Christmas Day  

Luke 2:1-14

THE GLORIOUS TIDINGS OF CHRISTMAS,

"Unto you is born this day a Savior"

Dear fellow redeemed! The bells have again rung in our joyous festival of Christmas. Their call again gathers a host of young and old from city and village to celebrate in the Lord's temple. And what prompts thousands upon thousands of people not only in this country but all around the globe to celebrate so uni-versal a festival of joy at this cold, dreary time? What is it really which causes you to see a light stream-ing from the darkened corner and to hear old and young singing: "In this our happy Christmastide The joyful bells are ringing," and to join in singing the angel's song of praise: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men"? Oh, you know it is the angel's announcement which came on Christmas night: "Unto you is born this day in the city of David,  a Savior which is Christ the Lord."  

The fact that a poor, little Child was born 18OO years ago in a humble stall in Judah could easily appear to be little reason for so universal a celebration. And unfortunately there are many who think so and who are not moved in the least by these tidings that it is a Savior who is born, but who take part in Christmas festivities just to have a really good time for a few days. However, already in the Old Covenant through the prophet Isaiah we hear the Lord order all creation to thank God for this Savior: "Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD has done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel." (44:23.) Yes, we also hear the holy angels from on high coming down from heaven to sing the praises of this Child's birth in spite of the fact that he did not take the nature of holy angels but that of sinful man, and neither was he born for their sake but for ours, as the angel says: "I bring good tidings to you , - to you this day is born a Savior."

And we whom this concerns most intimately, we should also hear these tidings indifferently and our lips should remain silent during this universal singing of praise! God preserve us therefore, even though we never fully can receive this miracle of grace or contain this "great joy" in our hearts or give expression to it and praise it as it deserves! Luther says:

 Our hearts are much too small to grasp the vastness of such a great blessing. Because it is so vast, that if a person could grasp the fact that the Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth, takes us as the dearest of all his children, truly takes such joy in us, has such a great concern for us and directs such great love and tenderness toward us, I say, if we could fully comprehend how gracious God is toward us, then so great a joy would arise from it, that we would soon give up the spirit for endless joy, or die from joy.

But even if we must feel and acknowledge with shame that our hearts are both too cold and narrow for receiving and containing this miracle of divine love, wisdom and omnipotence rightly, and that it is only with stammering tongues that we can speak of it, yet we will try to encourage and help each other to a fuller understanding of it, and praising it, consider together:

THE GLORIOUS TIDINGS OF CHRISTMAS:

"To you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord,"

and then see that it contains:  1. The Greatest Miracle.

2. The Greatest Joy. .

I.

"Great," writes the apostle Paul, "is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh," 1 Ti. 3:16. And that is exactly what the angel announces about the little Child who was born of the virgin Mary and whom the shepherds found lying in the manger in the stable in Bethlehem, that in this Child "God was manifest in the flesh," because he says that the Savior who was born in the city of David is "Christ the Lord," that therefore this little Child is the One promised in the Scriptures, the Messiah long awaited by all the faithful in Israel as it was foretold by the prophet Micah that he should be born in Bethlehem the city of David, and "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (5:2.) Therefore we hear the angel call this little Child "Lord." But now surely the angels have no other Lord over them than God, which is why the angel announces in his greeting to the world that this Child who was born of the virgin Mary on Christmas night is true God. But now, my beloved, isn't it a miracle surpassing all miracles that the eternal, infinite God whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, through conception in the womb of the virgin Mary receives a human nature and in that way enters into so intimate a union that in Christ, the one divine person, God is man and man is God? Is it not a miracle that he, the Almighty by whom all things were made and who upholds all things by the word of his power is born from a virgin's womb, is carried in a mother's arms, is nourished at a mother's breast, - that he, the rich one, to whom gold and silver belong, becomes poor and has no place where he can lay his head, - that he, the Holy One, joins himself not with angels but the sinner fallen from him, - he, who is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," (He. 1:3) is revealed in "the likeness of sinful flesh," (Ro. 8:3) - he, who is the eternal King, becomes servant of all, the most wretched and despised of the children of men, - he, the Lord of glory, lays aside his divine glory and humbles himself and takes upon himself our fallen human nature and in the form of a servant becomes obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? In him, the little Child in the manger, - in him, who nailed to the cross was despised as one before whom a person hides his face, - in him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily! The Lord of glory dies on the cross!

Brethren! We are standing before a miracle without equal, a mystery into which even the angels of God desire to look, a divine miracle before which it behooves us, as previously it did Moses, to "put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." (Ex. 3:5.) It is a miracle so great, so incomprehensible, that all human understanding is silent, and we children of the dust, we poor sinners, must only join adoringly in the angel's song of praise: "Glory to God in the highest."

How wonderful is also the manner in which God presents this Child's birth and the circumstances surrounding it! It was in his eternal counsel that God determined to send his only-begotten Son into the world, because it is written: "He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." (Ep. 1:4.) Centuries, yes, thousands of years ago, beginning at the Fall of Adam this Child's birth was already pro-mised and prepared. The promise concerning him is the heart whereof the entire Old Covenant and also the most important of the world's events concern themselves, rays of light toward which the Old Testa-ment's believers turned their eyes, upon which they set their hope.

Now the great events of the world, the heathen emperor's decree, must serve to fulfill the various pro-phecies about this Child given thousands of years before. Thus we see in our Gospel for today that the mighty Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, who wanted to know nothing of the true God and his only-begotten, must, however, serve them. He must issue a decree that "all the world should be taxed," so that Joseph and Mary who were of the house and lineage of David, must journey from Nazareth in Galilee, to Bethlehem the city of David, and she give birth to her Child so that it could be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Micah, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (5:2.)

Also with respect to the time for the Child's birth, the patriarch Jacob had already prophesied, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." (Ge. 49:1O.) Now when Jesus was born, the Roman emperor's decree shows us that the sceptre had departed from Judah and that the Jews had come under foreign rule. My beloved, we are to learn from this not to lose heart no matter how dark things appear and when no way out is apparent!

Who points the clouds their courses,

Whom wind and waves obey,

He will direct thy footsteps

And find for thee a way.

And finally, my friends, what a wonderful sign of the Messiah the prophet Isaiah gives! "Therefore," he says, "the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (7:14.) And listen now to what the Gospel reports: "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary." (Lk. 1:26-27.) And this virgin to whom the angel said "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you," (Lk. 1:35) she is now the one who without knowing a man gives birth to the Child, Jesus, that holy one who "is called the Son of God." (Lk. 1:35.) Oh, what a great miracle! He, who is born of the Father from eternity, is born here without being begotten by a man, as a true child of man, of a vir-gin, and of a sinful virgin is born the Holy One who is called the Son of God, after sin was purified from the mother's body by the Holy Spirit. Truly, curious reason must be silent here and believing hearts wor-ship humbly. St. Bernard says that there are three unities which occurred through the power of God over which he cannot marvel sufficiently, namely, God and man united in Christ, mother and virgin united in Mary, and faith and the human heart in every true Christian, which grasps the other two unions.

Is it not to be marveled at that God sent nothing less than his angel from heaven to announce the won-derful news to the poor shepherds and to us poor sinners. Yes, that a multitude of the heavenly hosts must come down to earth on this occasion to sing us a heavenly song of praise so wonderfully beautiful that its equal had never before been heard on earth. Therefore the Child already receives the name, "Wonderful," among other names, from the prophet Isaiah.

II.

But why so universal a celebration over a miracle, even the greatest miracle? What good is it for us, that we should be so happy over it? My beloved! The tidings of Christmas not only proclaim the glor-ious miracle to us, they bring to us, God be praised! also the glorious joy.

Our Gospel tells us that "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid." It would appear as if those poor shepherds had reason to rejoice at the glorious revelation from heaven which came to them, but we see that the opposite was the case. They were sore afraid. The radiance of the angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord which shone around them awakened fear and distress in their hearts because they felt that they were condemned sin-ners, deserving of God's wrath and judgment. A revelation from heaven couldn't do anything else than terrify them, just as the Jews were terrified at Sinai.

In this way, my friends, fear and distress will also grip the natural heart of man when the Lord approaches the conscience in all his majesty and holiness through the Law or its dispensation and makes sin come alive in us! Even the light-hearted debauchee, the impudent blasphemer can suddenly feel terror pierce him when the Lord stands before him as a consuming fire, and as Belshazzar did, he sees the in-visible hand writing, "You are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting," (Da. 5:27) because at such times the sleeping conscience awakens and accuses of transgression and sin, and warns of death and judgment. Oh, unfortunately, many people willfully deaden the voice of their conscience and seek to forget its accusations in the lusts of the world. If they continue to despise God's call to them in this way they will never taste the joy which the tidings of Christmas bestow, but will bring upon themselves a hasty destruc-tion. But some people cannot get rid of this sting of the Law, which is sin. It stabs and gnaws at them again and again. It disturbs their enjoyment even of the innocent joys of life, and under its power makes them restless and terrified, just as the shepherds are sore afraid.

Do you feel this sting, my hearers! so that your heart wanders restlessly and cannot find peace? Well now, frightened heart! The angel's Christmas announcement speaks to you, just as previously to the shep-herds at Bethlehem, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Yes, God be praised, beloved! The Christmas tidings ring in our ears even now. Oh, therefore we can all rejoice, however much reason we still have to fear, should the Lord enter into judgment with us! Because it is surely from the Lord that the tidings come, from him against whom we have sinned. If he says to us that we are not to fear, what right do we then have to be afraid? Surely his wrath and our judg-ment are not being proclaimed to us as previously at Sinai, but his grace and "great joy" - great joy, , do you hear? And this great joy, it says, shall be for all people. The shepherds could surely enough think: The joy is not for us wretched, poor shepherds and to such poor sinners as we are. But look at what the angel says: This joy shall be to all people. This must refute every such doubting thought. But it can also well be that when it says "Fear not!" that you say, "Oh, yes, were I like those pious shepherds, then per-haps I would dare to hope that God would also allow his severe wrath to depart from me. But as great a sinner as I am, as thoroughly condemned as my heart is, surely I have reason enough to be afraid." No, the angel says you are not to be afraid, however great a sinner you also are, however much you also have deserved God's wrath and eternal damnation, because the joy which I proclaim, you see, is to be to all people, therefore also to you, and not just a few special, elect people. Therefore, my friend, however great your anxiety still is and however good reason you also have to be afraid, yes, however great and numerous even your sins are - as blood red as the color of scarlet, yet listen, the Lord is saying to you, Fear not! Oh, rejoice, take his word for it! He does not lie. He will not mock you in your misery but will deliver you from fear and make you rejoice. Therefore, rejoice on this Christmas Day if you never have done it before. Re-joice over these blessed tidings of Christmas!

But, my beloved, our dear God lets his angel not only proclaim "great joy" to us in the tidings of Christ-mas but he also reveals to us in what the joy consists or what the basis for the joy is, so that we can apply it to ourselves in spite of all inner doubt, hold firmly to it in spite of all opposition, and sincerely rejoice over it as something which is able to give us the greatest joy in spite of all sorrow, distress and death.

"To you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord." That is how the angel goes on. Oh, my friend! Have you really considered what it means: a Savior? Oh, life-giving tidings! Oh, sweet name: Jesus! A Savior is sent to you in this little Child who is born in Bethlehem! God has looked to you in your misery and has had mercy upon you! He has sent a Savior to you. A Savior is born to you. A Savior who has freed you from all your enemies, sin, death and the devil. He has delivered you from all evil, from the wrath of God, a gnawing conscience, the judgment of the Law, the fear of hell and of eter-nal condemnation! But, you say, how can this little Child save me from sin. How can God forgive that? He has still said, "You shall die the death." (Mt. 15:4.) And his Law says: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them." (Ga. 3:1O.) Listen, dear brother, to who the angel says this little Child is. He calls him who is born in the city of David, "Christ the Lord," just as we heard earlier, the Messiah promised in the Scriptures, the Lord, true God from eternity and yet also true man, born of the virgin Mary, so that he could take our sin on himself and fulfill the Law in our stead and suffer its punishment, the accursed death on the cross and the agonies of hell. And precisely because he is God his sacrifice has atoned for your sins and all the sins of the world and reconciled God with us so that now "the blood of God's Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 Jo. 1:7). Therefore we can also sing confi-dently:

That God has laid His anger by,

He by His gift hath shown us;

He gives His Son for us to die,

In Him He now doth own us;

These joyful tidings tell abroad,

That Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

From sin doth us deliver;

Who then should not be glad today

When Christ is born, the sinner's stay,

Who is of grace the giver?

No, it is not otherwise possible, my friend! than that these blessed Christmas tidings must make you rejoice and be glad and drive away all the fear which can worry you, when you accept them with a be-lieving heart. A Savior is born to you! What more do you need, what more can you desire than - a Savior? Blessed are you, blessed in time, blessed in eternity are you who through faith have embraced the little Child in the manger, you who in Jesus have your Savior! Truly, the tidings of Christmas bring us the greatest joy.

But, oh brethren! do we also all rejoice in it? Do our hearts exult in us by hearing that a Savior is born to us? God grant it were really so! But unfortunately there likely are some among us who sit cold and in-different as they hear these tidings. And why? Because you do not know that you are a condemned sinner, because you do not see and feel that you need a Savior. Therefore, you also seek your happiness in some-thing entirely different: in the world, its goods and its pleasures. But, "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mt. 8:36.) And this happiness of yours, even if it isn't happiness derived from sinful pleasures or from drink, sensuality and the like, will you be able to retain it in your dying hour when you will say farewell to everything, everything precious which you had here, when you will give account to your God and will have to answer for everything which you have done here below; for everything, do you hear? Do you think that you will retain your happiness then and depart happily when you see then, but, oh, too late, that you are a condemned sinner who cannot answer one question in a thousand, and in addition have wasted your time of grace and despised the salvation which was proclaimed to you? Oh, friend! therefore, wake up, you who are sleeping, and let Christ appear to you! It even says today. Tomorrow may be too late. Even now the tidings of Christmas ring in your ears: "Unto you is born this day a Savior." Oh, do not harden your heart, do not push your Savior away from you! He will bring you the greatest joy - eternal salvation.

But I hear someone sigh and say, Oh, I would really like to have this Savior. I would really like to have joy in him instead of this constant unrest and fear. But how do I dare believe it, as unworthy as I am? Yes, that's true, my friend, you are unworthy. We all are; unworthy of the least grace and gift. The Canaanite woman felt it so keenly when the Lord said: "It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs." (Mt. 15:26.) David felt it when he lamented: "I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Sa. 12:13.) Peter con-fessed it when he cried: "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man," (Lk. 5:8) and Paul, when he said: "I am not meet to be called an apostle." (1 Co. 15:9.) Yes, even Jesus' mother felt it when she accepted this word from his mouth: "Woman, what have I to do with you?" (Jo. 2:4.) But now, when the Lord's grace is so great that he has had mercy upon everyone without respect of persons, and through his angel allowed it to be proclaimed: "to you," take notice! "To you is born this day a Savior." Oh, my friends! do not deprive yourself of this great joy through your unbelief and do not reject him who has loved you so much that he has given his only-begotten Son so that you shall not be condemned, but believe in him and have eternal life. Because, through your wretched unbelief you make God a liar in his Word and it just comes from pride in your heart, from your wanting to be somebody in your own eyes and being able to give him some-thing before you will believe that he will be gracious to you. Therefore away with that and go to the man-ger "confidently," as the shepherds did! You will also find the Child there as the angel has said.

Now let us all with gladsome cheer

Follow the shepherds, and draw near

To see this wondrous gift of God,

Who hath His only Son bestowed.

And God be praised, you will not need to seek far and wide for him or seek him in vain! "Say not in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above) Or, who shall de-scend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead)." But say: "The word is nigh thee, even in your mouth, and your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach." (Ro. 1O:6.8.) Yes, this is the sign God has given you. Just as the angels said to the shepherds: "And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the babe lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes," so shall you always also find him in his church, wrapped in the Word as his garment, just as he says: "Search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (Jo. 5:39.) And just as the shepherds did not despise his humble appearance and poor dwelling but on the contrary took confidence that neither would he despise them but would make them rich through his poverty, so neither should you despise his church, the humble dwelling which he takes as thanks, or the despised Means of Grace in which he now is wrapped as in a poor garment. As often as you seek comfort there in need and distress with a heart hungry for grace from the Child who alone can comfort his people, you will find him there and you will see that he will not disdain the poor dwelling of your heart but will enter in and will dwell there with his spirit and you will have "great joy," greater than all the world's goods and pleasures can give you. Therefore say:

O dearest Jesus, holy Child!

Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled

Within my heart that it may be

A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

However, dear congregation, we will know even better what great joy is given us in this little Child when we consider the angel's song of praise of which the close of our Christmas Gospel tells us! It says: "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Yes, the joy over the Child's birth was so great that a whole multitude of angels had to come down to take part in it and to greet their Lord, this little Child in the manger, "the Lord of hosts,'" as he is called in Scripture, and sing praise to God for the numerous and great blessings which are given to people through this Child.

"Glory to God in the highest," the angels sing. Apart from this Child, they want to say, God receives no glory from people. They take all the glory for themselves, give it to the creatures instead of to the Creator. But from now on, through this Child, God shall again receive the glory which is his. Because through the birth of this Child, God is first truly known in his unfathomable grace and mercy, as well as in his won-derful power and wisdom with which he has accomplished his will for people's salvation, as we hear the Lord himself say, "No one knows the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him," (Mt. 11:27) and again, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." (Jo. 14:9.) Rightly to acknowledge God is to give him the highest glory, as Psalm 48 says, "According to your name, O God, so is your praise unto the ends of the earth." (1O.) Now if we acknowledge and receive this little Child as our Savior, for whose sake God loves us and grants us everything good, then we will also thank him for every good gift, bodily and spiritual, and with body and soul and everything we have, will glorify him and only him.

"And on earth peace" is the second verse in the angel's song of praise. Without this little Child there would be no peace on earth but man would be a peace-less creature without peace with God, without peace in his conscience, at enmity, hatred and strife with his neighbor, since everyone seeks his own. But this Child, who is called "the Prince of Peace," (Is. 9:6) has broken down sin's wall of partition and has rec-onciled God with us and us with God so that "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Ro. 5:1) and so that we no longer regard God as a consuming fire but as our gracious God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us in the Beloved. This produces a good conscience and a humble, benevolent mind, so that we also wish our neighbor everything good, intercede with God for him and seek to live in peace with him as far as it is possible for us.

"Good will toward men," thus rings the last verse in the song of praise. We heard just now that without Jesus it is impossible to glorify God and to have true peace. How would it be possible, then, for God to be pleased with a child of man except for this little Child or for them to rejoice in God and his guiding of them? Thus it says back in Genesis 6:5 and following: "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he was grieved in his heart that he had made man." But now, with the birth of this little Child, our nature is raised up in Christ and God regards the human race not as it is in itself, but he is pleased in it for the Beloved's sake, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, "He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved." (1:5.6.) But if we thus always are certain of God's good pleasure through Christ then we also have a confident, joyous heart and a contented mind which is at peace with the way God leads us. We bear our affliction patiently and wait on the Lord until he changes it, as Paul writes, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." (2 Co. 12:1O.) I will therefore say with Luther:

 God gives men a happy, joyful heart, so that they can say: I have a Savior, the kingdom of heaven is mine. Christ, God's Son, is mine! Therefore, even if I shall suffer persecution and every possible misfortune for the sake of this my faith and confession, yet I will, however, not be offended because of it or become im-patient, but delight in it. Now, no sorrow, suffering or persecution, be they as great as they will, shall hinder me or deprive me of my joy over this newborn Child. Behold, my beloved, these are the blessings which the birth of this Child have brought us and over which we have heard the angel of God rejoice and praise God! Tell me, can a greater joy be given or named than that which the tidings of Christmas bring us: to have a Savior through whom we can give God all glory and have true peace and with whom God can be pleased with us and we in him! God grant that with Mary we may keep all these words in our hearts and ponder them so that now when we return home, each to his own, it may be with us as it was with the shepherds: "They glorified and praised God for all the things which they had seen and heard, as it was told unto them."

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,

Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,

Within my heart, that it may be

A quiet chamber kept for Thee.

My heart for very joy doth leap,

My lips no more can silence keep;

I, too, must sing with joyful tongue

That sweetest, ancient cradle song:

Glory to God in highest heaven,

Who unto us His Son hath given!

While angels sing with pious mirth

A glad new year to all the earth.

Amen in Jesus' name.

Proedikener over Evangelierne, pages 40-52