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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
If you are keeping track, you know that today is the Seventh Day of Christmas, and so the Christmas Carol’s associated “true love’s” gift is “seven swans a-swimming”, which this year are estimated to cost more than 13-thousand dollars, the second-most-expensive gift on the list, after the “ten lords a-leaping” (PNC). Today also is this Church Year’s First (and only) Sunday after Christmas, with the Gospel Reading about the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord that took place not seven but forty days after Jesus was born, which events we at Pilgrim will consider on the date of the Feast itself, the Second of February, with its own appointed other Readings (1 Samuel 1:21‑28; Psalm 84:1-12 [antiphon: v.4]; Hebrews 2:14-18). To be sure, especially around this time of the Church Year, we encounter events of our Lord’s life not quite in their chronological and scriptural order, which can be somewhat confusing. If we had Divine Service tonight or tomorrow for the Circumcision of Our Lord (Luke 2:21), Jesus would be eight-days old. If there were a Second Sunday after Christmas this year, Jesus would be twelve‑years old (Luke 2:40‑52). In the Divine Service next Saturday for the Epiphany of Our Lord (Matthew 2:1‑12), Jesus is perhaps closer to two-years old. In the Divine Service next Sunday for the Baptism of Our Lord (Mark 1:4-11), Jesus is about thirty-years old (Luke 3:23). Yet, from all of those examples, chronological or not, at least one thing should be clear: the eternal Son of God in the human flesh of Jesus grew older. In fact, as the theme for this sermon puts it, “God in Jesus grew for you!”
Today’s Gospel Reading for the First Sunday after Christmas, with Jesus at forty-days old, and what would be the Gospel Reading for a Second Sunday after Christmas, with Jesus at twelve-years old, both include what can be called “growth summaries”. The Old Testament has such “growth summaries” for Samson (Judges 13:24-25) and Samuel (1 Samuel 2:21, 26), and the New Testament has one for John the Baptizer (Luke 1:80). As the Holy Spirit had described Samson and Samuel’s growth, so the Holy Spirit may have inspired St. Luke to describe John and Jesus’s growth (confer Wilckens, TDNT 7:514). As we heard, between the presentation of the forty-day-old Jesus at His Presentation and the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple (a gap of nearly twelve years), the Holy Spirit has St. Luke write that “the Child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon Him”. And, a few verses later, between the twelve‑year‑old Jesus in the Temple and the thirty-year-old Jesus’s being baptized (a gap of some eighteen years), the Holy Spirit has St. Luke write that “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52 ESV). To the extent that those verses are ever read, both of those growth summaries may get somewhat overlooked in the consideration of the events that come before, between, and after them.
When we have not seen children for a while, they may seem to have gotten taller overnight, but that is just our mis-perception. The way most people grow is how Jesus grew, not all at once but gradually over time. St. Luke’s Gospel account uniquely reports, in the first growth summary, that Jesus was growing and becoming strong, being filled with wisdom, and that the favor of God was upon Him, and, in the second growth summary, that Jesus was increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and people. Common to both growth summaries are mentions both of wisdom and of the favor of God. As we heard in today’s Psalm (Psalm 111:1-10; antiphon: v.9a, b), the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but wisdom also goes on to include that fear, or faith’s, leading to good works, good works that are favorable to both God and pious people (confer Conzelmann, TDNT 9:392).
Jesus grew like most people, but Jesus otherwise is not like most people, including us. By nature, you and I lack wisdom. We lack true fear, love, and trust in God. So, we fail to use God’s Name rightly and to have the right regard for His Word and Sacraments. We also fail to honor authorities God gives, like our parents; to value His gifts of human life, sexual purity, possessions, and reputation; and to be content. Apart from faith, the works that we do are not favorable before God, even if some people might approve of them. Our sinful nature leads us to sin in all sorts of ways, and our sinful nature and all of our actual sins warrant both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. But, God calls and so enables us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our lack of wisdom and our unfavorable works. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Galatians 4:4-7), God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, including us. The Son of God personally unites His Divine and human natures, so that, during His state of humiliation, when He did not always of fully use His Divine attributes, things that would be contradictory of other people are true of Him. For example, at the same time, Jesus was both all-knowing and had limited knowledge; what St. Luke’s growth summaries describe was an actual filling in wisdom and increasing in wisdom, according to Jesus’s human nature (confer Pieper, II:163-164; Scaer, CLD VI:61). Exactly how Jesus could be all-knowing and have limited knowledge is part of the mystery of the Incarnation! Yet, we believe that both things statements were true, and that Jesus humbled Himself in that and other ways all for us, including His becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). On the cross, Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we deserve, and then He rose from the dead. Now, out of God’s love, mercy, and grace for the sake of Christ, we who repent are forgiven. As we are in Christ, the favor both of God and of pious people also is upon us.
Redeemed by grace through faith in Christ, we are adopted as God’s children who inherit with Christ. God the Father sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, leading us to cry out to Him as our Father. In order for us to obtain that saving faith, God instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry, providing the preaching of the Gospel and the handing-out of the Sacraments, through which God the Father gives the Spirit of His Son, Who works faith when and where he pleases in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:1-2). We usually think especially of Holy Baptism as giving us faith and so bringing us into the Church, and we might think of Holy Absolution as in some sense returning us to our baptismal grace, and we should think of the Holy Supper with the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us as strengthening and preserving us in body and soul to life everlasting. In all of these ways, God the Father answers our cries to Him in faith. What today’s Old Testament Reading prophesied (Isaiah 61:10-62:3)—first of the people returning from exile in Babylon, but also of Christ, and finally of us in Christ—that prophecy is fulfilled: we are called by a new Name, clothed with the garments of salvation, greatly rejoice in the Lord, and sprout up as righteousness before all the nations.
As we are so in Christ, He is in us, working the good deeds that follow from the faith that is the beginning of wisdom. We fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We use God’s Name rightly and have the right regard for His Word and Sacraments. We honor the authorities who God gives, like our parents; we value His gifts of human life, sexual purity, possessions, and reputation; and we are content. And, when we fail to do those things, as we will fail, then, with daily contrition and faith, we live in both the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God and the forgiveness of sins that we in turn extend to one another. Our holiness should increase in this lifetime, but, from our perspective, it will not be complete until the glorification of our bodies in God’s eternal presence.
Despite the in-some-sense out-of‑sequence festivals and their appointed Gospel Readings this time of year, we realize that “God in Jesus grew for you!” Today we might say that Jesus is more than twice as old as His ancestor Methusaleh lived to be on earth (Genesis 5:21; Luke 3:37)! But, regardless of His age, in the words of today’s Collect of the Day, God, Who wonderfully created us, in the Incarnation of His Son more-wondrously restored our human nature; as we trust Him, He will grant that we may ever be alive in Him Who made Himself to be like us.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +