Savior

The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve

December 24, 2023

Luke 2:10-11

 “Savior”

The familiar words of the Christmas Gospel reach out to us again this night. Across the two thousand years since the angel first spoke those words to the shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, we hear again: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). Because these are familiar words, that is both a good thing and a not-good thing. It is good in that we have heard them, and so we have been exposed to the good news of Jesus’ birth among us; his becoming flesh and blood like us in every respect, except for sin (Hebrews 4:15). It’s a not-good thing in that because we are familiar with the story of Christmas – Jesus’ birth – it can easily degenerate into “been there, done that.” We’ve heard it all before, and so we run the risk of tuning it out. This is our opportunity to approach Christmas differently; to see it with new eyes; to hear the angel’s message with fresh ears. In heart and spirit let us travel even unto Bethlehem and see this great thing which the Lord has brought to pass. Based on that Christmas Gospel, the message for this Christmas Eve is entitled “Savior.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

On this Christmas Eve, behind the beautiful decorations and lighted tree, behind the gifts and feasting, lies a truth greater than ourselves and our deepest need. Christmas is much more than a holiday; it is a holy day. It is holy because of what God has done among us in order to address our deepest need. That deepest need is exactly what the angel told those shepherds: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior” (Luke 2:11). A savior is someone who steps in to rescue; to set free; to save. This is not only what Jesus came to do, it is who he is. His very Name, Jesus (Yeshua), means “one who saves,” as the angel told Joseph before Jesus was even born: “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21). He will save his people from their sins – that is our deepest need. That’s why Jesus was born. Behind the terrible traumas in life that bring such pain and suffering in this world, behind the greed and selfishness that choke out light and life, behind the unending cycle of death and destruction, is this thing called sin. It is not so much what we do, as it is a state of being in which we find ourselves as human beings. It is the evil we do as well as the good we fail to do, but it is more than that. It is a separation; an unbridgeable chasm; a brokenness in our relationship with God our Maker and Redeemer.

So what do we do? How do we fix this? So often we think it all depends on us; on our strength, resources, ingenuity, and power. But not here. On our own, there’s nothing we can do to fix this; to repair this brokenness. Despite our best attempts to be good, to do the right thing, to staunch the flow of evil in the world around us, it just seems to go from bad to worse. The world is a messed-up place, perhaps now more than ever. People are understandably very concerned about our world situation at present. What’s needed is a new creation, from the inside out. Enter the Savior; the One who is called Jesus. He doesn’t wait for us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and somehow climb up to him. No, he comes down to us. He meets us where we are in all of our brokenness, pain, and need. He doesn’t come to us in eternal majesty and glory that would freak us out and make us run for cover. No, the Savior comes to us in something that we can understand. He comes to us as a helpless infant. And that is God’s way; doing the counter-intuitive, upside-down thing that we would never do. God always appears to be less than he really is. Buy why? So that we are not terrified by God’s eternal majesty and glory, but can recognize him in his love.

That love comes to us this night with that Child born of Mary in Bethlehem’s manger; born for you and born for me. His rescue mission began with entering our broken and sinful world in order to redeem it; to make a new creation; to reverse the curse of death and destruction. But doing so will mean his own death, as we will sing later in the service in a familiar Christmas carol:

             Why lies He in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?

            Good Christian, fear; for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.

            Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you;

            Hail, hail, the Word made flesh, the babe, the Son of Mary!

Over the creche hangs the shadow of the cross, reminding us that Jesus was born to die; to give his life as the atoning sacrifice for all our sins, so that we may be his own, in life and in death. Because of that creche and that cross – the redeeming work that Jesus our Savior has done – “nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). The Body that was laid in the manger and that hung on the cross comes to us this night under forms of bread and wine. In the holy Supper of our Savior, he gives us his very self to assure us that we are his own, and that he will never leave us nor forsake us. That is the best Christmas present there could ever be. A gift isn’t something that you get because you deserve it, or because you’ve earned it. A gift is a gift, given for love’s sake. The gift of Jesus is one that we can only receive with the open hand of faith. And having received this gift of all gifts, Jesus himself, we now are free to share this gift with others, just like the shepherds did in the Christmas Gospel: “And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child” (Luke 2:16-17).

In the midst of our 24/7, minute-by-minute news feeds that continually pump the newest and latest updates to us, most of it is bad news – scandal and corruption, violence and bloodshed, injustice and deceit. It can be just too much to bear at times. If ever the world needed good news, it is now. And that is the message of Christmas – good news of great joy that is for all people. The Christ of Christmas is for all people. The Christ of Christmas, Jesus our Savior, is for you in all your need. He came to love you and give his very life for you. That is good news – the best news. It’s almost impossible to keep good news to yourself, right? When we’ve got good news, we can be almost bursting with excitement to share this with others. And we have been blessed with good news that makes an eternal difference in the lives of people. When this worship service ends and we go out into the night of this Christmas Eve, we take this good news of great joy with us. We take it with us to our homes and families, to our friends and neighbors, in order to do what those shepherds did: to make known to others what we have been told about this Child, Jesus our Savior. Amen.