Jesus, Born For You

St. Luke 2:1-20

            In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

            St. Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

            Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  We’ve all heard people say, and we sometimes say, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”  But does that mean we should pay more attention to worshiping Jesus at Christmas time than partying and opening presents?  I guess that’s what some people mean by it.  But saying “Jesus is the reason for the season” doesn’t really tell us anything.  And it certainly is no preaching of the Gospel.  Substance-wise, it amounts to nothing more than “bumper-sticker theology.”

Sure, Jesus’ birth is the main event of Christmas.  Yes, Jesus is more important than Santa Claus.  That’s all true.  But there is something better to be said, something more accurate, something more correct, and it is this: “YOU are the reason for the season!”

That’s right; the people of this world are the reason for this season.  We are the reason there is a Christmas.  The Son of God didn’t come in the flesh so that He could stand up and say, “Hey, lookie what I can do!”  The Lord Jesus didn’t come down and take upon Himself our human nature in Mary’s womb so that He could show how humble He is when He had to lie in the feeding trough in the barn.  The Lord didn’t come to earth and send angels to sing and rejoice so that everyone can say what a great God He is.

No, the Son of God – God in the flesh – came to us in the flesh and is born to us on Christmas for one thing: FOR YOU.  It is because of your salvation the Lord has done this.  It is not for His glory or His honor or praise or reputation.  No, our Lord, in obedience to the Father, came to rescue sinners.

And sinners are the reason He came.  Our sins are the reason He came.  The Son of God did not come to us because we deserve Him.  He did not come down because we asked Him to.  He did not come because He felt sorry for us.  He came because we are covered in sins and He is the only One who can get rid of them.  He came because being in the flesh and dying for our sins is His Father’s will.  The Father, in grace and mercy which cannot be explained, has decreed that sinners should be saved.  And they are saved by His Son coming in the flesh to accomplish our salvation.

You, dear Christmas Day worshipers, are the reason for Christmas.  You and your sins are the reason our Lord became human flesh.  Jesus, the Son of God came in human flesh because our human flesh has been ruined by sin and death.  Jesus came, born of a woman and under the care of Joseph, because we chose instead to run from our heavenly Father and go our own way like dumb sheep.  Jesus came wrapped in swaddling clothes because we ran naked from God when we sinned.  Jesus came as an outcast in a stable because we were cast out of Paradise.  Jesus was born under the rule of an earthly emperor because we have been under the Emperor of this world, the Devil.  Jesus came lowly and as a baby because we exalt ourselves over others.  

Angels sang at the birth of Jesus because once an angel had to guard the way to the Tree of Life with a flaming sword.  Shepherds ran to see the Baby Jesus because all of us, like sheep, have gone astray and the Good Shepherd has come to us.  Indeed, we are the reason this has happened.  We and our sins were being addressed by our Lord in the sending of His only-begotten Son to save us.

And while Jesus is born because of our sins, He is not here to remind us of them.  Jesus is not here to throw our sins in our face an grind us into the ground.  He is not here to make us face up to our sins or to teach us how to overcome them or get rid of them.  Our Lord is here to take them away Himself.  As the hymn “What Child Is This” proclaims, “nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the Cross be borne for me, for you.”  That is why this Baby has been born.  While there is certainly much we have to learn about giving and being generous and all of that, those things are not the real “spirit of Christmas.”  The real Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit who preaches and teaches through the Scriptures and preaching why this little baby came.  He came to die.  

As soft and gentle and mild and lullaby-ish as we want Christmas to be, this little Baby grew up to face Good Friday alone…and He did it on the cross…He did it In our place…He did it with our sins…He did it under the Father’s judgment and wrath…He did it with pain and suffering and terror and a hellish death.

Today we all sing about how silently Jesus sleeps.  But we yet marvel at how silently He endured the punishment of hell itself on Calvary as He shed His blood to pay for all our sins.  All this, dear fellow redeemed, He did for you.  This is the reason He came.  This is the reason the Lord came at Christmas: For you.

Apart from Christ, we are nothing.  But in Christ, we have everything.  In fact, in Christ, the story that we celebrate about Jesus becomes our story.  What happened to Jesus happened to us.  See how our Lord was born from above when the Son took on flesh in Mary’s womb and was born on Christmas.  That is you, dear Christian.  You have been born from above by water and the Spirit at the holy font, which is the womb of your Virgin Mother, the Church.

Just as Jesus appeared in unspotted and sinless flesh, so you have been born into new life in Christ.  Just as Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, so you have been wrapped up in the righteousness and holiness of Jesus by your Baptism into Christ.  Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, has made you a son of the Father in Him.  As it goes with Jesus, so it goes with you.  

He was despised by the world which wouldn’t even give Him a comfortable room to be born in just as the world hates His people and will not give them the time of day.  Yet there He was in the loving care of Joseph and Mary His mother, just as you are in the care of the holy church, to nurture you and to sustain you.  Just as our Lord nursed at the breasts of Mary, so you too drink pure spiritual milk, which St. Peter says is the Word of God.

The reason for Christmas is you, for all that Jesus does He has done for you.  And everything that is His has become yours in Him.

And there’s more.  The Christmas story is our story in even greater detail.  For what is nastier or dirtier than shepherds out in the muck of the fields?  Do the angels appear to rich men or religious leaders or those who think they are something to brag about?  No, they appear to dirty, poor shepherds.  And we are those shepherds, slogging through life, being of no account to the world and its drama.  Yet to those shepherds the angel voices rang out announcing the birth of the Savior.  That is our life: to have the Good News proclaimed to us, to hear the preaching that God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus, to hear the Good News that Jesus is not just a really special baby but the Savior – the Savior of sinners.  This is our life – to hear the Good News that our sins are paid for.

The angels are to the shepherds as our preachers are today – the messengers of Good News, the bearers of glad tidings.  And what did the shepherds do?  They ran to Bethlehem and found their Savior in a feed trough.  That is our life too: to run to the place where Jesus is the food.  The shepherds went to the manger, and we come to the altar to feast upon our Lord’s flesh and blood.   As the shepherds departed in peace and joy, so we, from the altar “depart in peace according to [His] word.”  As the shepherds made known to all what they had seen and heard, so we, in our daily callings, vocations, and stations in life get to make known the Savior who has saved us.

The Christmas story becomes our story in Jesus.  Apart from Jesus, this story is meaningless.  But in Jesus, this story is our salvation.

The world couldn’t care less about the Jesus of Christmas.  Many more want to make Christmas about Jesus as if it’s only for His sake.  But the true meaning of Christmas is in what this Savior Baby came to do.  He came to do what we could not.   He came to be what we are not.  He came to make us what we could never be.

He who is the Son of the Father has come down from heaven to lift us up to heaven as children of God once again.  He was born that we might be born again.  He has come to die so that we who are dead would live.  He has lived the Christmas story so that it might be your story in Him.

All that Jesus is and all that He has done is done for you, given to you, bestowed upon you, delivered to you.   TO YOU is born this day, in the city of David, a SAVIOR which is Christ the Lord.  His being a SAVIOR born FOR YOU is the truest “reason for the season.”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.