When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. 18 All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. 19 And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
21 When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Luke moves from angelic speech to human witness. When the angels depart, the shepherds do not stay behind to discuss what they saw. They speak to one another and decide to go to Bethlehem, because “the Lord has made known” what has taken place. In Luke’s telling, this is not presented as a private spiritual experience. It is a revelation meant to be acted upon and verified in the ordinary world.
They go “in haste” and find Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. The simplicity of what they see matters. The ‘sign’ the angel had given—that they would find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Lk. 2:12)—is not only a way to confirm that the message was true. The child who has been announced as Savior is found in lowliness. God’s saving work is present, but it does not arrive with the kind of display people usually expect.
After they see the child, the shepherds “make known” what they have been told about him. Luke is already shaping the pattern that will become unmistakable later: people receive God’s word, they see what God has done, and they speak about what they have seen and heard (Acts 4:20). Luke begins his Gospel by saying that these events were “handed on” by eyewitnesses (Lk. 1:1-2). The shepherds are part of that handing on. Their words cause amazement, not because they are eloquent, but because the content is astonishing: God has acted, and He has done so in a way that overturns ordinary expectations.
Mary’s response is different from the crowd’s amazement. Luke says she “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” The line does not suggest that Mary immediately grasps every implication of what is happening. It suggests that she holds the events together and turns them over, seeking their meaning. Luke will repeat this kind of description later (Lk. 2:51), so the reader understands that Mary’s faith is not a single moment but an attentive, enduring way of receiving what God is doing.
The shepherds then return to their ordinary work, but they return changed in one clear way: they are “glorifying and praising God” for what they have heard and seen. Luke closes the shepherds’ part of the story by stressing that everything happened “just as it had been told to them.” The story is anchored in God’s initiative and God’s reliability. What was announced is what is found.
Luke then adds the circumcision and naming of Jesus on the eighth day. This is not an isolated detail. Circumcision is the covenant sign given to Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 17:10-14), and Luke’s brief notice shows the child’s real solidarity with Israel and her covenant life. Jesus enters the history and obligations of God’s people in a concrete, public way, like any other Jewish male child (Lev. 12:3). Luke’s point is simple: Jesus truly enters the covenant life of Israel. In the New Covenant, incorporation into God’s people is marked not by circumcision but by Baptism, which joins us to Christ and brings us into the family of faith (cf. Acts 2:38-39; Gal. 3:27-29; Col. 2:11-12).
At the same time, Luke emphasizes that his name is not chosen at random. He is named Jesus, “the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb,” which recalls Gabriel’s announcement to Mary (Lk. 1:31). The name points to his mission. Matthew makes the meaning explicit: “he will save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). Luke has already said the same thing in another form by having the angel call him “a savior” (Lk. 2:11). The child is placed within Israel’s covenant story, and he is also shown as the one through whom God will fulfill what He promised.
Lord God, give us clear eyes to recognize Your saving work when it comes in humble ways, and give us honest words to speak what You have made known. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011), including NABRE note on Lk. 2:21.
- The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke, p. 110.
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: Luke (Four Courts/Scepter), pp. 250-251.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (Paulist Press, 2018), pp. 1042-1043.
- Raymond E. Brown et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Prentice Hall, 1990), p. 683 (pars. 31-32).
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