[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD 24 December 2008 "Jesus Is God with Us" Matthew 1:18-25 LSB Series B Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Christmas often gets recast in the eyes of the beholder to these events. Trying to gain some perspective on Christmas I Googled "Christmas" and got 663,000,000 hits! What one finds is a great variety of understandings about Christmas. People tend to read into Christmas what they want. This is not usually objective, but rather subjective. If one has an emotional attachment to certain things of Christmas, that's what will be emphasized. If one has negative associations with it, that too, will be emphasized. It's hard, if not impossible, to escape these things and hear the Word of God as it announces the birth of Jesus and what it means.

This year, like last year, I got a plea from some group to help "save Christmas." While the motives may be noble, I'm not sure which Christmas needs to be saved. Many of the Christmases don't deserve to be saved and should be destroyed forever because they keep people from seeing Jesus as he needs to be seen by our world.

The mystery of Christmas, that which God uncovers for us in the Holy Gospel, is contained in the name give to the Christ by the prophet Isaiah. He said that the Christ would be born of a virgin and that his name would be called Immanuel, which Matthew quickly interprets for us by informing us that Immanuel means "God with us." The angel who appeared to Joseph informed him what was already happening with Mary, this young woman to whom Joseph was betrothed. Joseph was directed to give this child a name, Jesus, with the explanation of what that name means. "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21, ESV) "Jesus Is God with Us."

"Jesus Is God with us!" Can you think of a time in recent memory when this saving promise could mean more? Amidst the crises of our day, there stands this comfort that "Jesus Is God with Us." Those of this generation probably think that this present world crisis is among the worst in history but some of you have lived through far darker days. You've lived through a world war and an economic crises much worse than this present one. The circumstances may change, but the fact remains that our world has been in crisis since the fall into sin. All of the goodness of God's creation was disrupted. Human beings fled from the presence of God and they are angry with their brothers and sisters. Sin broke the relationship with God and fractured the relationship with other human beings.

Not only do these broad strokes enter our thinking, there are the tragedies which affect us personally. Disease, accidents and death, the breakup of families, and the alienation of people from each other-all these make us cry out in pain and sorrow.

No matter how hard man tries, he cannot fix it. In fact, it seems that the more he tries to fix it the worse it becomes, much like the present economic troubles. Yet, Americans continue to look for a worldly savior who will make everything right and create a heaven on earth. Such dreams are merely that, dreams. These dreams are not based in reality because they do not get at the root cause of whatever ails our world, and that evil is sin, this disruption between God and man.

Tonight we have gathered to hear once again that God has repaired the chasm that man's sin caused. God did not grant a "bridge loan" to enable man to fix things himself, but God sent his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be with us, and being with us, to repair the eternal damage that sin has made.

Jesus lived up to his name. Savior. What we celebrate tonight and at every Divine Service is a completed redemption. Every Sunday is a celebration of our completed salvation. Savior and salvation go together. We do not celebrate the possibility that we are redeemed, we celebrate the reality that this is so! "Jesus Is God with us!"

Tonight the focus lies upon Jesus' humanity. That he is the eternal Son of the Father is celebrated at The Epiphany of Our Lord, when his divinity is revealed, but at The Nativity of Our Lord the focus lies on his humanity. Jesus is true man, and as true man, Jesus knows and feels the pain and sorrow that makes our hearts ache. Jesus, because he was born a true man, is one with us. He took all our humanity upon himself. Jesus knows what it is to suffer pain and loss for he himself suffered pain and loss. Jesus knows what it is to be rejected, to find one's self outcast. Jesus knows what it is to be alone. Jesus knows how it hurts to suffer for actions one has not done. He wraps himself in your humanity. Jesus is not just God with us, but God with you!

This remains a stumbling block for some because they are looking for something more spectacular, something less flesh and blood. They are looking for a more glorious beginning. They are looking for something resembling a presidential inauguration with great pomp and circumstance. That God entered human time and space by being born of a humble Jewish virgin seems for some to be too hard to swallow. One has to ask why the Christ would venture into such squalid conditions, being born in a stable. Why didn't he make use of his divine omnipotence and commandeer the best spot in Israel? Why didn't he find more prominent parents if he was to be the Messiah, the Christ? Very simply, because the Scriptures present the Lord as a real, ordinary man who in all things was to be like us, except that he did not sin. The Apostle Paul summarizes for us:

"but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." (Philippians 2:7, ESV)

At this time of year certain television offerings written by skeptics are dusted off and broadcast, such as the so-called "lost books" about Jesus. Among these writings are some narratives about Jesus' childhood in which he was continually performing miracles or even killing playmates who angered him. It isn't that the Church has been unaware of such diabolical writings, but that they are so obviously inconsistent with everything that the Holy Scriptures say about the Christ that they were clearly labeled as false writings from the days of the Apostles.

Jesus was born a true human being, behaved as any other child would, allowed himself to be treated as any other child, and was protected by the holy angels as any other child. In other words, there was nothing to distinguish him from any other child except the fact that he is the God/Man who did not sin. No one recognizes him as God at this point because he covered his divinity with his humanity. As we consider the earthly beginnings of Jesus, we need to remember that he hid his divinity in his humanity so that we would not be chased away by it. He became one of us in order to redeem us. He subjected himself to his own Law so that he could redeem us who were under that Law. And he received the sentence of the Law for sin even though he had no sin. He suffered what we suffer, but without complaint.

"Jesus Is God with Us." Yet, that earthly presence as a baby born in Bethlehem found fulfillment in the cross. He was born, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and died to remove the curse of sin from us. According to his divine power he rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, awaiting the last day when he shall judge the living and the dead.

Notice that Holy Scripture always speaks in the present tense when speaking of Immanuel's presence among us. "Jesus Is God with Us," not "Jesus was God with Us!" The Reformed speak of Jesus laying aside his humanity at the Ascension. The Jesus they have is God only but no longer man. We, however, confess the Christ who promises to be with us always according to his flesh, that is, as the God/Man. The one born of Mary continues to all eternity as the God/Man. His Ascension did not undo the Incarnation! In his humanity Jesus dwells with us! Jesus is your older brother, the friend who never leaves you nor forsakes you.

And so, "Jesus Is God with Us" even now, even today, even this evening in this place. Risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father he fills all things with his divine glory. And yet, that divine glory remains hidden in simple things, just as his birth of the virgin Mary hid his divinity. When Jesus said, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20, ESV), he has promised to be Immanuel for us even now, not in some ethereal, or otherworldly, ghostlike sense, but according to his flesh. He is the same Jesus who was born at Bethlehem. He manifests his Real Presence in the Word, in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion.

It is therefore, the highest worship of this night to celebrate Christ's Mass-Christmas!-the Divine Service where you receive this Immanuel under the forms of bread and wine. Here you receive the same Jesus who was born of Mary, a real flesh and blood human being, your Savior, the One who has earned your salvation through his innocent suffering and death. Here is the Jesus who carries all your sins and sorrows in his own body and grants you release. Here he comforts you with his presence.

This Lord of lords has become the servant of all so that all would be redeemed by his sacrifice on the cross. He was born into such poverty and misery for your sakes. He became your brother in every respect. He will never leave you nor desert you no matter what happens here on earth, no matter how hard the times get nor how severe the trials. Not even death separates us from his love. He is Immanuel! "Jesus Is God with Us"-now and forever!