Luke 2:17-19 (ESV)
[17] And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been
told them concerning this child. [18] And all who heard it wondered at what the
shepherds told them. [19] But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering
them in her heart.
There
are three different responses to the birth of Jesus in these three verses. The
shepherd made it known. They told people about it. The people they told
wondered or were amazed at what they heard. Mary treasured the whole event in
her heart. The shepherd’s response was action. They saw with their own eyes,
and made what they had seen known to the world. They responded by talking about
it. Those they told responded cognitively or intellectually. They were amazed
by what they heard. Mary is the one who took it to heart. The ESV says that “Mary
treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
All
three responses to the news of Jesus’ birth are appropriate. The people were
amazed. The shepherd’s talked about it. Mary treasured it and pondered it, meditated
on it. That is not unlike responses to the gospel. When people begin to
understand the gospel, the first response is amazement. Can it really be true?
Can God really forgive me? Can He really accept me? As the amazement turns to
faith the response is to tell others. Good news is to share.
But lest we think that it ends there, consider
Mary. She has known these things for over nine months. An angel told her this
would come to pass. She has carried the Son of God in her womb for nine months.
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths
and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Lk
2:7). She knows these things from experience, yet she realizes that there is
more to the story. She treasures and ponders what she has just experienced.
Sometimes I think we, as believers in Jesus Christ, lose the wonder of the gospel. We’ve heard the Christmas story. We’ve heard the gospel. It’s old news. But the gospel is something that never loses its wonder. With Mary, we should treasure and ponder it every day. The gospel is at the heart of the believer’s life. It is not just the beginning of the believer’s life. It is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the believer’s life. It is a story worth telling every day. It is a truth worth pondering every day. It is Good News to share with a broken world. It is Good News that shapes our lives and molds us into the image of Christ. Let us not lose the wonder of that truth in the midst of the busyness of the Christmas Season.
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