Isaiah 60:1-6/Ephesians 3:1-12/St Matthew 2:1-12
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
St Mary’s Baby was revealed as God in the flesh to neither the wise nor the righteous. The shepherds were ignorant outcasts of Jewish blood who lived most of their lives unclean according to the Law. They were despised and untrustworthy. Something like long delinquent members, Lutherans in name only. They are a type for Jewish believers. Those who are called wise men by the ESV are better named as magi. That is, magicians. They were pagan, which is to say, Gentile astrologers, probably from Persian Babylon. They looked to the stars for answers, something akin to palm readers or fortune tellers. They are a type for Gentile believers.
Yet God in the flesh, hiding in humility and sorrow, attracted them both: shepherds and magi, Jews and Gentiles, delinquent members and Ouija-board using addicts. To one set He was revealed by angels from heaven. To the other by a star in the heavens. The birth of the Messiah, the Christ, is the beginning of the end of our war with heaven, so heaven announces peace and welcomes us home.
And heaven chose as earth’s ambassadors two unlikely groups: long delinquent members with tainted pasts and outright pagans. Thus does heaven confound both those who imagine themselves to be wise and those who think that they are righteous. Which is to say, that both life-long Lutherans and converts ought to be both warned and offended. We all ought to quake and ask, as the Apostles at the Last Supper, “Is it I, Lord?” Because it is.
Once you were darkness. Not in darkness. Were darkness. Brooding, boiling, stirring up within your own heart and flesh. Still you see and know it in your members. And that by the grace and the Light of God which has shone upon you in His Word. Yet is spills over in sexual immortality and impurity, covetousness and crude talk, filthiness and debauchery. It stains and corrodes everything you touch.
No one is great. No one is mighty in works or knowledge or pedigree. No one should exalt himself. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.
Neither should anyone who is weak or dirty or disreputable, nor anyone divorced, victimized, despised by men, mad at God, or doubtful of His existence, or disgusted with the church despair.
The Lord came for shepherds and magi. He came for fools and sinners. Repent.
For the Lord has risen upon you. His glory has been seen upon you. For the Lord reveals Himself as the GodMan to be a sacrifice. He comes from heaven above to bestow peace on rebels. He comes, your bright and Morning Star, to shine the brightness of His peace upon sinners; to gather you from afar. The promise is for you and your children and all those far off. Everyone the Lord our God calls to Himself.
Do not be like Herod, consulting the Scriptures for facts to be used against God; nor as the chief priests and scribes for some trivia, refusing to submit to its authority or believe that it says. Rather learn from the shepherds and the magi who hear the call and come to worship, falling down in humility at the mystery of Christ, God in diapers nursing at His mother’s breast. For there, in her arms, St Mary holds He who is the Peace that passes understanding. She swaddles God who has taken up our flesh and offers Himself in service for men.
He is not born in Jerusalem, the city of kings, but in Bethlehem, the house of bread. God has made Himself approachable. He does not despise the worship of stinking shepherds and shameful magi. He does not despise sinners. He is the friend of sinners. He has come to sinners to bring sinners to Himself.
And while we do not rejoice in our sins, but rather deeply regret and mourn the harm we have done to ourselves and to one another, and seek to amend our live, let us rejoice in this: Jesus comes for sinners; He receives sinners. Which is to say, He comes for us. He receives you. We are not wise or righteous, healthy or put-together. We are sinners: sick, broken, habitual sinners. We need a Messiah, a Savior.
And God has provided one - out of Bethlehem and out of Egypt. Out of Nazareth and even out of Jerusalem. For He is the scapegoat driven out of the city with all our sins upon His head. He was crucified for us outside the city gates. The King of Peace strung up to the throne of His Cross on a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. He comes down to all those places, and then out of all those places for you.
Lift up your eyes all around and see. For God’s own Child, lifted up on the Cross, is the Light and the Glory of the Lord which shines upon you. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. The sky above proclaims God’s handiwork (Ps 19:2, 1). But only swaddled in His Word does the Christ Child continue to make Himself known and present Himself to you. There He who dwells in unapproachable Light makes Himself approachable for you. Through the mystery of Holy Baptism He has given you full fellowship in His Body, making you a fellow heir, not merely of Abraham, but a co-heir with Christ, the Son of God, Himself.
Come. There are no walls to stop you. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the Law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph 2:14-16). Now, through that self-same flesh of Christ, you both, Jews and Gentiles, shepherds and magi, sinners all have access in one Spirit to the Father.
And behold, He offers Himself to you here; opening the very treasury of heaven, giving of His flesh and blood, in full participation with Him. This is true worship. Out of Bethlehem comes your Shepherd who serves you that you may receive from His hand. You need not be wise nor righteous. No pedigree is checked or accomplishments needed. All you need is to be weary. Come to Me, He says, all who are weary, and I will give you rest. We ought to rejoice exceedingly with great joy at such a word, for we are indeed weary. Come, the Lord who is Rest for the weary and Peace for the rebel, beckons you to His Table.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
St Mary’s Baby was revealed as God in the flesh to neither the wise nor the righteous. The shepherds were ignorant outcasts of Jewish blood who lived most of their lives unclean according to the Law. They were despised and untrustworthy. Something like long delinquent members, Lutherans in name only. They are a type for Jewish believers. Those who are called wise men by the ESV are better named as magi. That is, magicians. They were pagan, which is to say, Gentile astrologers, probably from Persian Babylon. They looked to the stars for answers, something akin to palm readers or fortune tellers. They are a type for Gentile believers.
Yet God in the flesh, hiding in humility and sorrow, attracted them both: shepherds and magi, Jews and Gentiles, delinquent members and Ouija-board using addicts. To one set He was revealed by angels from heaven. To the other by a star in the heavens. The birth of the Messiah, the Christ, is the beginning of the end of our war with heaven, so heaven announces peace and welcomes us home.
And heaven chose as earth’s ambassadors two unlikely groups: long delinquent members with tainted pasts and outright pagans. Thus does heaven confound both those who imagine themselves to be wise and those who think that they are righteous. Which is to say, that both life-long Lutherans and converts ought to be both warned and offended. We all ought to quake and ask, as the Apostles at the Last Supper, “Is it I, Lord?” Because it is.
Once you were darkness. Not in darkness. Were darkness. Brooding, boiling, stirring up within your own heart and flesh. Still you see and know it in your members. And that by the grace and the Light of God which has shone upon you in His Word. Yet is spills over in sexual immortality and impurity, covetousness and crude talk, filthiness and debauchery. It stains and corrodes everything you touch.
No one is great. No one is mighty in works or knowledge or pedigree. No one should exalt himself. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.
Neither should anyone who is weak or dirty or disreputable, nor anyone divorced, victimized, despised by men, mad at God, or doubtful of His existence, or disgusted with the church despair.
The Lord came for shepherds and magi. He came for fools and sinners. Repent.
For the Lord has risen upon you. His glory has been seen upon you. For the Lord reveals Himself as the GodMan to be a sacrifice. He comes from heaven above to bestow peace on rebels. He comes, your bright and Morning Star, to shine the brightness of His peace upon sinners; to gather you from afar. The promise is for you and your children and all those far off. Everyone the Lord our God calls to Himself.
Do not be like Herod, consulting the Scriptures for facts to be used against God; nor as the chief priests and scribes for some trivia, refusing to submit to its authority or believe that it says. Rather learn from the shepherds and the magi who hear the call and come to worship, falling down in humility at the mystery of Christ, God in diapers nursing at His mother’s breast. For there, in her arms, St Mary holds He who is the Peace that passes understanding. She swaddles God who has taken up our flesh and offers Himself in service for men.
He is not born in Jerusalem, the city of kings, but in Bethlehem, the house of bread. God has made Himself approachable. He does not despise the worship of stinking shepherds and shameful magi. He does not despise sinners. He is the friend of sinners. He has come to sinners to bring sinners to Himself.
And while we do not rejoice in our sins, but rather deeply regret and mourn the harm we have done to ourselves and to one another, and seek to amend our live, let us rejoice in this: Jesus comes for sinners; He receives sinners. Which is to say, He comes for us. He receives you. We are not wise or righteous, healthy or put-together. We are sinners: sick, broken, habitual sinners. We need a Messiah, a Savior.
And God has provided one - out of Bethlehem and out of Egypt. Out of Nazareth and even out of Jerusalem. For He is the scapegoat driven out of the city with all our sins upon His head. He was crucified for us outside the city gates. The King of Peace strung up to the throne of His Cross on a garbage dump outside Jerusalem. He comes down to all those places, and then out of all those places for you.
Lift up your eyes all around and see. For God’s own Child, lifted up on the Cross, is the Light and the Glory of the Lord which shines upon you. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. The sky above proclaims God’s handiwork (Ps 19:2, 1). But only swaddled in His Word does the Christ Child continue to make Himself known and present Himself to you. There He who dwells in unapproachable Light makes Himself approachable for you. Through the mystery of Holy Baptism He has given you full fellowship in His Body, making you a fellow heir, not merely of Abraham, but a co-heir with Christ, the Son of God, Himself.
Come. There are no walls to stop you. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the Law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph 2:14-16). Now, through that self-same flesh of Christ, you both, Jews and Gentiles, shepherds and magi, sinners all have access in one Spirit to the Father.
And behold, He offers Himself to you here; opening the very treasury of heaven, giving of His flesh and blood, in full participation with Him. This is true worship. Out of Bethlehem comes your Shepherd who serves you that you may receive from His hand. You need not be wise nor righteous. No pedigree is checked or accomplishments needed. All you need is to be weary. Come to Me, He says, all who are weary, and I will give you rest. We ought to rejoice exceedingly with great joy at such a word, for we are indeed weary. Come, the Lord who is Rest for the weary and Peace for the rebel, beckons you to His Table.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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