Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

          ...I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. (Matthew 23:34)

          And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (Acts 7:59)

            It may not seem like it, but this morning we are still in lectionary venue of Christmas. Two nights ago, we surveyed the Christmas story from the vantage point of details of son of God becoming a man from the details of the birth of Jesus and the major prophesies throughout the Old Testament that foretold the event and its significance. Yesterday we reflected from John’s Gospel the mystery of the incarnation and the shape of God’s plan of redemption that the Word Who became flesh would take upon himself. This morning your attention is invited to an aspect that is usually not understood and seldom is included in reflections about the significance of Christmas. It is usual to hear about how the baby Jesus was born in a barn and then visited by the Shepherds to the singing of Angels. And it is typical to wonder and reflect on the miracle of God and significance of God becoming man, being named Jesus, to save us from our sins. But this morning you are going to hear, what the late Paul Harvey used to call the rest of the story.

          When we turn to the pages of Scripture for the rest of the Story about the significance of God becoming a man in Christ Jesus for us and our salvation, there is perhaps a helpful contemporary example to compare. You are all familiar are you not of the plethora of advertisements concerning the myriad of wonder drugs on the market these days and all of the incredible things that they can do to alleviate or eliminate so many of the physical ailments and maladies that can afflict us. Those we see as television commercials in the evening promise such incredibly wonderful results from such small colorful pills. We see men and women in such bad shape miraculously made better with smiling faces as the commercial unfolds touting amazing and wonderful results, but then we hear a voice in a rather monotone voice quickly indicate a series of contraindications that are rather chilling. With truth in advertising, they present the rest of the story. The wonder pill can also cause vomiting, severe bleeding, paralysis, and some have even died from taking it. It is much the same with the balm of Gilead, the medicine of immortality, that comes from the Great Physician.

          The words of our lessons including the stoning death of Stephen present a parallel about Christmas and the implications of embracing One who was born there in Bethlehem. Yes, the angels have gathered to sing glory to God in the highest about his arrival touching the earth with harps of gold. And yes, the baby Jesus can be seen in the manger so tender and mild and sleeping in heavenly peace. But beyond these confines, and indeed in, with, and under these glorious and peaceful things - all Hell has broken loose! The Devil and all the powers of Hell have come out of their dark places to wage battle against the Holy One of God, his saving mission, and all who would seek to embrace its promise. Yes, during this festive season, as we behold the Babe in Bethlehem and all the wonders of this season with its joy and thanksgiving; our lessons serve to remember with sober awareness that the arrival of this baby means the outbreak of all-out war. And in the midst of this war between our Lord and Savior and forces of darkness, there will be casualties. There will be collateral damage. We need to understand that the peace on earth that the Christ child brings is not cessation of hostilities. Quite the reverse! It has ramped them up in both time and eternity. Peace with God, brings warfare, conflict, and suffering with the forces of evil. Embracing the peace of Christ is a matter of being connected to His presence and saving work which puts you on the right side of things in the midst of great hostilities. In this life, when God’s peace advances and makes significant progress against the powers of darkness, the pitch of battle warfare does not lessen or go away - it increases.  To put it another way, when God’s peace reigns supreme . . . someone is going to die.

          Stephen was a Hellenistic Jew who became one of the first deacons in the New Testament Church after coming to faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah. He understood that the persecution of the prophets of old by the religiously motivated was not a thing of the past. It goes on in every generation. He declared that the presence of God was not to be found in houses but rather in the incarnate Christ in Whom alone - not in the Laws and customs of Moses - in Whom alone there is righteousness and life with God. As a true prophet himself, he was stoned to death for this faith and confession in an effort to stamp out the true significance of the coming of Jesus. He was just reiterating the same message about what can happen to those who declare the truth of God’s Gospel that Jesus declared in Jerusalem shortly before He was crucified. . . . I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

          His birth signals the climax of their message - the most pivotal event in human history. Here in this story, God executes His plan to rescue us from the diabolical forces of evil that are out to destroy us . . . but not without a fight, and not without casualties. Indeed, right from the start as lessons still to come will report, innocent babies in Bethlehem will die because of the birth of the Baby in the barn. When we must look at tragic events like the slaughter of the innocent babies in Bethlehem or the stoning of Stephen, we need to understand that we are simply recognizing what it means to connect with the life and death of this Jesus. In His cross we each get our own. For as this baby Jesus is spared Herod’s wrath, He is not spared the wrath of God, but became the innocent sacrifice in his blood - dying that we might have life. Here was truly the death of the Holy Innocent One. Yet, in his death we are spared and become the innocent ones that God intended to call his children in the first place. In His death and through His gifts, we are delivered to a position of - yes temporal hostility with the forces of evil - but we are also delivered into eternal safety from the hands of our enemies. There in the cross, we may see ourselves as God sees us - wrapped in the innocence of His Son . . . and delivered from all that would be our undoing. This day, and everyday in the Lord of Lords Who became a man, you have everlasting peace with God. Yes, even this morning in the Supper, you are presented the peace of the Lord by the presence of His body and blood as they are united with bread and wine. They are offered to you for your nourishment in the midst of the battles that you must wage against the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

          And as you ponder the rest of the story, you need to take heart in realizing that it has yet to come to its end. For the rest of the story includes another arrival of the King born to be man - another arrival signaled again by the Angels, but this time with trumpet sound. Not with mercy mild, wrapped in diapers, but with power and majesty, wrapped in glory. He will descend to us a second time to return us to paradise which we do not deserve, and to send to Hell all who rebel against the unfairness of it all, getting simply what they deserve. And about the full significance of Christmas, then but only then, you will have received . . . the rest of the story!

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