The hidden divinity of Christ is revealed

Posted on January 6, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for the Epiphany of Our Lord

Isaiah 60:1-6  +  Matthew 2:1-12

It’s January 6th. This day has special significance for New Mexico, as it became the 47th state of the United States on this day in 1912. Tragically, the godless media in our country are seeing to it that most of the country now thinks of this day as the anniversary of a so-called “insurrection” at the U.S. capitol. It’s more than tragic, really. It’s of the devil. Not only because of all the fake news and the narrative of lies that people who are in league with the devil have been spinning over the past year, but because it distracts people from the real significance of this day that has been celebrated in the Christian Church for almost two thousand years, even longer than December 25th has been celebrated, according to some historians. It’s a day that points to the revelation of the divinity of Christ Jesus that was hidden under an appearance of humility. On this day, Christians celebrate the revelation of that hidden divinity of the Child born in Bethlehem, first, to the Gentiles, by means of a star; second, to John the Baptist at the Baptism of Christ; and finally, to all the nations through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which happens to line up again with our focus on the Small Catechism.

As we heard Isaiah prophesy this evening, a light rose over Israel when Christ was born, like the rising of the sun or like the rising of the morning star. The wise men in the East saw the brightness of a star in the sky. But there was no visible brightness in the Child they eventually found in Bethlehem. We don’t know what they expected to find, except that, when they arrived in Jerusalem, they expected all Judea to be celebrating. These Gentiles from the East had no political relation to King David or to any of his descendants who had been kings in Israel. No king of the Jews had ever reigned over them. And yet they came from afar when they saw His star in order to worship Him and present Him with their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

But the Jews—they had all sorts of promises from the Old Testament Scriptures foretelling the coming of the King of the Jews, the great Son of David who would be born to them, to be a light for enlightening the Gentiles and for glory to the people of Israel. This was their promised King, their promised Savior.

And yet, when the wise men arrived in Jerusalem, they found everyone going about business as usual. They found no celebration. No joy in King Herod’s palace. No knowledge at all of Christ’s birth. And, most tragically, no interest in it even after the wise men announced the rising of the star that they had followed. Oh, the scribes knew where the Christ was to be born, but no one celebrated when they learned that He had come. On the contrary, we’re told that When King Herod heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

You see, they were distracted, too, distracted by political wranglings among the Jewish parties and with the imperial government; distracted by the outward show of their religion without the inner devotion to God and His Word, without the inner recognition of their sins, without the longing for God to finally step into the world, to reveal Himself to them for their salvation from sin, death, and the devil. No, they weren’t interested in such a salvation, or in such a divine Savior.

So God continued to hide Himself from them, even as He revealed Himself to the Gentiles and brought back the star so that the wise men could follow it right to the house where Jesus was. They weren’t part of Israel, and yet God had given them the sure hope that this King of the Jews would welcome them into the new Israel He would one day fashion out of Jews and Gentiles, not a political kingdom or a secular kingdom, but the kingdom of heaven.

That’s the Holy Christian Church. God revealed to us the hidden divinity of Christ by His Holy Spirit, through the Holy Scriptures and the preaching of His Word. He invited us to enter that Church, just as all nations are invited to enter it, not embracing their sins, but confessing their sins and looking to the King of the Jews for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

That’s just what people were doing, confessing their sins—mainly Jews but also some Gentiles—30 or so years after the wise men left Bethlehem to go back to their own country, when John the Baptist preached his Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. They came and confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan river for the forgiveness of sins.

That’s what made it so strange when Jesus came to be baptized by John. He had no sins to confess, and somehow, John knew that, or at least he knew that Jesus was greater than he. Matthew tells us that Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “To fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus was the Righteous One. But His perfect righteousness as the Son of God was hidden from sight. He looked just like every other descendant of Adam and Eve, and every other descendant of Adam and Eve is unrighteous by nature, so the people of Israel might have assumed that Jesus, too, was unrighteous by birth.

But the hidden divinity of Christ was revealed clearly to John when Jesus was baptized. The Holy Spirit rested on Him in the form of a dove, and the Father’s voice spoke from heaven, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. There were Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all present at Jesus’ Baptism, revealing what was hidden, both Jesus’ divine origins, and His human righteousness. God is not well-pleased with any sinner. But He declared that He was well-pleased with Jesus, because He alone, among all the sons of man, was righteous.

So what did it mean that He had to be baptized to “fulfill all righteousness”? It indicates that there is a connection between Jesus’ Baptism as the Righteous One and the Baptism of all the rest of us unrighteous ones. How can we, as sinners, fulfill the righteous standards of a holy God? We can’t. So God chose to make this connection between the unrighteous and the Righteous One through this Sacrament of Holy Baptism, so that all righteousness may be fulfilled in us. In other words, so that we may be justified by our connection to Christ through Baptism and faith.

And so we come to the second part of Holy Baptism in the Small Catechism as Luther explains the benefits of this Sacrament:

What benefit does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the word and promise of God declare. Which word and promise of God are these? Our Lord Christ says in the last chapter of Mark: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

You see, Baptism isn’t a work we do for God. It’s a work that God does for us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are present at Holy Baptism today, just as the three Persons of the Trinity were present at Jesus’ Baptism. And what is the work He does through Baptism? He forgives us our sins. He delivers from death and the devil. And He gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. That’s why St. Peter can say in his first epistle that Baptism now saves us. It’s why he could preach to the crowds on Pentecost, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Because Baptism, combined with faith in what Baptism promises, is God’s tool for uniting us with the Righteous One who was also baptized. And just as our sins were counted against Him when He died for them on the cross, so His righteousness is counted toward us who are baptized and believe in Him.

So celebrate your Baptism again today on January 6th, even as we also celebrate the coming of the wise men and the Baptism of our Lord. Let those things fill your thoughts on this day while the world loses its mind over other things. The hidden divinity of Christ was first revealed to those Gentiles from the East, and they worshiped Him with joy. His divinity has now been revealed also to us Gentiles from the West. And not just His divinity, but His promise of salvation through faith and Holy Baptism, so our joy must be even greater. Amen.

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Joy in God’s wondrous purpose

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas

1 Peter 4:12-19  +  Matthew 2:13-23

I’d like you to consider something this morning that we often overlook. On Christmas day, what did we celebrate? We celebrated a painful moment in the life of the virgin Mary—the pain and bloodshed that accompanied childbirth. No woman looks forward to that pain and bloodshed, but we all celebrate it, because we understand, that pain is part of bringing a new life into the world, and all the more in Mary’s case, because she brought THE Life into the world.

Likewise, what did we celebrate yesterday, but the pain and bloodshed of the circumcision of baby Jesus? Why? Because it meant that another son was added to Israel, another offspring of Abraham was brought into the Covenant—in the case of Jesus, THE offspring of Abraham who was the true heir to the throne of Israel and to the Old Testament itself. God had kept His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to all mankind. So in the case of childbirth, and in the case of circumcision, we simply factor in the pain and suffering because of the wondrous purpose that’s accomplished through the pain and suffering, because of the joy that’s on the other side of it.

If only we could do the same thing with all pain and suffering! Why can’t we? Or why don’t we? Because the “wondrous purpose” of God is not always so clear, and the joy to be found on the other side is often postponed for a long time.

In today’s Gospel, we’re confronted with terrible pain and suffering, with the horrific massacre of the little boys of Bethlehem—the Holy Innocents, as they’re sometimes called—slaughtered by that monster, King Herod. That slaughter itself is not something to celebrate, but if we pay attention, we can see God’s wondrous purpose being accomplished through it as we witness His hand guiding the events in this story, exposing the wickedness of man while at the same protecting the Christ-Child and keeping Him safe from harm—for now—so that the Child could grow up and die a “proper” death, on a cross, for the sins of the world.

We’re confronted here with the stark reality of who God is and how He governs the affairs of man. He is not the God who prevents Herod from carrying out his massacre. He is not the God who always steps in and spares the innocent from suffering. Sometimes He does. But not always. He is the God who sometimes allows wicked men to carry out their wicked plans, and who, in most cases, does not tell us the reason why.

What do we know about this event as it’s laid out in today’s Gospel?

First, we know that God foresaw it, even as He foresees all that happens in our universe, every event, every decision, every act by every man. We’re told specifically that the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah: Rachel weeping for her children, because they are no more. God knew ahead of time what Herod would do.

Second, we know that, although God knew what King Herod would do, the one responsible for the wicked slaughter of Bethlehem’s children was King Herod and he alone. The wise men were not to blame. Jesus, Mary and Joseph were not to blame. And God did not wish for it to happen, nor did God intervene in human history to cause it happen, to make Herod do what he did. Wicked King Herod alone, spurred on by the devil, was responsible. He alone is to blame. He caused it to happen, by his own wicked will, together with the soldiers who carried out his wicked orders.

And third, we know that God not only foresaw, not only allowed, but also caused to happen the holy family’s flight to Egypt, and the preservation of His Son there, and the return to Israel, to the city of Nazareth after Herod’s death, as prophesied in Holy Scripture. God foresaw the protection of His Son and He did intervene in human history to make it happen. He sent His angel to Joseph three times to warn Joseph and to guide him, to see to it that he would protect Jesus, and He used Joseph’s godliness and obedient heart to carry it out. Not only that, but, as we’ll hear this coming Thursday in our Epiphany service, God saw to it that the star of Bethlehem would guide the wise men to where Jesus was, so that Jesus might receive the gifts of the wise men which would pay for the expenses of their flight to Egypt. And, God also saw to it that King Herod would die an excruciating death not too long after the holy family fled to Egypt, ensuring that Israel would again be a safe place for God’s Son to live.

Those are the facts of the story.

Now, some people would say that, since God is omnipotent and the sovereign Ruler over all things, He could have intervened to stop Herod from slaughtering those little children, and therefore, God is ultimately to blame for Herod’s massacre, that God is at fault, because He could have prevented the pain.

The truth is, it’s very easy to blame God for everything that goes wrong in this world, isn’t it? Because He could step in and prevent it from happening, right? But God’s sovereignty is really just a convenient excuse for the real cause of human pain and suffering and death. We are the cause of our own pain.

God didn’t intervene to stop Herod, just as He practically never intervenes to stop people from dying of old age. Why? Couldn’t God stop it? Couldn’t God give us a fountain of youth and a cure for every disease? Of course He could. In fact, He did. It grew in the Garden of Eden. It was called “the Tree of Life.” But He took it away from our race when our parents, Adam and Eve, sinned, just as He warned them ahead of time He would do. But they sinned anyway. So God’s reason for allowing pain in childbirth, or death by old age, is the same reason for which He allows all the pain and suffering that men endure, including wicked men who carry out their wicked will and bring harm to others, even to God’s believing children: mankind is under a curse.

Do we deserve our curse? Yes, we do. Even little children? Yes, they do. Couldn’t God remove the curse from mankind? Well, yes, He could. But there’s only one way in which He could do it. By sending His Son into this world and making Him a curse for us. As St. Paul writes to the Galatians, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The blessing of Abraham, when God said to him: in your Seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, isn’t it?, and at the circumcision of Christ, and also in the flight of the holy family to Egypt: the unfolding of God’s plan to send His Son into the world to remove our curse from us and to bring the blessing of salvation to us through His death on the cross. That was His wondrous purpose.

Christ suffered for our sins and has removed God’s curse from all who believe in Him. He hasn’t yet removed us from this world with its curse or freed us from the outward effects of that curse. But He has forgiven us our sins and given us eternal life in Christ, so that, no matter what bad things happen to us in this world, they are temporary hardships and crosses for us to bear, but they are not permanent, and they are not punishments from an angry God. Even death is not final. There’s abundant joy on the other side of the suffering.

And soon God will completely and permanently remove the curse of sin and death from all who believe in Christ. Soon God will intervene to stop all the wicked men who seek to bring us harm. And they will not only be stopped. They will be judged and condemned. Soon. Not yet, but soon. There will be joy for God’s children on the other side of the suffering.

Even now, God reigns over human history. He preserves and protects, directs and defends us, and sometimes He intervenes even now, not always allowing wicked men to get away with their schemes. Sometimes He intervenes with punishment for the wicked and with miraculous deliverance for the godly. We have the assurance from Holy Scripture that all things must work together for our good, and that the sovereign God will not allow anything or anyone to harm us beyond the limits set by His wisdom and by His fatherly will, as He demonstrated in the deliverance of the Christ-Child from Herod’s wicked hand.

The Christian celebration of Christmas is neither shallow nor cutesy, like the world’s pretend celebration of Christmas. We don’t ignore the reality of pain and sorrow and suffering in this season when we celebrate the birth of Christ. On the contrary, we know very well that the cross accompanies Christmas. But pain is followed by joy. And so, as St. Peter says, we rejoice to the extent that we share in Christ’s sufferings, so that we may also be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. Amen.

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Small Catechism Review: Holy Baptism, 1

Posted on January 1, 2022 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Festival of the Circumcision of Our Lord

Galatians 3:23-29  +  Luke 2:21

Happy New Year to you all, and a blessed 8th day of Christmas! On the eighth day after His birth, according to the covenant God had made with Abraham some 2,000 years before, Abraham’s Seed, the Son of Mary, was circumcised. It’s hard for us to understand just how significant that event was among the Jewish people. To us who live 4,000 years after God gave the sign of circumcision to Abraham and his offspring, and more importantly, to us who live 2,000 years after Christ fulfilled the Old Testament and replaced it with the New, circumcision is meaningless, a matter of personal choice for personal reasons that some parents make for their little boys. It has no cultural or religious significance for us whatsoever as New Testament believers.

But that doesn’t mean it’s any less important for us to understand, and so we set aside every year the eighth day after Christmas, also known as New Year’s Day, to reflect on the Bible’s teaching of circumcision. And, once again, it coincides perfectly with our study of the Small Catechism, because after the Chief Part on the Lord’s Prayer comes the Chief Part on Holy Baptism, which is essentially the New Testament upgrade of the Old Testament Sacrament of circumcision.

God came to Abraham and made a covenant with him. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your seed after you. Also I give to you and your seed after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations.

What a lopsided covenant! For His part, God promised to be the God of Abraham and his seed. That means, He promised not to be their enemy, but to be their Father, to care for them, protect them, provide for them, guard and guide them. That’s what God agreed to do for them. And what was their part? What were they to do for God? Well, nothing. God needs nothing. But they were to do something as a sign that they wanted to be included in the covenant. Abraham and his seed (his male offspring) were to be circumcised in their flesh.

Why circumcision? Well, Scripture uses it to symbolize the cutting off of the sinful flesh, the sinful nature. It pointed to the fact that every child is born in sin, born outside of the covenant with God, and has to be brought into that covenant in order to be saved. Scripture also uses circumcision to symbolize repentance, the “circumcision of the heart.” And it was only for little boys, pointing Abraham and the generations that followed to a male Child who would be born, who would shed His blood as the atonement price for the sins of the world.

Now, “seed” refers to Abraham’s descendants, but St. Paul tells us in Galatians that it refers also and more specifically to one special Seed, to one special descendant, that is, to Christ. The Christ would be the true Seed and Heir of the Old Testament that God made with Abraham.

And so, on the eighth day after His birth the Son of Mary was circumcised and given the name Jesus, Savior, because He was the promised Seed of Abraham who would shed His blood to save His people from their sins. His circumcision was the first shedding of that precious blood. As we know, it wouldn’t be the last.

How does all this relate to Holy Baptism? Over the next few weeks we’ll look at different aspects of Baptism. Today, we’re focused on what it is and its relationship to circumcision.

What is Baptism? Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and connected to God’s word. Which word of God is that? Our Lord Christ says in the last chapter of Matthew: “Go into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

A baptism is a washing, a cleansing. There are a few kinds of “baptisms” mentioned in the New Testament. A “baptism” of water that was purely for Jewish ceremonial cleansings, like the cleansing of a dish or of a couch. There’s a baptism of fire. A baptism of the Holy Spirit. But what we call Holy Baptism is unique. It includes both water and God’s command to use that water in a special washing that is to be done in His name.

There is no specific method of baptizing mentioned in the Scriptures. Water can be applied in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by pouring or sprinkling, or by dipping or immersing a person in it. The important thing, in addition to the application of water, is the word and command of God. He has commanded His ministers to baptize, and so we do.

The command includes “all nations.” No one is excluded. And, of course, that includes little children. But, how do we know little children are to be baptized? Because, among other reasons, little children were to be circumcised, as the Lord Jesus Himself was when He was a week old. God brought little baby boys—and their whole families!—into His covenant of grace through that Sacrament. Are we to believe that God excludes little children from the New Covenant? Why? Because they aren’t old enough to know what Baptism is, or to tell us whether or not they want to be baptized? Those 1-week-old Israelite boys didn’t understand circumcision, either, nor were they expected to express their agreement to the ceremony. No, the ceremony was performed on them and for them at their parents’ obedient request, and yet God’s promise was most certainly applied to the children who were circumcised. And then their parents instructed them as they grew.

But neither circumcision nor Holy Baptism actually saves apart from faith. So, can those little children actually believe? Can they have saving faith? Well, John the Baptist clearly did, even before he was circumcised, as he leapt for joy at the greeting from pregnant Mary. Jesus speaks of the little children who were brought to Him as “those who believe in Me.” And listen to what the Psalmist says as he prays: But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God.

Baptism goes hand in hand with faith. As Paul said in the First Lesson today, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Baptism brings a person into Christ, who is Abraham’s Seed, making all the baptized also Abraham’s seed.

And just as all Abraham’s seed was circumcised under the First Covenant, so all Abraham’s seed is circumcised under the New Covenant with that better kind of circumcision called Holy Baptism. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, In Christ you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses.

Just as our Lord Jesus was circumcised, so you have been “circumcised” with a different kind of circumcision, with Holy Baptism. And the promise made to you there is just like the promise made to Abraham: The Lord God will be your God, your Father, to care for you, to protect you, to provide for you, to guard and guide you. As we commemorate today the circumcision of Baby Jesus, remember your Baptism, and give thanks to God for using that holy cleansing to bring you into the body of Christ, making you a child of Abraham, a son or daughter of God, and an heir of eternal life. Amen.

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The consequences of Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for St. Stephen

Acts 6-7  +  Matthew 23:34-39

Merry Christmas, everyone! And a very blessed Festival of St. Stephen to you as well. It’s because of St. Stephen’s day that there’s red on the altar today instead of the white of the Christmas season, because red is the color of martyrs, and St. Stephen was the first martyr of the Christian era. We’ve only celebrated this feast of St. Stephen a few times over the last 15 years, and maybe you’re still wondering, what does martyrdom have to do with Christmas? What does red have to do with white?

It’s very simple. White is the color of holiness and purity, and, therefore, white is the color of Christ and of Christmas, which celebrates Christ’s nativity, His birth. Red is the color of blood, and we use it in the Church to symbolize the shedding of a person’s blood to the point of death. And not just any death, but the death of one who died for his testimony about Christ, for his martyrdom. That’s what red has to do with white, what martyrdom has to do with Christmas. We rejoice at Jesus’ birth. We sing praise to God that the Christ was born for us. But we never, even for a moment, lose sight of the fact that Christmas has consequences, and no one exemplifies that for us better than St. Stephen.

What does a person do who believes that the Word (ho Logos) became flesh and made his dwelling among us? In other words, what does a person do who believes that Christmas is true? For Stephen, it meant devoting himself to the apostles’ teaching in Jerusalem and learning the Holy Scriptures better and better. It meant that his Old Testament Jewish faith made the seamless transition to a New Testament Christian faith as he was led to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah, born of a virgin, just as Isaiah had prophesied, born in Bethlehem, just as Micah had prophesied, crucified, risen, ascended, and reigning, the one atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, the one Mediator between God and man, just as so many of the prophets had prophesied.

Stephen, as Acts tells us, was a man full of grace and power, full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. He was one of seven devout men who were chosen to be ministers, deacons in the Jerusalem church, to help with the distribution of food to the believing widows.

So Stephen’s vocation was not that of a layman. He, along with those other six men, was ordained into the office of deacon, and while he certainly devoted some of his time to the distribution of food as an assistant to the apostles, he also devoted time to preaching the Gospel, as we heard in today’s Epistle, as he testified among the people of Jerusalem in the temple. As a consequence of his faith in the Christ, born in Bethlehem, Stephen spoke publicly to everyone as he had opportunity. He spoke of Christ as the fulfillment of the Law. He spoke of faith in Christ as that alone which saves.

But just as Herod persecuted the babies of Bethlehem who dared to be born at Christmas time, the Jews in Jerusalem persecuted Stephen for confessing Christ. They challenged his witness of Christ. “He’s speaking against the temple! He’s speaking against Moses! He’s condemning good works!” None of that was true, of course. The Jews were perverting Stephen’s message. People pervert our message in the same way today. “Those Lutherans say that a person is saved by faith alone! They’re forbidding good works!” The first part is right, the second part is wrong. We don’t forbid good works. Neither did Stephen. Just look at all the good works Stephen did in the process of preaching salvation by faith alone in Christ! But we do teach, as Stephen taught, that no works are good apart from faith in Christ, and that faith alone – apart from works – is what makes us right with God. Where there is faith, faith in the Christ of Christmas, there are also fruits of faith, consequences of Christmas. But the fruits don’t save. Christ saves, through faith alone.

But these Jews would have none of it. They dragged Stephen off to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court, and they falsely accused him and questioned him. Now, we didn’t even read most of chapter 7. Stephen retells a long portion of Old Testament and of God’s interactions with the people of Israel. And this theme repeats over and over: God gave our forefathers every gift of grace, every advantage, every opportunity, but they always ended up persecuting the very prophets who were sent to tell them the truth, to teach them to repent and put their faith in the true God. Jesus said the same thing in today’s Gospel: from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah. To the blood of Christ himself, murdered on a cross.

As a consequence of Christmas, because Stephen believed that the Word had become flesh, he had to speak up – out of love for God, out of love for his fellow Israelites who were steeped in sin and impenitence and unbelief, and out of faithfulness to his preaching office: You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.

Sometimes – sometimes, when people hear the hard truth about their sin, they repent of it. They realize the horrible crimes they’ve committed against God and are crushed with sorrow, like the people of Jerusalem to whom Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. But sometimes – I’d have to say most of the time — the preaching of the Law produces anger. “Who do you think you are? How dare you call me a sinner! How dare you judge me!” Sometimes it produces absolute rage, as it did in the case of the Sanhedrin with Stephen. When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.

And then, both to strengthen his servant Stephen and to further enrage the Sanhedrin, Jesus, now seated at the right hand of God, gave Stephen a vision, a vision that assured him: the Son of Man, the Word made flesh, has indeed risen from the dead and is ruling over all things in heaven, in the heaven that is prepared to receive you now, Stephen. Don’t be afraid!

And, as a consequence of Christmas, he wasn’t afraid, because the Word had become flesh, our human brother, and had taken Stephen’s sins and ours to the cross and paid for them there and had opened heaven’s doors to all who believe in Him. Even as they dragged Stephen out and began to stone him to death, Stephen prayed two perfect prayers, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

How could they hate Stephen so? How could they think they were serving God by stoning this man to death? That’s one of the consequences of Christmas. The light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The message of Christmas – that God has come into the world as man, that man’s works cannot save, that salvation is found in Christ alone – that message stings the pride of men. That message divides people. Do not think I have come to bring peace to the world, Jesus told his disciples. Not peace, but a sword. God sends prophets and teachers and wise men, and the world persecutes and mocks and kills them.

It must be this way, as a consequence of Christmas, as a consequence of mankind’s rejection of the Christ. The majority of the world will always be unwilling to receive the Christ of Christmas. They’ll tolerate a tiny little baby and the cute story of some shepherds and wise men. But they won’t tolerate it when we claim that that baby is the Almighty God in whom alone is salvation.

But see how confidently Stephen faced his death! See what love still flowed from his lips! How could Stephen pray for those who hated him so and who hated his Savior, too? That was a consequence of Christmas. Because Christ was not born to save good men, but the most wicked of men. The Lord Jesus also prayed for those who nailed him to the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And the grace of the Lord Jesus spilled over into Stephen’s heart, praying for the deliverance of his enemies, praying that they might be brought to repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, just as he had been. And we know that at least one of those wicked men who were present there that day was delivered, as Saul would eventually be converted and forgiven all his sins, including his role in the death of Stephen.

Then Stephen fell asleep. What beautiful words the Scriptures now use to describe the death of the saints. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said. “If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” If we remain steadfast in the truth of Christmas, if we follow in the footsteps and the witness of St. Stephen, then, as a consequence, death becomes a sleep for us, too.

Don’t be fooled with the rest of the world into believing that Christmas is about snowy white fields and picture postcard manger scenes. Red is mixed with white at Christmas, as blood is mixed with snow. Christmas has consequences, and if you would celebrate Christmas rightly, then you must know the consequences and be prepared for them. Truly, Stephen shows us the consequences of Christmas, not just with his willingness to die for Christ, but with his faith, his humble service, his love for God and for men, his patience, peace, boldness, courage, confidence in the face of death, and mercy in the face of persecution – those are the consequences in the believer. The shedding of blood at the hands of an angry world – that is the very real consequence for the believer. If you believe the Christmas story and live your faith, if you are baptized and live according to your Baptism, then you are marked for death, just as Stephen was.

But, you know what the name “Stephen” means? It’s the Greek word for “crown.” How fitting! Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. That, too, is the consequence of Christmas, and God’s gift to you who believe. A blessed Feast of St. Stephen to you all, and a very Merry Christmas! Amen.

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An unexpected Nativity with unexpected gifts

Posted on December 25, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Christmas Day

Isaiah 9:2-9  +  Luke 2:1-14

Maybe you have a Nativity set up at your house. I recommend it. It’s better than all the secular Christmas decorations combined. It’s that familiar scene of Mary and Joseph kneeling over the Christ-Child in the manger. There are usually animals nearby, and shepherds, and angels, and a star, and maybe even the wisemen, although they weren’t there yet when Christ was born. Think of how unexpected that scene was to everyone involved as it unfolded before their eyes.

Oh, those who had been paying attention to God’s revelation through the holy prophets knew that a special Child would be born. Adam and Eve knew it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—they knew it. Moses knew it and wrote it down so that all Israel could know it, and even some outside of Israel who cared enough to study the Jewish Scriptures, like the wisemen. King David knew it. Isaiah knew it and wrote about it in the First Lesson you heard today. To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given. He even foretold that the Child would be born of a virgin. So all the faithful in Israel were certainly expecting the Messiah’s birth.

A few were given a few more details. Mary and Joseph and Gabriel knew how He was conceived. They expected with greater precision when He would be born, some nine months after He was conceived.

But no one, and I mean no one, was expecting Him to come as He did. Caesar Augustus, did you know when you decreed your census of the entire Roman world that you would be God’s instrument in getting Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, where they needed to be, so that the Christ could be born there as Micah had foretold? Joseph, did you know that your wife would deliver her baby before you got back to Nazareth? Mary, did you know that you would be giving birth in a stable and laying your Son in a manger for a bed? Travelers to Bethlehem and innkeeper, did you know that, by filling the inn in Bethlehem, you would be setting the stage for the most memorable birth in history? Farmer, did you know that your hay would provide the Lord’s bedding? Builder of mangers, did you know that your craftmanship would serve the Creator? Shepherds, did you know that you would be visited by angels and become the first visitors to welcome your God to earth? The answer is, no, not at all. Did the angels know ahead of time what exactly their role would be on that first Christmas night? Almost certainly not.

But God knew what He was doing and how all these creatures, men and angels, would fit into His Nativity, at just the right time, in just the right place, and in just the right way.

Yes, even the angels were likely wonderfully surprised by how God brought His Son into the world, like their very own Christmas present to unwrap, getting to watch it all unfold and then learning that they, too, would get to be a part of the story, part of the Lord’s unexpected Nativity scene that is recreated in Christian homes and churches and yards each and every year.

And what great gifts they were given! Unexpected gifts! The holy angels got to be part of God’s grand Nativity, and their role has been commemorated by Christians for 2,000 years.

One of them was given this gift, to be privileged to proclaim to the shepherds one of the clearest, sweetest, most profound messages in the whole Bible: To you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. No celebration of Christmas is worth anything at all if it doesn’t recognize and center around the Child who lay in the manger. His identity is not insignificant. It’s everything.

A Savior! Because mankind had been enslaved in the dark dungeons of sin and condemned by God’s righteous judgment to spend eternity dying in the devil’s kingdom. Only a special Substitute could save us, a human being like us who could take our place under God’s holy Law, and fulfill it, and pay for our pardon with His own precious life. That’s the kind of Savior we needed, and it’s exactly what the angel meant when He called that Child “Savior.”

He also called Him “Christ,” the very first messenger to apply that title to Him, long before Andrew or Peter or anyone else confessed it. The long-expected Anointed One had been born, the One who would teach and preach, make atonement for sin, die and rise again, who would reign over the world and build His Church and, finally, bring judgment and justice to the world.

And the angel also called Him “the Lord,” and that’s maybe the most profound, because the word he used for “Lord” is the special Old Testament name Yahweh or Jehovah. In other words, the angel made it plain to the shepherds, this isn’t just a human Savior who has been born to you. God has now joined Himself to the human race. Jehovah has been born among you as one of you. Yahweh has been born “to you,” for you, because He loves you and wants to save you from your sins. What a gift that angel was given, to be able to proclaim that truth! What a gift you have been given to hear it proclaimed to you in the words of that angel all these years later!

That same angel was given another gift, too, to be the very first messenger to point sinners to their newly arrived Savior and tell them how to find Him. Then it was in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths. Now it’s in the preaching of His Word, in the waters of Holy Baptism, and in the most intimate way of all, in the bread and wine of the Christ-Mass.

Finally, a whole multitude of the heavenly host, possibly all the created angels together, were given a most wondrous gift. When the Firstborn came into the world, then the word from the Old Testament was fulfilled: Let all God’s angels worship Him! They praised God and said, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! They praised God in heaven, and they praised God on earth as He lay in the manger, and they proclaimed the peace God had come to earth to bring, and the goodwill of God that His birth displayed. Yes, you’re sinners. But God doesn’t hate you. He gives His own Son to you as the most unexpected gift of all, persuading you to repent and to trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins.

How unexpected, that God would include you and me in His Christmas revelation and in His plan of salvation! There’s so much we don’t know about our part in the plan and the specific roles we’re going to play before it’s all done. But no one really knew what to expect before Christ’s Nativity, either, and yet God put everything and everyone in place. He’ll do the same for you and me and for His whole Church before Christ’s expected second coming, not in a humble manger, but in glory and power. He’ll come in an unexpected way, at an unexpected time, and with unexpected gifts for those who worship Him now and who are eager to worship Him them—gifts beyond our wildest imagination that God Himself will be eager to watch us unwrap! Christmas, more than any time of year, should teach us this Biblical truth: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. Amen.

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