“Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. ⁴² When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. ⁴³ After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. ⁴⁴ Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵ When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. ⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

⁴⁹ “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁵¹ Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. ⁵² And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” (luke 2.41-52 niv84)

The other day I was chatting about child-rearing with someone, and that person commented, “Imagine a sinless two-year-old.” We both fell silent for a moment as we thought about it. How odd that would be. Imagine – no whining, no back-talking, no disobedience at all. I don’t mean to single out two-year-olds – every stage of a child’s life brings new parenting challenges. The sinful flesh resists and is defiant even in little children. It’s part of what makes parents feel like our heads are going to explode, even though we still love our children. We love our children but we don’t always love the way they behave.

Mary and Joseph didn’t have that problem. Imagine what it must have been like to raise God’s Son as your own. “Jesus, can You bring me – oh, thank you” — even before the words are out of your mouth. He never had to be disciplined, never talked back, never did anything He wasn’t supposed to. He was literally the perfect Child. A lot of people have wished to know more about Jesus’ boyhood and early life, but really everything we need is contained in our gospel for today. What’s in our gospel for today is all that we know about Jesus between His birth in Bethlehem and His baptism in the Jordan River at age 30. If you want to know what Jesus’ childhood was like, it was this: “Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them” – except for this day. On this one occasion, Jesus does what His parents are not expecting and causes them no little amount of grief and worry. He also teaches them, and us, about the individual callings God has placed each of us into, and how God’s Word and the seemingly non-religious parts of our lives intertwine. Let’s listen in as Jesus teaches us about Duty and Delight.

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem, along with nearly all the rest of the Jews, for the feast of the Passover. While the men were required to go, the women were neither required nor forbidden. They could go if they liked, so Mary made sure to go. They probably started taking Jesus along every year as soon as He was able to keep up with them. Once again we see that Jesus’ parents were pious, God-fearing people, and they raised their Son the same way.

This Passover was especially exciting for Jesus because it was the first one after He turned twelve. When a Jewish boy turned twelve, he was considered old enough to be responsible for following God’s commandments on his own. He might be referred to as a bar mitzvah – a “son of the covenant”. Modern Jews still observe this milestone in a boy’s life. Many times they throw a big party to celebrate. Jesus probably didn’t have a big party, but He was seen as being a little closer to adulthood. He’d taken another step toward being a responsible grown-up follower of God. His twelfth birthday would have made this trip to Jerusalem extra special. Luke mentions Jesus’ being twelve because this ties in with His behavior a few verses later on.

So they go to the Feast, and they’re in Jerusalem for at least two days. Two days was the minimum requirement for attending the Feast, and a lot of people left after the first two days, although some might stay as long as a week. They stayed and worshipped, and then they started back home again. Jesus wasn’t with Mary and Joseph right away, but this didn’t bother them unduly. People often travelled in large groups for safety and for company for these kinds of events, and Mary and Joseph probably reasoned, “He knew when we were leaving and where we’re going to stop for the night – He’s probably with His friends or our relatives.” They were travelling with so many people that they knew that Mary and Joseph probably figured that He was fine.

Then they get to the place where they’re stopping for the first night – and He’s not there. They start asking around and looking, and nobody’s seen Him. Uh oh. Any parent who has lost track of a child knows the sinking feeling that Mary and Joseph felt. First there’s the shock, then the fear set in, and maybe even a little panic. As soon as they can, they headed back to Jerusalem and start looking for Him. One day’s travel north, one day to travel back to Jerusalem, and then one more day of looking for Him was plenty long enough. By this time they’re frantic and nearly worn out because they can’t stop wondering where He is. Mary and Joseph are almost sick with worrying. They’re trying not to think the worst that could happen to Him in this city full of strangers. This wasn’t Nazareth, a small but friendly town where everybody knew everybody else. Who knows what could happen to Him here? So they keep looking.

This was part of their duty as parents. Mary and Joseph would never have chosen this for themselves. God laid this burden on them when He made them Christ’s parents. The suffering they felt, the worry and the tension that tied knots in the pit of their stomachs, was God’s doing to them. Why would God put them through this? Why does God make us suffer without a cause many times? For the same reason that Mary and Joseph did: so that we will seek His Son, search for Him with everything we’ve got, and cling to Him like a drowning man hangs on to a rope.

And Mary and Joseph do find Him, in the last place they expected. They went back to the temple, maybe to retrace their steps, maybe to pray that God would give them their Son back – and what do they see? They see Jesus, sitting in the middle of the teachers and conversing with them! Jesus probably wasn’t the only one talking with the teachers that day. During the feast the teachers often gathered with students in public areas to discuss God’s Word and learn. Some of these informal gatherings were open to anyone who wanted to listen, and Jesus probably went from group to group, talking to all the teachers. Mary and Joseph, as simple Galileans and simple believers, would never have dreamed of sitting in on one of these discussions themselves – yet here’s their Son, talking with the teachers!

Not only is He talking with the teachers, He’s actually teaching them! Teachers often sat in the synagogue or when meeting with their students, and here we see Jesus sitting among them as a twelve-year-old Boy. He talked with the teachers on equal terms, and more than equal terms. The teachers had never seen a Child like this, who had the mental capacity and the knowledge and the insight to show them wonderful things out of the Law.

And the answers He gave! Nobody could put things together like this Child could. Jesus was able as a twelve-year-old boy to see connections among the parts of God’s Word that rabbis who had studied their whole lives had never even considered before. His questions showed more insight than their answers did. When Jesus answered a question, that forced the teachers to stop and think through their own answers, and then Jesus asked them another question that stumped them.

If the President of the United States goes to a 7^th grade classroom and asks the students what America should do about the war in Iraq or the national debt or the economy, more than likely he’s just being polite. Either that, or it’s for the cameras. He won’t actually listen seriously and tell his aides, “Write that down – this kid makes sense, let’s try that.” Yet Jesus talked with the brightest and best religious minds of His day, and not only could He have an intelligent conversation with them, He ended up teaching them.

How could a mere twelve year old boy do this? Because He’s God, you might say. That’s not really it, because at this point Jesus isn’t using His divine power very fully or very often. He chose to live under the same limitations which we do, which in this case means that He would simply be a normal twelve-year-old boy. So how is He able to teach the teachers in this way? By the power of God’s Spirit working through God’s Word. This shows you what God’s Word can accomplish. God’s Word is the power that renews us by the transforming of our minds, so that we are ready to trust and serve God. It can take a mere twelve year old boy, someone whom nobody would expect to have this depth of knowledge and insight, and make Him wiser than all the teachers.

That same Word makes us wise unto salvation. It makes foolish the wisdom of the world, and through the foolishness of this same Word that is preached, it saves those who believe. God’s Word gave a young boy the ability to astound the foremost minds of His day; what can it do for you? Think about all the times you run into a perplexing situation, or you have a problem with someone else that just doesn’t seem to have an answer. How often would God’s Word show you a different way that you never saw to come at the problem, or even avoid it altogether? How often does God’s Word speak to the very situation you find yourself in, whether it’s in Proverbs or in Isaiah or in the Gospels or in one of Paul’s letters? If you’re not in God’s Word regularly, if it’s not a part of your daily thoughts and your life, then you won’t know where to turn in God’s Word when you need His guidance and help. How often do we miss out on God teaching us and guiding us in times of trouble, if we’re not familiar with His Word and we don’t search it habitually to know His will? How often would God grant you wisdom and courage and peace and joy through His Word, if only you used it and knew what God was saying to you through it?

Let me let you in on a little secret: I don’t tell people to read and study their Bibles just because I’m a pastor and that’s what pastors do. I don’t tell you to read your Bible the way your dentist tells you to floss or the fire chief tells you to check the batteries in your smoke alarm. I tell you to read and know your Bible for your sakes – because nothing else draws you close to God. Because God’s Word is His appointed means to grow you into a better Christian and to bring you to everlasting life. How else will you know what God’s will is? How else will you have the power to do it? There is no other way. The power of God’s Word is limitless, but we use it but rarely. What would our lives, our relationships, our homes, our souls be like if we took this power more seriously and applied it to ourselves diligently? There’s no limit to what God can do with us and for us.

We could be far better Christians than we are if we filled ourselves with God’s Word, instead of asking all the time, “What’s the least I can get away with doing?” A lot of times we’re more than content to just slide by, never really improving in our knowledge or our faith. Jesus was not like that. He always loved God’s Word, even to the extent of leaving them to worry and agonize that they’d lost Him because He had to be in His Father’s house, about His Father’s business. He delighted in God’s Word and in turn the Word made Him wiser than all His teachers, fulfilling the prophecy about Him in Psalm 119. Jesus atones here for all the times you’ve failed to show the proper attitude towards God’s Word. His diligence and delight in God’s Word covers all the times you’ve groaned or sighed at the prospect of studying His Word – or simply ignored it and went and did something else. For all the times we have not given God’s Word its due, Jesus forgives us. He loved God’s Word in our place. His delight in God’s Word counts for us for righteousness now.

Jesus forgives us everything we lack in our attitude toward God’s Word, and He gives us a new heart that loves and wants to be in God’s Word. Without that we’d never make any progress. It’s similar to New Year’s resolutions. How many of you have made New Year’s resolutions this year? How many of you are still keeping them? If you are, good for you, but most people don’t stick with them. People usually run out of resolve long before the year is over. We all start out with the best of intentions, but then we get busy and tired and first we skip one day, it’s just this once – then two days – and pretty soon it’s been a month and the resolution is long gone. If we approach devotional time in God’s Word the same way we often do our New Year’s resolutions, our devotional life will end up just like our failed New Year’s resolutions. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have one overwhelming advantage: the Holy Spirit works through God’s Word to draw us closer to God. The Spirit gives us a hunger for God’s Word and teaches us to delight in it. He draws us back to the Scriptures and draws us into them, teaching us to love His Word and value it above everything else. That’s the power of God that is wiser than men and stronger than men.

Your devotional time will really take off if you learn to view time spent in God’s Word as something God does for you, rather than something you do for God. Sure, studying God’s Word is the duty of every Christian, but it’s also our delight. It satisfies us like nothing else does, because nothing else feeds your soul the way God’s Word does. Jesus knew that as a young boy of twelve in the temple, and now He calls you to find out for yourself what God’s Word can do in your life. May it be not only your duty, but also your delight. Amen.

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He went down with them, and was subject to them. Tranquilly He goes down with such a guardian, with such a Mother. Happily does He go down, who moved by the Spirit of God lovingly helps those weaker than Himself. Willingly would I go, even into Egypt (Hell) with such guides, if only, leading me there, they lead me back again; should they bring me there, that they enable me to return. Joyfully would I submit myself to such teachers: with pleasure would I bow my shoulders to the burden they impose: willingly would I take upon me the yoke they would place on me, knowing that their yoke is sweet, their burden light: aided by His grace of Whose Boyhood we have been speaking, Who was filled with power, and grace, and wisdom, Jesus Christ Our Lord Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth world without end, Amen.

–St. Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx, from Jesus Twelve Years Old

And this is the greatest and most severe trial and suffering which God at times visits upon and exercises over His saints, namely, that which we are accustomed to call deserted by grace (desertionem gratiae), on account of which the human heart feels as if the grace of God had been withdrawn, so that no matter where it turns it sees nothing but wrath and terror. But this great trial is not experienced by every one, and no one can understand its significance unless he has experienced it. A strong spirit is required in order to endure such blows.

– Martin Luther, from a sermon on Luke 2:41-52

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

– Matthew 3:13-17 (niv84)

Did you get what you wanted for Christmas? By now you know what was in all those boxes and paper and ribbons under the tree. You’ve probably taken the gifts you didn’t want or didn’t need back to the store and gotten what you really wanted. Some of it was wasn’t very useful or special. Some of it you wonder why the other person gave it to you. But some of it was just what you wanted, and if you were very good, some of it was something that you didn’t even know you wanted, but that you love. The paper comes off and reveals the gift underneath. Today we see something revealed by the Jordan River as Jesus is baptized: God’s own Son is revealed to us. The beloved Son’s baptism washes us clean.

John the Baptist had already been drawing crowds for some time. They were there for the Word he preached: repentance from sin and faith in the coming Christ. They were also there for the baptism he gave. In the Old Testament, God commanded people to wash objects like pots or furniture to make them ceremonially clean. This was a familiar idea for them, and now they were receiving the same thing for their souls when they were baptized by John.

Now someone else comes with the crowds to be baptized. Jesus is among those who go out into the desert of Judea to the Jordan. Something doesn’t seem right here to John, though. It doesn’t make sense to John that Jesus has come to him. He tries to talk Jesus out of being baptized.

He says, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” John knows that Jesus has no sins to be forgiven, nothing to be repentant for. He understands that Jesus is wholly sinless. Jesus has nothing to wash away – no sin stains His soul.

John is thinking, “This is kind of backwards, don’t you think, Lord? Why are You coming to me to be baptized? I’m not worthy to untie Your sandals. You’ve already surpassed me because You were before me. I don’t get why you’re here, Lord. This makes no sense to me. You being who You are, and asking for what You are – something’s not adding up here.”

Now add to this the fact that John knew what he was like himself. He knew the sin that lived in his heart. John could preach repentance so well because he knew what he was like on the inside. He wasn’t like the Pharisees, who loaded people down with heavy burdens grievous to be borne and then didn’t help them carry them. John knew what sin was and what it did to people because he knew what it did to himself, how it controlled his life at times and warped his thoughts and actions – so he attacked sin in people the best way he knew how: he did what he was called to do — preach God’s grace and offer Holy Baptism to all who were repentant of their sins.

That’s why the whole situation felt so backwards to John the Baptist. Here was Jesus — who was obviously holier than John was, because without a doubt the lesser is baptized by the greater — coming to be baptized like any other sinner. He doesn’t need what baptism gives, but He’s here anyway.

So why is Jesus here at the river Jordan? Two reasons: one reason for us, one reason for Himself. Jesus was baptized not for Himself, but for us. He willingly takes the place of sinners and receives a sinner’s baptism so that we who are sinners might become in Him the righteousness of God. All of Jesus’ life was designed to swap His righteousness for our sin, and His baptism is no exception. That’s why Jesus says He is baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.”  By saying this, Jesus is telling John, “It’s okay, it’s fine. We should be doing this. This is how things are supposed to go. You know and I know that I don’t need this for Myself. It’s not for My sake that I’m here, but for the sake of everyone in this fallen world. I’m going to take on all their sin and their shame and their guilt, and I’m going to carry it all the way to the cross.”

Jesus was also baptized for Himself, in a sense, so He would receive the Holy Spirit. This had been prophesied in passages like Isaiah 42 — which we heard this morning – and in Isaiah 61. Also, every passage in the Old Testament that talks about Christ being anointed can be referred to this day. In His baptism Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit for His work of saving God’s people. Think of all the things Jesus was going to do in His ministry. He defeated the devil and destroyed his evil work, preached the good news and drove out demons, raised the dead and encouraged the faint-hearted. Those are all things for which He’d need the Holy Spirit. In our baptisms we too receive the Holy Spirit, although not in the exact same way Jesus did. We receive the gifts of the Spirit as the Spirit decides to give them to us, while Jesus by contrast received the Spirit without measure. This was because He was true God, and all three Persons of the Trinity share one essence intimately and their works toward the outside are indivisible. Scripture distinguishes the work of the persons of the Trinity from within the Trinity, but toward the world it’s just described as God working.

By being baptized when He doesn’t need to, Jesus is instituting Holy Baptism for us here. He is making it clear that God wants all sinners to be baptized and be saved, and that God is serious when He makes promises about baptism. God promises that baptism guarantees us life after death, because through it we take part in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. God promises that all our sins are forgiven through baptism, because the sinless Son of God placed His body that suffered and died for sin under the water. The Father is there too, speaking from heaven, saying that all of Jesus’ obedience counts for us when we’re baptized, and when we’re baptized God the Father loves each of us and looks at us just like He looks at His only Son. When we are baptized we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness, which means that God no longer sees our sins when He looks at us. Instead, all He sees is…Jesus. The Holy Spirit is there at Jesus’ baptism, and He’s present at our baptisms too. We could almost picture Him hovering over the waters like He was in Genesis chapter 1, about to make us new creations in Christ, as we’re baptized. The triune God is truly present and works through Holy Baptism.

Now, if all of that is true, why would we ever take our baptisms for granted? Why would we ever be lackadaisical about getting our children or ourselves baptized, if we never have been? Why would we ever tolerate it when someone purposefully withholds baptism from their little child or teaches that children should not be baptized– |children that have a real sinful nature and really need what Jesus gives through baptism? Why would we ever think it’s okay that someone would deny the saving power of baptism? God Himself has placed all His power and love into baptism to give us heaven and comfort us. Why wouldn’t we treat that as one of the most precious possessions God can give someone?

Jesus’ baptism reveals something else too. God is broadcasting his approval of his Son and delight in his work. God is putting his stamp of approval on who Jesus is and what he’s doing. Think of the last pair of pants that you bought, or a child’s toy. Oftentimes there will be a tag in the pocket or on the bottom of the item that says, “Inspected by #59.” That tag is there to tell you that the thing you bought has been checked over to see that everything’s in order. It has everything it should and nothing is missing. It’s complete and ready to be used. That’s what the Father is doing here with Jesus. He is telling everyone there, and everyone who hears these words now, that Jesus is his very own Son, the one he loves the best, and that he delights in all he’s done. God is putting his stamp of approval on Jesus and letting everyone know that he is greatly pleased with him. If you wanted any more conclusive proof that Jesus is God’s Son, it’s hard to beat this.

It seems that John hadn’t known Jesus’ full identity as the Son of God prior to this. John had known Jesus personally, and John had been waiting for the Son of God to appear, because God had told him that the Messiah would be pointed out to him, but John didn’t seem to know fully that Jesus was the Messiah. He may have had his suspicions that Jesus was the Messiah, but it takes what happens here to reveal Jesus as the Son of God to Israel and to provide the proof that John’s faith was willing to wait for. The fact that John proclaimed Christ’s coming so fearlessly without the God-given certainty he gets here makes his preaching all the more remarkable. John preached fearlessly and ignited faith in the hearts of his hearers – and it’s only when the skies open, the Father speaks, and the Holy Spirit descends as a dove that John is given divine certainty.

God’s full favor and love shone on Jesus when that voice from heaven spoke. Sometimes a look or a word will contain all the love that a person has and make it visible to the whole world. An aged mother looks at her grown child with a lifetime of love in her eyes. A wife looks at her husband like he’s the greatest thing she’s ever seen. A young mother bends over her sleeping baby and studies him intently with a gaze full of love. Such love expressed in a glance or a word says: I love you, I’m so happy with who you are and what you’ve become. It’s a stamp of approval, one of the greatest you’ll find – that of love. That’s what you can think of God the Father doing here, as He declared with great delight, “This here is My Son, and He pleases Me most out of anyone and everything.”

And you have pleased God that same way. You have God’s stamp of approval on you and your life. The Father loves you just as much as if it had been you all along. All of the love that the Father has for His Son comes to you now. God is well pleased with you, finally. He looks at you and he sees Jesus’ holiness. All your righteousness is fulfilled – completed – in full bloom. God approves of you. Heaven stands open for you, just as it opened above Jesus’ head when the Father spoke. That’s why Jesus’ baptism matters – because the beloved Son’s baptism washes us clean. Amen.

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When Jesus was baptized, the heavens open, God the Father’s voice is heard, and the Spirit descends in the form of a dove. This was highly unusual — it happened only one other time that all three Persons of the Trinity reveal themselves this way, on the Mount of Transfiguration.

The dove and the voice attest that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being. Now, nobody has ever seen God. They can’t. He lives in unapproachable light, the radiance of his perfection driving away all else before it. John says the same thing in his gospel: “no one has ever seen God.” That’s why it’s so crucial that we see Jesus. That’s why it’s so important that Jesus is attested so strongly and visibly by God that he is God. We can’t see the Father. We can’t see God as he truly is because he’s a spirit. We could not bear to see him in his glory. But we have seen Jesus. Therefore let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We see God walking among us, being baptized like we are, dealing with all the same problems and heartaches and disappointment and pain that we do. We see him treading the bank of the river Jordan – descending as a dove from an open heaven – hear him as a great voice full of love and pride from the sky.

And God is not just up in heaven, far away from us. He is revealed among us. Jesus was one of us, human just as we are. We don’t have a God that doesn’t care about us, that is distant or oblivious to us and our plight, our sufferings, our reversals of fortune; quite the contrary. God is not far away and too high and holy to care about us and our lives here on earth. No, he is here with us and close as the air that fills your lungs. And he wants it that way. He involved himself in our history and our messy world and became what we are so that we might become what he is. We are wretched, sinful, an object of wrath; he is holy, pure, spotless, forever blessed. He was counted as polluted and corrupt that we might become pure and holy. We are clothed with his righteousness when we are baptized into his holy name.

Everything I would say about this festival, Fred Lindemann has said better and more completely. So I’ll let him say it: ”This is a Festival Day, not because the Nativity was observed only a week ago, or because a new civil year begins, but because the holy Child was circumcised on the eighth day and given the name of names.  In earlier centuries this whole period of the Church Year fell in the midst of one of the greatest heathen festival seasons.  We can readily imagine how difficult it was to make headway in the observance of Christian holy days with the pagan world staging a riot of worldly pleasure and relaxation.  This was true particularly of this Feast, for it coincided with the Kalends or first of January, when the heathen Roman world broke loose in the riotous orgies of the Saturnalia.  The Church has never connected the first of January with the beginning of a new year, and she has not recognized any New Year’s Day but the First Sunday in Advent.  The Lutheran Reformers deplored deeply that the idea of the civil New Year’s Day had made the Circumcision decidedly secondary.  Their sentiment was: “This day is called the New Year’s Day after the custom of Rome.  This and other things which we have received from Rome, we now let pass away.  Since, however, the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ has been appointed to this day, it is proper that we preach about this event today.”

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.

– Luke 2:21 (niv84)

Circumcision is not exactly a topic of polite conversation. It’s not something people really dwell on or talk about much. You don’t run into many men going around saying, “Hey! I’m circumcised.” So if this is such a private, personal thing, why does the Holy Spirit take the time in Luke’s Gospel to make sure we hear about it? Why would the Christian church take this day every year and focus on Jesus’ circumcision, of all things? Why are we hearing about it from the pulpit? You’d think New Year’s Day would be a better thing to think about.

Actually, celebrating the New Year is a pagan custom that individual Christians had adopted from the Roman world they lived in. The Roman Saturnalia happened at this time of year, which was a debauched, anything-goes festival. Instead of celebrating the world’s way, the Church gathers to give thanks to Jesus by faithfully using the Word and the Sacraments. That’s why the Church has customarily not celebrated New Year’s Day. Instead, we celebrate this day. As we look at this verse from the Gospel of Luke – the shortest Gospel lesson of the entire year – we’ll see that Jesus’ circumcision is indeed important for us, and in its own way, very comforting. We’ll also see why the name of Jesus is so important to us.

Eight days ago Christ was born. Now Joseph and Mary bring Him to the temple, so He can be circumcised. This tells us something about Mary and Joseph, first of all. She had given birth not too long ago. She could have said, “I just had a baby, I’m tired, I need to rest. I don’t want to travel right now; it’s not a good time. Let’s skip it.” Joseph could have said the same thing to her – but they didn’t skip it. They probably didn’t go many places, but they make sure they’re here on this day. They made sure to be in the temple of the Lord on this day and to bring their infant Son before the Lord.

Not only that, they get Him circumcised. No parent likes to see their child’s blood. That’s one of the worst sights you can imagine. Vomit you get used to, dirty diapers there are aplenty, but blood you should never see. Something’s wrong if there’s blood. Mary and Joseph surely felt that way too – but they still brought Jesus to be circumcised because they valued God’s Word above their own feelings. That’s a good example for Christian parents today.

Nowadays circumcision is mainly a medical procedure done for non-religious reasons, but it meant a lot more to the Jews. This was the sign that this Child was part of God’s people. God had commanded Abraham to circumcise his family, and thereafter all of God’s people were supposed to be circumcised – the men, anyway. The baby girls weren’t circumcised and that wasn’t a problem, because circumcision was never meant to be just the removal of a little piece of skin and that’s it. Circumcision also required faith in God’s promises to His people for it to be truly effective, and both little boys and girls can have faith.

God was teaching His Old Testament people several things by commanding them to be circumcised. First, the Lord was teaching His people how to view sin. Sin is not just what you do with your hands. It’s not just stealing your neighbor’s property or murdering someone with your hands. If it was, we’d be okay, because we don’t usually engage in great, open sins like murder. Sin is also an inward thing. It comes from deep inside you, so deep that you cannot root it out on your own or stop it from controlling your life. God was showing them that sin was something that was part of them from birth that needed to be removed in order for them to belong to God’s people. All people are sinful by nature and need to have their sin taken away or destroyed in order to belong to God. You need someone else’s help to overcome your sinful nature, and that help needs to be drastic – drastic like taking a knife to the one body part that least wants to feel a knife. No eight-day-old baby was going to grab that knife and circumcise himself. It had to be done for him, when he could not do it himself, before he could be God’s.

Circumcision also taught God’s people something else: it taught them about what their Savior would be like. Only the men and boys were circumcised, and that cutting away was a sign to them that the Messiah would not have a human father. He would be born of a woman, because that had been prophesied right from the beginning. The woman’s Seed would crush the serpent’s head. Human fathers were still necessary for the Savior’s earthly lineage, but that when it came time for God to bring His Son into the world, He chose to do so without the help of a man. Jesus had a human mother but His Father was not a man, He was God, and so the Holy One that was born was rightly called the Son of God.

            We should notice something else about Jesus’ circumcision too: He didn’t need to be circumcised. Circumcision was only meant for those who had to obey the law, that is, for sinful people. Jesus didn’t need to obey the law because He was Lord over the law. He could have said, “I don’t need to be circumcised because I’m true God and this doesn’t apply to Me. I’m already perfect so I don’t need to follow the law.” The law was meant for sinners, but Jesus had no sin. He wouldn’t have needed to be circumcised – but He was, out of love for you. Jesus kept the law for you perfectly, even to the extent of being circumcised, because we could not keep God’s law. We talk about Jesus keeping God’s law all the time, but we don’t always stop to think what that means. It means that Jesus did everything that we’ve failed to do. If God commanded it, Jesus did it – perfectly. Even here, at eight days old, Jesus is already keeping the law for you, down to the last detail. Jesus wanted nothing left undone, not even one last little detail, so Satan can’t accuse you and say, “Aha! He didn’t do it all for you! He missed something – look!” Christ covers every base, keeps every law, obeys every word of God. Even the outmoded word of a covenant that was fast disappearing, and that He came to fulfill and thus to do away with. Every last thing is accounted for. Jesus had to be circumcised so that you would have full assurance before God. Jesus’ holiness covers everything wrong you’ve done, and everything you didn’t do but you should have, because He kept the law perfectly for you in your place.

Pay attention to what Jesus is doing for you here. This is also the beginning of Jesus’ suffering for your sins, because that had to hurt. Jesus’ suffering on the cross at the end of His life wasn’t His fault; it wasn’t because of His own sin, but because of our sins. It’s the same thing here. Here at eight days old in the temple, Jesus sheds the first drops of the blood that wash away your sins. This little bit of blood from a quick procedure tells us: Just wait. The rest is coming later.

So Jesus was circumcised, and He also was formally named at that time. We do something similar when we talk about christening a baby. Both His parents had heard from the angel that His name would be Jesus, so they are obedient to this word of the Lord through His messenger, and that’s what they name Him. Nowadays, parents choose names for all sorts of reasons: what’s popular, what’s in their family, what they like or don’t like. Parents name their children after movie stars, athletes, singers, celebrities, or any number of other things. They may pick names because of how they sound or how they look, and many parents want to give their children distinctive spellings of their name so the child will stand out.

For us, names are rarely chosen for what they mean, but in the Bible, names are often given that have symbolic meanings or that describe the person. For instance, take Jacob. His name means “heel-grabber”, because he was twins with Esau and he was born grabbing Esau’s heel. That name fit him because he was devious and tricky. Later his name was changed to Israel, which means “he strives or struggles with God”, because in Genesis 32 the Lord appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him. Jacob refused to let go until the Lord blessed him, which is when the Lord changed his name to Israel. Similarly, the Lord changed Abram’s name to Abraham when He promised to him that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abram means “exalted father”, and Abraham means “father of a crowd” or “father of a multitude”. We could cite many other instances from the Bible of significant names, but those will do for now.

Here, the Child is named Jesus, which is entirely fitting, because Jesus literally means Savior. When you say Jesus’ name, you’re really calling Him Savior. That’s who He is, and there is no other. There is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. No other name is so precious to us as Jesus’ name, not even the names of our parents or our children or our spouses. The name of Jesus is so precious because we’re called by it. We cling to it when we’re scared or sorry or sad. We rely on it when we’re in trouble. We lean on it when nothing else holds us up. We use it to cry out to Him when we’re overwhelmed or alone. We call on it joyfully whenever we’re happy or we want to give thanks. We pray in Jesus’ name, because that’s our guarantee that God hears our prayers and will answer them for Jesus’ sake.

We’re baptized into His name – and recall that God’s name involves more than just God’s titles, it’s everything He’s done for us and everything He’s revealed about Himself. When you’re baptized into Jesus’ name, that means that His death for sin is your death to sin; that His resurrection will be your resurrection and His life after death will be your life after death, forever.

Many of us were baptized very early in our life – maybe even at eight days old. That’s when the name of Jesus was first put on us and we became God’s. We begin our lives in the name of Jesus, and, God willing, we will meet the end of our lives in Jesus’ name. We will take our final breaths in this world with that name on our lips and echoing through our minds. The last conscious thought any of us will have, God willing, will simply be a name, the name given Him by the angel before He was conceived – Jesus. God grant that each of us may remain faithful to the name of Jesus, so that saving name will at last bring us to everlasting life. Amen.

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New Year’s Eve does not really have traditional Scripture readings that are assigned to it, as many other holy days and festivals do. That’s because it’s not really a Christian holiday in its origin. The observance of few Christian holidays originally was only Christian (depending on who you ask), but the New Year doesn’t really figure into the church’s calendar. It was originally a Roman holiday, Saturnalia, and Saturnalia’s nature was decidedly non-Christian. It was similar to today’s view of Mardi Gras. Christians have a different concept of time anyway. The Church has traditionally marked seasons and days, not necessarily years — which actually makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. We tend to think in terms of times of the year and special days for the events or periods of our lives — “oh yeah, that was before our second baby was born,” or “oh yeah, that was when we lived in Boston,” that sort of thing.

The upshot of this is that the preacher is left more at a loose end for a text for this day. Luke 13:6-9 seems to be a popular modern choice, and it’s a good fit. It’s the closest thing to a consensus on choice of text for New Year’s Eve that I could find, so that’s what we heard. Maybe someday I’ll preach on Psalm 90. (That will be when I preach an entire year out of the Old Testament…stay tuned!)

We ended up abbreviating this service due to weather. Out here in the country, when it starts to snow like it did last night and the wind is blowing and it’s dark, I’d rather not that we keep people out any later than possible. The Word was preached and the Sacrament was administered according to Christ’s command, and with that we are satisfied. I hope your New Year’s Eve was safe, enjoyable, and spent with someone you love. May God bless us all and grant us a glad New Year, and may His Son return in glory before too long. Amen.

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

– Luke 13:6-9 (niv84)

So it’s another new year. If you’re like me, you look back into the old year and scratch your head and think, “What did I do all last year? I know I was busy, but what all happened?” For me, I need to pull out my red planner and flip through it, and then I remember. “Oh yeah, that’s what that was like…thus and such happened in this month…” What’s written down jogs my memory, and then I know what happened in the old year.

But you don’t see what’s not there. If you flipped through your own calendar or thought back over your year, what’s missing? The kind words you never spoke to someone else? The time you bit your tongue when your spouse or a family member provoked you – instead, you shot back at them in anger. The hug, the smile, the loving gesture you gave to someone that you knew was having a hard time – that’s missing because you were too busy with your own things to notice when someone else was struggling. The patience, the joy, the kindness you never showed to those around you who deserved it the most. The act of love that you just never did, even though you knew it’s what the other person wanted more than anything from you. The sin you should have struggled against, but didn’t. The times you chose to put others first – they’re all not there. You can’t remember them because you never did them.

There’s an awful lot of fruit that we haven’t produced this past year. The Lord has come to us and examined our lives to find the good fruit that is His right, that He expects to see and that He deserves as our Maker and Creator, and it’s not there.

For God, it’s all about the fruit. God wants His Christians to be fruitful, to be busy with good works and plentiful in them, to grieve for sin and strive for good – but you and I can both admit we’ve fallen far short. Even our best works were done mainly for us. We wanted to look good. We wanted to think of ourselves as superior. We are the barren trees that fill God’s orchard, with nothing to give Him when He comes.

You heard God say what happens to bare trees: “Cut ‘em down! Why should they use up the soil?” God looks at our embarrassingly empty records of the whole year – and this isn’t just an off year, this is a longstanding pattern with us – and He looks at you and says, “Why shouldn’t I cut you down and throw you into the fire? Look at all the grace I lavish on you! I shower you in physical blessings. I surround you with Christian brothers and sisters. Most of all, the blessing beyond all other blessings, I give you My holy Word and Sacrament – and what have you done with it all?” And we’re forced to admit, we’ve neglected His Word shamefully many times.

Then the Gardener steps forward. This is the One Mary Magdalene mistook for a gardener because He was supposed to be dead, but He wasn’t – not anymore. He wears deadly wounds but He is alive because He has conquered sin and death, all on His own, and He lives forever to do exactly what He’s doing right now: “Wait, Father, not just yet. Permit them one more year. Give them more time, Father, because You have told them that all who believe and are baptized will be saved – that anyone who looks to Me will never be put to shame. I know they’ve failed, Father, but forgive them. I am the Shoot from the stump of Jesse and the holy Branch that bears perfect fruit. Accept My fruit in place of theirs, Father. You’ve said You would – now keep Your promise to them.

Look, Father, they still have My Word. I can still lay bare the roots of their sin and rebuke it, so that they may turn to Me and be saved. I can still use bad things to good purposes, so that they cling to Me and love nothing more than Me. I can still make good fruit appear in their lives by the power of My Word, which never fails. I know they can produce the good fruit You deserve – just give them another chance.”

And the Father listens to the Son, and He says, “Okay. They have more time.” Christ is continually interceding for us at the right hand of the Father, and because of Him, the New Year will be a year full of grace for us – not another year of regret and wasted opportunities, but a year of the Lord’s favor, of forgiveness and second chances every day.

So, dear friends, do not squander the great grace of God. Use every day that you’re given. Do not neglect the Word of God as you may have in the past, but make it your daily bread – because that is the way to fruitfulness and joy, so that one day God may graciously honor you for your steadfastness to His Word and for the good fruit He has enabled you to produce to His glory in your lifetime. His Word will make you flourish like a palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, we will flourish in the courts of the Lord. We will still bear fruit in old age, we will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him.” That will happen when time comes to an end. Until then, as far as we know, He has permitted us another year. Use it to bear fruit for your Lord. Amen.

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Some churches used to sound like this every Sunday and holy day (how many, I don’t know), and some still do, although I imagine they must be fewer and fewer in number these days. You listen to something like this, and you wonder: how much have we lost? Not how much have we gained, as far as technology, Bible translations, or what have you in the modern world — but what have we lost? What did people used to have and work for and achieve that we can only dream about now? In the Middle Ages they built huge soaring cathedrals without the use of modern materials or equipment, and filled them with songs like these to God. Phones get fancier, cars and computers get faster, but people aren’t changing as much for the better as we’d like to think. Songs like this remind us what was once, and what will one day be, in heaven. Plus it’s just a great song for this time of year…it always makes me feel like I’m standing at the manger when all is quiet and still, and the angel’s song is echoing and dying away over the Judean hills in the dead of night. I hope this song leads you to contemplate Christ’s wondrous birth for all humanity. It’s not just one day a year; He came for everyone and He took on our flesh for eternity.

Turn it up and rattle the windows.

Latin text

O magnum mysterium,

et admirabile sacramentum,

ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,

jacentem in praesepio!

Beata Virgo, cujus viscera

meruerunt portare

Dominum Christum.

Alleluia.

 

English translation

O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the new-born Lord,

lying in a manger!

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb

was worthy to bear

Christ the Lord.

Alleluia!

If you hunger for more preaching on this text, or you’re looking for some rich devotional writing, click here for Martin Luther’s sermon on this text. It’s magnificient.

I also had the honor and privilege of welcoming our baby girl, Evangeline Grace, into the family of God through water and the Word on this day. She was born again on the day that Our Lord was born for us. How humbling to lend God one’s hand and voice so He can bring a child from darkness to light — and what a blessing when it’s your own child. Not every father is an ordained pastor called to administer baptism; and not every pastor is a father with children to baptize. To be both shows me again how blessed I truly am — and how blessed my little Evangeline is because she’s baptized into Christ.

On to the sermon. May God bless us and grant us His peace. Amen.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ⁶ There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ⁹The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent,nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

– John 1:1-14 (niv84)

The words of our Gospel this Christmas Day can safely be called the most beautiful words ever written. Nothing ever written in all of human language compares with these words that St. John set down at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I dare you to find something more profound or wonderful in all the history of people making sounds with their mouths or scratches on paper or rock. You won’t.

People have recognized this for a long time, which is why the Prologue to John’s Gospel is so well known. For a long time these verses were read out to the congregation at the end of every Christian worship service. They were called the Last Gospel for that reason. People even ascribed superstitious effects to these verses. Soldiers thought they would be protected in battle if they’d heard the Last Gospel that day, for instance. Even though that’s a superstitious use of God’s Word – using it like a good luck charm – their behavior in its own way is a recognition of how profound and high and holy these words are. The soul quiets and stills in awe when you hear these words. I’ve been looking at them and pondering them for two weeks straight, and I’ve studied them over and over in years past, and I still feel like I’ll never get to the bottom of them.

Yet it’s not wise to revere the words themselves and not pay attention to what they’re telling us. So on this Christmas Day, we turn our hearts to the opening of John’s Gospel and we will see the glory of the One and Only Son of the Father. Let’s look to the true Light that was coming into the world, and at last be saved.

John begins where Moses does, and all of Scripture, in fact: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” If this sounds like the opening of the book of Genesis to you, there’s a reason for that. John deliberately recalls Moses’ words there because Jesus was present with God the Father before time began. He always existed. There never was a time where Jesus, the Word, the Son of God, was not.

Doesn’t it seem odd to you that on a day where we celebrate Christ’s nativity, His birth, we don’t actually hear about His being born in these verses? We hear that He came into the world, that the Word became flesh, but it never speaks of His being born. This is to emphasize that He is the eternal Son of God. If you look closely, you’ll see that the ones who are born are…us. We are born, or born again, when we trust in Jesus as our Savior from sin and our only deliverance to eternal life.

All things were made through Him. Genesis tells us that God spoke, and there was light. That Word that God the Father spoke was Jesus. Jesus was present at creation, and not only present but also active in helping to make the world. Hebrews chapter 1 and Colossians chapter 1, among many other Scriptures, also teach this. He was there at the Father’s side like a skilled craftsman, united with the Father and the Spirit as God brought the world into being. So when you look into the manger, you see a little baby – but you also see the Creator of all things, the Author of life. He who created the whole world chose to enter it in this way, the humblest and lowliest of ways. He did not think it beneath Himself to be made like one of us – to become our Brother, to take our human nature upon Himself, and thus to sanctify it and make it holy, and save us.

John says, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” And a little later John says, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” We shouldn’t understand these verses to mean that everybody in the world worships the same God, they just call Him by different names. Nor should we think that these verses are talking about the physical life that all people have. God gives life to the animals and the plants in the world, too, but they do not know or believe in the true Light that was coming into the world.

What John means here is that if anybody has any light at all, it’s because of Christ – or, to put it another way, if you don’t trust in Christ as the Savior of the world and God’s Son, you don’t have any light in you, period. You’re still stumbling around in the darkness and you don’t really know God. That may strike us as harsh to hear, but it’s nonetheless the truth. Christ is the true Light because He’s the only Light. All other things that masquerade as light or that call themselves light are false and misleading. Before we see what this true Light has done, first we need to see what the darkness really is.

Admiral Richard Byrd knew what darkness was like. He tells the story in his 1938 memoir Alone. In 1934 he spent six months by himself in the middle of Antarctica manning a weather research station. He did not see or speak to another living soul for six straight months. Nor did he see any sunlight in that time. In Antarctica the sun sets and doesn’t appear again for six months, and that’s the time he was there. At first he did okay, but after a while his hold on reality began to slip. He couldn’t remember things he’d done a few minutes before. He wasn’t sure if what he was seeing or hearing was real or not. That much solitude and darkness wore him down, grinding away at his mind and his spirit until he wasn’t sure he was going to make it. It didn’t help that his stove was leaking carbon monoxide into his shelter and slowly poisoning him. The experience nearly killed him. When the other explorers came to get him, it was all he could do to light some flares to guide them in. He could barely drag himself across his cabin. The darkness and the isolation had nearly claimed him.

We were lost in a darkness colder and deeper than the one Richard Byrd experienced in Antarctica. We were more isolated than he, sitting in a frozen hut on the bottom of the world. Sin does that to people. That’s what’s wrong with the world today. It’s not lack of education or lack of respect or economic inequality, it’s sin. Sin cuts us off from those around us. It isolates us and distances us from the rest of humanity, the people we love and the people we don’t. Even worse than that, sin cuts us off from our God. He hid His face from us because we were wretched and filthy in His sight. God had every right to let us sit in the darkness, apart from Him, and rot.

But He didn’t. He sent His one and only Son into the world, so that all people might see Him, and believe, and be saved. God stooped down and took the form of a servant so that His people, bound in the chains of sin and lost in the darkness, might be free. The eternal God who made the heavens took on human flesh, your flesh and mine, and made His dwelling among us. He pitched His tent among us for a time, John literally says, just like God descended on the tabernacle in the desert and His glory filled it so that His face could not be seen. We see God’s face now. Look into the manger and see. Here He is, not the invincible conqueror of nations or the almighty King of angels, but a little Child, both God and man. The Son of God, who had spent eternity before time began in perfect harmony with the Father and the Spirit, sharing His full glory, now becomes a little Child so that we might become the children of God – so that we might be given a new birth.

When you’re born again, just like when you’re born, it’s a new beginning. Everything old disappears. All the old ways of living, all the old hopes, dreams, desires, fears – they’re gone. So it is with us. We no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who lived for us and died and rose again. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, and we believe that all God’s promises are yes in Christ, that one day there will be new heavens and a new earth, that this little Baby was born to bear my sin and your sin and the sins of all the world. The Son of God loved His creation enough to be born as a baby and one day to redeem it with His holy, precious blood and His bitter, innocent sufferings and death.

The true Light that gives light to every man has entered the world, and we are made new in Him. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory.” We don’t see that right now. We have to trust that by faith it’s true, and we know that it is. We know it because the Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us, so that one day we might live with Him forever in heaven. The eternal Son of God became frail man and died, so that we one day might live with Him forever in heaven. We have been given new birth as children of God. “On those living in the land of the shadow of death a Light has dawned.” Believe in that Light, and you too will see the Father, because you have already seen His glory in His Son, born in Bethlehem. Merry Christmas. Amen.

And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.

– Genesis 3:15 (niv84)

I heard an alarming story the other day. It seems that quite a few people have had their Pyrex glass baking dishes explode in the oven lately. Imagine yourself putting your hotdish or your Christmas side dish into the oven, and then twenty minutes later hearing a muffled BOOM! from the kitchen – the oven door blown off, food everywhere, maybe a big hole scorched in your countertop or kitchen floor. That would be quite the Christmas surprise! It would probably be time to think about making a frozen pizza, except your oven would be a mess.

What happened on the first Christmas Eve in Bethlehem was no less explosive, but not as attention-getting. Now Christ’s birth is celebrated worldwide by millions, and it has been for centuries; but at the time, who noticed it? Who knew? Mary and Joseph, certainly, but she was probably just a young woman from a little backwoods town, and he was just a carpenter – good people, but nobody rich or famous or important. A handful of shepherds heard the news from the angels, but again, just regular working men, not great religious or political leaders – and did anybody listen to them as they ran through the streets of Bethlehem shouting the good news of the Savior’s birth, or did the people of Bethlehem snore right through it – roll over and say to their mate, “Did you hear something?” before going back to sleep? Other than that, nobody really heard.

But that Baby that was born in Bethlehem was the culmination of centuries of waiting and watching by God’s people, because He was the fulfillment of this first promise that God gave to Adam and Eve. After the devil tempted them and they fell into sin, He banished them from the Garden, and life would never be the same. Sin touched everything in their lives and ruined them. They now knew pain and sorrow and hard work. They got sick and bickered with one another. Eventually they died. To get them through the rest of their lives, now ruined by sin, and in order to bring them safely to eternal life – to restore what was lost in the Fall into sin – God gave His people this promise.

The surprising thing isn’t that God kept His promise. He always does. His Word is always true and it never fails. Nothing God promises ever fails to come to pass. The surprising thing is how God kept His promise. Who would have thought that a little baby would do everything that’s described here? Crush the head of the serpent – stomp it into the ground – smash it flat with one single killer blow. Yet that’s what Christ has done to the devil. He has completely taken Satan apart – destroyed all of his power, undone everything Satan has worked to accomplish. Now Satan’s lying must cease and God’s people are free, because Christ has set us free from the fear of death that held us prisoner our whole lives. He has taken away our sins and made their hearts glad by giving us a good conscience before God. And He did it in the most unexpected of ways: by being born as a baby, by living under the yoke of God’s law His whole life long and keeping it perfectly, and by humbling dying in our place on the cross. It looked like the devil had won. It looked like the devil had taken Him down. He had struck Christ’s heel and pulled Him down into death. But then Christ smashed the serpent’s head forever when He rose from the dead.

I don’t know if any of us would think we were quick enough to step on a snake’s head. Theodore Roosevelt thought he was that quick once. In 1912 he was exploring the River of Doubt, an uncharted river in South America, when he and his men stopped to make camp for the night. They were clearing away brush for a campsite when a poisonous snake slithered out and headed straight for the men. Everybody scattered except Roosevelt. He began to jump and dodge around – witnesses later said that it looked like he was dancing a jig. He was trying to find an opening to step on the snake’s head. Finally his boot came crashing down – but he’d missed the mark. He hit the snake in the back instead of on the head, and the snake whipped around and tried to sink its fangs into his leg. Fortunately the snake’s bite was stopped by the thick leather boots Roosevelt was wearing. He didn’t crush the snake’s head but he did end up killing it.

What Theodore Roosevelt was not able to do, Christ was able to do – by rising from the dead. When Jesus came back to life on Easter morning, Satan was done. He had nothing more to use. The law that he throws at us to accuse us – “You are the most rotten sinner ever! God knows what you did! Why would He ever forgive you or love you?” — is gone. The sin that ruins everything is paid for. The death that waits for each of us is no longer a punishment; now it’s the way God brings His own to heaven. By rising from the grave on the third day He broke all the devil’s power and set free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

That smashing of the serpent’s head, that destruction of our worst enemy, begins tonight – not with shots fired or missiles launched, but with the birth of a little baby in a stable in an out-of-the-way town in Judea. God has come to help His people. He’s lying there in the manger, smiling up at us, for you and for me. That little baby came to crush the serpent’s head – for you. And He has. Amen.