Sermon - Christmas Eve 2024

Madonna of Lilies and Pieta, William-Adolphe Bouguereau 1899 & 1876

Christmas is the preface to Easter

1. Empty Sentimentalism doesn’t last

2. The celebration of Christmas is always balanced with the anticipation of Easter

3. Here you have come to Mt. Zion

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, sparkling lights glimmering in the bleak midwinter amidst a chorus of pensive voices, and a smorgasbord of sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, decadent dressing, roast beast, and a hot toddy to top it all off. But for how long? The sentimental traditions of yesteryear hold on by a piece of tinsel with a bow on top. Christmas is a grand celebration of the enfleshment of the second person of the Trinity, who in flesh was crucified and risen for the deliverance of mankind. But without that divine commemoration, Christmas is just a party about nothing.

This holy day becomes a hallmark holiday without the incarnation of Jesus. It’s a wrapped box filled with nothing save packing peanuts. It’s a collection of ornaments without an evergreen tree. It’s a baby shower without a baby. For now Charlie Brown can complain that his dog has gone commercial, but soon the commercialism won’t be able to sustain such decadence. Without Christ this most wonderful time of the year will revert to frigid darkness and bitter gloom. 

So for this season to maintain the Spirit of Christmas, the faithful few who are gathered here understand that the Christmas carol is but a prelude to Holy Week and Easter. The true Christian joy at the birth of Jesus isn’t merely joy at the sight of a newborn babe, but it is joy that the God of all creation stepped forth into His handiwork to redeem us from the agonizing despair of death. Even in that most familiar story of Jesus’ birth do we see the brilliant undertones of Holy Week.

As an unborn child Jesus went from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Nazareth is the place of the branch, and Jesus is the shoot that springs forth from the stump of Jesse, the father of king David; He is the branch. Bethlehem is the house of bread, and Jesus is the bread of life who feeds His people with the bread of His own body and blood. When Jesus was grown He went from Nazareth to Jerusalem, to the city of peace, where in the upper room He gave peace to His apostles and fed them greater bread than could ever be found in Bethlehem.

Upon arriving in Bethlehem there was no place for them in the inn. This is the ancient Mediterranean, remember, there were no motels where they always kept the light on for you, there were just spaces for guests in people’s homes. This is Joseph’s hometown, filled with relatives, and none could spare a space for a pregnant woman in the throes of labor. Even before birth the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head and His own people did not receive Him. In a way before He was even born the crowds were already poised to cry out: “crucify Him, crucify Him!”

The blessed virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, received her newborn Son in Her arms, and wrapped God who was covered in the filth of childbirth in swaddling cloths. Thirty three years later that image of the Madonna and Child transformed into the Madonna della Pieta, where the the blessed virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, received her lifeless Son in her arms, and wrapped God who was covered in the filth of crucifixion in burial cloths.

In truth, there is no celebration of Christmas worth having without the celebration of Easter. Without the shedding of Christ’s blood there would be no reason for Him to even have blood. The Christmas tree is a reminder of this. In the middle ages they had what was called paradise plays, recounting the story of salvation from the tree in the Garden of Eden to the tree in place of the skull. The play centered around a paradise tree, covered in bright red apples, signifying the fruit which Adam and Eve ate that led to death for all. The tree was cut down, and from the stump of that tree grew a shoot which grew into the cross, still decorated with bright red apples, signifying the body and blood of Christ which now gives life to all. The infant body of Jesus in the feeding trough, is the fruit of the tree of life, and all who eat of this fruit shall live forever.

God became man in the person of Jesus Christ; He took on flesh and blood, in order that His blood might be shed as the payment for our sins, so that we might receive newborn life through His sacrifice. I know this profound truth of Christmas isn’t coated in sugar and wrapped in shiny paper, but it’s better this way. Our Lord Jesus doesn’t dress Himself in majestic robes, a bejeweled crown of gold, in a grand majestic hall. Instead, you find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger; you find a naked corpse hanging on a cursed tree. For the Lord in His wisdom came to His own people dwelling in the darkness and filth of sin, so that the brightness of the true Light of Christ may not blind our eyes, but dwell among us. For this Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, and He doesn’t put on a fake show of cleanliness like we do. He comes in a barn, smelling of animals and childbirth; He comes on a cross, looking of pity and death; He descends from the highest glory of heaven with the voices of angels, to give peace on earth through the shedding of His blood.

So this evening you have come to a place beyond gaudy sentimentality. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. All over the earth decadent food is being eaten, expensive gifts are being unwrapped, and many of even the richest are going away empty. They are looking for joy and peace, and finding none. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” 

Merry Christmas.