Matthew 20:1-16

The Grace of the Master

Septuagesima

February 12, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church T Nampa, ID

There’s an often heard complaint concerning many in our culture now, that of entitlement.  People who think that they are owed something, whether it be riches or fame or happiness. This is nothing new, it has always been so.  Even during the Exodus, God’s people complained that they deserved better. They wanted freedom, so God delivered them from Egypt. They wanted food, and so God gave them quail and manna. They wanted drink, so God gave them water. And all along the way they complained that it wasn’t good enough, that they wanted more and better and they wanted it right now. Like children, what they really needed was discipline and self-control, patience, endurance to run the long race ahead of them.

But are any of us that different? We often treat God with the same sense of entitlement, as if God owes us something, everything, just because of who we are or what we’ve done. We are confident of the Lord’s grace, we know we are sinners, and we all too often we treat our repentance as fake humility meant to earn God’s favor. If we’re sorry, God will forgive.  But if we’re really sorry, God will really forgive and really bless!

And here’s the unexpected twist. God doesn’t give what is deserved, but He does give what is good and right in His eyes. This parable Jesus speaks in our Gospel reading is not about justice and fairness. It’s not meant to be used a social propaganda for equal wages.  It is true, those hired first worked all day in the heat but they have no right to complain as they are sent away with only what is theirs.  Rather, it is a warning, an example of true worship against idolatry of good works.  It’s a call to repentance for a sense of entitlement when it comes to God.  God does not owe you, or anyone, anything. For reasons of His own, He loves and welcomes you into His kingdom, not for free, but paid for with blood of Jesus. This is the Gospel in a nutshell: The Lord rewards those who don’t deserve it. He generous, merciful, and good despite your complaints.

Jesus simply wants to show us how things happen in the kingdom of heaven.  Making the first last and the last first. All of this is said to humble those who are something, so that they would trust in nothing but God’s pure goodness and mercy. On the other hand, so that those who are nothing will not despair, but also trust in God’s goodness and mercy.

The focus of the parable here is not on what the denarius is, or the different hours, but on the earning and acquiring the denarius. Those who were hired first thought they had received it by their own work and the last ones hired by the Lord’s goodness.  Those hired last did not seek it, but it came to them because they sought first the kingdom of God. Those hired last do not pay attention to the Lord’s goodness but look to their own merit, and think that it is owed to them and grumble about it. They are the same as the Old Testament people of God grumbling in the desert over food and water. The Gospel comes and equalizes everything so that those who have done many works have no more value than poor sinner.

God’s way is not a very good business model. Businesses cannot pay workers who do not work. But this is how God operates. The worst existence on earth, the most poverty stricken and suffering of this world is better than what we all deserve in hell.  Even the unbelievers benefit from God’s grace, for He certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people. Every good thing – sunshine and rain and water and food, coffee and donuts and puppies and quilts – it is all a gift from God that flows His grace and mercy. It is His grace, and He does with it as He wishes.

By God’s grace we have received an invitation to enter His vineyard. We must follow this call. But the call is for laborers, not for idlers.  We are called to work with others and for others. To stand idle in the marketplace is bad, but it is worse to be idle in the vineyard.  The call to enter is a call to work. The Christian lif0e is hard work in the heat of the day, a hard battle and a hard race. The work has its reward, the battle its victory, the race its triumph. It is the denarius of eternal life, the crown of victory at the resurrection. You have been led into the sacrificial life of the Church, with the Word and Sacraments standing at the center. Woe to you if your life doesn’t correspond to God’s will. For the last will be first and the first will be last.  Like the fathers in the wilderness, they too received a baptism and supernatural food, yet they died in the wilderness and did not see the Promised Land. (Fred Lindemann, The Sermon and It’s Propers, Vol. II, 22)

No one is so high, or will get so high, that he does not have to be afraid that he may become the very lowest. On the other hand, no one has fallen so deeply that he cannot hope to become the highest because all merit is abolished and only God’s goodness is praised. When He says the first shall be last He takes away our arrogance and forbids us to exalt ourselves above anyone, even if you were Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, or Paul. But when He says, “The last will be first,” He prevents all your despair and forbids you to cast yourself below any saint, even if you were Pilate, Herod, Sodom and Gomorrah (Luther).

Just as we have no reason to be arrogant, we have no reason to despair. The middle path is established and preserved by the Gospel. We can have confidence in our salvation based not on yourself or how hard you’ve worked, but in Jesus. This is the character of the Gospel: Grace is undeserved and unearned and even unexpected. We are not workers overpaid, but we are children of the master of the vineyard, heirs with Christ of an eternal kingdom, running the race toward the crown of everlasting life.

Matthew 17:1-9

Lord, It Is Good That We Are Here

Transfiguration Sunday

February 5, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Matthew 8:23-27

Rest Easy

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

January 29, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

What keeps you awake at night?  Worry and the anxiety.  How to pay the bills. What to do about that problem at work. Argument you had with your spouse, or with your child.  Recent news of cancer, or death, of a loved one.  Too much coffee? Whatever it is, we’ve all been there at some point. Wide awake when we should be resting. Our minds unable to turn off, our thoughts and our hearts troubled.

But none of these things seem to bother Jesus.  He’s just had a long day. Crowds had swarmed around Him. He had healed many people and had just reiterated the hard truth that following Him meant denying all other things. He’s probably exhausted as He climbs into the boat and falls asleep, rocked by the gentle waters of the Sea of Galilee.  But even when the boat is swamped by the waves, He sleeps right through it all. Apparently, Jesus can sleep through anything. No guilt or shame or worry to keep Him awake.

But it wasn’t so with His disciples. They were wide awake and in a panic. The daily life of these men was on the sea, fisherman familiar with these very waters. The boat was being swamped by the waves, but Jesus was asleep through it.  They wake Jesus fearing that their lives were lost and crying out for Jesus to save them.

What a contrast to last week’s Gospel. Earlier in Matthew 8, Jesus has marveled at the faith of a Gentile centurion.  Now, He is with His disciples and slams them with the words “O you of little faith!” Jesus has revealed His power and authority.  They have seen Him heal many and do much. Yet they fear even when they are with Him.  He rests easy, they panic.

How often we feel this way, as if He ignores what is going on in the world. Wars and disease, hatred and persecution.  These things surround us and is God just sleeping through it all? Crime and poverty. Families falling apart. Babies murdered in the womb. Children rebel. Government and media lies. Friends betray. False prophets preach false doctrine. And then nature itself attacks through earthquakes and tsunamis, and seemingly unending snow and ice. And it is fearful.

For this reason, the Lord rebukes the wind and the waves after He rebukes His disciples. He doesn’t rebuke them for waking Him, for crying out for salvation. No, He rebukes them for disturbing themselves with their fear. Jesus diagnoses the disciples fear as being caused by a lack of faith in Him. Indeed, every one of our temptations to sin is really about our faith – will we trust the Lord or not? Will we trust the Lord to provide for us in our times of need, in supporting the Lord’s ministry through the blessings He has given to us, in caring for us through hard times, or will our lives be dictated by fear and a lack of trust in God's provision?

Jesus seems to say here, Why are you afraid? I am with you. Why do you fear being blown about, I command the wind. Why do you fear being drowned by the stresses of this world and your life, for I calm the waves. Why do you fear your lack of control, for I am the Lord of all creation and I am with you. The Lord permitted the storm that they might find in Him one who is mightier than the storm.

Maybe that’s the real issue. We fear because Christ is with us. The storm comes against the boat because the disciples are with Jesus. Jesus’ preaching and rebuke of sin causes the devil and the world to rage against Him and all who would follow Him.  And that can be scary. Following Christ invites persecution and hardship and the fury of the devil. Too often we stand before Christ with the attitude like Jonah who wants to run the exact opposite direction because we are afraid of what might come. We don’t want to suffer in this life. We don’t our family and our friends to rebuke us for believing in Christ, for coming to church, for denying the world’s demands of conformity to all kinds of evil and depravity. And to top it off, we know that God is righteous and holy and jealous and we deserve nothing good from Him, nor from the world. And we fear that He shall rebuke us along with the storms.

You of little faith, repent! Repent of your fear, of your lack of trust in the Lord. Repent, not of disturbing God with cries of help, but of disturbing yourselves through your lack of faith. Repent and cling tightly to the Christ, for in the storm, He teaches that He is Lord over all His creation, including you. And He teaches of His mercy and His love, of the calm that He brings to through the goodness of His presence in rebuking our sin and restoring His creation by His grace.

And be rebuked again and again. Suffer His harsh words and His condemnation of your sin. For in this way, the Lord teaches you to trust not in yourselves, but in the goodness of the Lord. He breaks you to mend you. He kills you to revive you. Thanks be to God. Those things that keep you awake at night, the worry and stress, the guilt and regret.  It is faith that stirs your heart in the midst of such trials. Pray that you are never comfortable in your sin, that you may never think you face the storm alone, for if you do, the waves will surely swamp over you. If you stop feeling the Law, you lose the Gospel. First comes the rebuke, then the calm. First the cross, then the glory. Repent. Pray. Submit in faith to the goodness and protection of God. Wait for the Lord. The storms will cease. Jesus is with you.

Are we those of little faith, of fear, tossed about in life? Certainly we are.  So, save us, Lord; we are perishing! The Church is often storm tossed, but this does not prove that the Lord is absent.  The Lord is not asleep. He slept the sleep of death for three days, but has awoken in the resurrection. He is awake. He is attentive and active. When persecution arises because of God’s Word, we can know full well that Christ is in the boat with us. For that reason the sea and wind rage. But let them rage, for they are subject to their Creator and their Lord. The persecution and hardship will not last longer than He wants. May God help us so we do not despair and do not lose faith under such attacks and that we may rest easy.

Matthew 8:1-13

Jesus Reveals His Mercy to All

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 22, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

Nowhere else among Israel had Jesus found such faith as this.  A Roman centurion, a Gentile, approached Jesus in faith that He had the authority to heal his sick servant.  Jesus had just returned to Capernaum after preaching the sermon on the mount.  He had demonstrated His teaching authority to the Jews, then His authority to heal as He was willing to help a leprous man on His way down the mount.  This centurion certainly heard that Jesus was someone special, that He had the power and authority to heal.  And so this Gentile believes.

And Jesus marvels at this belief.  “With no one in Israel have I found such faith.” Jesus tells His followers.  Think about that a moment. Not the faith of Mary and Joseph. Not the faith of any of Jesus’ disciples.  Not the faith even of John the Baptist. Here was a man who probably had never met Jesus before, yet who believed that Jesus could and that He would heal his servant. And he even was deeply humble about it all.

Just like with the leper, Jesus doesn’t need to convincing to be merciful.  Jesus agrees to heal the servant, and invites Himself over to the centurion’s house in order to do so.  Yet, the centurion thinks this too much.  He believes that if Jesus will just say the Word it will be done. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” And this is the point.  The centurion was unfit as a Gentile, unworthy in a moral sense, and he knew it. He did not pretend, he did not claim his authority in the world, he did not claim anything for himself before the Lord. And still Jesus heard His plea and answered as he believed.

It’s no wonder that this prayer is still prayed in the church even today. This is a prayer sometimes prayed before receiving the Sacrament of the Altar. We are not worthy to have you come under our roof.  We do not deserve God’s presence here, we do not deserve His love and forgiveness.  We are as unclean as the leper because of our sinfulness, and as unworthy as someone who stands before God with no status and no authority, a militant enemy bent on occupying God’s creation for our own purposes. And yet the Lord comes according to His Word and His promise.  He still hears the prayers of the faithful. He still exercises His authority among us, He still brings His healing to those broken by a broken world because of who He is, because of His character.  Jesus’ words still possess power and authority. The Word of Absolution declares that sins forgiven. Water, joined to the Word of Jesus in Holy Baptism, washes away sin. Bread and wine, joined to the Word of Jesus in Holy Communion, is His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

While we sinners rejoice at these miracles of grace, we receive them in order that we may remain humble in our faith. For it is only through faith that the goodness of the Lord is received. Approaching our Lord in faith, we receive the gifts the Lord has to give.  The measure and the timing of those gifts determined by God. The faith of the centurion teaches us that what we need is not just to believe more, or that we need to be more like the leper or the Gentile centurion. God’s Word here teaches us about Jesus and what it means to be Israel, namely one who looks to Jesus for all good things.  Jesus has mercy on those who do not deserve it.

Those descendants of Israel who supposed that their earthly heritage guaranteed them a place at the table of the Lord, those Pharisees who trust in their genetic lineage, those who insist on claiming a place for themselves – I’m a born and bred and confirmed Lutheran, I deserve a seat at the table of the Lord though I won’t go to church – those who are intent on earning God’s favor through their own works, and trust in their position before God based upon their merits. These hold a bleak future, a casting out of the kingdom where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping is from sorrow from the great treasure thrown away. Gnashing of teeth is of rage and anger. In hell, men are given over to their anger, and to their sorrow. They are given over to their sinful passions. They are given over to what they deserve.

Jesus heals these two in need to show us that He is the Savior, that He is the one who brings healing to the world. Jesus reveals His authority over sickness and the result of sickness – death.  This does not mean that Jesus will heal you, that you don’t need to take medicine or go to the doctor.  The Lord mask’s His work through His people and in His providence over the world. Even though the leper and the centurion’s servant were healed of their physical ailments, they still died. Even Lazarus raised from the dead died again. Death will come to us all, save the Lord Jesus returns first.  Getting over a cold, a broken bone, cancer being chased away might be the result of a miracle, but the cause of sickness and death, our sinfulness, still remains. The true miracle here is not the physical healing but the spiritual. The true miracle here is not what happened to the leper and the centurion’s servant, but it is Jesus. It is the miracle of the Son of God who would become man, the Son of God dying upon the cross, the Son of God would be raised, and the Son of God who comes under our roof, unworthy servants as we are, to bring healing through the forgiveness of our sins. And by that forgiveness, to grant us a life that not even death can stop. And by His work, and His merit, and His grace, the Lord gives us a place with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by faith, the kingdom of heaven out of sheer mercy and grace to any and to all who believe in Him.

 “Let it be done for you as you believe.” Jesus speaks, and so it is. It is His Word and His promise to you who would believe.

Matthew 2:1-23

Holy Innocents (Observed)/Life Sunday

January 15, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church T Nampa, ID

The magi come wanting to know where the King of the Jews may be found. They probably were wise by virtue of Daniel, knowing of the prophecy of Balaam about the promised sign of a star.  Now, they have seen it fulfilled. By faith, they come to worship the One announced so long ago.  Gentiles, foreigners, yet those to whom God has revealed His will. But the star, for the time being, only led them to Jerusalem, and they do not know where the Messiah is.

But it was not a mystery for the priests who were well trained in the Scripture. They were quick to respond, “In Bethlehem of Judea.” They knew the Scripture and yet none followed the Magi to the town.  Instead, they were troubled with Herod, indeed with all Jerusalem. They did not rejoice. Upon hearing that he had been tricked by the Magi, Herod proceeded with murderous fury. The boys of Bethlehem, two years old and younger, murdered, their mothers and families bearing the brunt of such evil. The slaughter of the holy innocents.

The lives of the boys were taken away while the fullness of God hidden in the flesh of the son of Mary slipped off in the night. What kind of God is this, who would let babies die? What kind of God is this who would let the suffering of mothers outliving their children continue? What kind of God is this who does not act, but who runs away?

Are these not questions we still ask today, especially in light of over a generation now of the legalized murder of innocents through the satanic evil of abortion. What has God to say? What has God to do? Why does the suffering continue and death toll rise? Why does miscarriage and still birth continue as the mothers echo the words from Jeremiah, “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

The answer is not very satisfying to our minds: the ways of God are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts. If we could fully understand God then we have created an idol that we can grasp and we need to repent. God’s ways and His thoughts are above our understanding and we cannot judge Him.

But the answer is satisfying to faith. God's thoughts and ways are better, even when they hurt.We submit in faith and wait for His goodness to revealed, even when our patience fails us and our understanding limited.  We have His Word, His revelation to us, His epiphany to the world. He tells us by the horror of Herod, the prophecy from Hosea is fulfilled “Out of Egypt I called My son (Hosea 11:1). That was the purpose. The boys died, the mothers mourned and refused comfort, and the holy family traveled to Egypt and back as Jesus acts as God’s people reduced to one. Those boys died that day so that Jesus might escape and return to die for them.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who would be led to slaughter without complaint or resistance. He submitted to their violence, of His own will, in His own time, and on His own terms. Upon the cross the blood of the only begotten Son of God was spilled. Blood that covers the sins of the world. Blood that covers all your sin.

Evil abounds in our world devastated by sin. 2016 wasn’t a bad year, it was simply a year full of sin and death, just like this one will be. But innocent blood continues to be shed. Governments sanction the murder of the lowliest among us through the damnable sins of abortion and euthanasia. In the face of such a sad slaughter, the blood spilled throughout the centuries and still today, we find comfort in the promise of Jeremiah, “Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country.”

Herod and the magi are long dead. The mothers of those infants lay in their own graves.  The boys of Bethlehem were not abandoned, for they now rest in the arms of Christ. Their mothers found comfort in the wounds of Christ, who died for them. Now, they have been reunited with their sons. They enjoy eternal bliss won by Jesus as part of the Church triumphant and await that final and complete epiphany of Christ upon the last day, the day of resurrection and life eternal for all who receive Him in faith. This is our comfort as we mourn with the hope of the resurrection. This is our future. In the end, we are the ones called out of Egypt, led by God, freed from the slavery of sin and death, of mourning and loss, of tyrants and deception. For our faith was begun in Baptism, strengthened through the never too frequent reception of the Sacrament of the Altar, secured unto death to life everlasting. For as St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

* Portions of this sermon were adapted from a sermon on the Holy Innocents by Rev. David Petersen, God With Us, pp 96-99.

Luke 2:14

Soli Deo Gloria

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2016

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

For the past month, during the season of Advent, as we spend time in preparation and repentance for this night and the next 12 days of Christmas.  We have our traditions, our decorations, our plans.  For the Church, part of this is refraining from singing a certain song in our normal Divine Service, the Gloria in Excelsis – Glory to God in the highest. But tonight, we sing it loud and it we sing it often.  We sing our praises and thanksgiving to God, and acknowledge in faith that all glory belongs to Him for the singular fact that Jesus was incarnate, that the Son of God has taken humanity into Himself.

And so we hear that particular song from the angels and the saints of God sing along.  We sing the Gloria in Excelsis.  Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth.  This is Jesus’ birthday song.  The angelic song announcing that the Son of Man has become flesh to for us men and for our salvation. The angels sing for such a normal thing as a birth. But this was no normal birth, but the one promised from the Garden of Eden after the first sin – God become man to save His people. Gloria in Excelsis is the great hymn of the incarnation that states in the liturgical language of the heavens, the earthly consequences of Jesus’ birth.  It is as if heaven must confirm for the creation the reality of what is now already a historical fact: the Creator has come as creature. In heaven, the result is glory to God; on earth, peace among those with whom God is pleased. 

John 1 speaks of this same glory, of how the glory of God dwells fully in Christ. And because of the incarnation we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.  In the Old Testament, God revealed His glory in the tabernacle. When Christ took on flesh, He tabernacled among us.  The whole fullness of God which dwells personally in Christ’s assumed nature, exercises His power, authority, and activity in and through His human nature.

God’s glory was manifest in Christ throughout His life, but especially upon the cross.  At the birth of Jesus, there is glory in the highest; this same highest glory is proclaimed as He enters Jerusalem to accomplish what is necessary for peace in heaven because atonement for the sins on earth will be made. In the birth and death of Jesus, heaven and earth are joined together in peace. Glory of God manifested in His death, confirmed in His resurrection, and revealed in His Word, and delivered through His means of grace in the Sacraments.

God intends Jesus’ birth to be the Good News for all humanity. There is no greater source of joy that the incarnation of God’s Son for the purpose of our salvation.  For the faithful, the birth of Jesus brings the end of all fear. In the birth of Jesus, God’s glory is manifested on earth as peace between God and man. Peace parallels glory and shows how heavenly glory is now made known to those on earth who are favored by God.  This causes the angels to tell the shepherds “Do not fear.” Fear from the presence of a holy God is a reality found in the birth of Jesus, because in this little child the whole glory of God dwelt.

And how foreign this is to the world. This is the good news of Christmas.  It is not wrapped up in family gatherings, in the opening of presents, in heartwarming stories, but the glory of God wrapped up in swaddling cloths and being laid in a manger. The Son of God's work to save the world was hidden under the signs of humility. He is fully man and fully God, by being incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin birth. He is God, but suffers human weakness. He is nailed to the cross, but conquers death. He dies, but in Him all are made alive. He suffers the penalty of damnation, but lifts mortals to heaven. These are the signs of the glory of God made perfect in weakness. For these we offer praise to Christ and through Him to His Father. These are the truly glorious things, hidden under humility.[i]

Yet, while this is good news of great joy meant for all the world, God’s glory resulting in peace comes only to those who receive the news through faith in the Son of God, for these are the ones with whom God is pleased.  Make no mistake, there is no peace between God and man where there is no faith in the mediator between God and man.  This is a very important point.  Unfortunately, some will choose to reject this child as the Christ and the Lord of all, and will receive the news of Jesus’ birth with fear and anger. 

And just as often, there are those who wish to steal for themselves the glory from God and from His Christ. Unfortunately, self-centered humans that we are, we desire to turn God's glory into our work, as though we humans can take what is ours and offer it to God for His glory. Whenever we claim glory for ourselves, we steal it from God. The more we elevate man, the less we hold onto Christ. Repent from trying to steal the glory of Christmas.  Christmas isn’t about you.  It’s not about who has the best party, the coolest decorations, the most gifts.  It’s about Jesus.  It’s about Jesus for you. It’s about His glory for you. You see Jesus isn’t part of Christmas.  Christmas is part of the good news of Jesus.

Glory to God in the highest means that in faith we recognize what is His work and what is ours.  There is no work or beginning in you that will make you godly.  Everything you begin is sin and remains sin, no matter how brightly it might shine. The beginning, the advance, and the end is God’s alone. He brings you to faith, He works that faith out, and He brings to completion the good work that He has begun in you.  That means your justification and your sanctification are both works of God. Glorification of God means letting God be who He is in Christ. He comes to save. God's true glory is the humble acts of Christ who is willing to suffer and die for sinners.[ii]

This good news of God is contagious.  After hearing experiencing, the heavenly choir, they go and see this child of whom the angels sing. And then they go back to their lives, glorifying God and giving Him praise for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.  For in this child, who would one day die for the salvation of all, they know the peace that passes all understanding. There is no greater gift in heaven or on earth than to be at peace with God. Because we have peace with God, the world can do its worst, yet peace remains.  Though we may suffer in this world and in this life, we have peace eternal. For this, the forgiveness of our sin, the bestowal of eternal life and salvation, this is our joy at Christmas.  Christ, the savior is born, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and praise. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Easter on Christmas

Christmas Day

December 25, 2016

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

What a blessed day today is.  Christmas Day on a Sunday.  That doesn’t happen all that often, about every seven years or so, and it is a great thing when it does.  It’s great because we get to celebrate Easter on Christmas. Easter and Christmas together.  A double whammy of a celebration.

What’s the connection?  Well, first of all, Christians have always gathered on Sunday for worship, to hear God’s Word and receive His Sacraments.  We gather on Sunday, not because we think it’s a new Sabbath Day, but because it is the day that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Each Sunday is a little Easter.

The connection to Christmas is a little more complicated, but not as much as many people might think.  We actually celebrate Christmas every year on December 25 because of Good Friday and Easter.  There’s a common misconception that Christians took this day from paganism, but that is plainly not true. The dating of Christmas does not come from pagan origins.  It may or not be the day that Jesus born.  More than likely, the date comes from the Annunciation, or the announcement of the Angel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and give birth to the Savior. That date is March 25.  The reason for that date is the belief that great prophets died on the date of their conception.  Being that Jesus’ death was tied to the Jewish Passover, the date has been determined to have taken place on March 25.  Hence, the annunciation is dated off of Good Friday, and the birth of Jesus is celebrated 9 months after His conception, on December 25.

So there you have it.  Christmas on a Sunday, Christmas on a little Easter. What this does, if nothing else, is tie together three things: the annunciation, the birth of Jesus, and His death and resurrection.  And really, we cannot talk about any of these without the others.  Of the promise and fulfillment of the Word of God become flesh to dwell among us. 

The incarnation is the most spectacular thing the world had ever seen: God assuming the human nature and becoming man. From the moment of His incarnation, things changed forever.  In the modest and humble birth of the blessed virgin Mary, Jesus begins His journey to the cross and the empty tomb.  Good Friday and Easter is the goal of Christmas.  The Son of God came to pay for the sins of the world. Jesus came to buy us back, not with silver or gold but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death. But for God to die, He must first take on human flesh. For God to be with us, Emmanuel, He must become one of us. And in the fullness of time, after much anticipation and prophecy, Jesus was born in Bethlehem to the virgin Mary. This child would grow in wisdom and stature before God and men and travel to the cross and into the grave.  Three days later this Jesus would be raised from the dead to life everlasting.  Easter on Christmas.

We are told by the world that the true “meaning of Christmas” or “spirit of Christmas” is about being kind to other people, about giving to other people. We are told that the purpose of Christmas is to bring families together. That the Christmas spirit is all about being jolly and happy and optimistic. We even see some Christian churches close their doors today precisely so that people can spend time with their families, basically without the distraction of worshiping the Lord Jesus in the House of God.  A recent survey by LifeWay Research found that 89% of churches will hold services even though Christmas falls on a Sunday, with Lutherans actually the most likely of all branches of Christianity to have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Services.  While good, that also means that more than one in ten Christian churches do not have a church service this morning.  What does that say about Christmas? What does that say about the way that Christians view Christmas and the way the world views Christmas?

The real message of Christmas is not focused on us, nor the world, nor to distract us from sin and death, or even about goodwill among men, earthly peace, and presents.  It is the announcement that the promised Savior who would be born of the virgin, has come to save sinners.  Christmas ultimately points us toward death, and then its defeat in Christ. Death is unavoidable. We pretend like it doesn’t hurt and we pretend like on days as this as if it doesn’t even happen.  Death is overcome not by our pretending it is not there but by God’s going through it. Christ really had to die that all who believe in Him might truly live.

Were death not a reality, Christmas would not be necessary.  Christmas is about death. Christmas is a declaration of war against it. When we celebrate Christmas, we are declaring the Christus Victor, Christ the victorious, who has arrived, and we are enlisting in His army. We, too, shall fight against sin and death in all its forms, all its influence, all its rebellion, all its evil.

Death has dominion over us no longer. We are not bound by the sin in the world because of the fear of death (Heb. 2:15). This is the story that Christmas is part of, the story of Jesus coming to our world and killing death forever. Death is the last enemy that shall be abolished (1 Cor. 15:26), and it is for abolishing death that Christ appeared (2 Tim. 1:10).

If we take Christmas seriously, this is what we mean by it. Because of what began Christmas, death itself is being conquered because in Christ is life, for He is the Life of the world.  Easter on Christmas.  Christ was born.  Christ was crucified for the forgiveness of our sin. Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. Alleluia!