Nativity of Our Lord-Christmas Eve, Luke 2:1-20
December 24, 2023
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman
Everything about the miracle of Christmas – that a young woman would become mysteriously pregnant and give birth to an extraordinary child – everything about Christmas invites the question, “What Child is This?”
When the Angel Gabriel greeted Mary and told her that she had found favor with God, she was perplexed and pondered what sort of greeting this was.
When the angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord appeared to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, they were terrified, wondering what on earth was going on.
When the angel brought good news of great joy for all the people that a child of great significance was being born in Bethlehem, the shepherd’s curiosity about the child provoked them to head to Bethlehem to see for themselves.
When the shepherds told Mary and Joseph and presumably others at the manger what the angels announced, all were amazed at what the shepherds told them. And Mary treasured all those words and pondered them in her heart.
All of these unusual, extraordinary experiences recorded in Luke’s Gospel add up to the question, “What Child is This?”
It’s a question we ask in our own day. Many people question and wonder about the miraculous nature of Jesus’ birth – did it really happen literally in the way we have been told? How can there be pregnancy and childbirth apart from what science and natural experience tell us? And then others these days are just skeptical and cynical about what any authority tells them is true. We are a questioning generation, often for good reason, but also in ways that rob us of a sense of wonder and mystery.
So, all of this beckons us to ask the question in our own day, “What Child is This?” – especially in terms of what this child means for us at the end of 2023. So, let’s explore tonight’s readings from the bible to get some answers to our question, starting with the prophecy of Isaiah who foretold the child being born for us. What Child is This? This child is Wonderful Counselor according to Isaiah. Wonderful Counselor at first blush sounds to us in 2023 like the child would grow up to be a great psychotherapist!
But what Isaiah is saying is that this child would grow to have great wisdom like that of King Solomon, wise, trusted, all-knowing, leading to the best and most faithful decisions for the well-being of all people – all of this very much unlike so many of the leaders in our sorry world today… We still need our Wonderful Counselor.
What Child is This? Isaiah also refers to this child as Mighty God, strong and powerful like a warrior or a hero. But in the case of this child, a warrior and hero who would ultimately exercise power in the vulnerability of the cross, as we’ll soon sing: “Nails, spear shall pierce him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.” This is still the kind of mighty God we need today, one who rules in vulnerability and love, humility and nonviolence, again in stark contrast to many in authority today.
What Child is This? Isaiah goes on to say that this child is Everlasting Father. But this child is also Son of the God who is the Everlasting Father. In fact, it is in being God’s Son that this child reveals to us God the Everlasting Father. Here the wisdom from tonight’s reading from Hebrews is instructive: “But in these last days God has spoken to us by a Son, whom God appointed heir of all things, through whom God also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God [the Father’s] glory and the exact imprint of God [the Father’s] very being.” (Hebrews 1:2-3a) Christ our brother is Son of the Father, through whom we know the Father. Christ offers the God’s paternal care now and eternally, and with love and mercy and constancy and grace and forgiveness – again very different from too many earthly fathers and authorities of our own day who too often let us down.
What Child is This? Finally, Isaiah calls this child Prince of Peace. Peace. Shalom in Hebrew. Holistic well-being for all, not just the absence of conflict. Oh, we need such a Prince of Peace in our day, don’t we, a time in history that’s anything but peaceful?
Our readings tell us more! What Child is This? In Luke we hear that this child is Savior – deliverer, the personification of safety and preservation, one who rescues us from harm like so many of our first responders, but with a rescue that is ultimate and lasts for eternity. God knows we need such a savior in our day.
What Child is This? We also hear in Luke that this child is Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, chosen and sent by God to usher in the fullness of God’s dominion among us, a dominion of love and peace and mercy and justice and well-being, the polar opposite of what we typically see among the nations in our fallen world.
What Child is This? Finally, we hear in Luke that this child is Lord, the one to whom we pledge ultimate allegiance because this one is omnipotent, all-powerful, sovereign over all things. And a little child will lead them, as the prophet Isaiah elsewhere proclaims, exactly what we need in a world so out of control with so many conflicting and untrustworthy powers and principalities vying for our allegiance.
You see, the miracle of Christmas is not so much about the birth of just any child – though all births have their wondrous, miraculous qualities. Nor is this birth really about how it came to be, through what supernatural means. Rather, the miracle of Christmas is that the child born to Mary was and is all the things which the various titles we just explored suggest: the child is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Son of that Father, Prince of Peace, Savior, Christ, Lord. All of these qualities and attributes are wrapped up in one gift package, a human, the babe born to Mary, the very Word of God made flesh to dwell among us, Emmanuel, God with us.
And again, all of these gifts associated with Jesus stand in sharp contrast to what predominates in our world today. And the good news is that the child Jesus was born to grow up to redeem and heal this very world so troubled by sin and evil.
And here’s the other wondrous thing about the child we celebrate this night: When we come to this Holy Communion table, Christ is born anew in us and among us in Christian community. And when we eat the bread and drink the wine of his real presence, we eat and drink all the qualities embodied by the holy child. We take into ourselves the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Son, Prince of Peace, Savior, Christ, Lord. All of these gifts of Christ’s presence are given to us in fullness when we come to this table.
Then we become the manger which holds the child, the gifts of God, for all the world to adore and to enjoy. And we become what we eat. What Child is This? Look around you and see the presence Christ and his blessings and gifts in the faces of your neighbors, we who are the body of Christ as church for the sake of the world today.
And thus, we as church, as Christ’s body born anew, sing again with the angels and the multitude of the heavenly host: “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom God favors.”
And we give this glory to God also when Christ is born again in our loving words and deeds whenever we offer the gifts and presence of the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Son, Prince of Peace, Savior, Christ, Lord to our neighbors in need in this skeptical, cynical, needy world which doubts that a little child will lead them.
In short, “What Child is This?” “This, this is Christ the king, whom shepherds guard and angels sing; haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary!” Amen. Merry Christmas. Amen.
