Sermon for Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-14
Back in 1965, a man named Charles Schulz wrote a Christmas special for TV called, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and he decided to include in it a reading from the Bible, Luke 2:8-14, which you heard a moment ago, read by Linus from a public school stage, after which Linus said, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” When asked if he was sure he wanted to include a Bible reading in his cartoon, Schulz said, “If we don’t do it, who will?” He had no idea how right he was! Because, fast forward 60 years, and, where would you turn, if you didn’t know the true meaning of Christmas? Where would you look? How could you find it? Certainly not on a public school stage, or classroom. A drive through the neighborhoods and streets of our city would make you think Christmas is about pretty lights, and ornamented trees, and reindeer, blow-up dinosaurs and Mickey Mouses, snowflakes and Santa Claus. Christmas movies tell of family gatherings, romance, cookies, presents, holiday cheer, and maybe also Santa Claus—most of which is harmless fun, but none of which gets at the true meaning of Christmas. Who even knows what it is anymore?
You do. We do. It isn’t complicated, but it is largely unknown in this world, whose adults have intentionally forgotten it and whose children, in many cases, have never learned it in the first place. But, for those who are paying attention, it’s all captured in the verses that Linus read in that old Christmas special, where an angel from heaven explained it perfectly well to a group of shepherds. Let’s review it together this evening and proclaim to the world again from this humble church building what the meaning of Christmas truly is, as revealed by God’s holy angel. And in proclaiming it, and in contemplating it, let us rejoice!
We start with just a little background that’s also relatively unknown to people today. The true history of the world starts only about 6,000 years ago, when God—the true God, the only God—created a beautiful, perfect world, including a perfect man named Adam and a perfect woman named Eve. He gave them everything, except for the fruit of a single tree, from which they, tempted by the Prince of demons called Satan, still decided to eat, knowing, and not caring, that it would ruin their relationship with their Creator and would place them and their descendants under God’s curse of death and condemnation. But God, in His mercy, promised to send a human child who would be more than a human child—a Child so powerful, so special, that He would be able to save fallen mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
Some 4,000 years went by, and the more you study world history, the more you see just how violent and idolatrous and unjust mankind has always been, from the great civilizations down to the scattered tribes of men. Men lived in darkness and always in the shadow of death. But during those 4,000 years, God was getting all the world actors into just the right places, including the people of Israel, including a young woman of Israel, a virgin named Mary, and her fiancé Joseph. God sent an angel to Mary to announce to her a miraculous pregnancy and a virgin birth. She was to give birth to the Son of God, the Savior first promised 4,000 years earlier, and Joseph was to care for her, and for her Son. 9 months later, God turned the tides of history to cause Caesar Augustus of Rome to issue a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, which forced Mary and Joseph down to Bethlehem, where, 700 years earlier, in that prophecy you heard this evening from the prophet Micah, God had foretold that the Savior would be born. Well, Mary’s baby was born right there in Bethlehem, and wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger, where animals feed, because all the inns in Bethlehem were full that night.
And then there’s the part that really gets to the meaning of it all, the part that Linus read from the school stage in the cartoon, the part about the shepherds, and the angel, and the brilliance of the glory of the Lord piercing the darkness of the night, and then a whole sky full of angelic soldiers in the angelic army.
The angel appeared to the shepherds and said, Do not be afraid. For, behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. The Christmas message, is above all, good news! Joyful news! Because God had finally fulfilled a promise He had been repeating to mankind for 4,000 years—the birth of a human Child who was not just a Child of man, but also the Son of God. And the Son of God was not born into the world to destroy sinful men, or to shame us into obedience, or to model for us the way to earn our own way back into God’s good graces. No, the Son of God was born as a man to save sinful man, because we, by ourselves, are beyond saving. We, by ourselves, are godless, idolatrous people who love neither God nor man as we ought. But, instead of destroying us, instead of abandoning us, God became one of us, joining us in our hardships, choosing a manger for His very first bed. But that’s only one part of the good news. The awful, wonderful rest of the story is that God became one of us as a little baby, laid sweetly and tenderly in a manger, so that, one day, He might give His life for us on the cross, as the true price of mankind’s reconciliation with God.
The angels knew this. They knew the extent to which their God had lowered Himself, and why. They knew the height and the depth of God’s love for fallen mankind, which brought Him to earth as a tiny baby, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And so they sang, Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace to men! Goodwill! God gave His Son as a peace offering to man, so that we might turn from our sins and find God’s goodwill toward us—God’s love and forgiveness—lying in a manger, that we might believe in Him, and be saved by Him.
That, as you know, dear Christian friends, is what Christmas is all about. That’s the meaning of Christmas, and it puts all the other fake meanings to shame. Who cares about Santa Claus or reindeer or anything else, when you have the truth of God’s love staring up at you from the manger at Christmas time? So rejoice in your God, your faithful God, your Savior-God, who came for you, and who wants nothing more for you at Christmas time than that you should know, and believe in, and rejoice in His only-begotten Son, and find rest for your soul in the true meaning of Christmas. Amen.
