An Advent devotional on Luke 2:15-20
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.For the vast majority of my life, I lived in a built-up area of Bristol. Since working for WorldShare, I now live in the countryside, where I have to travel much greater distances to get anywhere on roads that are unlit. What this has afforded me is a new understanding of what rural life is like, especially how dark it can be in the middle of a large area of fields at night.
The shepherds in this week’s reading lived in the fields near to Bethlehem and would have been used to the long, quiet, monotonous, often cold hours of protecting their flocks in the darkness. Can you imagine how frightening it must have been to have been jolted from half sleep by the incredible light that dispelled the night-time blackness when the angels appeared to them?
The message that they brought to this band of what many viewed as social outcasts, would have been equally shocking. The long-awaited Saviour had finally arrived. The Messiah who had been prophesied centuries before, had been born and was lying in a manger of all places. If that wasn’t enough, to emphasise the importance of this news, it was accompanied with declarations of praise from a heavenly host.
But perhaps the biggest shock of all was that they were the first people to hear about this world changing event. After all, no-one trusted shepherds, surely it would have been better to announce such news to a trusted, well-respected group of professional religious people, like Pharisees. Yet this was not God’s plan.
The response of the shepherds was to want to see this amazing thing for themselves, and why not? Whenever King Charles visits somewhere he attracts huge crowds who want a glimpse, so why wouldn’t these guys want to do likewise? This was after all, the most incredible event of their lives. They wanted to experience this for themselves and not just hear about it from another party. In doing so, these common guys were entrusted with and initiated into God’s plan of how the Gospel would be revealed to the world from that point. Step 1 - hear about Jesus, Step 2 - meet Jesus, and Step 3 - tell others about Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, we are still called to tell others about what we have experienced by meeting Jesus and how He longs to meet those we are in contact with. This can be dangerous to do in some places around the world which are openly hostile to Jesus.
Our ministry partner, Kanal Hayat, proclaims the good news of Jesus to many in Turkey and West Asia, who may would otherwise be prevented from hearing the Gospel. By broadcasting Gospel programmes 24 hours a day via their YouTube channel, to their 37,000 subscribers, they are seeing many respond to the joyous news of Jesus, just as those shepherds did. Click here to buy a charity gift which enables Kanal Hyat to continue to promote their life changing work on the internet.
Your Advent 2024 Prayer Challenge:
