“A savior has been born to you! … The shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go…they hurried off…they spread the word’.” Luke 2:11, 15-17

What do you do first when you get good news? Savor it alone? Ponder how on earth you were so fortunate? Share it with someone? Myriad someones? I’m guessing the latter because good news needs to be, begs to be shared. And often, we just can’t wait to share it.

When the angel comes with the ultimate Good News to shepherds, they don’t stand around debating what they just saw: Are we hallucinating? Should we go? Maybe we should tell the priest first? No. “Let’s go,” they say, and “they hurried off” to see the Baby (v.16). Shepherds, who were society’s outcasts and whose testimony wasn't even allowed in court, have themselves been commissioned by heaven itself to go. So they do, but they’re not done hurrying or telling yet: “when they had seen the baby [Jesus], they spread the word” (v.17).

They’re not the only ones hurrying to share good news in Luke’s early chapters. 

• After Gabriel reveals to Mary she will bear the long-awaited Messiah, he also quickly includes the news of her cousin Elizabeth’s “impossible” pregnancy (1:36). 
• Mary then immediately “hurried” (1:39) to Elizabeth with news of an impossible pregnancy of her own. 
• As soon as Mary greets her pregnant cousin, John can’t even wait to be born to leap with excitement over being in the presence of the promised (but yet unborn) Savior (1:44). 
• The angelic host must be prancing on the sidelines, wanting the angel of the Lord to hurry up already with his news to the shepherds, so they can “suddenly” praise God for the good news, too (2:13-14, italics mine).

Why the haste? When you’ve heard centuries-old prophecies read over and over, and you’ve prayed your entire life for the Messiah to come quickly, why keep that news quiet, why mull it over, why debate it? It’s news that begs to be shared. 

Why the compulsion to share? I’m sure you’ve felt joy over good news, joy that simply could not be contained. You grinned widely. You might have leaped like John. You just had to tell someone. Joy and haste spill over in Luke 1-2. Elizabeth immediately blesses Mary. John’s tumbling in excitement. Mary immediately sings her Magnificat. An angelic host rejoices, and shepherds are on the move as soon as the last angelic note fades.

Why the rush, indeed.

The angel told the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). What was your reaction when you first heard the gospel? Did you hurry to tell someone? This Christmas, how might you make haste to share the good news with another?