Christmas Eve 2012
Luke 1. 78-79
Christmas—For Us And In Us
Dear friends in Christ! We are here this evening to give our gracious Triune God praise and thanks for all of His great mercy and faithfulness that He showed by sending His Son to be the Savior of the world. There would be no Christmas, we would not be here this evening, unless God were merciful and faithful.
Our text this evening is the final two verses of the hymn of praise that Zacharias, the father of John the Baptizer sang to God. In this hymn of praise Zacharias does the same thing we are doing this evening—praising God for His great mercy and faithfulness. What also makes this hymn of praise, which the Church also uses and calls the Benedictus, noteworthy, is that it contains the final prophecy about the Messiah. Zacharias offers up this hymn of praise shortly after John’s birth—about 6 months before Jesus’ birth. Since these last few verses, this final OT prophecy of the Messiah, deal with the incarnation, the Son of God taking on human flesh and blood, it does us well to ponder them this Christmas Eve. As we do so, we will see that Christmas is something that God does for us and something He does in us.
1. Our text: On account of the heart of mercies of our God, with which mercies the Dayspring from on high will visit us, in order to give light to those who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, in order to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Christmas is all about what the holy Triune God has done to save, rescue us sinners from the just rewards of our sin— slavery to sin and devil, death and damnation. Christmas can be all candy coated with trees, decorations, cookies, good-will—even with a baby born in a manger—but ultimately it is about rescue; rescue from sin and death. Christmas doesn’t end tomorrow, or even after 12 days, but it leads ultimately to the suffering on the cross, death, but also to Easter and the Ascension.
Christmas is really all about God for us. But why is there a Christmas in the first place? That is, why is God for us? What motivated God the Father to send His Son? What motivated the Son to obey His Father’s will to become man and ultimately to suffer and die for the sins of the world, for our sins?
Zacharias answers that in our text: On account of the heart of mercies of our God. Here is the reason God deals so kindly with His people. His whole heart yearns toward us with inexpressible love and tender mercy. There is only one reason for Christmas—so that God could save the world; and there is only one reason for that—God is merciful beyond measure toward us poor sinful beings. He didn’t have to be, but He is. Christmas is not about us; it’s about God and His heart of mercies.
The starting point of Christmas is not the Babe lying in the manger. The starting point of Christmas is the mercy of God who loved us sinners; it is the love of the Son for us who became also true man to be our Savior. God saw all of lost condemned sinful humanity sitting in misery, in the devil’s grasp, with only eternal damnation awaiting us; or, as our text describes us, we are: those who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death.
This is why we cannot praise God enough for His great mercy, and why it is mercy. We didn’t earn or deserve it that God come to us, become one of us to be our Savior. The very fact that we need of a Savior from sin, One to reconcile us sinners with the holy God; that God’s wrath over our sin must be appeased, means that we have nothing in us to make us worthy and deserving of God coming to us. The fact that God had to have mercy on us shows us that we didn’t deserve it—otherwise it wouldn’t be mercy; it would be a just payment, reward. Precisely because there is no merit or worthiness in us, Christmas is all about God’s grace; it is all about God having mercy and freely showing us that mercy in Christ. In other words, if we are to have salvation grace is necessary—God’s grace to us sinners. And Christmas is, as St. Paul writes [Ti. 2.11]: the grace of God that brings salvation to all people has appeared.
B. Here is Christmas, God for us: moved by these feelings, moved by His heart of mercy God the Father sent the Son, the Redeemer; and moved by His heart of mercy God the Son willingly came to be Redeemer.
Our text: with which mercies the Dayspring from on high will visit us. Here in this little phrase we have the great Christmas miracle: the true God, the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity—the Dayspring from on high—as He is called here--also became true man—will visit us. Notice that Zacharias calls the Savior: the Dayspring from on high. He is from on high. That means that Christ, according to His divine nature, is from on high, from the Father. But not only did He visit us for a short visit, three years of an earthly ministry; or even 30 years of an earthly life, but He visits us forever by being one of us, by taking on human flesh and blood in the womb of the virgin Mary and from that point on, into all eternity, being the God-man, true 100% God and true 100% man in one Person. He visits us as now being the God-man He is with us wherever we go; by being with us when He gathers us around His word and Sacrament; by giving us His very Body and Blood in the precious Sacrament. The Christmas miracle of God becoming also man is for every day of our lives and gives us a blessed comfort. The Savior still visits us/ always with us!
The Dayspring is the true morning star; the star that rises at dawn, when it is still dark, and announces that after a long night the new day is beginning. What a glorious description of Jesus’ coming. Literally, as He was born at night, the bright glory of the Lord shone around the shepherds as the angel announced the Savior’s birth. Throughout Scripture the image of the coming light, the Dayspring from on high, is an image of the coming of the Messiah. The prophet Isaiah 60.1 writes: Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold the darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you and His glory will be seen upon you.
Christmas is all about what God does for us. The Dayspring from on high will visit us—but for what purpose? Our text also tells us: in order to give light to those who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. With the coming of Jesus, the Savior that first Christmas, a new day has come. As a result of His coming and His work—all because of God’s heart of mercy toward us sinners—a new spiritual day has dawned. The darkness of sin and the shadow of death must depart, flee, like the darkness of the night with the first rays of light.
Jesus came that first Christmas carrying out God’s grace, His heart of compassion, and so to be our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell. Jesus came to remove the sentence of condemnation over us. Humanity was in a hopeless situation: the darkness of judgment was upon us, death was casting its shadow; we would be forever lost and condemned. Here were the results of sin, our sin which we sin each and every day. Left in that sin, we would all live in fear and terror of eternal death. From our side, there was no way out. That’s why Zacharias here describes humanity as sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Sitting implies utter helplessness, fatigue, worn out, having given up the struggle, hopelessness.
But the Dayspring from on high will visit us. Here is God’s superabundant mercy and grace; here is Christmas! God did something for us as He removed the sentence of condemnation from us. He didn’t and couldn’t do it merely by being gracious and forgiving us, because He is a just and holy God who must punish sin. So in grace and mercy, He Himself that first Christmas became also a true man so He could keep the holy Law for us perfectly, just as He demands; and as true man, as our Substitute, He could take our sins, go to the cross and their suffer all the Divine wrath, anger and punishment for our sin. By this, Jesus our Savior, the God-Man, reconciled us sinners to the Holy God. Now by this, the atonement, the kingdom of darkness has been destroyed and the power the devil has over us is taken away. The new day has dawned at that first Christmas with the coming of Christ and the beginning of His work to save us.
So, yes, Christmas is God acting in grace doing something for us—as St. Paul [Col. 2.14] puts it: He forgave us all our sins, wiped out the Law’s demands that were against us and took them out of the way by nailing them to the cross.
2. But let us not forget that Christmas is also what God does in us. In His great mercy, Christmas began God’s shining on us, the Dayspring from on high visiting us to enlighten and restore us. Not only was Jesus born that first Christmas to destroy and undo the devil’s kingdom—and He did it— but also to lead us out of it into His glorious and marvelous heavenly kingdom of forgiveness of sin, peace with God and joy. To put it differently, not only did Jesus remove the sentence of condemnation from over us but Jesus, the Dayspring from on high arose that first Christmas also to work on us now through the word and sacraments to lead us to receive His blessings and benefits in faith.
Our text: in order to guide our feet into the way of peace. That’s the ultimate result of Christmas—peace; we sinners now have in Christ true peace with God. He reconciled us sinners with the holy God. With His coming, with the Dayspring arising that first Christmas, we get a glimpse and guarantee of that peace as earth and heaven seemingly united as the angels sang: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. Peace is what Jesus would and did bring about by His life, suffering and death. Because of Jesus and His work we now live in a condition of harmony and friendship with God. It is something He, moved by mercy, did for us. It is an accomplished fact. But now as Christ comes to us again and anew in His word and sacraments, as by faith He is born anew in our hearts, He now guides our feet into the way of peace. Jesus, working in word and sacrament, the Dayspring from on high visiting us, awakens us to true spiritual life and illumines us with the light of His saving work. Whereas before the Dayspring from on high had personally visited us in word and sacrament, before Christ was born through faith in our hearts, we sat in spiritual despair, we now rise to our feet joyously; before we were in spiritual darkness not knowing where to turn. Previously God was our enemy, our Judge who would eternally condemn us for breaking His Law but now we have peace with Him because in Jesus we stand before God righteous and holy—in peace. St Paul [Rm. 5.1] puts it this way: Therefore having been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In His holy word and sacrament the Christ-child gives us the blessings and benefits He won and brought about for us that began with His conception and birth. In His Word, in the Absolution, in the holy Sacraments we receive that forgiveness that Jesus brought about, that peace. Christmas is peace—peace that Christ works in us through His word and sacrament. Certain of and secure in that peace Christ leads us safely on His path guiding and strengthening us by His word and sacrament until one day we are with Him eternally in heaven.
Have a Merry Christmas—knowing what God does for you in mercy and in you giving you peace. INJ Amen.