Five Minute Friday: Announce

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "announce."

And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord! And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men

on whom His favor rests!”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. After they had seen the Child, they spread the message they had received about Him. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, which was just as the angel had told them.-Luke 2:8-20



This was a great announcement, the greatest announcement that has ever been issued in the earth!

For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!

He’s here! He’s finally here! And the angels announced it to the shepherds that were out in the field. This begs the question: why?

Yesterday I was looking at this wonderful book I have, A Visual Guide to Gospel Events. In the commentary on the shepherds in Luke 2, it said that “typical sheep and goats grazed during the day and were brought into sheepfolds for the night.” They indicated that these shepherds to whom the message was proclaimed were no ordinary shepherds. For them to stay with the sheep and guard them round the clock might have meant that they were Temple shepherds and those were sheep that would be used for sacrifice.

This would be a satisfactory explanation to why God would have angels announce the birth of Jesus to shepherds, wouldn’t it?

That would be so remarkable in itself, but I want to take this a little further. I noticed something else about this passage yesterday when I was studying. It says the shepherds “hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby who was lying in a manger.”

The shepherds just leave the sheep! It doesn’t seem like they took the sheep with them. The Scripture says  they “hurried.” I don’t really know a lot about sheep, and I would have to research it, but it doesn’t seem to me that sheep are the type of animals to hurry.

Throughout the Gospels there are so many pictures of the grace of God, and the transition that was taking place between law and grace. I think that in this story, we find one of those pictures.

Those shepherds were keeping sheep. Sheep were used as temple sacrifices. Jesus is called by John the Baptist, “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) The shepherds left the sheep and the old covenant way of life, to look for Jesus, who brought “grace and truth.”

Just like the angel announced to them, it was “good news of great joy for all the people.”

I pray this Christmas is full of great joy for you and your experience is the same as the shepherds, wonder at the birth of Jesus!