Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

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. . . . The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ. (vss. 14, 17)

Last night we gathered to behold the contrasts of a Silent Night . . .and there we beheld the Light and Life of the world . . . Jesus our Lord and Savior, in the darkness of Bethlehem and in the cold, rude shadows of manger relief. . . . the barn, the beasts, and the Babe. Only in the humility of the rude manger scene, were we able to behold the Glory of God in the Highest, now come to earth in the dead of winter. The light of the world broke the darkness of winter’s cursed ground in a manger in Bethlehem. Here we have been wowed by the substance Godhead in the form of rude human condition. And not a disguise, a whole new identity in this baby boy announced by the Angel. For unto us was born this day a Savior who is Christ, the Lord. Your attention is again invited this morning to another of the traditional texts for Christmas, but a much more expansive view. From the lofty text in John 1, you are invited to view the Glory of the Word who was made flesh and has come to dwell among us with His grace and truth.

Yes, the Christmas story is all about Jesus. But it is more than just about the baby Jesus we beheld last night in the manger. It is a story that began within the Holy Triune God Himself . . . revealed in His Words and Promises throughout the Old Testament . . . brought to life and light in the Holy Nativity of Christ Jesus our Lord . . . accomplished by His sacrificial death upon the Cross . . . made available for all the world in His Resurrection from the dead . . . and continuously lived within His one holy Christian and Apostolic Church (in heaven and on earth). Here, then, is where it has become -- and still becomes -- your story, your real life in Christ.

From the babe in the manger, God has provided for us an amazing view of the greatest story ever to be told. The story is about the Christ Child, Jesus. But from the view of him in the manger we see just the beginning of a huge Christmas epic that spans time and eternity. This Eternal Word who spans both all of creation and redemption is the Christmas story in John. The story is both told by Word and it is about the Word. For the Word with which this story is told is more than language or communication, more than paper and ink, more than simply sound-waves moving through the air. This Word was in the beginning with God, because this Word is Himself the Almighty and Eternal Son of the Living God, by Whom all things were made (without Whom nothing was made that has been made). And this divine Word has become flesh and lives among us. The Word narrates the story of the Holy Triune God with His own flesh and blood . . . and He continues to narrate that story (and brings it to life) among you. It is a story of God’s glory come to earth, full of grace and truth.

It was Luther who understood rightly that the glory of God is manifested and made know in suffering. This means not merely that God-with-us, the Word made flesh, is known through suffering, but that He makes himself known through suffering. The disciples came to Jesus with the request - show us the Father. Jesus replied that he who has seen him, has seen the Father in that the works that He did were the works of the Father and revealed that the Father was in Him and He in the Father as He and the Father are one. The birth of Jesus is the birth of Immanuel, God with us. We see his divinity in his humanity, we see God with us in the works of God that he performed. The man Jesus both hides and reveals the eternal Creator of the universe. Said Luther, the humanity hides the majestic glory of God as He is in Heaven. We get to see an earthly majesty of God when we go to Bethlehem and behold the babe in the barn. But what about his glory? John witnesses that the glory of the eternal Son of God has been manifested in Jesus. But where and how can this be beheld?

First of all, it cannot be seen by trying to gape into heaven and catch a glimpse of the risen and exalted Christ. Nor can it be seen by trying to locate it from Christ who dwells in you. Rather, we only can behold the glory of the Word made flesh by first beholding the rude humility of the baby in the manger in the winter darkness of Bethlehem. But this is just the beginning of manifestation of the Glory of God in grace and truth. There is a shadow that was cast across the town of Bethlehem in the shape of a cross. In the message of the Angel and the Star in the east, we are drawn to see the glory of the Babe in the manger in light of the shadow of the cross. The grace and truth that would come to us from the babe named Jesus must take us from Bethlehem to Jerusalem - from the lowly birth to the shameful death. It is Christ the crucified who reveals the work of the Saviour, the boy named Jesus, who suffers for the sins of the world - who suffers for your sin to make the tidings of great joy - grace and truth for you. The cross presents to your senses the shame and injustice of the suffering Christ. And there the Glory of God is most completely manifested here on earth. From the baby in Bethlehem to the Christ of the Cross we behold his glory. The One who is there is full of grace and truth, He presents to you the glory of the only begotten Father and His Son. But to see the glory in the suffering, the majesty in the humility, the grace of God in the judgment of the cross . . . as we noted also last night, you need the magic eyes of faith.

How do we get these eyes of faith? We get them through our own suffering . . . through our dying to sin and being raised up as a new creation with new eyes that see the glory of God in the suffering of the Son on the cross . . . preceived by the eyes of faith that are given sight and sharp vision through our own suffering . . . our own dying to sin and crosses in life. In suffering we behold in the One to be born, the glory of the gracious God who takes on human flesh to fill us with His grace and truth. Come and behold his glory in the cross shadow of Bethlehem! Oh come . . . let us adore Him!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.