GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 2:10-12
10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people: 11 This day in the city of David, a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”
The angel’s command “Do not be afraid” (mē phobeisthe, Μὴ ϕοβεῖσθε) is not a command to stop fearing, but a command not even to begin. Here was a message as empty of the law as a kiss on the lips; here was nothing but the delightful grace of God, the gospel unsheathed, uncloaked, unmasked: “Good news of great joy for all people.” There was nothing at all to fear.
We especially learn these things about the baby:
■ He was the Savior. Although only Mary and this angel use the word Savior in this Gospel, there are dozens of references throughout the Bible. The Savior is the one who saves, who rescued us from the impossible trap of sin. Of the 31 references to a savior in the Old Testament, not one is a reference to anyone except to God himself, in person, who would save his people from their sins.
■ He was the promised Christ, the Messiah. The significance of this title is that Jesus was the anointed (Hebrew messiah, Greek christos) servant of God, anointed to the special threefold office of prophet, priest, and king. “The Lord your God,” Moses said, “will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers” (Deuteronomy 18:15). And in Hebrews we are encouraged: “Fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess” (Hebrews 3:1). And Jesus himself confessed before Pilate: “You are right in saying I am a king” (John 18:37). God anointed Jesus of Nazareth “with the Holy Spirit and power” (Acts 10:38).
■ He was and is the Lord. This word “Lord” is the Greek equivalent of God’s name, Jehovah or Yahweh. Jesus is the Lord, the God who created the universe. John said, “He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:2-3). Thomas the Apostle confessed with a cry, “My Lord and my God!” after the resurrection (John 20:28). Paul says simply and profoundly: “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Jesus is truly and fully God, “in very nature God” (Philippians 2:6). This has always been the understanding of the true Church, as evidenced by Clement and Ignatius. “Brothers,” Clement said, “is it vital to think of Jesus Christ as God” (2 Clement 1:1). “Our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, by the seed of David on the one hand and of the Holy Spirit on the other. He was born; he was baptized in order to purify the water by his suffering.” (Ignatius to the Ephesians 18:2). Also: “Abundant greeting in blamelessness in Jesus Christ our God” (Ign. to the Romans, greeting). We confess in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is “of one being with the Father,” and in the Athanasian Creed that “our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and man.”
■ He was a baby, just newborn. In addition to being truly God, Jesus Christ is also truly and fully human. Paul said, “He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7), sharing our humanity (Hebrews 2:14). As a human, Jesus was not only able to do human things, but subjected himself to a human life and manner of living. As a child, he “grew and became strong” (Luke 2:40). He had flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). He had a human soul (Matthew 26:38). He was subject to hunger (Matthew 4:2), thirst (John 19:28), sleep (Mark 4:38), tears (John 11:35), suffering (Psalm 22:1,2,14-17,24), and even death (Mark 15:37,44-46). And, of course, he was subject to undergoing a human birth (Luke 2:7), circumcision (2:21), and discipline from his parents, even when they themselves were in error (Luke 2:48). By becoming a man, Jesus made himself subject to the very laws he had given to Moses, the laws which he required that all men obey; the laws which condemn us. He became a man to obey them, and also to be able to lay down his life for us (1 John 3:16).
■ He was accompanied by an unusual sign: a swaddled baby lying in a manger in Bethlehem. There could have been no other babies in Bethlehem lying in a manger that night. There could have hardly been any other babies in all of Judea that could be found in a manger that night, or any other. The shepherds would not be mistaken when they found him, and knowing about the manger, they would waste no time looking for him where most babies would be found. This set a precedent both for Jesus and for his Church. He did not come to go where he was expected, or to call those who were already faithful. He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).
Thanks be to God, that he came to seek and to save us.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota