Go Tell It…

I took two days off from the blog for Christmas vacation.  I hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and are ready for the new year.  This morning we will continue to look at the shepherds.  Let’s read Luke 2:15-19.  15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 

There is a famous Christmas song, “Go Tell It on the Mountain” which describes the desire of the shepherds to tell what they had seen concerning the Christ child.  I really like this about the shepherds.  In verse 17 we read that they made “widely known” what the angels told them about the baby.  That’s all the shepherds had to go on; what they had heard from the angels and what they had seen.  Really, that’s pretty much all that we have to go on as well.  We have what we’ve heard from the word of God and what we’ve seen God do in our lives and others…but are we “telling” anyone about that?

We often think that we are inadequate or unqualified to tell others.  Yet, in the first century, shepherds were considered untrustworthy and essentially a very low class of people…so much so that their testimony was not typically allowed in court.  No one expected to hear truth or good news from the shepherds.  Yet, they didn’t allow their poor image in the minds of others to keep them from sharing the good news of Jesus.  They just went out and told.

People don’t expect us to be perfect as we tell about Jesus.  They know we’re not perfect.  However, they might wonder why we are not talking to them about this God that we claim to follow.  Either way, whether we tell them or whether we don’t, we might leave them wondering…so let’s leave them wondering about Jesus, not about us.