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“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by your truth. Your word is truth. Amen.
Fellow redeemed: What a thing to happen; the Creator sees His creatures are ruined in hopeless condition and unfit for life, but so loving them, leaves aside His native glory and stoops down further and further till at the right moment He becomes one of us and the Creator is a fellow creature, entering into the world He has made, so lowly that there is no room for Him to be. He is born a man in a stable, laid in the trough designed to hold grain for livestock.
God Himself became man. In fact He did so nine months earlier, entering into the Virgin’s womb so that Mary miraculously became pregnant. But it was now, in His being delivered that our fellow man were able to behold Him. And so she did, His mother see her Lord and behold her Son, and Joseph too. Though they had not come together in their betrothal, he had lovingly treated his bride, protecting her and the Child growing heavy within her. So we may truly regard him as Jesus’ father in all but the biological sense. A loving protecting, daddy, hands accustomed to mallet and plank and the rough use of a builder, he gently used his calloused hands to hold and wash the infant’s tender skin. Wrapped snugly, and laid to rest after an infant’s borning labors, Mary and Joseph beheld their Son, God made man to be and dwell among us, making funny newborn snuffles as He slept.
Soon the Holy Family were joined by other rough fellows, nighttime shepherds fresh in from the flock-filled meadow, who angel directed had come to behold how the Creator had entered creation in the tender flesh of a child, till rejoicing and triumphing the glad news they went to tell and rouse the slumbering villagers of the wondrous birth.
What a glory, to behold the Child, to see Jesus before you and know that here, veiled in flesh is God Himself. Who among us wouldn’t want to have had the opportunity to be there, that first Christmas, to see God come to man? Our sentiment and story of longing is to be brought before the Creator, we broken creatures, and to see Him before us kindly, caring, curing our fallen condition, to forever reunite us to Himself.
You know that such a thing could never be done by our doing, it has to be His. Only God can come to us, we cannot go to Him. And if He comes unveiled, in His glory, would you be able to stand it, or would you in your imperfection and sin be undone entirely? No, He must come in such a way as we would be healed and not forever condemned, for our sin has left us dead before Him, woeful and unfit. If God would come, He must come gently for our sakes.
And so at Christmas the sentiment of many is given over to a futile longing, to be among those shepherds, to stand at Protector Joseph’s side, to see God With Us a child, meek and lowly. And so many, many, many will come away from this holy Feasting Day hearts weighed down that we all have missed that day of Jesus’ birth. We have missed His coming to the Temple, we have missed His ministry, His teaching, His healing of many, we have missed His final passion, His dying as the Sinless One bearing the sin of the world upon the cross. We missed it all for we were all born centuries afterward. And hearts are downcast, for we can not gather with shepherds in the stable to see Him. And the sentiment of the Season soon is past, burnt off like the morning fog into nothing, and the Christmastime feeling is gone like a dream.
Well, awake from your dreaming, you lost and dying, for this is no dream. The world is fitful, filled with unobtainable fantasy, too willing to deny what is, and long for what is no more. The world pretends this time of year to rejoice in Jesus’ birth, but makes it a fantasy fairy tale forever out of reach and continues to go to hell. The sentiment and dreaming are false, and you should know it. For what the world says can never be, is. The world insists on a dream which is not real, and regards what is real as a dream. Wake, awake, and slumber no longer! The telling of the Story of the Savior’s birth, and the shepherd’s beholding Him is not without a purpose: Would you see Jesus? Would you gather before Him and behold Him, receive Him, be blessed by the God who lifts His countenance, His kindly face full of grace upon you? Then rejoice that He was born once among us, and rejoice that Jesus lived and ministered in our midst. Then rejoice that the God who made Himself a man this day came in order to bear the terrible load of our sin and took once and for all the penalty of death, which you owe in your sin upon Himself and made complete satisfaction and payment of it, living in perfect willing obedience to His Law which would crush us sinners, and dying to forever fulfill its demand. Rejoice that Jesus has broken the terrible chains of death, and has stormed the very gates of hell, declaring His victory and life forever. Rejoice that He is risen from the dead, death being destroyed no longer may hold him. And rejoice that this same Jesus whom the world fervently believes to be no longer with mankind, no longer in this world, in fact now comes to us, is with us.
Emmanuel, God With Us, is true to His name, Jesus is with us. He comes before you and is with you fully here and now. Listen to Jesus’ promise. He is God and cannot lie. His promise is certain and sure, and He keeps His Word: Jesus tells you, oh man that wherever two or three are gathered together in His Name, He is in our midst also. Jesus tells you that whatever is forgiven you on earth is forgiven you also in heaven, before the Face of the ever living God and Father of us all. Jesus tells you that you are made His by His Word and Spirit and water of holy Baptism and lo, He is with you forevermore. Jesus tells you that He is with you, all of Him, in His body and blood born of Mary, His body and blood suffered once and for all in your stead upon the cross into death, in His body and blood which is risen from the dead on the third day, in His body and blood which goes to prepare a place for you in His Father’s house of many mansions and if He goes, He returns to you, Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem, the man who fed thousands with a little bread and fish, He is with you, Body and Blood, before you, fed into in the bread and wine. Here is your communion, here is the wonder of the ages. What the shepherds once beheld, speaks word of Good News of your forgiveness and blessing to you, washes you and makes you clean and cloaks you in His own righteousness in the sight of the Father, feeds Himself into your mouth to eat and drink. Here is Jesus; behold your Savior God!
God has clothed Himself in your flesh, spoken in your tongue, washed you under the flood of water and feeds into you Himself fully, His glorified humanity and His gracious divinity.
As shepherds once rushed to behold their Savior, you come too, rush in, and behold Him who is for you, and in whom you have forgiveness, life, and salvation, as He comes to you now and you behold His Word proclaimed, His washing of Holy Baptism, His Holy Communion. Here is Jesus for you, here and now. The miracle of miracles, the Life of your life, and your salvation from forever death is here. Behold your Savior and know the blessing.
Now join the shepherds that night, and go and tell. Join with the women at the tomb on the day of His rising and go and tell. Great good news, Jesus is for you, God and man are reconciled together in Him. Your sin is forgiven, you are made at peace with the God who loves you now and forevermore.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard over your heart and mind through Christ Jesus forevermore. Amen.
