Christmas Dawn 2024

Text: “6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:6–7)

It is a deceptively simple statement: “She gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Simple enough, but the full breadth and depth of what has taken place is practically inexhaustible.

This morning, let’s spend a few minutes on just one aspect of it. Consider for a moment that, with Jesus’ birth, God became man so that men and women might become human. I wish I could recall where I heard that statement recently, but it captures the point of Christmas in an amazing way: God became a man so that men and women might become human.

It might seem like that was already accomplished a long time ago, through Adam and Eve. Are men and women not human? God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. He took a rib from Adam’s side and used it to form eve. In the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27). It might seem like that job was done. There they are: humans. A man and a woman and, in time, their offspring. And, initially, yes. The job was done, so to speak. But consider the full impact of sin.

What is the main difference between human beings and animals? You and I operate according to reason while animals function simply by instinct. Or, at least, that is what you and I tell ourselves. But dig beneath the surface of the human heart and what do you find? You find that Adam and Eve and each of their sons and daughters is foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another (Titus 3:3). Doesn’t that sound more like what one would find within the human heart? Humanity has not been ruled by reason since Adam and Eve were driven out of that garden. From that moment on, the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh… to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Galatians 5:17). You look at the world around you and you wonder that humanity is not able to overcome our lower instincts and find the path to peace and cooperation and so many things that we dream about. Who can argue with the benefits of cooperating and overcoming our differences and all of that? Why are we still fighting each other? Well, “1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1). Is it any wonder that you and I and every son and daughter of Adam and Eve were destined to return to the dust like an animal?

Or consider a slightly different way of measuring what makes people distinct. There is an anthropologist by the name of Margaret Mead who is credited with a really interesting observation about the first sign of civilization that had ever been found. If you had to pinpoint what that first sign of civilization, what would you consider it to be? Perhaps a tool? Houses? Maybe the wheel? The first sign of civilization, according to Margaret Mead, was a skeleton that had been found with a broken thigh bone that had healed and then the person went on to live for years afterwards. She reasoned that, in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die because you are unable to run from danger, hunt, and survive. But a healed thigh bone is a sign that someone has taken time to care for the injured (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/margaret-mead-healed-femur/). Now, it’s not actually clear if Margaret Mead said that or not. But the point is still valid.

Ms. Mead— or whomever said it— is on the right track. That is close to how God defines what it means to be truly human. But Ms. Mead still has the bar too low. God’s definition is, in a word, love.

What passes for love, under your sinful nature, is selfishness. Your love for others is only for those who love you. Your love for others is transactional. And when you decide that they do not appreciate the love you have shown them as much as they should, then you are done.

The great beauty of Christmas is a true human being born into this sea of inhumanity. We try to wrap our minds around this great revelation by using images like light breaking into the darkness (Isaiah 9; John 1), but this is really what we are talking about. For the first time since God breathed into Adam the breath of life; for the first time since God made a woman from his rib and brought her to the man, a true human is walking on the face of this earth.

I would suggest to you that the real thing that sets human beings apart from animals is not our reason and intellect, but love— genuine, selfless love. For the first time since Adam and Eve left the garden, that kind of love has finally returned to the earth. Love for God and love for everyone He encountered.

Love led the Son of God to be born of the Virgin Mary. Love led Him to be born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5). Love for you led Him to do all of that.

And His love was greater than the care that Ms. Mead pointed to. That sort of care is good, of course. But Jesus’ love was so much greater. His love led Him to “13 [redeem you] from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”” (Galatians 3:13). He was killed like an animal in order to pay the full price for the selfish love which makes you less than human. It gives new meaning to Isaiah 53:6 “6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In love, He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). But when He was laid in the tomb, He did not return to the dust. Because, by His sacrifice, He had brought true humanity back into this world.

That is the gift He dispenses regularly here. “3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:3–7). At the font you were born again and made truly human. Your humanity was restored. “9 …[T]he sexually immoral, …idolaters, …adulterers, 10 …thieves, …the greedy, …drunkards, …revilers, …swindlers[— they will all return to the dust]. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” That struggle you feel each day— “19 I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19)— that struggle you feel each day is true humanity taking hold in you. That battle will rage, but you were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Take a good look at that manger. Take a good look at the cross. And put on the true humanity that He was born to bring. “12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:12–15).

“7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). That simple statement means many things. Among others, it means that true humanity has come into this world— and that it has come to you.