Christmas Eve
Tit
2:11-14
12/24/18
In order to help us think about
history, we divide it up into eras or periods of time. These are usually demarcated by significant
events. So when we talk about world
history, World War II is a dramatic event that marks a significant change in
the world and the start of a new era.
If you had been living in December
1918, you would have thought that the Great War that had just ended the
previous month was the “war to end all wars” and the beginning of a new
era. But a war concluded before one side
had achieved clear victory on the battlefield simply delayed the need for final
resolution of the issues that caused the war in the first place.
On Sept. 1, 1939 the Germans invaded
Poland and before it was all done, the entire world was plunged into a
war. World War II led to the deaths of
somewhere between seventy and eighty five million people. War was waged on a scale and in a scope that
had never been seen before. And of
course, its final conclusion was brought about in part by the invention of a
completely new weapon – the atom bomb.
World War II was a great event and
it clearly marked the start of a new era.
It marked the decline of the colonial powers as their colonies became
independent countries and Great Britain and France became second rate
powers. It marked the emergence of the
United States as the super power it has continued to be to this day. It marked the beginning of the Cold War which
consumed great effort and resources until the breakup of the Soviet Union in
1991. And it marked the beginning of the
nuclear age which has threatened destruction on an unimaginable scale, and at
the same time has prevented a World War III.
In the epistle lesson for Christmas
Eve, the apostle Paul describes the appearance of Jesus Christ as an event that
has begun a new era. He clearly says
that this impacts the way we now live, and that it points forward to a dramatic
event that will begin another era. And
at the same time the manner in which the appearance of Jesus Christ took place
leads us to consider more deeply how God works now in our midst.
Paul begins by saying, “For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and
worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the
present age.” The phrase “the grace of
God has appeared” is what we are celebrating tonight. God’s grace – his
unmerited favor and love – appeared when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was born
in Bethlehem.
The apostle
told the Galatians that this appearance took place according to God’s plan and
timing. He wrote, “But when the fullness
of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to
redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Paul sees this appearance as the beginning of
a new era. It is as he says literally in
our text, “the now age.”
Paul states
clearly why this is so at the end of our text when he writes that Jesus who was
born is “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to
redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own
possession who are zealous for good works.”
Jesus is the Savior because he gave himself on our behalf. He died on the cross to redeem us from all
lawlessness. He has freed us from
slavery to sin.
And Paul
adds that this redeeming work has purified for himself a people for his own
possession. Biblical thought deals with
the individual, but it can never lose sight of the group. Jesus Christ has not given forgiveness only
to you or to me. He has done this for
all who through baptism and faith are in Christ.
And when
Paul refers to a “a people for his own possession” he is talking about the new era
that has begun. Paul wrote this letter
to Titus who was on the island of Crete.
Paul and Titus had begun the proclamation of the Gospel on the
island. Now, Paul had left Titus there
on Crete to be in charge of organizing the new congregations.
While
surely there were some Jews present, these congregations were overwhelmingly Gentile. Paul speaks about Gentiles, and yet he
refers to them as “a people of his own possession.” This is the very language that Yahweh had
used to describe Israel when he brought them out of Egypt in the exodus and
took them to be his covenant people. As
Paul says in our text, “For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” The remarkable thing about this new era is that now
Jews and Gentiles are together the
people of God’s own possession. The
birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has begun the era of the new
covenant. This means that although most
of you are not descended from Abraham, you belong. You are part of God’s people who have been
purified of all your sins.
Tonight we
gather to celebrate how God’s grace was revealed as Jesus Christ was born in
Bethlehem. When we think about this
event, we certainly remember that Jesus was born in order to die on the cross
as our Savior. We are comforted by the
knowledge that the Son of God entered into the world in the incarnation in
order to save us. And that is usually where we stop. Jesus is our Savior who
has given us forgiveness. That’s what he means for us.
But if our
thoughts on Christmas Eve stop there, then we have not really understood Paul’s
point. Paul begins our text with the
word “for.” This relates our text to
what Paul has just been saying. In fact it tells us that our text provides the
grounds – the reason and justification for what Paul has just said.
In the
previous ten verses, Paul has been telling Titus what he is to teach the
Christians on Crete about how they are to live.
He has described how men and woman are to live in their vocations in
ways that are reverent, loving, kind, self-controlled, and steadfast. Indeed, Paul says in our text that the grace
of God has appeared “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
Our text
provides the reason that Christians are
to do these things. It provides the
reason that we are to live in ways that are true to God’s will as we live in our
vocations. Paul leaves no doubt about
this when he ends our text by saying that Christ has purified for himself “a
people for his own possession who are
zealous for good works.”
The birth
of Jesus Christ was the grace of God appearing to bring salvation for you. It was the beginning of a new era in which we
live. It has led to your forgiveness and
salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But its meaning does not stop there. Instead through the work of the Spirit this
same saving grace now leads and enables you to live in ways that are true to
Christ; that reflect Christ. Jesus is
the reason for the season. He is also
the reason that we live as “little Christs” in every season. He is the reason that we live in the ways God’s
word teaches.
Paul says
in our text, “For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” These are grand words for what we celebrate
tonight. God’s grace was a baby lying in
a manger, visited by shepherds. It
hardly looked like the beginning of a new era.
And if that was true of his birth, then it was even more true of the
goal towards which his life moved. The
great action by which Jesus Christ won forgiveness was his death on the cross. It did not look like an impressive
victory. Paul granted that this idea
seemed like foolishness to the world. But as he told the Corinthians, “For Jews
demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Paul could
say that because of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Tonight reminds us that the ways the risen
Lord works in the present continue to look like that baby in a manger. They are not impressive to the world. It is the Word preached. It is the water of Holy Baptism. It is the bread and wine of the Sacrament of
the Altar.
But because
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we know that the Word is the inspired
revelation of God through which the Spirit continues to work. The water of
baptism is the means by which we have shared in the saving death of Jesus
Christ. The bread and wine of the Sacrament is the true body and blood of
Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
On this
night we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Born of a virgin, he was placed in the manger of a stable. The only people who visited him were
shepherds. But because of the
resurrection we know that when the world sees Jesus Christ again there will be
nothing humble about him. Instead, Paul tells
us in our text that we are “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the
glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
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