new people in the old situation

"so they hurried off".

shepherds had a bad reputation in Israel; they were regarded as dishonest and unreliable. yet God chose to announce to ones “such as these” that the Savior of the world had been born. what was the response of the shepherds? the scriptures tell us that they “hurried off” to see the Christ. i learned 3 things from the response of the shepherds in our passage today.

1) we have more in common with the shepherds than we might suppose.

we are outwardly fairly respectable people, without the bad reputations that the shepherds had. but most of us have a good idea what we are inwardly. what if our past histories, all our secret thoughts, intentions, motives, and desires on any given day were broadcast for all the world to hear? i wonder how many of us would have such a great reputation then?

2) the shepherds show us the right way to respond.

when we are told in our own lives to "come and see the Christ", our response should be just like that of the shepherds: to “hurry” without delay. the problem is, we very often “delay”. the reasons why we do are as varied as the number of people reading this blog. laziness. pride. unwillingness to repent or to give up a certain sin or lifestyle. all of us have some idea what is holding us back. but we must not delay. to delay is fatal.  to delay is to miss the time of God's coming. we must “hurry off” right away when we hear His voice calling us to "come and see".

3) the shepherds were "new people" in the "old situation".

the shepherds returned to their lives as “new people in the old situation”. these same old disreputable shepherds shared the gospel, “spread[ing] the word concerning what they had seen and heard”. they were never the same again. they were inwardly changed. whoever is born of God goes back to their old lives, their jobs, their homes, but as new people.

this Christmas, when Christ is proclaimed as the newborn King, let us all “hurry off” and go to Him without delay, that we might worship Him, as the shepherds did. then we will behold the glory of the Son, as the shepherds did, "full of grace and truth". and may His Holy Spirit “guide us to His perfect and glorious light".