Dec 24 - Luke 2:18

… and all who heard it wondered

at what the shepherds told them.

Luke 2:18

I love that phrase: “all who heard it wondered.”

I’d wonder too. Indeed, I’d wonder if my shepherd friends were off their rocker!

•      An angel? (Yeah, right!)
•      A multitude of the heavenly host? (What’d you eat for dinner last night? You must have nibbled on a bad mushroom.)
•      Prophecy? (These angelic-figments-of-your-mushroomed-imagination predicted what? A great king in a lowly manger?)
•      Messiah? (Israel has been waiting for a thousand years for the Messiah, and you think God finally came and then announced it to you, a lowly shepherd?!)

“Wondered” is the old RSV translation of Luke 2:18.

Other translations tell us that those who heard their testimony were “full of wonder” (BBE translation). I like that! In fact, about half the modern English translations say, “wondered,” and about half say, “full of wonder,” (most commonly rendered, “amazed”).

My best scholarly guess? I think it was both!

I’ll bet half of the people who heard were full of wonder, and I’ll bet that the other half were wondering and skeptical. And more likely … it was probably half-and-half of each person. Within each person who heard the testimony, I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them wondered and half of them thrilled – “could it be true?”

What tips the balance between amazement and skepticism? Two things …

•      The first is the faith, love, joy, and integrity of the witness. If you have a trustworthy witness who’s amazed, it’s contagious. You’re more likely to be excited too.
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•      The second is the movement of the Holy Spirit. When God chooses to move, closed minds are opened, heaven hearts are lightened, and skeptical walls are broken down. (Which rescues us from guilt and frustration if our human efforts are met with stone-cold results.)

In other words … while the effort is up to us, the results are not up to us! When God wants to break into this darkened world, it will be Christmas all over again in an individual heart.

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who wants to be

part of Christmas everyday