Christmas Day
Ex
40:17-21, 24-38
12/25/25
“Some assembly required.” These are
words that every parent dreads on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The
anticipation of a son or daughter has been building as Christmas approached.
The tree had been set up and decorated. And then the presents had been placed
under the tree. The child had looked at the present and perhaps held it – dying
to know what was inside.
Then on Christmas Eve or Day the
child opens the present and is thrilled to see the toy that is inside. He or
she is can’t wait to play with it. They want to do so right now. And yet
those three words now stand in the way: “Some assembly required.”
Thankfully, I am no longer in the
phase of life where I face this challenge. But I certainly remember having to
read and follow directions on Christmas Day in order to get a toy ready so that
the kids could play with it. After the
sermon writing, preaching, and preparation during Advent, Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day all I wanted to do was sit back and relax. But there in front of
me was a set of directions I had to decipher so that the joy of the present
could be fulfilled.
In our Old Testament lesson for
Christmas Day we hear about how Moses set up the tabernacle as God’s glory came
to dwell in the midst of Israel. We will see that he and Israel had directions
that they had to follow, and that assembly was required. In the tabernacle we
encounter an Old Testament type that has found fulfillment in the person and
work of Jesus Christ. And we learn about
how Christ continues to be present and give forgiveness to us today.
Our text this morning narrates the
process by which the Moses set up the tabernacle and placed all of the
furnishings that had been made for it. Yahweh had brought Israel out of
Egyptian slavery in the exodus. He had taken them into a covenant with himself
at Mt Sinai. They were his treasured possession. And so God announced that he
was going to be with his people in a new and specific way. He said, “And let
them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”
The tabernacle was going to be the
means by which God dwelt in the midst of his people. And the construction of
the tabernacle was not left to chance. Instead, God said, “Exactly as I show
you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so
you shall make it.” Many items would be
needed to make the tabernacle – things like gold, silver, blue and purple
thread, and acacia wood. God told Moses to take up a contribution from the
people. He said, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a
contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the
contribution for me.”
Yahweh provided the directions about
how to make the tabernacle and all its furnishings. We hear about this in
Exodus chapters 25 to 31. God also uniquely endowed two Israelite men with the
Spirit to provide artistic skill and craftsmanship for making these things. At
the heart of the tabernacle stood the Ark of the Covenant, and its lid the
mercy seat with the wings of cherubim extending over it. God said, “And you
shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put
the testimony that I shall give you. There I will meet with you, and from above
the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the
testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment
for the people of Israel.”
In our text we learn that Moses set
everything up. Next we hear: “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting,
and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to
enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the
Lord filled the tabernacle.” A cloud
covered the tabernacle, and then Moses wasn’t able to enter it because the
glory of the Lord – the perceptible presence of God - filled the tabernacle.
The tabernacle was the located means
by which Yahweh dwelt in the midst of his people. The tabernacle, and Ark of
the Covenant which was contained in the Holy of Holies, was the means – the
thing God used to be with them. Israel
knew how God was present for them as the tabernacle was located in the center
of the camp.
As our text describes, the cloud and the pillar of fire over the tabernacle directed their journeys. God brought Israel into the promised land, and eventually he used Solomon to build the temple in Jerusalem as the permanent replacement for the tabernacle. At its dedication the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies. Then we learn: “And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”
The tabernacle, and then temple, was
the located means by which God dwelt with his people. It was also the means by
which God dealt with their sins. In the sacrifices, such as the sin offering
God promised, “And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be
forgiven.” And then once a year on the
Day of Atonement the priest entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood
of a sacrifice on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant – on the mercy seat – to
remove the contamination of their sin. God
provided the sacrifices as the means by which he the holy God dwelt in the
midst of a sinful people.
Today we are celebrating the birth
of Jesus Christ. During Advent we remembered how the birth of Christ had been
promised by God in the Old Testament. But Jesus was the fulfillment of more
than just statements made by God’s prophets. He was the fulfillment of all
that is found in the Old Testament. This includes the tabernacle, the Ark of
the Covenant, and the sacrifices. These things were types – means by which God
acted in the Old Testament that pointed forward to what he would do in Christ.
John makes this point clear in our
Gospel lesson. He tells us that the Son of God – the Word – is God. He is the One who created the cosmos. John
says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were
made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
And then John explains what happened
on Christmas as he writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth.” The apostle declares that the Son
of God became flesh – he became man without ceasing to be God.
When John says that the incarnate
Word “dwelt” with us, the Greek word he employs is based on the same root of
the noun that was used to translate “tabernacle.” We could almost translate it,
“he tabernacled among us.” And note that John refers to glory, just as we hear
in our text that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The apostle wants
us to know that all of which had been true of the tabernacle as the means by
which God dwelt among his people is now true of Jesus Christ.
Jesus himself makes this
identification. After Jesus cleansed the temple in John chapter 2 the Jews ask
him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up.”
Then
the Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and
will you raise it up in three days?” But then John tells us, “he was speaking
about the temple of his body.”
At Christmas, the baby Jesus was the
located means of God for us. He was the Son of God, bodily located in this
world – God acting at a place and time to save people who live a bodily
existence at a place and time.
We have mentioned that the
tabernacle and temple were the location of sacrifices offered in the Old
Testament. And the cover of the Ark of the Covenant – the mercy seat- was the means
by which sacrificed blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. Jesus was present as the sacrifice and means
of atonement. The Son of God was lying in the manger at Christmas so that his
body could be nailed to the cross on Good Friday.
Jesus was the sacrifice for sin because we are sinful people who
cannot be in the presence of the holy God. St Paul told the Romans: “For there
is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by
his blood, to be received by faith.”
Jesus Christ the sinless One died for you as he received God’s
judgment against sin. Christ’s death
atoned for you – it removed sin as the barrier to fellowship with God. Paul
told the Colossians, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in
mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by
his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above
reproach before him.”
We see in our Old Testament lesson that the tabernacle was the
located means by which God dwelt in the midst of his people. Christmas reminds
us that as the fulfillment of the tabernacle, the same thing is now true of Jesus
Christ. We see a pattern here as God uses the things of this world to come to
us. He locates himself in ways so that we know where he is present for us.
These actions reflect the way God made the world and us. God made a
material creation that was very good. He
made us as the unity of body and soul to live in this world. In the incarnation, death, and resurrection
of the Son of God, the Father has freed us from sin and redeemed bodily life –
a redemption Paul says that we will experience on the Last Day when Christ
raises up our bodies from the dead.
Now, the risen Lord continues to use located means by which he is
present for us and delivers the forgiveness he has won. He instituted the
Sacrament of the Altar as he uses bread and wine to give us his true body and
blood. Christ comes bodily into our midst. Just as the Son of God was the baby
in the manger, so now it is his body and blood at the altar. We eat and drink
in the assurance that this is his body and blood given and shed for us.
As we prepare to receive the Sacrament we will sing in the Sanctus,
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Lord who came as a baby
at Christmas, comes to us now in his body and blood. But this coming in the
Sacrament also points us to the day when he returns in glory. As Paul told the
Corinthians, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
In our Old Testament lesson for Christmas we see that the
tabernacle was the located means by which God was present with his people and
provided forgiveness and atonement. It was a type that pointed forward to Jesus
Christ. On Christmas we celebrate the fact that the Son of God entered our
world to save us. God was at work through the located means of the incarnate
Son of God. By his death on the cross Jesus Christ has won forgiveness and made
atonement. The risen Lord gives this to us now through his body and blood in
the Sacrament of the Altar. And the One who comes to us bodily this morning in
the Sacrament will come in glory on the Last Day.
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