day tomorrow!” “I don’t even know exactly where to go.” They have all sorts of excuses to avoid doing what God asks them to do. Fortunately the shepherds chose to act (vs. 15). They moved in faith. They believed the Lord and His messengers.
It is true that the angels had not given them an exact location for where they would find the infant Savior. The angel had told them they would find Him in Bethlehem, that He would be wrapped tightly in something like a baby blanket, and lying in a manger, a place where farm animals are fed. That would narrow it down some. Bethlehem was not a large village, but being a farming and pastoral society, there could be many animal feeding mangers. Nevertheless, the shepherds made haste to see for themselves what the angels had told them. They were persistent, and after not too long a search, they found Him (vs. 16). How persistent are we? Do we follow through with what the Lord has said, or are we quick to give up? The shepherds searched until they found Baby Jesus.
When they found Baby Jesus, they told Mary and Joseph what the angel had said. We must commend Joseph in that he didn’t chase the shepherds away, but instead allowed them to approach. How many new fathers would allow strangers, particularly rough and rugged shepherds, to come near their newborn son and wife? Joseph had his own experience with an angel in a dream several months earlier, who had told him exactly who this Baby was, and when he heard what the shepherds had to say, it just added to his wonder over the infant Child.
Other than Mary and Joseph, the shepherds were the first people to see Jesus. The lowly shepherds were the first to tell others about His birth, just as another outcast, Mary Magdalene (a formerly demon-possessed woman) was the first to tell others about the resurrection. After they beheld the Infant Jesus, the promised Messiah and Savior, the shepherds couldn’t keep the news to themselves. They told everyone what they had heard and seen (vs. 17-18). They knew that this wasn’t news which was just and only for themselves. This was news for everyone, the whole world, and they were going to tell everyone they came into contact with.
What about us? We, too, have the Good News about the Lord Jesus, and there is a world out there who needs to hear. The shepherds weren’t worried about what people would say to them or think about them. It’s true that they weren’t well-educated scholars like the scribes and Pharisees, however people marveled at what the shepherds said. When we spread the news about Jesus there will be many who scoff at us, who may say we are not qualified to talk about the Bible because we don’t have a string of divinity degrees. There will be others who say that message has no bearing any longer in today’s modern society. Nothing stopped the shepherds from spreading the news about Jesus, and nothing should stop us, either. We have the Good News of Salvation that this sin-sick world needs. Let’s not keep it to ourselves!
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