Sermon for Christmas Day
Titus 3:4-7 + Luke 2:15-20
Last night we talked about the Christmas story and how it’s for everyone. Many still haven’t heard it—at least, not told in a serious, factual kind of way. Others have heard it and still don’t believe it. But in our short Gospel this morning, we see the intended outcome God has for the telling of this story. We see in the shepherds of Bethlehem just what a faithful response looks like to hearing the story of the birth of Christ.
When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Let’s go to Bethlehem! Why? Because they believed the angel’s word, that a Savior had been born to them, who is Christ the Lord. Faith itself was the first outcome of hearing the message. Notice they didn’t say, “Let’s go see if what the angel said is true!” No, they said, “Let’s go see this thing that has come to pass!” That’s the power of God’s Word.
Let’s go to Bethlehem! The first fruit and evidence of the shepherds’ faith was their desire to go see the Christ where He was. Let’s go!, they said. What would have happened if the shepherds had done what so many people are doing this morning? Many have heard that this day is about the birth of God’s Son. But they are content to have heard about it without going to see Him and to hear Him where He is, namely, in His holy Church, where two or three are gathered together in His name, where He holds out His forgiveness, His comfort, the whole reason for His birth, where He holds out the same body and blood here and now which were once laid in the manger. What if the shepherds had just stayed out in their fields? Surely you would say, they must not have believed the angel’s word. How could you take an opportunity, an invitation, to go to the place where your Savior is and turn it down?
Is it that we no longer believe that Jesus is present in His Church? Have we become convinced by the non-sacramental sects around us that Jesus is found elsewhere than in His Word and Sacraments? Or is it that we have grown tired of the presence of Christ? “He’ll be there again on Sunday. There’s no need to go see Him today.”
No, it isn’t enough to be told that there is a Savior who has come to the world to help you if you fail to go to where He is. But understand, going doesn’t make you good. You go because you know you’re not good. You go because here is the One who is good! And He’s taken on human flesh for the very purpose of being good for you. Let the shepherds’ reaction to the angel’s word kindle in us repentance for taking the Lord’s presence in His Church for granted. Let the shepherds’ reaction to the angel’s word move us to go to Christ for His forgiveness.
Let’s go to Bethlehem!, the shepherds said. And then, they actually went, and found the Babe, together with Mary and Joseph, just as the angel had said. The Word of the Lord was confirmed. The Savior is real. He’s not some spiritual or religious idea or ideal. He was really lying there, literally, lying in a manger, the eternal Word of God who was in the beginning with God and who was God, through whom all things were made. He was really lying there with flesh and blood and bones. He was precious as all newborn babies are. But this one was different—this one chose to be born. This one manufactured His own birth. This one is at once an hours-old baby and the eternal Creator-God.
As John writes in his Gospel, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. What does that show? It shows us God’s great love for sinners. Because the only way for us, who have rebelled against Him, to be brought back into His family was for Him to become one of us, to be righteous in our place, to suffer and die in our place, so that He might reconcile us to His Father, make Him our Father by blessed adoption, and so make us true His true brothers.
After the shepherds found everything just as they had been told, They made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. Another beautiful example for us. No one was standing there with a sword to their heads or with a threat, “You’d better get out there and tell people about Jesus!” No, the birth of this Child—and the fact that it had been mercifully and undeservedly revealed to them for their salvation—was all it took. They were now willing messengers to the people in their own lives. Not preachers sent to preach. But witnesses passing on vital information to their neighbors, as we discussed last night. Their message was very simple. Here’s what happened out in the fields. Here’s what the angel said. Here’s what we found in Bethlehem. That’s all. And that’s all there is for you to do most of the time. Tell people who no longer know the story of Christmas, here’s what it’s all about. Here’s what happened. Here’s what the angel said. Here’s what we’ve found in Jesus.
And the people whom the shepherds told marveled at what the shepherds said. Now, marveling doesn’t necessarily mean believing. For some, it may have been a, Wow, you all are crazy! For others, it may have been a, Wow, I wonder if it’s true. For still others, though, Wow, what a great gift God has given us! Praise be to God! There will be similar reactions today.
Mary, for her part, kept all these things (literally, these sayings) and pondered them in her heart. Mary, too, shows us the faithful response to the Christmas story. She may not have understood the significance of all that had happened, nor did she know everything that would happen. But she kept these things. She mulled them over. She thought about them and pondered them. That’s why we’ve come here this morning, because you can never ponder enough the gift that God gave to the world with the birth of His Son.
The shepherds returned to their flocks, finally, glorifying and praising God, both for the fact of Christ’s birth, in fulfillment of thousands of years of prophecy, and for revealing it to them. Because, as they said, God has made His Word known “to us.” It would have been useless to the shepherds had the Christ been born into the world and they hadn’t ever heard of it, or of its significance for them. Likewise the cross of Christ wouldn’t help us at all to be reconciled to God if we had never been told of it so that we could believe in Christ crucified and be saved. But it had been made known to the shepherds. And both the manger and the cross have been made known to us. And that is evidence, my friends, of God’s mercy and His desire that we, too, should be saved by this Christ Child.
The Christmas story—and the Good Friday and Easter story—has brought all of you here this morning. It caused you to say, “Let’s go to where Jesus is!” Your presence here today is faith’s response to the Christmas story. There’s only one more step to take as we approach the manger to see the Christ. Here His body and blood will be, for you, in just a few moments. And then we will behold the very same thing that the shepherds beheld when they went to Bethlehem: a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Come, let us worship Him! Amen.
