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“Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
The Christmas season is marked with many decorations: evergreen trees laden with shiny ornaments and twinkling lights, evergreen wreaths and garland, tinsel and toys, poinsettias and peppermint, ribbons and bows, candy canes and candles, hung stockings and gingerbread houses.
But sometimes, the Christmas holiday becomes cluttered with such wrappings and trappings, making it difficult to sort out what Christmas is truly about. It’s hard to get down to the core message.
If you asked a random person what the most important thing about Christmas is, odds are that they would say the presents. For many people, the highlight of Christmas is unwrapping, or better yet, ripping open those presents. This is especially true for children. For most children, opening presents is the climax of the Christmas season. For most children, opening Christmas gifts is the foremost in their minds.
Certainly, Christmas is about a gift. Now, that gift is not found under the Christmas tree. And this most-important truth about Christmas is sometimes lost in our attention to the glitter and glitz of the Christmas holiday. It may get hidden behind the Santas and reindeer and snowmen. But the most important gift is found elsewhere. This is the truth of Christmas. This gift is located in a manger. This gift is a newborn Baby who has come to save His people from their sins.
During the Advent season, we prepare for the coming of the Christ. Now that we have come to Christmas, we now celebrate Christ’s arrival. The first Christmas gift was God’s only begotten Son, who took upon Himself human flesh and was born as a baby to save us, sinners. Jesus is the real gift of Christmas!
God had promised the gift of the Savior for centuries through His prophets. And God is always faithful to His promise. That gift arrived more than two thousand years ago in the package of a little baby, an infant who was fully God in human flesh.
The promised Emmanuel – “God with us” – had arrived. He came to deliver us from our captivity to sin and death. He came to be our Savior!
This was the gift the angel announced to the shepherds on that first Christmas night. Now, shepherds were regarded by the Jewish religious leaders as ceremonially unclean since they worked on the Sabbath. Moreover, shepherds were considered untrustworthy by the population at large. Shepherds were social outcasts. But it was to these outcasts that the angel first announced the coming Messiah saying, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).
On that first Christmas, the angel announced the content of the newly delivered package – “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
In this announcement, the newborn Child is identified as the Savior and the Lord. The angel then equates the Baby with God. And the ascription of Savior indicates the mission of this Child: to save humanity from its fallen sinful condition and fatal destination in hell. In this birth announcement, the angel ascribes three important titles to the newborn Child: Savior, Christ, and Lord.
The angel then provides an additional sign in locating the Baby: “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).
Now, swaddling cloths is not a great distinctive sign, as swaddling cloths were a common practice with newborns. Infants were normally wrapped in cloths, which provided warmth and security in their new environment.
What was distinctive was the location of the Baby: “lying in a manger.” That is unexpected. This newborn Christ resides in the domicile of livestock animals. This is truly a strange circumstance that ought to jolt human expectations: the long-awaited Messiah enters human history in the humblest of contexts. He isn’t found lying in a royal crib in a king’s palace, but in a smelly, dirty stable lying in a feeding trough.
Jesus is the gift we needed. We needed someone to save us from our sins. We needed someone to save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray.
We had gone astray from God and His commandments in our selfish desires and sinful rebellion. Every one of us. We are all guilty. We were all destined for eternal death and eternal destruction. We could do nothing to save ourselves. We needed someone to save us from sin and its deadly consequences.
Thanks be to God that He delivered the gift of the Savior in the babe of Bethlehem. This is why the Child was named Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves,” for as we heard last Sunday by the angel that “He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
God entered our fallen, sinful world. He took upon Himself our flesh to rescue humanity. He gave us the Great Exchange. He lived the righteous life and died a sacrificial death for you. And in return, He gave you His perfect righteousness and holiness – and all by His grace through faith in Him. We did nothing to earn salvation. Yours and my salvation had nothing to do with our good works or behavior. Your salvation has everything to do with Jesus, who as your Savior gave you the gift of salvation purely out of His unmerited mercy and grace from His unconditional loving kindness.
As true God, Jesus saved humanity. He conquered Satan and destroyed eternal death for you. Jesus Christ, your Savior, is the real gift!
Tonight, as we gaze at the manger, we see a message wadded up – wrapped in swaddling cloths – which explains God’s real gift to us. He says, “I love you. I love you so much that I desire that you do not perish but have eternal life. I didn’t come to condemn you, but that you might be saved through Me.” (John 3:16-17)
In the gift of Jesus Christ, the triune God has given us His greatest gift because He has given us Himself. It was because of love that the infinite Creator of the universe took on human flesh, and a helpless infant one at that! It was for love that He grew up to offer His life as a ransom for sinners. As St. Paul proclaims, “The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy” (Titus 3:4-5). Because of His life, death, bodily resurrection and ascension, you are forgiven and delivered from eternal death.
On this Nativity of Our Lord – Christmas Eve, we joyfully receive the supreme gift announced by the angel: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”(Luke 2:11). Merry Christmas! Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
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