Luke 2.15

THE SHEPHERDS then come straight to the manger, as the angel told them. They hurried. And yet they knew it was the Lord who had made this known to them. Evidently they knew angels when they saw them. They found their way, possibly by watching the star, possibly by searching around the outskirts of Bethlehem before they saw the candlelight in the manger. Their own sheep might have known of the manger, as it was a place to which animals would be brought in bad weather.

When they saw the baby Jesus in the feeding trough, they knew the angel had told them the truth. They would not have been able to keep from telling Mary and Joseph what happened to them. Probably everyone knew angels were messangers of God. But now to be told a savior has been born, that is something else.

So in turn they leave immediately to tell others the same thing. This would be hard to keep to yourself. For shepherds, telling this good news would give them an acceptability in society they usually wouldn't have.

It is a sign of Christianity that one tells another. The child who was God came into the world, seen by anyone who might have come by, even shepherds and animals. The philosophers in the School at Miletus did not see this; the kings and caesars and pharaohs did not see this. Later on in this gospel Jesus will often thank God that the wisdom of the kingdom was kept from the wise and intelligent but given to the lowly. Certainly, that is the case, here. Wise men from the east, shepherds from the fields, stable animals and the angels from heaven saw this.

As word spread that night by the shepherds, everyone who heard of this birth wondered. Mary pondered over the events which came with her baby. But the shepherds glorified God for all they had heard. Twice Luke mentions the shepherds believed what had been told them, 2.17, 20. The outcasts believed the word of the angel; later in the life of Jesus many will not believe what they are told of Him, but some will.