St. Luke 2:21–40
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Merry 5th Day of Christmas!
Don’t stop the festivities just yet. There’s still so much to celebrate. Still so much to sing about. On Christmas we went with the shepherds to Bethlehem and saw this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And we found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger (Luke 2:15–16).
But now, it’s time for us to go again with the shepherds, not to the manger but into the streets of Bethlehem and back to their fields, rejoicing. For when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them… And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them (Luke 2:17, 20). Now it’s our turn to glorify and praise God for all we have heard and seen in the birth of Christ. So, our hymn calls us to join in the shepherd’s song:
Let all together praise our God
Before His glorious throne;
Today He opens heav’n again
To give us His own Son,
To give us His own Son. (LSB 389:1)
Praising God is nothing more or less than saying what our God has done. It can be as simple as singing a hymn, or as quiet as reciting the creed. It can be in church, in private, and to a neighbor. Praise is saying what God has done, when we say it back to Him in thankfulness, and when we say it to the world in joy. Evangelism is just another side of confession and praise. The shepherds told others about the Savior’s birth and they glorified God. So also, the prophetess Anna, at the temple, began to give thanks to God and to speak of Christ to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. She gave thanks and she told others—both are praise for the God who redeems sinners by His blood. Praise is all the speaking and singing we do about what God has done for us. And so in our praise, we go into detail. We don’t just tell God, “You’re great. You’re good. You’re awesome.” Both in our worship and in our evangelism and teaching, we sing and speak about God’s specific, gracious deeds in Christ—the deeds He has done and the deeds He is doing.
This hymn we sang today, tells of how God has opened heaven for us. The gate of heaven was shut when our first parents were driven from the Garden. An angel and flaming sword would not let us return. But by coming to earth as a man, by being born of the Virgin Mary, by suffering, dying, and rising, the Son of God opened heaven once again so that we might be brought back home to God. As it says later in the hymn: Jesus is the key and He the door To blessed paradise; And the angel bars the way no more (LSB 389:6). We have access to heaven and eternal life only through the God who was born, died, and rose as a Man.
And that brings us to another great point this hymn makes. If the death and resurrection of Jesus is the culmination of His work, Christmas is the foundation of His work.
He is born an infant small,
And in a manger, poor and lone,
Lies in a humble stall. (2)
At Christmas we see Him begin His humiliation for our sakes.
Within an earthborn form He hides
His all-creating light;
To serve us all He humbly cloaks
The splendor of His might. (3)
The glory of God in Christ was hidden at His birth. The angels sang to the shepherds of the highest glory of God, but they located it with a little baby lying in a feed trough. A little baby, don’t forget, who needs to be swaddled like all babies, needs to be fed like all babies, needs his diaper changed like all babies. But by humbling Himself, Christ was doing His most glorious work. Where things look the least glorious, there is the greatest glory for Jesus, because that’s where He is saving us.
And where things really look the least glorious, but in truth give Jesus His greatest glory, is at His cross. And already in the Christmas season, the cross of Jesus looms large. We see it in His humiliation, being born a helpless baby. We see it in the wood of the manger. We see it in the first drops of blood He shed at His circumcision. And with His parents at the temple, we hear of the cross in Simeon’s prophecy. Simeon blessed Jesus’ parents and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Mary’s soul will be pierced with the pain of watching her Son be tortured and crucified. In this pain, Mary also represents our Mother the Church, who suffers the pain of persecution at the hands of this evil world that rejects the Son of God and Son of Mary again and again. His cross is a sign that is opposed. And all that is because this Child causes the falling and rising of many. He causes those who reject Him to fall. Those who resist Him, who go their own way and pursue their own lives, they will bring themselves to ruin. But He causes those who believe Him to rise. Those who receive Him as He is, who deny themselves and lose their own lives, they will be brought to His life and to His glory.
The marvel of Christmas is not only WHAT the Son of God did in becoming man, but WHY He did it.
He undertakes a great exchange,
Puts on our human frame,
And in return gives us His realm,
His glory, and His name,
His glory, and His name. (4)
This stanza could’ve been better translated something like this: “He wondrously exchanges with us. He takes our flesh and blood and, in His Father’s kingdom, gives us His luminous divinity.” So, Jesus takes on our flesh and blood, and all the sin and death that goes with it. And He gives us Himself, and all, immeasurably all, that goes with Him. He gives us His kingdom, His name, His righteousness, His life. He even gives us His luminous divinity, the brightness of God. He shares with us His own divine nature as the Son of God.
Here is the wondrously great exchange that began at His incarnation and goes on even now: Jesus became what we are so that we might become what He is. Just let that sink in for an extra second: He became what we are so that we might become what He is. This is the mystery we learn in Galatians 4: 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. The birth of Jesus makes it possible for us to become God’s children. What He is by nature, we become by grace. The Son of God became a child of man, so that the children of men can become children of God.
As I said, this great exchange that began at Christmas goes on even now. This exchange happened with you at your Baptism. The Son of God was born of a woman, born a man, so that you, a son of woman, could in Baptism be re-born a son of God. You have been raised up to where He is. He has given you His own luminous divinity. And now, because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Because of Jesus, we are able to call God our Father, yet another form of praise.
We give praise when we proclaim the great deeds of God. And after the cross, there is no greater deed of God than His incarnation, where He became like us in order to share Himself with us. So also in the Church today, along with Baptism, there is no greater deed of God than the Lord’s Supper, where He continually shares Himself with us. Just as He gave Himself to humanity in His incarnation, so also He gives Himself to you in the Supper. He lives in you and you live in Him, sharing His nature and His life. In that Holy Meal, you receive His body and blood, His human flesh and soul, and yes, even His divinity.
How can we truly fathom this?
He is a servant, I a lord:
How great a mystery!
How strong the tender Christ Child’s love!
No truer friend than He. (5)
In His Supper, the strong love of Jesus is completely yours. He takes all of you, and you get all of Him. Your God comes to dwell in you. Like in that lowly manger, in that humble stall, your God Jesus comes now into humble bread and wine, to dwell in lowly you. What more can we do in response to such great love, such great deeds, than give Him glory and praise?
Your grace in lowliness revealed,
Lord Jesus, we adore
And praise to God the Father yield
And Spirit evermore;
We praise You evermore. (LSB 389:7)
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
Preached at Trinity, Clinton, IA & Immanuel, Charlotte, IA
