Christmas Eve
Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20
In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear Saints, Merry Christmas!
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). That’s the marvelous good news the angels proclaim to the shepherds.
But why the shepherds? Why are they the ones who hear the angel’s sermon? By that, I don’t mean to say why not visit Herod or the Pharisees or the Chief Priests. We can understand that the Lord chooses the lowly. He comes for wretched sinners. He is born for the despised and the downtrodden and the despairing, the people who are considered nothing other than trash to this world, Jesus comes for them. That is good news in itself. For that means He comes for you, dear child. That’s amazing.
But what I mean to ask is, why wouldn’t the angels just tell the people of Bethlehem? Why go far out to the fields? Mary and Joseph weren’t the only ones to travel. They had to go to Bethlehem to be registered because their lineage was from Bethlehem. That means Mary and Joseph’s families also had to travel. They weren’t the only ones. So why wouldn’t the angels appear to their relatives?
Well, we’re given a hint of the reason when Luke says that “[Mary] laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7). That right there should shock us. Not simply that the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who should be born in a palace with all the luxuries this life could offer, deigns instead to take the lowest place in all the world. But more than that, why on earth would any mother lay her infant in a feeding trough? Why would Mary do this? Is no one there with her to hold the Child? There’s not one person? Mary’s just alone? That’s unsettling. But Luke explains it. Just briefly, but he says, “because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).
Actually, the text doesn’t say an “inn.” In the original Greek, this isn’t the word “inn,” this is the word κατάλυμα, and it’s better translated “guest room.” Which is nice because we typically imagine some cruel innkeeper and wonder, how could he be so heartless? But no, “there was no place for them in the guest room.” That makes more sense because Bethlehem was too small to even have an inn. All the people traveling for the census, their own relatives, are taking up the guest room.
But that makes it worse, doesn’t it? Rather than some stranger turning away the Holy Family and sending them to the animals, it’s their own kin. And it doesn’t say that the guest room was filled. Maybe it was, but the text just says, “there was no place for them.” Mary and Joseph are not welcome. They are rejected.
We don’t know how this went exactly, but the most straightforward explanation is that when questions arose about Mary’s pregnancy before marrying Joseph, the best explanation is that she simply told them the truth. “The angel visited me. The Holy Spirit came upon me. The power of the Most High overshadowed me. I conceived as a Virgin, and the child is none other than the Son of God.” Well, you can imagine how that went over. Mary is ostracized, mocked, and ridiculed for her simple faith. While their family rests comfortably in the guest room, Mary gives birth in the lodging of animals, “because there was no place for them.”
Do you see then why the angels went to the shepherds, why they skipped over the relatives of Mary and Joseph? The messengers of God do not say a word to the people in the guest room, because they’ve already heard the news. Mary and Joseph told them. The child is God in the flesh. The long-awaited Savior of the world has come, the redeemer of sinners, the bringer of peace, the refuge of the weary. God is in the manger. And they have no room for Him.
As sad as that is, you and I can’t be too hard on them. It turns out, our own opposition to God doesn’t usually involve some blatant rebellion or crass offense. Oftentimes, our sin is more basic than that. We, too, simply fail to make room for Him. Our lives are full, our calendars are full, our budgets are full, our time is full, our hearts are full of the cares of this world and the anxiety of tomorrow and the many griefs that weigh upon us. There simply is no room. No room for the Christ.
We’re wrong to think God will just take whatever we can spare, whatever time or devotion we can give. No. The angels leave the relatives in Bethlehem and seek out lowly shepherds.
But. This is not a sales pitch. This isn’t a guilt trip for you to make more room for Jesus in your life. And that’s not the point of the text. Of course, you should try harder. You need to devote your time to prayer every day. Not because you’re trying to satisfy some requirement. You need God’s Word. This world is not all there is. Don’t put all your hope in this life. It’s passing. Rather, pray the Psalms. Make room in your calendar for the things of God. Serve your neighbor. Discipline your flesh. Do all that. The relatives in the guest room should have done that. Absolutely. But that’s not why St. Luke tells you this. Jesus doesn’t need you to fit Him into your life. He doesn’t need your attempts to make room for Him. He is not begging.
The point here is that God did not wait for you to make room in your heart. Our hearts are full of corruption and wretchedness anyway. Why would God even want our hearts? Instead of you making room in your heart, He made room for you in His own. That’s what’s happening here on Christmas. Christ is born of Mary to make room for you.
There’s no room in Bethlehem. The relatives didn’t make room for Him, nor do you, but Christ is born nonetheless. He comes in the flesh of an infant to bear your sin, to do for you what you never could. Your life, your salvation, the refuge and peace you need in a broken world, it’s not dependent on how well you accept Jesus or what you do for Him. It’s dependent on what He does for you. He perfectly keeps the Law in your place, and He suffers the punishment you deserve. That’s what Christmas is all about. The cross is always in the background of the nativity. The peace on earth the angels sing of is not nice feelings and sentimentality. It’s that, “Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be borne for me, for you.”
And that is not shocking to Jesus. Your Lord isn’t surprised by any of this. There’s no room for Him. And that’s precisely why He came. He wasn’t hoping for a massive celebration in Bethlehem. He knew exactly what awaited Him. He has those little hands and feet, so vulnerable, for this reason alone, that those hands and feet would grow to support His weight on the cross. That’s how He brings you peace, and He’s not shocked by it.
What’s shocking, at least to us, even more shocking than God being laid in a manger is this, that when the angels proclaim it, they do not say to the shepherds, “A child is born.” They say, “Unto you.” “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). That’s incredible for the shepherds to hear. This Child is their Child. The Child of Mary belongs to them. And those angels announce the same in your ears tonight. He is yours. You must think this way, that the Christ Child is yours even more so than He is Mary’s. That is to say, Christ is born for you.
That means you, sinner, you whose life has been wrecked by sin, you who struggle with temptation, you who doubt, you who are frustrated with God, you have a Savior born for sinners. There is no sin for which He did not die. You cannot sin more than Jesus forgives. You can’t out-sin Him.
You who suffer in this broken world, you who grieve and worry about tomorrow, you who long for refuge from the assaults of satan and the despair that weighs upon you, you have a Redeemer who knows your troubles. He knows what you endure, and His manger means that there is a place for you in eternal life.
This is the cause of our wonder tonight, our rejoicing, our song and gift-giving, all celebration and merry wishing, it’s this, Christ is born to make room for you!
In ☩ Jesus’ name. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
"If God is for us, who is against us?" 