When faith was finally replaced with sight

Sermon for Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-14

We walk by faith and not by sight. That’s sort of the Christian’s motto. It’s also the title of a hymn we sang on Wednesday evening for the festival of St. Thomas, who, famously, insisted on walking by sight and not by faith for a time. Walking by faith—that’s what we’re called to do. To believe without seeing. To believe, not just in any old thing, but in a promise that God has made. When the promise is fulfilled—that’s when faith is replaced with sight.

4,000 years before Christ was born, God made such a promise to Adam and Eve, that the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, would break the devil’s hold on mankind after they had sinned against God. And Eve believed God’s promise. In fact, the name she gave to Cain, her first son, may indicate that she thought Cain was that promised Seed. As Luther translates it, “I have gotten a man: the LORD!” But Cain wasn’t the promised Seed. Eve would live for hundreds of years and then die without ever seeing the promised Seed. She and Adam were forced to live their whole lives by faith, without seeing.

Some 2,000 years later, Abraham was told, “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” He believed it, but he never saw it. Isaac and Jacob received the same promise. They believed it, but they never saw it. David was told that his Son would reign forever on his throne. He believed it, but he never saw it. The same was true for all the Old Testament saints. They were told over and over again, in various ways, by various prophets, that this Anointed One, this Christ, this Son of Man, would come, would be born, born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, to be a Savior for Jews and Gentiles alike. They believed it, but they never saw it. They walked by faith and not by sight.

2,000 years after Abraham, Mary and Joseph were the very first human beings to have their faith in that promise replaced with sight. For nine months they knew it was coming. They believed it was coming. They had been told by the angel Gabriel, and they could see that Mary was miraculously pregnant and getting bigger. But they remained in Nazareth, which causes us to wonder, did they know the prophecy from Micah, the first lesson you heard tonight, that Mary’s Son, the promised Christ, had to be born in Bethlehem? Were they planning on traveling there? We don’t know. But isn’t it remarkable how God got them there? It’s as if He wanted to show the world something, to let us see what we always had to take by faith before, that He is truly the One running things, even using pagan rulers and tragic circumstances to accomplish His glorious plans.

It was a pagan ruler, the most powerful man in the world at that time, Caesar Augustus, whom God instigated to count the people of his empire, at just the right time. Who can fail to see the hand of God at work in that?

And when God caused things to work out so that all the places in the inns in Bethlehem were taken when Mary and Joseph arrived—they may not have understood it at the time, but, looking back, how can we not see God’s hand in it, in providing that humble-but-sufficient manger for His Son to be placed in? How can we not marvel at His willingness to stoop down to the lowest level, the most meager circumstances, to give us His Son in that memorable way and in that kind of place, so that we could see just how determined He was to reach down to us in our humble circumstances and to save us from our sins?

As for the shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night, how fitting it was that God sent His very first birth announcement to these men and not to the important political or religious leaders of the day? Because God didn’t look down on shepherds, as some did at that time, nor does He think highly of the people whom the world considers to be important. God chose humble shepherds—average believers in Israel—for this memorable birth announcement, so that they, and we, could see that Christ came to be the Savior of all men.

The shepherds got to see an angel with their own eyes. But the angel himself was the smallest part of the visible Christmas miracle. It’s what the angels announced that was the true miracle. Do not be afraid. For, behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.

The world had seen deliverers of all kinds, some godly, most not. The Israelites had seen Moses raised up to deliver them from slavery in Egypt. They had seen judges raised up to defeat their enemies. They had seen Israelite kings and even foreign kings, at times, raised up to deliver them from this or that hardship or enemy. But never had anyone, ever, seen a true Savior, the promised Savior, who would deliver people, not just from some temporary threat, but from every bad thing. He would start by saving people from their sins and from the threat of everlasting death and condemnation, whenever they hear this good news and turn to Him for help. And eventually, He will save His people from every threat and from every hardship, even from death itself. This very Child whom the shepherds would find wrapped up and lying in a manger, whom they would see with their own eyes—He was, and is, a true Savior.

He was, and is, also Christ and the Lord, born into our world just as we are, born to live among us as one of us, to live under His own Law in our place, to die according to His own Law for the sins of mankind. Mary and Joseph and the shepherds were the first to have their faith in that old, old promise replaced with sight.

But not before the shepherds saw the whole heavenly army of angels and heard their glorious song: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And when the shepherds found the right manger in Bethlehem, they saw for themselves the Christ-Child, who is God’s peace and goodwill toward men.

We haven’t seen the Christ with our own eyes, and we may not see Him in our earthly lifetimes. We still walk by faith and not by sight, just as the Old Testament saints did. But if you’ll pause this evening and reflect on the words you’ve heard about that night, some 2,000 years ago, when faith was finally replaced with sight, if you’ll look into the skies through the words of St. Luke and see the angels and hear their message, if you’ll look through the word of God down into the manger, then you’ll see everything you need to see about God’s faithfulness and love toward mankind, toward you and toward everyone who hears this good news of great joy. God wanted you to be here tonight and to see, through the word that is preached, what Mary and Joseph and the shepherds saw with their eyes when His Son was born into the world, that hearing, you might see, and that by seeing, you might be filled with joy and peace and hope in believing, and be better able to walk by faith and not by sight, until faith is finally replaced with sight when the Christ comes again, with all His angel armies, not lying in a humble manger, but riding in on a glorious cloud to save us at last from every bad thing. Amen.