Christmas Eve

To be a Christian means to believe in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

If you are a Christian, you confess these truths. Perhaps you have confessed them so many times, as we do in the Creeds, that you know the words by heart and can say them on auto-pilot. But it is good every now and again to consider what it is that we Christians believe. Jesus was born of a Virgin. Think about how foolish that sounds.

What would you do if your teenage daughter or granddaughter came home pregnant and claimed that she was still a virgin? Would you believe her? I think not. Such a thing is contrary to nature, insofar as we know and understand it. It is impossible for a virgin to conceive. It is preposterous to believe that this could happen. And yet, this is what you believe and confess. The virgin birth is foundational to Christianity. If you do not believe this apparent foolishness, you cannot claim to be a Christian.

But our faith is even more foolish than this. We also believe that the Child who was born of a virgin was the Creator and King of the universe. God promised Adam and Eve in the garden that He would save His people from their sin, that He would conquer death, hell, and the devil. But who could have imagined that God’s plan of strength and victory would mean being born a helpless infant? And what kind of king never has an army? What kind of champion has a battle strategy that revolves around suffering, losing, and dying? What utter foolishness!—at least, this is how the Christian faith appears to human wisdom.

Is this your faith? Do you believe that a virgin gave birth to a helpless baby who was also God? Do you believe that the mighty King of Creation started His earthly life in a feeding trough and ended His life crucified naked upon a Roman cross? Do you believe that somehow this is God’s way of winning?

If you believe this, then the wisdom of men will consider you to be either stupid or crazy. The Christian faith is nonsense to this world. Nobody with any self-respect could believe it. It’s so bizarre that if you gave Hollywood’s best script writers 1,000 years, not one of them could ever invent such a story. St. Paul says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18).

Is this helpless baby whose parents can’t afford even to put him in a crib your God? Is this child who will grow up to be brutally murdered between two criminals your Champion? More than that, do you confess that apart from Him there is no salvation for anyone? What foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, this lowly birth and shameful death is a demonstration of the power of God.

God is so supremely wise that His foolishness is wiser than our greatest wisdom. He is so infinitely powerful that His weakness—and what could be weaker than a newborn baby—is stronger than all the strength of men. And if by a miracle of the Holy Spirit you have been brought to believe this foolishness, if you put all your hope and trust in this weakness, then whatever the world might say of you, the Scriptures say that you are blessed above measure. For to us who are being saved, this foolishness, this weakness, is the wisdom and the power of God. Amen.