LUKE 2:8-14 - "That's What Christmas Is All About"

Introduction

You may recognize our text this evening as the one that was broadcast during the 1965 cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Charlie Brown brings his famous thoughtful anxiety to the question of “the true meaning of Christmas”, and along the way is confronted with the other characters’ thoughts and opinions on Christmas: his little sister Sally is busily writing a letter to Santa asking for cash in “tens and twenties” (“All I want is what’s coming to me; all I want is my fair share...”); Snoopy winning the Christmas decoration contest, Lucy insisting on being cast in as the “Christmas Queen” in the play. All of it becomes too much for him, and when everyone starts laughing at the sad little Christmas tree he brings back, he finally bursts out with “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about??” And that’s when Linus, blanket in hand, offers to explain. He goes on to recite the verses we just read (famously dropping his security blanket when he gets to the words “Fear not...”), and then turns and says simply, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown...”

It’s a touching moment, but I will submit to you that Linus still didn’t really answer the question. Yes—Christmas is about the birth of Jesus; but the deeper question is what does the birth of Jesus mean? Why was the Second Person of the Trinity manifested in the flesh as an infant in Bethlehem two thousand years ago? What is Christmas all about—what does that manger mean?

For some people, Christmas is a sentimental story.

The little baby in the manger, his mother and father tenderly looking on; a beautiful little family in a cold, dark world. Christmas is time for family, for memories, for looking back on all the nostalgia of past celebrations and treasured moments. It’s Christmas as depicted by the Hallmark channel—cozy little towns nestled in snowy mountains with brightly lit Christmas trees and carolers singing in the streets. There is no conflict, no adversaries (except maybe for the hard-driving corporate lawyer who came to visit her parents and got stuck in a blizzard so she missed her big partners meeting in the city and takes it all out on the local Christmas tree farmer whose farm is going up for auction until she steps in and saves it and falls in love with the farmer…) The meaning of Christmas is something like “can’t we all get along”—there are no problems that can’t be fixed by some good old-fashioned Christmas cheer...

But the Scriptures won’t let us get away with treating Christmas as some sort of sentimental escape—the stakes are far higher than losing your family’s Christmas tree farm or missing out on a shot at making full partner in your law firm. The problem we face in this world is the fact that we are all dying. Death is coming for each and every one of us; disease and decay reaches out its grip on everyone:

Romans 5:12 (LSB)

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Christmas can’t be all about sentimentalism—a sentimental Christmas is a powerless Christmas that can do nothing more than pine away for the olden days when everything was beautiful.

For other people, Christmas is a morality story.

Mary and Joseph are portrayed as refugees, homeless and unwelcome in a strange town, who had to make do for themselves in a stable. Look at the injustice of their plight; look at how that poor Baby Jesus had to be born in such deplorable conditions. The Christmas story, in this view, is the beginning of the life-story of the One Truly “Good” Man, Jesus Christ. He lived the life that all of us should aspire to live; He showed us how to be truly good and wise and kind.

This is the story of Christmas according to Charles Dickens, for instance, in A Christmas Carol. Ebeneezer Scrooge starts off as a greedy old miser, caring for nothing and no one except himself—but all he needed was just to be educated by the Christmas ghosts about how much good there is in the world (and in himself), until at the end of the story he is utterly transformed into one of the kindest, most joyfully generous men in all of London. And all it took was just awakening the good that had been buried in him all along!

But again—the Scriptures don’t let us get away with this notion of Christmas, does it? Because the Scriptures paint a very different picture of our condition:

Ephesians 2:1 (LSB)

And you were dead in your transgressions and sins...

Like the famous opening line of A Christmas Carol: “Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that...” In fact, if we may paraphrase Dickens a few lines down in his story, “There is no doubt that we are dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story of the Baby in the manger… The story of Christmas cannot be just a morality story for bad people—if it is to have anything wonderful in it at all, it must be a life-giving story for dead people!

And for still others, Christmas is a spiritual story.

Some people look at the account of Jesus’ birth as a rebuke of all the materialism of Christmas—all of the capitalism, all of the consumerism and “stuff” of Christmas. If you want to look for an example of this viewpoint, think about the 1966 Chuck Jones masterpiece “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. The Grinch decides to “stop Christmas from coming” by stealing all the Whos’ presents and trees and roast beast, down to the last can of Who Hash. And just as he’s about to throw it off the peak of Mt. Crumpet and hears the Whos down in Whoville singing, he puzzles and puzzles— “It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags!” He realizes that maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store, and his transformation is complete when he realizes “Maybe Christmas means a little bit more...” (Just exactly what that more is, Boris Karloff’s narrator never quite tells us, but at least we know Christmas isn’t about stuff…)

Except, we can’t quite get away from the fact that Christmas really is about stuff—it really is about the material world, the world of matter, the world of physical, touchable reality. What does John’s first epistle say?

1 John 1:1 (LSB)

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—

Christmas cannot ever be a purely spiritual celebration because it is at its very heart about the invisible God becoming visible. It is at its very heart about the unknowable God becoming knowable, the untouchable Deity being wrapped in a receiving blanket; the God whom “no man has seen at any time” being seen and known and handled. The Magi did not travel all the way from Babylon to Bethlehem to see a spiritual reality; Herod did not send his soldiers to massacre dozens of spiritual beings; Simeon did not sing a song of praise to YHWH while holding an idea in his head but a Baby in his arms.

And this brings us to the real reason for the manger; the reason that we celebrate tonight all comes down to John 1:14:

John 1:14 (LSB)

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

But why did He become flesh? Why did the invisible God become visible? Why did Deity take on humanity, the uncreated Creator, infinite in power and presence and authority, condescend to become a tiny seven pound baby boy who needed to be held and fed and cleaned and protected and nurtured? It wasn’t so that He could represent sentimental sweetness and happiness and warm fuzzy feelings. It wasn’t so that He could grow up to be a perfect moral example for us to strive for—Jesus took on humanity so that He could do the one thing that He could not do otherwise:

Hebrews 2:14–15 (LSB)

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Jesus was born in that manger because only flesh and blood can die. And only God could die a death to wipe away the death-penalty of sin that rests on you and me and everyone else. If there is joy and peace and “goodwill toward men” at Christmas it is not because of some sticky sweet sentimentalism, it is because that Baby in that manger was a sacrificial Lamb Who would redeem your sorry soul with His own blood. If there is a call to morality and holiness at Christmas, it is not because Jesus was some wonderful moral example; it is because His death frees you from not only the penalty of your sin but also its power; giving you not only the right to be called a child of God but the righteousness of God Himself counted to you by faith. If there is a spiritual promise at Christmas it is the promise that you have been set free from this “body of death” and knowing

Romans 6:6 (LSB)

… that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

Hear what God’s Word is saying to you tonight; let His Word do its work in your life. Because the Scriptures are plain about His First Advent; they are equally plain about His Second Advent. As one medieval churchman wrote:

“In the first Advent [Christ] came to justify the wicked, in the second He will come to condemn the wicked. In the first He came to call back those that were wrested from Him, in the second He will come to glorify those that are converted to Him. In the first Advent Christ was betrayed for the wicked to a death which He deserved not, in the second He will give up the wicked to a death which they deserve. In the first Advent He came to form our hearts again to the image of God. But in the second, He will form again the body of our humility so as to be configured to the body of His glory.” Ivo of Chartres, quoted in in Ritzema, E., & Brant, R., eds. (2013). 300 quotations for preachers from the Medieval church. Lexham Press.

If tonight is merely a sentimental night for you, you will be lost on that Day. If tonight is merely a morality display for you, you will be lost on that Day. If tonight is merely a spiritual, philosophical night for you, you will be lost on that Day. Tonight is all about one thing—the appearing of your Savior on earth to rescue you from the death-penalty of sin you owed before Almighty God. This is the one Christmas gift—the only Christmas gift—that ever mattered:

Romans 6:23 (LSB)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For the sake of your never-dying soul, do not turn away from this Gift tonight—this really is what Christmas is all about: That you have repentance from your sins against Almighty God and perfect righteousness before Him by faith in His Son—your Savior—Jesus Christ.