The Reverend Harold A. Linn, Pastor

The Angel’s Sermon Reveals the Meaning of Christmas

By Dr. Richard P. Bucher

And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."

It was in a lonely field outside of Bethlehem that this first "Candlelight" sermon was preached. The glorious angel of the Lord was the preacher, the reverent shepherds, the congregation. The quiet solitude of that ordinary night was shattered when heaven touched the earth.

Have you ever thought about how important that Christmas sermon was? If the shepherds had not heard it, how would they have interpreted the Galilean baby sleeping in a common stable? They would have known nothing about Him! And even if they had somehow discovered the stillness of the manger, they would have seen nothing special. The picture of commonness and ordinariness would have greeted their eyes.

On the first Christmas, God's Gospel Word made the difference between understanding and not understanding, between discovering and missing Christ's birth. Without the good Word of the angels, the Christmas manger would have attracted no attention at all. No shepherds would have made a special trip to see the tender baby born there. And even if they had, the birth of Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, would have been so common and ordinary as to repel attention. It would have evoked pity perhaps, but wonder and awe, no.

God's Gospel announcement made the difference. The Gospel declared that what looked so humdrum on the surface was in fact a glorious event. This manger baby who evoked pity because of his knavish beginning was in truth, God's only Son, the Creator, the Savior, Christ, the Lord!

No human word could have announced this. It took the Word of God to open our eyes so that we could see the divine in the human, the glorious in the base, the marvelous in the humble. The Gospel message of the angel made the first Christmas Christmas.

There is a lesson in all this. Here it is: Sinful man does not see things as God sees. Sinful man does not plan things as God plans. He never has -- he never will (cf. 1 Sam. 16:7). Man judges the importance of something by outward appearance. That which is big and strong, wealthy and dynamic, beautiful and successful, man notices. That which is extra-ordinary rivets his attention. The ordinary he passes by. And when man plans something important, he feels compelled to make it look good on the outside. "If something is important," he reasons, "it must be flashy and dynamic, expensive and beautiful -- extra-ordinary. Otherwise no one will know that it is important.

This is not the way of our God. It is His way to hide His greatness and power behind very humble means. Baptism is an example of this. So is the Lord's Supper. Unless the Gospel had told us, who would ever have guessed that such an ordinary-looking ceremony could bring us eternal life; who would have ever guessed that such plain looking wafers and wine could be the true body and blood of Christ Himself for our forgiveness? No one -- if the Word of God hadn't told us.

Christmas is the ultimate example of the way our God works. He took the most significant event in man's history, the birth of His Son, and clothed it in swaddling rags. God revealed the importance of this birth not by outward pomp, but by the preaching of the Gospel, His Word. Anyone who did not hear the Gospel proclaimed by the angel would have missed the importance entirely.

Nothing has changed. Only those who hear and believe the Gospel Word of the angel understand and experience the significance of Christmas. Only when they hear and believe that in the Christ-Child their Savior has come to redeem them from the slavery of sin and everlasting condemnation do they rightly interpret and experience Christmas. The Gospel Word of Luke 2 is the key that unlocks it all.

Without the Gospel there is no Christmas. But man still tries. So determined is he to make what is important look good, he's tried to apply this principle to Christmas. Having heard that Christmas is important but not understanding why, he has tried to make the events of that first Christmas beautiful and whimsical through story and song. He has even invented new Christmas legends and myths to try to dress up the original Christmas story and make it more festive.

Thank God that we need no such window-dressing. For we, like the shepherds, have heard and believed the Gospel Word of the angel. Our Savior, Christ the Lord has been born in the city of David. Our sins are forgiven. Heaven is ours by grace. It will be a merry Christmas.