Luke 2:8-21--The Shepherds and the Angels

Luke 2:8-21
English Standard Version

The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

​21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

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Messiah has come, so who will be the first to receive a birth announcement?  Will it be the scribes?  The priests?  The current "king" sitting on the throne of David?  None of these were the first to receive the message of the "good news of great joy that will be for all the people."  Instead, a single angel showed up, probably the angel Gabriel that we've seen make all the other announcements related to Christ's coming so far, though this time the angel does not give his name, so that is just speculation on my part, with the glory of the Lord lighting up everything around him so that the shepherds that they appeared to were "sore afraid."

As we see with many other messages that angels bring, this angel started by telling the shepherds to "Fear not."  Why did the angel have to say this?  Because our natural response when coming in close contact with even a reflection of the glory of the LORD and a reflection of His holiness is to be afraid because we realize that we are impure and worthy of condemnation and judgment, and we fear that any agent of the LORD, such as these angels, is there to execute such judgment--for that is one of the roles of the angels from time to time.

The angel of the Lord that was proclaiming the birth announcement to them told them, "For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."  That is a lot of attributes and character traits packed into one announcement, but the angels knew that they would not be able to identify the Child without some physical characteristics to look for.  So, the angel continued that they would find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."  That should be unusual enough to help them find Jesus.  He would be a newborn baby in a manger wrapped up in grave clothes to help keep him warm.

It was at this point that an uncountable multitude of angels of the heavenly host showed up in response to the gospel that was just proclaimed by the angel and believed by the shepherds, giving praise to God for who He is and what He has done,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (or "with whom his favor dwells").

The angels realized that there was a special relationship between God and men and that the gospel was God's way of making peace between God and man and a way for His favor to once again be poured out on man.  No other creatures in His creation, not even the angels, have this opportunity of redemption and salvation, for no other creatures were made "in His image" to reflect His character and invisible attributes and to be stewards over His creation.  While the angels marvel at this because they don't experience if for themselves, we see that all of heaven rejoices when one who is lost comes to what we might call "saving faith" in Jesus the Christ.  I believe that's what is happening here, not just that we see heaven excited for the birth announcement because I doubt the angels completely understood the full impact, but they did understand that this was the central event in all of history so far, but I think they were also excited to be the first to spread the "good news of great joy that would be for all people." (This is now the responsibility of the Church in fulfilling the Great Commission, but we will see angels proclaiming a different message and calling it the gospel in the Book of the Revelation (I promise we'll be getting there sometime soon, and hopefully you will see how their proclamation there is just as much "gospel" as is this proclamation here).

The shepherds decide to leave their flocks that they've been watching and immediately go into Bethlehem to look for this Christ Child, which is unusual for them as they were unclean due to their working with the sheep and it was very strange for them to go into the city to be around other people--especially without having a lot of preparation to get cleaned up, but they had to go and see this thing which the Lord had made known to them.

They went out and searched and they found Mary and Joseph and the Baby in the manger just like the angel had said.  They then immediately became evangelists and started sharing the good news that they knew with everyone--first with Mary and Joseph who also knew and believed, but needed to hear the confirmation again to encourage the, and then they went out and told everyone who would listen to them, for the passage says that, "And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them."  That means that they had to go out and tell the world, probably as they recognized that the angel told them with the intent of them going and telling the whole world--or at least the little part of the world that they could get to.  In many ways they were the first ones in the New Testament that we see participating in The Great Commission, yet they didn't even know all of the good news yet.  They knew that the Savior had come and that he was Christ and they probably figured out that He was the Son of David, but they did not know that He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Yet, God found it appropriate to make the birth announcement first to these shepherds in these fields who were probably raising the sheep that would be Passover lambs and sacrificial lambs in the Temple so that they would go and see and tell of the one who would be our Passover Lamb and the propitiation for our sins.

Mary treasured all these things that she had seen and heard from the shepherds and after they had gone out to to tell the world, they returned rejoicing and praising God.  You could not make them be quiet.  They were "on fire for God" as we would say.  We will see in the next part that the Holy Spirit was also making some of His own birth announcements to people as we'll find two more people that actually knew Messiah was coming and they were in the Temple waiting for Him because the Holy Spirit told them to be there in that place at that time and led them to Mary, and Joseph and Jesus.  Luke makes an abrupt change in the narrative here, but it is to set up for these next encounters that I just mentioned and to tell us something important about Jesus and His family.

​"​21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."  This may not seem like a verse that would be important to us, but it's very important for us to understand that Jesus was raised under the Law, and that Mary and Joseph were obedient to all that they were to do in raising Jesus--both what we know from the Old Testament and the special revelation that they received from the angel Gabriel.  They circumcised Jesus on the eighth day as they required to, bringing the required sacrifice at that time, even though they were poor and could only bring the sacrifice allowed for the poorest of people, and they gave Him the name Jesus at this time as they had been commanded to do months before when Gabriel appeared to Mary in Nazareth.  How much faith would it take for Joseph to stand there and at this time essentially adopt this child into his family and name Him according to the name given to His mother when Joseph this who time had very limited information given to him directly, but instead had to believe by faith that which was told to him by Mary and the shepherds.  We'll see some more direct communication from God.  Joseph obeyed what he did know and didn't seem to let what he didn't know bother him.