Christmas Day
Jesus Unwrapped
St. John 1:1-14
25 December 2014 – Redeemer
Did you try to guess any of your gifts last night? Shake it? Weigh it? Squeeze it? In my Senior year in High School I wanted a computer – I think that was the year they were invented. Under the Timm tree a large box appeared – a heavy large box. I was sure it was a computer. It was big like computers. It was heavy like computers. It was a full set of luggage – given to me by my parents so I could leave home. The only good thing was that at the bottom of the luggage box was a new shotgun. My dad came through – although I would have never guessed.
Last night we heard of God’s greatest gift. Himself born in human flesh. Mary wrapped this present in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. You would have never guessed by the wrapping what was in this gift. If you would have seen Jesus you would see a baby boy like every other baby boy. If you would have held him it would have been like holding any other infant, tiny, helpless, beautiful. If you would have smelled him he would have smelled like a baby and you would have handed him back to his mother.
God wrapped in a diaper, but much more than that, God wrapped in human flesh. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That wrapping is often a stumbling block to faith, a mystery to reason. Even the people of Jesus’ day looked at him and saw only a man, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”
You would never guess, reason, or discover what is under the wrapping of the flesh of Jesus Christ unless Jesus is unwrapped for you and that’s what Saint John does in today’s Gospel reading. He opens the gift, to show you and deliver to you what is wrapped in the flesh of Mary’s Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
It’s all there in John 1:1-14, in particular verse 14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, ESV)
Wrapped in the flesh of Jesus is the Word of God, God Himself and with that Word of God is the grace and truth that deliver life to us.
Wrapped in this flesh is every gift that a sinful man or woman needs from God. Jesus came from His Father full of grace. You can ask a guy named Paul about that grace. We meet Paul in the book of Acts. Paul persecuted Christians. He put them in jail and put them to death. One day on his way to work Jesus appeared to him on the road, but instead of raining fire and brimstone down upon this murderous thug, Jesus forgave Paul, baptized Paul, and even called Paul to be an apostle to spread the good news of His grace. What is grace? The good news of great joy that God’s love is an undeserved gift, bought at the cross with the blood of Jesus and given to you in your baptism. You can’t earn it, bargain for it, or demand it. God just gives it to you. It doesn’t matter what evil you have done or what good you have left undone. This gift from God wrapped in the flesh of Jesus is full of grace. Yes, you are a great sinner, but Jesus is a greater Savior – full of grace.
Those were not just words for Paul. They were God’s Word and they changed his life. The fact that God could have chosen anyone to serve was not lost on Paul. He knew there were better men, but God’s choosing taught him grace: The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners―of whom I am the worst. This grace was Paul’s sermon wherever he went, “ If God’s grace in Jesus is so immense that I, the worst sinner I know, the man who killed the brothers and sisters of Christ, if God’s grace forgives me, it certainly forgives you. This is what Paul preaches “ But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
The grace wrapped in Jesus is this simple fact – Christ Jesus came to save sinners. This is His work done at His own cost, with His life and death, but for you it is free. You qualify for this gift because you are a sinner in need.
But how do you know? How do you know your sins are forgiven? How can you trust the Word of Jesus. Saint John writes “He is full of grace and truth” but how can you judge His Word or know the angels were telling the the truth to the Shepherds? Saint Paul Himself answers that question in 1 Corinthians 15. How do you know? Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14, ESV) When the Devil tempts you to doubt, when the History channel throws out some silly suggestion that Christians have adopted all our practices from pagan myths we need to remember this historical fact. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus, who claimed again and again to be God wrapped in human flesh, rose from the dead, just as He said He would. 500 people saw Him alive. 11 apostles sacrificed their lives rather than deny this truth. 3000 people were baptized on Pentecost day because of His resurrection. We have tens of thousands of historical documents verifying this truth. Our faith is not based on feelings or experiences or reasoned arguments – but on this fact. The baby born in Bethlehem to Mary, this One whom John declares the Word made flesh, this Jesus who claimed to be God Himself, died on a cross and three days later rose as He promised. If you’ve got better credentials than that, I might listen to you, but if not I’m going with Him.
This is the truth that the Word made flesh reveals. Your troubles aren’t because of anyone else. You are your own worst enemy because of sin. It isn’t the governments fault, big businesses fault, your parents fault, your husbands fault, Santa’s fault that you aren’t happy, satisfied, content, fulfilled. Health, money, and success won’t fix your life’s problems. Sin, and it’s your sin, broke this wonderful world and nothing in creation can fix creation or you. The truth is that only God can help you and the good news of Christ’s birth is that God came Himself to save you from yourself. Jesus is full of God’s grace for sinners. He is born for sinners, lives for sinners, dies for sinners, and rises to declare sinners righteous before God. Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life there is in the world. Through Him alone you have forgiveness and through Him alone you can return to the Father.
In John 1:4 Saint John pulls the wrapping off Jesus, “In Him was life and that life was the light of man.” Life comes to us by grace – the gift of God the Father in His Son Jesus Christ. Life comes us by the truth – that we are sinners and our forgiveness comes in Jesus Christ alone. Would you have seen that in Jesus if you could have held Him in the manger or lived down the street from Him in Nazareth or even witnessed His death on the cross? No. This gift is not unwrapped by sight or sense, but by God’s Word creating faith in our hearts. Saint John preaches God’s Word to unwrap God’s Word made flesh.
As you would never see God in the flesh of Jesus unless you were told, so you would never see death and resurrection in your baptism or forgiveness in your absolution or the very body and blood of Christ in His Supper. But those gifts are here by God’s Word, and not merely here, but here for you, unwrapped and delivered in the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
25 December 2014 anno Domini