Luke 2:10-12 10And the angel said to them, “Do not fear, for behold, I bring good news to you of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Because to you has been born today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David . 12And this is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a manger.”
The shepherds do not need to fear because the angel brought good news (euangelizomai). The verb used here shares the same root that is translated as “gospel.” The gospel came with the birth of Jesus. The person of Jesus was the message of good news. The words he later preached contained the powerful effect of his life and ministry and predicted the outcome of his death and resurrection. The early church reflected on Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and exaltation and put these all under the word “gospel.” Jesus is the good news and brought this news to the world. The beginning of John 3:16 gives this good news in a succinct statement: “God so loved the world that he gave his Son.” This good news would bring great joy to all people. The message of hope and salvation was not just for the Jews. No one is left out. Not everyone has received this news with joy. Many people ignore it, ridicule, and even reject it, and by doing so, they miss out on the joy. But to those who accept and believe it, the news of Jesus does bring joy.
The good news focuses on the salvation the Messiah will bring to the whole world. The description of the baby is significant. Savior in the original Aramaic and Hebrew would be related to the name of Jesus. The reason Jesus came was to save the world from sin and provide eternal life. Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew for Messiah. The Jewish hope for the Messiah would now be fulfilled. Lord is the word translated for Adoni in the Old Testament. Devout Jews would also substitute this word for the divine name Yahweh, which they viewed as too sacred to pronounce. The argument that the New Testament uses this word for a polite form of “sir” or “master” does not fit the theology of the Bible and how the people saw Jesus. The early church understood Jesus to be “God with us,” the only divine human ever to exist, God himself come in the flesh. The reference to the nearby town of Bethlehem as the city of David further connects this event to the hopes of the people, that the Messiah would come from the line of David.
The shepherds would have no doubt who this baby was. Their search would not be difficult because the angel gave them two key clues: the baby was just born and was wrapped in clothes, and they could find this baby lying in a feeding trough. They knew about mangers because that was their life. They probably knew every manger in that whole area. They would know where to look. Their search was for more than just any ordinary baby. This baby was special.
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