Luke 2:17 Commentary and Bible Study

Having seen this extraordinary sight, the shepherds feel compelled to tell others what they have seen. Of course, all that they have seen is a baby born in apparent poverty. What is so remarkable about that? But they were men of faith, and they believed with all their hearts the testimony of the angel, that on that very day had been born in Bethlehem, the city of David, a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. They became the first evangelists, as the old preachers used to say, the first people to spread the message of Christ. ‘They made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.’ Doubtless they made it known to Mary and Joseph. First they told them what they were doing; they told the parents what had brought them there, how it all came about. We know that because we are told that Mary later pondered these things in her heart. This is why the Lord shows us wonderful things: that we may ponder them and our hearts are strengthened. Mary never forgot these wonderful events, but that were continually added to as she observed the child born to her, whom Isaiah had called ‘Wonderful’. Although the record doesn't tell us, it is certain that there was an exchange of God’s revelation between them, and that Mary and Joseph equally told the shepherds their experience and how God had appeared in a dream to Joseph, and how God had spoken to Mary. They told the shepherds their side of the birth of Jesus Christ, and they furnished each other's minds with wonderful things. And then the shepherds went their way, and spread the news around and, of course, because they were rugged men and working men, they spoke to their peers in such a way that the people took it very seriously. Consequently, all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds, but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in their hearts and