The
Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day
December
25, 2019
Text: John 1:1-18
“And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14; ESV). That is the Good News of Christmas. The Incarnation… The enfleshment of
the Son of God, the Nativity, the birth, of our Lord. For you, and for your salvation. The Word became flesh.
The
Word: This is His Divine Nature. He is
the Son of the Father, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Word who was in the beginning with
God. The Word who is God. The Word through whom all things were made,
and without Him nothing was made that has been made. The Word in whom is life, which is the light
of men, the Light that comes into the darkness of sin, death, and the devil,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Word who walked with Adam in the cool of the day. The Word who came to patriarchs and prophets,
who spoke with Moses face to face as to a familiar friend, who gave to His
people the Torah and the Sacred Scriptures.
The Word who is the revelation of the Father as a God of love; a God who
makes the sacrifice for sinners, His own Son, given into death; a God who
forgives; a God who saves; a God who is for us and not against us. The Word who imparts the Spirit of the
Father, that you may believe. It is this
Word who is spoken by the angel into Mary’s ear and takes up residence in her
womb. The Word became flesh and
made His dwelling among us.
Flesh:
A rather offensive word, particularly with reference to God. This is our Lord’s Human Nature. Our God is a Man! A flesh and blood Man. At just the right time, when the fulness of
time had come, He is born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under
the Law, that you and I and all who believe in Him, who are baptized into Him,
might be adopted by the Father as God’s sons, receiving the Spirit of the Son
into our hearts, so that we may call upon God as “Abba,” as “Our Father who art
in heaven” (Gal. 4:4-5). In His flesh,
the Son is one with us, so that He fulfills God’s Commandments for us, in our
place. In His flesh, He becomes all that
He redeems, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, born of the Virgin Mary, a
Baby, a Child, a Man. Flesh so that He
can suffer. Flesh so He can bleed. Flesh so He can be nailed to the wood of the
tree. Flesh so God can die. For you, for the forgiveness of sins.
And
so that this flesh, dead and buried in a tomb, can rise from the dead,
defeating sin, death, the devil, and hell, forever. This flesh and blood God, Jesus Christ, seen
and heard and touched by many for forty days after His resurrection, has now
ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. A Man, like us, reigns over all things. He works all things for our good and for our
salvation (Rom. 8:28). He intercedes for
us before the Father. He sends His
Spirit. He is our access to the
Father. We pray through Him, in His
Name, and in His Spirit, this flesh and blood Man who is God’s beloved
Son. And He is coming back, this Man
born of the Virgin, our Savior and Brother, to raise us, to judge us, to give
us life forever in His Kingdom. The Word
became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
His
dwelling: That is, He tabernacles among us.
Jesus is the new and greater Temple.
He is the dwelling place of God with and for His people, the one
Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus. And He is with us always, to the very end of
the age. Not in some ghostly, ethereal
sort of way, but in the way He came, and in the way He will come again. In the flesh.
The Word made flesh. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, born among us this day, dwells among us with His flesh and
blood. He speaks in Scripture and
Preaching and Absolution. He tucks you
into His flesh as He clothes you with Himself in Holy Baptism. He tucks Himself into you as He feeds you
with His true body and blood in the Holy Supper. Flesh and blood God dwells in you, and you in
Him. Sins forgiven. Life everlasting. You behold His glory. And from His fulness you and all of us
receive, grace upon grace.
And
that is why we feast and sing this day with great rejoicing. The great Christmas Gift is God’s salvation,
His own Son, all wrapped up in flesh and blood.
The whole accomplishment of our salvation depends on Christmas: The
birth of God, who is a Man, Jesus, the Son of Mary. The Word became flesh. He dwells among us still. Tidings of comfort and joy to the world. The Lord has come to make His home with
you. Merry Christmas! In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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