This is a phrase we often use as an encouragement to mutual action or adventure. It certainly was that for the shepherds outside Bethlehem on that first Christmas night. (Luke 2:15-20) They had just had the incredible experience of hearing the angelic announcement of Jesus’ birth. They didn’t need to be persuaded to find out more. They were well up for it. “Let’s go and see”.
One or two of them probably had to stay behind with the sheep but the rest didn’t hang about. They encouraged one another to respond to what God had said. What a ministry that is – to encourage one another to listen to God and do what He says. Be grateful for those who are exercising a gift of encouragement and blessing us as a result. Is that a gift you might have?
So the shepherds hurried off into Bethlehem to see what God had told them about, and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. Now here is one of the lovely twists of the Upside Down Kingdom. Who were the first witnesses of the birth of Jesus, the Messiah? A bunch of rough shepherds who apparently were not even allowed to give evidence in a human court. Yet here God was using them to give testimony to the greatest event in history. Are you not encouraged to know that God takes the weak things of this world to confound the mighty?
The shepherds couldn’t keep quiet about what they had heard and seen with their own eyes. Here is another of the kingdom contrasts of which there are so many in the Bible – the wonder and splendour of the angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus and the poor and humble surroundings of the event itself. But the shepherds were in no doubt – it was exactly as God had told them and they were not slow to proclaim the good news to others.
They went back to the fields bursting with joy at what they had witnessed of the birth of the Messiah, the Saviour. It must have been a totally gobsmacking experience for them but I wonder what became of them. As the years passed did the memory of the dramatic events of that night begin to fade? That is a danger for us, isn’t it? I’ve learned over the years that we cannot live on the strength of past experiences, no matter how wonderful, but on a daily, if undramatic, walk with God.
We don’t hear about these shepherds again but I like to think that at least some of them were in the crowds following Jesus thirty years later, experiencing for themselves the love and care of the One who is the Good Shepherd.
We have a little bronze statue that sits on our mantelpiece at home. It portrays Isaac Cookson, a Westmoreland sheep farmer, carrying a sheep draped across his shoulders. It reminds us of the verse in Deut.33:12 “Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders”.
This Christmas, when we think of the birth of Christ and the angels and shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem, think also of the One who is the Good Shepherd and who carries us on His shoulders in love and rescue and protection. Now that is Good News worth sharing!
Every blessing
Edwin Gunn