Luke 2:8-14 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Christmas Eve Friday, December 24, 2021 “What Child Is This? A Savior Born for You”
“What child is this who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?” Don’t worry, I am not planning to sing this entire devotion. But that beautiful hymn that we sang at the start of our service really does ask an important question, doesn’t it? For us and for the hymn-writer, that is a rhetorical question. When he wrote those lyrics, he knew the answer. And most people who sing the classic Christmas carol—it’s been in use since the late 1800s—they know the answer, too. You know the answer, I presume. It’s why you are here this evening. The song doesn’t ask the question to test or quiz us. It isn’t trying to determine whether someone knows; it is an artful way of focusing someone’s attention on the answer. Other Christmas songs do something similar when they ask questions like “Do You Hear What I Hear?” or “Mary, Did You Know?” “What Child Is This?” is a rhetorical question. It is the theme of our service because you probably know the answer. The answer has been presented in several different Scripture readings and several different Christmas songs and hymns and carols. The answer was presented to us in promises and prophecy, in psalms of praise, and now in prose. We just heard the story, hopefully very familiar, of Mary and Joseph’s journey to the little town of Bethlehem, of their trouble finding lodging, and of the birth of her Son in a stable. We know that this little child who was laid in the manger and wrapped in cloth strips is Jesus. We know him as the most important figure in the world’s history in spite of these humble beginnings. But our next reading, likely also familiar, invites us to consider someone else’s perspective. It invites us to the fields of Bethlehem. We hear the bleating of sheep. We smell the smoke of the little fire barely keeping the men warm in the cold night air. We smell some other scents, too. These are shepherds. There’s a reason no one likes them very much There’s a reason that they are on the lowest rungs of that society’s ladder. When the people then thought about shepherds, they were glad that those men lived out in the fields with their sheep. While you know the answer to our question, these men didn’t. They didn’t even know that there was a question. They had no idea that night that anything special was going on. They didn’t know that it was the first Christmas. What did they know? They knew their place in society—and it wasn’t good. They should have known more, too. They had, like everyone does, a voice inside that told them they were outcasts because they deserved it. That voice kept on urging them to know that something was not right about their lives and their behaviors. I don’t mean because they were shepherds, but because they were people. They either knew or should have known that being the smelly dregs of society was actually better than they deserved. And that they had in common with everyone else in Bethlehem that day except for the baby in the manger. This common condition goes all the way back to the first two human beings. That’s why our first reading came from an account about Adam and Eve in the garden in the moments after their sin. That’s where Christmas starts. It starts with sinners who stand naked before God with nothing whatsoever to give to him to make up for what they have done. And generation after generation of people stand before God the exact same way. All of Adam and Eve’s descendants: kings and priests, prophets, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, you, me. If we really listened to that nagging conscience-voice, we would do nothing but beg God for mercy understanding that we have done wrong and deserve his punishment. That’s where it starts. That’s where the shepherds were on that Bethlehem night like so many others that they had lived through before. It was a night just like any other right until it wasn’t. An angel. The glory of God shining. A bright light pierced the darkness around these men and their sheep, and it terrified them. All the thoughts that they had never been able to fully express, all the pangs of their consciences suddenly erupted within them. It felt as though that bright light could shine right into their naked souls. And of course they were afraid. But the angel said, “Don’t be. Don’t be afraid. I am not coming with bad news. I am not coming with scary news or terrifying news. I am coming with good news. Good news for shepherds, yes, even for you. It is for you because it is for everyone.” And what was the good news that the angel shared? It was a baby. The Savior was born. He is Christ, the Lord. He is God come down to do for his people what his people could never do for themselves. He came to save them. He came to save sinners. He came to save shepherds. He came to save you