Christmas Eve
Lk
2:1-20
12/24/19
When sin entered into the world
through Adam and Eve, God said to the devil, “I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” In this first Gospel
promise, God said that a descendent of Eve would defeat the devil.
During our mid-week Advent services
we considered how God brought this promise to fulfillment using unexpected
means. He used the elderly and barren
Sarah. He used the virgin Mary. Yahweh worked throughout the history of
Israel in order to narrow the focus of who this descendant of Eve would
be.
God called Abraham and said that in
him all nations would be blessed. He
extended this promise to his sons Isaac and Jacob. Jacob, whom God called Israel, became the
source of the nation Israel. At the end of his life when Jacob blessed his
sons, Yahweh indicated that that the tribe of Judah would be the one through
whom he would work.
Then Yahweh
chose David from the tribe of Judah to be king over Israel. He sent the prophet Nathan to announce about
David’s son Solomon: “I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my
name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will
be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.”
Yahweh
promised that a descendant of David would be the Messiah – the One who would
rescue God’s people. We hear about this
One in our Old Testament lesson tonight: “For to us a child is born, to
us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase
of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of
David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice
and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”
In
the midst of this lofty rhetoric there are some puzzling descriptions. This
child will rule on the throne of David, so naturally we assume that he is a
descendant of King David – a human being.
Yet he is also called “Mighty God, Everlasting Father.” This is language that is jarring. It does not fit with what otherwise seems to
be a description of a person.
From
the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke we can understand how the language of
Isaiah is true. Conceived by the Holy
Spirit, the child carried by Mary is more than a human being, without ceasing
to be one. The child is the Son of God.
He is also human. He is true God
and true man at the same time.
Because
Joseph has taken the child to be his own, this one is also now included in the
line of King David. He is therefore a son of David. He is the Christ – the
Messiah – who fulfills God’s promises about the One who will bring his end time
salvation.
So
many years had passed as God guided the circumstances that would fulfill the
promise he made at the Fall. But now the
moment had finally arrived for this child to be born. The culmination of all of
God’s work in salvation history was about to take place. This was the most
important thing that had ever happened in human history. This was news that had
to be shared.
We hear about
that announcement in our Gospel lesson. We are told, “And in the same region
there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” The announcement about the birth of the One
who is the Savior and the Christ is not made to the Sanhedrin, to the Jewish
leaders from the Pharisees and Sadducees. It is not announced in Jerusalem at
the temple to the crowds that worshipped there. It’s not announced to the Roman governor who
represented the Emperor and the Roman Empire.
Instead, it is
announced to shepherds living out in the open with their animals. These men
were not socially important. They were not powerful. They were not well
known. They were nobodies.
Yet an angel of
the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were filled with fear. The night sky was lit with the perceptible
presence of God as an angel appeared to them and said, “Fear not, for behold, I
bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will
be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and
lying in a manger.”
These were
startling and frightening events. Yet
the angel told the shepherds not to fear. The reason was that he had come to
share good news of great joy – good news that was for all people. The news was
this: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
He announced that in Bethlehem, the city of David’s origin, a Savior had
been born. This Savior was the Christ – the Messiah – promised by God in the
Old Testament. He was also the Lord, a
term which in the Greek Old Testament was used to translate the name of God,
Yahweh. Though the shepherds could not comprehend the full significance of
this, we recognize that as true God Jesus is the Lord.
A baby in
Bethlehem was rather vague. So the angel
added, “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped
in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Swaddling clothes were the typical treatment provided to newborn
babies. But a manger – a feeding trough
for animals – was not. This was the sign that would identify the child for
them, because it was so unusual.
After the angel
had said this, he was suddenly joined by an army of angels who praised God
saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” They announced that
God was to be glorified to the highest degree because of what he was doing
through this child. He was giving peace
on earth by showing his favor in Christ.
When the angels
had departed to heaven the shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see
this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” They
hurried and found the stable with Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a
manger.
The angel
announces good news of great joy that is for all people. He says that in city
of David a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord. But he
announces this to shepherds. And when they find the source of this good news,
it is a baby lying in a stable’s manger. Nothing about this looks royal or
mighty. God’s angel says it is one thing, but it looks like something else.
In this we
discover that while Jesus is the Christ and the Lord, he is the Savior who
saves by humbling himself to the point of death – even death on a cross. Jesus is the Savior who came to take the
place of sinners and receive God’s judgment against your sin. The angel is
entirely correct. But God is doing it in
a way that looks like the opposite of what it really is.
Tonight we see
a cute baby in a manger. But on Good
Friday Jesus will hang bleeding on a Roman cross. Tonight God’s angel sends the
shepherds to see Jesus, but on Good Friday Jesus will cry out, “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?”
God does this
because we are people who fear, love and trust in everything other than
God. God does this because we love
ourselves far more than our neighbor. He
does this because we lust, and lie, and covet.
It is because of these sins – your sins – that Jesus the Son of God
entered into the world in order to suffer and die on the cross.
But by his
death on the cross Jesus was the seed of the woman who defeated sin and the
devil. And by his resurrection he has triumphed over death itself. The angel appears to the shepherds tonight
and tells them not to fear. He announces
good news that a Savior has been born.
After Jesus had been buried, on the third day an angel told the women at
Jesus’ tomb not to fear. He announced
the good news: “I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here,
for he has risen as he said.”
Born as a
helpless baby in a manger, Jesus Christ has now completed his mission for
us. He reigns as the risen, ascended and
exalted Lord. The Lord continues to be
present at work among us, giving us the forgiveness that he has won for us and
strengthening us in the faith. He does
this through means that look humble and weak – like a baby in a manger; like a
man on a cross.
He does this
through the preaching of the Word of God, as the Gospel is proclaimed. He does this through the water and word of
Holy Baptism. He does this through a pastor in the Office of the Ministry
speaking absolution. He does this
through bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar as he gives us his true
body and blood. Yet like the baby in the manger and the man on the cross they
are in fact the powerful working of God for us.
We know this, because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.
In our text
tonight the angel announces: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of
great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord.” We have received the forgiveness
and salvation won by this Savior. And so now we act in love and forgiveness
towards others.
The world talks
about the “spirit of the Christmas season.” It is a brief time when people get
caught up in the giving gifts and helping others. But we have received the Spirit of the risen
Lord who leads us to forgive and support others every day of the year. The baby
born in Bethlehem is the man who died on the cross and rose from the dead. He is our Savior who entered into our world
and served us, so that now as we live in him we can serve others.
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