Always Winter, Never Christmass

Luke 2:11 ESV

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Introduction

What a year! Last Christmas we gathered together on Christmas Eve to worship the Baby Jesus, born in a manger for you and for me. Of course, the true miracle isn’t in Jesus’ birth— that’s the way the miracle happened. But the miracle is that God became flesh in Jesus to save us from our sins. Who would have thought what would follow last Christmas! It seemed that the world turned very cold— between the Corona Virus, the rioting and civil unrest, the political coup, and everything else. It was a tough year for everyone. We were forced to close the Church for Holy Week and Easter— unprecedented in modern history. It was a pretty depressing time for many. The whole year reminds me of what Mr. Tumnis says in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: “It’s winter in Narnia. It’s always winter, but never Christmas.” That’s certainly what this year felt like for me.

But it is into this cold darkness— even today— that the Herald Angels sing “Glory to the Newborn King” and we hear anew their message to the Shepherds, “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

It was a long winter

When the Lord created the world it was paradise. It was beautiful. Everything and everyone lived in the kind of peace that we long for at Christmas time. All was right with the world. It was filled with love and joy in the truest sense of the word.

But all of this came to a crashing end. There was no more peace. Hatred and indifference toward God and neighbor replaced love. And death came and robbed God’s creation of all of the joy that God had freely given.

The world entered winter. The winter of sin and death. And for centuries, it was always winter, but never Christmas.

As God pronounced sentence on Adam and Eve for their sin, He gave them a little twinkle of hope. God would one day crush the head of the serpent who had brought this icy cold night upon the world. But it remained icy cold for centuries.

The Prophets were the ones that the Lord used to keep this hope alive, to keep those groping in the night of winter from despairing, continuously reminding them of that unbreakable promise He made to our first parents in the garden.

He formed a people for Himself: Israel, those who would be a type of His true people, the Church, both Jew and Gentile alike.

But those people groped in darkness: In Egypt, in the wilderness, through their rebellion and sin, until they walked away from the Lord. And winter came. But the reminder of His promise never left them. The lights of Hanukkah pointed to the ultimate light of the world. For centuries it was always winter in Israel. Never Christmas. So many never knew a life that was different.

But Christmas Came

For those who worshiped this past Sunday, you heard me quote the one verse that sums up what Christmas is all about. We will hear it again this coming Sunday:

Galatians 4:4–6 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Christmas comes. It comes in comes in the most unexpected way. God sends forth his only begotten Son to save us from our sins. God becomes flesh. The creator of the world puts on our flesh, puts on our shoes, takes on our lives. God lives out human life with us. No one dare call Him “the Man upstairs” because He came downstairs and goes through the worst that life has to offer you. He does not exempt himself from anything. You name it, He experienced it all. He knew hunger. He knew temptation. He knew rejection from family and friends. He knew pain. And He knew death. Your death. He comes to chart the way for you to go to heaven by dying Himself. A most unexpected way.

Christmas comes most unexpectedly. Instead of being born in the City of God, Jerusalem, He is born in the outskirts, in the suburb of Bethlehem. Not what one would expect. The announcement is not to the holy and religious, but to the rough and tumble shepherds, perhaps in the process of telling dirty jokes and cursing up a storm with each other. And this King of Kings does not come as a king, but chooses a mother’s womb eternal life to bring. The same womb that many today regard as anything but sacred. But come He did.

Christmas Came for You

The words of the Angel to the shepherds are stunning. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. To you. Greek: umiv: Second person plural. All inclusive. Not just for these shepherds, but for you. Second person singular. Jesus is not only born for “me” this day but becomes “me.” Takes on “me”. All of my sin. All of my unholiness. All of my evil. My darkness is flooded with holy light.

One of the problems in society, and particularly politics today, is that people are not able to follow an idea to its logical conclusion. They are unable to connect dots. We see this all over right now, and perhaps is the greatest source of frustration when hearing what comes out of some of these politicians mouths. When one cannot follow things through to their logical conclusion, history is doomed to repeat itself. We’ve gone down this road before, folks.

The problem with the world is that it cannot follow this Christmas message of restored hope, peace, love, and joy, because it stops at a manger. But the logical conclusion of God becoming Man, God with us, is the Cross. Jesus didn’t come to be cooed over as a baby. He had to be born to accomplish His mission— which would be the Cross. That’s why He came for you. Because that was your destiny. Not just the cross, but the hell He suffered as He was eternally separated from the Father in those words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

We celebrate with all of our might tonight that the winter of sin has been interrupted by the Angels “sound and sight” that night. Because we get it. We connect the dots. It is the Cross, not the manger, where this all takes place. But that manger is a gift to each of us, for without it the Cross would never take place.

What a joy to know that winter is ended. For God’s own, it is now always Christmas.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.