A fear not of God
Fear Not, I Bring You Good Tidings
Shepherds are keeping the night watch in the fields outside Bethlehem, an ordinary and unglamorous job, when the sky tears open with the glory of the Lord and an angel stands before them. They are, in the old words, sore afraid, terrified by holiness blazing over their flocks. The first word that heaven speaks to them is fear not.
“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”Luke 2:10
The moment
The shepherds' fear is the natural response of small, working people to the sudden blaze of divine glory. Light that belongs to heaven has flooded a dark field, and there is nothing in their experience to prepare them for it; the instinct of sinful humanity before the holy is dread. It is worth noticing who receives this announcement. Not priests, not kings, but night-shift laborers on the margins, the kind of people easily overlooked. The fear is real because glory is genuinely overwhelming, and because they may well wonder what such holiness could want with the likes of them, whether this blazing visitor has come to bring judgment down on their ordinary lives.
Why we need not fear
The angel answers the fear by naming the content of the message: good tidings of great joy, and joy that is for all people, not a select few. The glory in the sky has not come to condemn the shepherds but to announce a gift, a Savior born for them that very night in the town nearby. Fear can be set down because the holiness that frightened them is bending down toward them in mercy, not wrath. The proof that God means them well is that the Savior is not kept in a palace but laid in a manger a short walk away, findable by ordinary men following an ordinary sign.
How Christ answers this fear
The good tidings are a person: unto them is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. The very One whose glory could terrify is the One now wrapped in cloths in a feeding trough, small enough to hold, humble enough to approach. Christ is God making Himself unafraid-of, drawing near in a form that welcomes shepherds rather than scattering them. The fear of the holy is answered by the holy One becoming a baby, and later by that same Savior seeking out the overlooked, the working poor, the sinners, and telling them the kingdom is theirs. The glory did not stay in the sky; it lay down where shepherds could find it.
Questions people ask
Why were the shepherds afraid in Luke 2?
The shepherds were keeping watch at night when the glory of the Lord suddenly shone around them and an angel appeared. They were terrified, the natural reaction of ordinary people to overwhelming holiness. The angel immediately says fear not, because the message is good news of great joy: a Savior has been born for them and for all people.
What are the good tidings of great joy?
The good tidings are the birth of a Savior, Christ the Lord, in the city of David. The joy is described as being for all people, not for a privileged few. The announcement to lowly shepherds signals that this Savior comes for the overlooked and the ordinary, which is why the frightening glory turned out to be the herald of mercy.