An Invitation to a Wedding

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Dearly beloved, we are gathered here this day, in the presence of God to be witnesses to the Wedding in Bethlehem’s stable. Wedding, you say?! No doubt, you are asking yourself that Lutheran question: “What does this mean?”

In fact, you may be wracking your brain and recalling that in all the years that you’ve been coming to church, and in all the times you’ve heard the Gospel accounts of the Christmas story, and with all the children you’ve seen dressed up as angels and shepherds, you don’t ever remember hearing about any wedding taking place in the little town of Bethlehem.

So maybe you’re thinking I’m trying to tell you that a lost book of the Bible has been found. Something like the Gospel of Joseph, where an account of the joining of this man, Joseph, and this woman, Mary, is written, and that it took place in Bethlehem’s stable. (Pause) Let me ease your mind. You don’t have to call our District President. I’m not trying to tell you that any lost book of the Bible has been found. Actually, I’m not even speaking about Joseph and Mary at all. They were already husband and wife before they arrived in Bethlehem.

In fact, I’m not talking about a marriage either, but rather, about a wedding. Christmas is about the joining together, the wedding, the personal union of God and man. The Savior had to be man in order to be under the Law and in order to suffer and die. The Savior had to be God so that the Law could be fulfilled, that a sufficient sacrifice would be made for the world, and that sin, death, and the devil might be overcome.

Our Christmas message of Good News concerns the Incarnation of God. We confess this truth every time we answer that Lutheran question, “What does this mean?” with the answer, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord.”

The truth is that the wedding spoken of in this personal union of the divine and the human actually took place nine months earlier than Jesus’ birth. This joining together of God and man didn’t happen in Bethlehem of Judea, but in Nazareth of Galilee. The wedding took place when the virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit.

But at that time, neither shepherds nor wisemen nor us could look upon the Son of God and Son of Man. His manifestation to the world would take place nine months later, after Mary gave birth to God and the Baby was placed in a manger.

Based on the Gospel Reading for the Nativity of our Lord, I’m extending you an invitation to witness the wedding in Bethlehem’s stable: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… 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 1:1, 14).

Dear fellow disciples of the Lord God, the eternal Word who created all things, has become flesh. Please accept the invitation to look upon the miraculous wedding in Bethlehem’s stable. We know where to go because the Lord has revealed it to us through the angelic announcement and Luke’s chronicle.

Therefore, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. We know what to look for since that sign has been given to us as well. We will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.

You may recall that in much of the artwork you have seen—from the Renaissance Masters to the Christmas card pictures—the Baby Jesus is portrayed with a golden halo or aura about His head. The truth is that there was no such golden glow. If there had been, then the shepherds would not have been given the sign of simple swaddling cloths, but rather the task of searching for the Child with a glowing golden hallow. But Jesus looked just like any other newborn Jewish baby who might have just happened to be sleeping in a manger that night.

In the Scriptures, we are privileged to step into Bethlehem’s stable and behold the Good News of great joy which is for all the people. The Savior has been born! There He is, the little Lord Jesus sleeping in a manger. He’s wrapped in swaddling cloths so we can’t see His arms, legs, or tummy.

He is the Gift of Christmas to the world. And like any other Christmas gift, this Gift needs to be opened. So let’s unwrap Him by removing some of those swaddling cloths. (Pause) Oh, dear children, do you see what I see? The Word became flesh, and the cord of the placenta has been cut and tied off. If that’s true, and it most certainly is true, then we are able to say two amazing things: God has a belly button and this Baby created the universe!

All of the attributes or characteristics of God and all the attributes of man (except for our fallen sinful nature) are communicated to and united in this Jesus. The Word became flesh. Therefore Jesus, who is Wisdom, God Himself, grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52).

So also, this unchangeable One would now continue not to change even as He grows up. This eternal One without beginning or end would grow older. And this timeless One would spend time as an alien in Egypt. And this infinite Creator would now occupy various places in His creation, including a virgin’s womb, an animal’s manger, a fisherman’s boat, a sinner’s house, a criminal’s cross, and a rich man’s tomb. Dear people, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The hymn writer asks two questions and provides the answers:

What Child is this, Who, laid to rest, On Mary’s lap is sleeping,

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping? This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;

Haste, haste to bring Him laud, the Babe, the Son of Mary!

“Why lies He in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding?

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

The silent Word was in that manger, and is in heaven above, pleading on behalf of His human brothers and sisters because the full Divine Majesty is communicated to the person of Jesus and is exercised in and works through the human nature.

Good Christian, that Baby we’re looking at in the swaddling cloths is the Lord God Almighty. According to His Divine Majesty and because of the Incarnation, He now exercises Himself through the human nature. That Baby in Bethlehem’s barn is sustaining the universe, praying for us, protecting magi as they journey to Him, watching over the shepherdless flocks of certain worshipping herdsmen, giving strength to a man named Simeon who would hold Him in his arms, sustaining the old woman named Anna at the temple, watering a specific tree from which a cross would be made, permitting nations to rise and fall, protecting His Church, and besides all that, He’s got the whole world in His hands. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

But someone may ask, why? Why did God become man? The Incarnation of God was for us and He came to be our prophet, our priest, and our king. But He is no ordinary king, for He comes to rule our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls, not with the iron rod of His Law, but with His Good News. According to His human nature, all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. So, even as a newborn infant in that crude cradle, He protects His Church and leads her to glory.

Therefore we join the psalmist in saying, “Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is He, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty, He is the King of glory (Psalm 24:9-10).

Indeed, this King is also the High Priest who does His sacrificial work by giving Himself on the altar of the cross. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).

This He did once for all when He offered up Himself (Hebrews 7:27). We confess this fundamental and foundational Christian truth in the magnificent Easter hymn, “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing” …

Praise we Him, Whose love Divine, gives His Sacred Blood for wine,

Gives His Body for the feast—Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest.

In order to accomplish this and to fulfill the Law perfectly in our place, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under Law, to redeem those under Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (Galatians 4:4-5).

Now as the risen and ascended Christ, just as in the City of David when the silent Word was pleading, even now, He continues His priestly work as He intercedes at the throne of God on our behalf. For “we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1).

As the God-man, Jesus fulfills His divine work as Prophet by revealing Himself. We read and hear of the teachings and miracles of the Incarnate Word, Jesus, in the inscribed and inspired Word, the Bible.

The Lord, as Prophet, still reveals Himself today as the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world, doing so by the means of grace –Word and Sacrament. You and I are privileged and graced to hear the written Word, to believe this good news of great joy, and to trust in the Word become flesh. Through the gift of His Word called the Bible and through the gift of His work called faith, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

You may be wondering about something. If Jesus is the Lord God Almighty and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, why do we only see glimpses of His divine glory in the Bible—like when He turned water into wine, when He was transfigured on the mountain, when He calmed the storm, when He walked on water, and when He rose from the dead?

Well, we are speaking of the voluntary humiliation of the Son of God—that according to His human nature, Jesus did not always and not fully use the divine attributes communicated to the human nature. The Scriptures say it better: “[He] made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:7-8).

Today, we celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord. The Holy Spirit has performed the wedding by uniting the two. You and I are witnesses to this wedding as we journey to Bethlehem’s stable and join those who gaze upon the Baby in a manger. We confess this wonderful mystery in the creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.”

The personal union continues today. Indeed, what God has joined together, neither man nor God puts asunder, and it will never be separated. Jesus today remains true God and true man. Therefore, dear fellow witnesses, thank you for accepting the invitation to the wedding in Bethlehem’s stable and to gaze at the Baby who is our Redeemer.

Indeed, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… 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 1:1,14). And today the God-man, Jesus Christ, assures you through His verbal and visible Word: You are forgiven all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.