Christmas 1C 2024

Text: “22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”” (Luke 2:22–24)

Today’s readings make everything you celebrated this past week very real and very personal. They make Christmas, itself, very real and very personal. That is especially true of the reading from Luke’s Gospel.

It may not seem like that, at first. But it does. This passage from Luke 2:22-40 makes Christmas very real and very personal. And yes, I’m talking about this reference to a tradition— a rule— that, at the time that the Evangelist Luke wrote his Gospel, dated back nearly 1,500 years. That 1,500-year-old rule makes Christmas more real.

Now, you might ask, “How in the world does a 1,500-year-old rule make Christmas more real?” Very good question. I’m glad you asked. The answer lies in the passage from the book of Exodus that Luke quotes. Moses literally said to them, “14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15 For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem’” (Exodus 13:14–15). So it was a tradition that served as a reminder to one generation after the next after the next that God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. It taught each successive generation how God delivered them: by killing every firstborn son in Egypt in any household which was not marked by the blood of a lamb. That was what this rule was intended to teach every firstborn son among God’s people.

Or, I should say, that it was half of what the rule was intended to teach. It also looked forward. “Consecrate to me all the firstborn,” God said (Exodus 13:1). This sacrifice was not only about what God had done in the past to save His people. It was also about what He promised to do in the future. As Luke expressed it, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord” (Luke 2:23). This required sacrifice looked back at what God had done in the past and it pointed to what God would do to save them— especially through one particular firstborn Son that He would send.

That sounds like a bold statement. Am I reading too much into this rule/tradition? Well, think through it with me for a moment. This sacrifice took place when Jesus was 40 days old. Through the mystery of His human nature, He did not understand what was being done. But imagine Joseph following Moses’ instructions as Jesus grew and they ‘redeemed’ the firstborn male offspring of the animals they owned. Imagine Joseph following Moses’ instructions as Jesus saw other fathers and mothers offering this sacrifice after the birth of a firstborn male child. Just like Moses described, Jesus would have asked, “Why are we doing this? What does it mean?” Whether or not Joseph understood the full meaning, He was teaching Jesus what Jesus had been born to do. He was, in fact, holy to the Lord. He was the fulfillment of that promise.

That is especially true when you look at the entire law God gave them through Moses. The Passover feast, the feast of Tabernacles, the Day of Atonement, all of the daily sacrifices, all of the weekly sacrifices, all of the yearly sacrifices, all of it By offering Himself and the ultimate sacrifice for sin, Jesus would be the one to redeem His people (Luke 1:68).

It really is a lot like the movie The Karate Kid. The young man is told that he would be trained in karate. Then he spent weeks waxing cars, sanding wooden decks, staining wooden fences. Finally, one day, he gets fed up with all of this other work and demands to know when he will finally get to start learning karate. He discovers that all that ‘busywork’ was actually teaching him the basic movements that he needed to learn. He had been training all along.

That is true for the way that God had been working in this world all along. It was true for the laws God gave through Moses. It may have seemed to them that God was just keeping them busy— keeping them occupied— while they waited for the promised savior. But, when He came, all of those rules began to find their fulfillment. They proved to be symbols of who He would be and what He would do. For those 1,500 years, they had been acting out His life story before it happened.

Now the promised Savior is here. There is a face to put to the promises. The symbols finally make way for the Savior. The play-acting, if you will, was over. It was time for the real thing. The passover lamb would give way to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The scapegoat would give way to the Suffering Servant who was born to bear your griefs and carried your sorrows (Isaiah 53:4) by carrying your sins to the cross. The High Priest entering God’s presence in the Holy of Holies by means of the blood of a sacrificed animal would give way to the One who “12 entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12).

This simple moment in the life of a very young baby Jesus makes Christmas more real. This part of Luke 2 also makes Christmas more personal.

The past few days you have sung of the One lying in a manger beneath a stable’s roof— that He is also the one who built the starry skies; that He is also the One who, throned in height sublime, sits among the cherubim. You have called on creation to sing out with joy because the Lord is come. “Let earth receive her king, let every heart prepare a room and heav’n and nature sing…;” you have invited all the faithful to “come and behold him, born the king of angels…;” you have called on the choirs of angels to “sing in exultation” along with all the citizens of heaven above and give glory to Jesus, “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.....”

The past few days you have joined the angels in singing “‘Glory to God in the highest’ and ‘peace on earth, good will to men.’” You have sung about the blessings of the newborn king which now flow “far as the curse is found.” You have sung the “News of great joy, news of great mirth, news of our merciful King’s birth.”

The past few days you’ve heard all the promises attached to His coming: the sign that God is with you; the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; the promise of a kingdom where “6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6, ESV) because of the one born in little, forgotten Bethlehem, who is, nonetheless, to be ruler in Israel— who will “stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And [cause His people to] dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And he shall be their peace” (Micah 5:4-5).

And now all of it comes together. Everything that the birth of Christ promises— the hope, the peace, the joy, the love— all of it is wrapped up in a single package and given to you, personally. That is why you rightly sing the song of Simeon: “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word...” (Luke 2:29).

In fact, you have more claim to those words than Simeon did. He held a 40-day-old baby in His arms who was the fulfillment of centuries of promises, but still had His earthly work ahead of Him. You sing those words after receiving the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion. You are given the very body and blood of that same Jesus Christ that Simeon held in his arms, but you receive the body that has now been given on the cross for you. You receive the blood that was shed for you. You receive Him not physically, but sacramentally— the true body and blood of Christ (not just a symbol or a representation, but the real thing!) and, along with them, everything that He earned for you on the cross.

The One who, throned in height sublime, sits among the cherubim, is no more ashamed to come and to be found here in little, forgotten Unionville, than He was to be born in Bethlehem. If it was a wonder, that night, that the one who built the starry skies could be found sheltered beneath the roof of a stable, then what do you call the fact that He chooses to be present here in, with, and under bread and wine? Whatever word you choose, creation is called upon once again to sing out with joy because the Lord is come to you here from this altar. You are invited, not just to come and behold Him, but to take and eat, to take and drink, as you join your voices with angels and archangels and all the citizens of heaven above and give glory to Jesus, “Word of the Father,” now appearing in, with, and under bread and wine.

You have the confidence to approach a holy place when you step toward this altar during the sacrament in full assurance of faith, with your hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and your bodies washed with the pure water of baptism. You have that confidence because Christ has opened the curtain to God’s presence to you through His flesh (Hebrews 10:20) as your true high priest.

What you receive here makes you holy. You are consecrated to God. You are marked as one Redeemed by Christ the crucified.

You go forth from this communion rail with the peace of Christ ruling in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; rejoicing, with the word of Christ dwelling in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs— including the words of Simeon— with thankfulness in your hearts to God; doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

It would be very easy to overlook this moment connected to Christ’s birth. It is easily overshadowed by angels and shepherds and wise men. But do not miss this chance to make Christmas more real and more personal for you.