Today’s Scripture

Psalm 72 and 98         Isaiah 52:7-10             Hebrews 1:1-12          John 1:1-18

 

John 1:14a “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” 

 

 

            This morning we gather at the stable with Mary and Joseph, with shepherds and anyone else there.  Announced by angels we see nothing other than a baby.  Ask any parent, or more so a grandparent, each baby is the most beautiful that ever was.  Each one has squinting eyes, a little reddish, tiny fingers and toes, and such soft skin.  You can touch them, feel their warmth, and watch them respond to different touches and noises and surroundings.  They get hungry, eat, reach out to touch, poop in their diapers (and elsewhere), sleep, make noises and the like.  This baby, like any other, is a real people.  He is going to grow up and change from year to year just as any other child will.  He is going to become an adult and do adult things just like any other adult will. 

 

            There is one thing far different from this baby, from this person to any other baby and/or person.  This baby is God.  This baby is Jesus, the Son of God.  This baby was not conceived by the will of man, but by God’s miracle and conception by the Holy Spirit.  Mary is the human mother who carries this child from conception through embryonic and fetal stages to a natural birth, just like any other child.  Martin Luther wrote that as “He became flesh,” he was a man like every other man who has flesh and blood, body and soul.

 

            There are those in the world who dispute who Jesus really is.  Some say he was a unique man.  Some say he was an apparition, something that appears in an extraordinary way but is not what it appears to be.  We know Jesus as John writes, “He became flesh and made his living among us.”  Martin Luther sums it up, “He is a man like every other man who has flesh and blood, body and soul.”  We know Jesus is also God as John tells us, “the One and Only who came from the Father.”   Jesus coming to us this day, born of Mary and lying in the simple manger shows us a divine birth and faith in that birth.  Faith is believing the unbelievable.  That God would humble himself to become a human as he does, seemingly helpless as a baby, needing food, clothing, shelter and rest, is unbelievable on man’s terms. 

 

            But all of the prophecies point to our savior being a man.  When God pronounced judgment on Satan in Eden, he was specific that the savior would be of woman’s offspring and would crush Satan’s head. 

 

            We look ahead to the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus chides the disciples that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.  In our sinfulness, our willing spirit cannot and does not overcome the weakness of our sinful flesh.  Jesus, full of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, did overcome the weakness of the flesh on your behalf.  That is what is so important that this baby is Jesus, is God, is your Savior, is also your brother in the flesh. 

 

            When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate all that God has promised since the first sin, that he would save his people.  When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we also celebrate his suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and that last promise that he will come again with all heavenly glory and splendor to gather all believers with him as coheirs of his kingdom that has no end.

 

            Glory to God in the highest!  Because he came down to earth to save us.

            Alleluia!  Praise God!  Because his love endures forever.

            Hosanna to the Son of David! 

                        God becomes man to reign as king over both heaven and earth.

            Rejoice!  That means sing for joy because God fulfills his promises in Jesus.

            Peace we have

                        because God has taken away our sin and made us one with him again.

            Love because God is love. 

                        Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

            Hope.  My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

 

            We can continue to wish each other a Merry Christmas because Jesus humbled himself not only to come as a baby, but humbled himself to death on the cross.  We continue to greet each other in true peace because he forgives us our sins as we, in his love, forgive those who have sinned against us.  We continue to live in joy and hope knowing that the evils of this world and the spiritual world do not prevail as Jesus broke the bonds of sin, death, and the devil in his manhood and in his divinity both.  We will live again in his resurrection that he won for us.

 

            God blesses all with his love in Jesus just as he did for the apostle Paul who writes, 1 Timothy 1:16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

           

            That is the blessing of Christmas.  That is the joy of Christmas.  That is the hope of Christmas.  That is the peace of Christmas.  That is the love of Christmas.  It is that Jesus Christ, true son of the father, is also true man, who redeemed each poor miserable sinner not with gold or silver, but with his precious body and blood, that we may be his own and live with him in his eternal righteousness now and forever.  Amen.