John 1 1-18 2006 Christmas
Christmas Day
December 25, 2006
John 1:1-18
“The Light of Christmas”
We stand on the holy ground of Christmas. Yet, there is a shadow that falls upon this day. Even as the Bethlehem star shines its light over the manger of the infant child Jesus there looms a darker day. The distance between Christmas Day and Good Friday is only a matter of a short time. For when the child is born in Bethlehem, the death of the child is seen as the climax of His miraculous birth. It is no mistake that Christians celebrate Christmas, and then comes the short season of Epiphany where Christ is revealed to be the Savior, the sacrificial Lamb that comes to take away the sins of the whole world, then immediately Lent comes, and with it Good Friday. All this points us to the truth that Jesus Christ was born to die.
The Church gathers together on this holy day and in this holy season to proclaim that God’s will for the world is fulfilled in the birth of God’s Son. What is God’s will? The Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Christmas is the time of fulfillment “When all the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight ( and today).” In Jesus Christ’s birth God’s people know that the reign of sin, the reign of death and the reign of darkness are over. We have seen the salvation of our God.
In Christmas we celebrate that with Jesus Christ the kingdom of God came to us in Bethlehem. God’s Christmas kingdom comes to us right now in this place as we hear, as we believe, and as we receive Christ’s body and blood in Holy Communion. We remember that this Christmas kingdom of God will come again in glory. We cannot worship the Christ child in this holy season of Christmas without recognizing that the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are powerful events where God works his power in the world to change the world forever. But God’s power is revealed in a very different way from what we consider powerful.
God’s power is unleashed in humility. God hides His power in many humble images. The Christmas gospel shows that in a sleepy country village, not much different from our own, not in Rome, not in Washington D.C., the Savior of the world is born. Shepherds, not Pharisees, nor presidents, popes or kings come to worship the Child. These are people like you and I, common people uncommonly loved by God. A manger, not a palace, not the Hilton Hotel or the Taj Mahal, is the place of His holy birth. In this way His entrance is even more humble than our own births. As for the date of His birth, though we celebrate today, we do not even know the year of His birth. How un-glorious. It seems like God would enter into world history in a more powerful and glorious way.
God uses His power, not for the glory of mankind, but to save mankind from the power of death and the gloom of God’s judgment. God’s powerful kingdom comes to us in bleak humility. In humility and weakness God’s power is released into the world. Here is the power of God to save us, in the mysteries of the birth of God in Bethlehem and the death of God on Calvary. In spite of His apparent weakness the Holy Scriptures testify that Jesus is our Savior, the way, the truth and the life, the very light of the world. The Apostle John tells us in our Christmas Gospel lesson that Jesus is the incarnation of God’s Son, the Eternal Word, becoming flesh and blood. In this flesh, in this all too human Jesus we have the light of the world that has come into our darkness to be our Christmas light.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Again this glory is cloaked in humility and weakness. What do you envision when you think of the face of Jesus? Does He have a warm and knowing smile? Do His sorrowful eyes pierce you with guilt? Is His face drawn and pale with agony from the cross? Or does December and Christmas remind you of a contented infant sleeping among the animal and cooing before astonished shepherds?
Jesus probably made many faces. His infancy was filled with baby faces, smiles and frowns, wide eyes and eyes heavy with sleep. Undoubtedly, His boyhood was filled with different faced too, delight, curiosity, concern and even confidence as He taught the teachers of religion in the temple. It is not difficult to imagine Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, looking into heaven, bloody sweat dripping from his brows. We can imagine the His hurt look when His friends Judas betrayed Him and Peter abandoned Him. Then perhaps we can even imagine Him wearing the vacant stair of death.
Today the face of Jesus Christ dazzles us with glorious light. We know Jesus as the victor over death and the powers of darkness. His face is no longer that of pink cheeked baby helplessly asleep in a dirty barn. His face shines with glory because He is God, and man, the powerful creator of earth and heaven, our risen Redeemer, who will come again in glory for us.
Our Lord and God has given us the gift of faith that knows and trusts in this infant born in a stable, this man hanging dead on a cross, this man God risen from the dead. How sad and empty Christmas is for those who do not have this gift of faith, who reject God’s gracious gift of Jesus Christ as Savior. For this there is God’s judgment. For the verse that starts, “For God so loved the world” also states “but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
We must recognize that our deeds are evil. We must understand that this too is God working in us to draw us to our Savior. It is only the lost that need to be found. It is only the prisoners that need the freedom of release. It is only the captives that need to be delivered. We were lost. We were prisoners to sin and the consequences of its judgment. We were held captive to its power, and its power was death. By God’s grace we know that we need a Savior. If you don’t recognize these things you might as well not spend your time here. Go home, open another gift, eat some more food, have another drink. But if you’re looking for hope, if you’re looking for life, if you are looking for a light to guide you on your way, you will find it here…and only here. You will only find it in Jesus Christ.
King David spoke form the depths of His heart, 7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek.” And, then David proclaims, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
The Lord that is our light and our salvation has come. He comes to us right now. David believed God’s promise of a Savior. David believed that God would listen to his cry for help and deliverance based on the promise of the coming Savior. Just like David we have been delivered. We have been delivered from sin that forces fear of punishment into our lives. We have been delivered from the fears of this earthly life, nations in turmoil, nasty neighbors, the fear of growing old, or not growing old; and no matter what happens to us we know by faith that God, our God, has the last Word. That Word is the word made flesh, Jesus. Through Him all things were created and through Him all things are sustained. Through Him all things are made new again through the shedding of His blood and the forgiveness that God bestows upon us for His sake. Jesus Christ has chosen you; nothing can separate you from Him or His love. He is with you in the darkness of your deepest despair, there He gives you light, and hope, and life. His power overcomes all fears.
This is what Christmas is all about. Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season, the reason for Jesus is you. The Lord of Heaven has not abandoned us; He became one of us, that through this infant child, through His crucifixion and death, we can have the life of His resurrection. Jesus is our Christmas light. This is what Christmas is all about. Merry Christmas, and Christmas blessings, to each and every one of you through Jesus Christ our Lord as He lights your way through this Christmas day and every day of your lives. Amen!
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"