Sermon: Christmas Eve - 2019

24 December 2019

Text: Isa 7:10-14, Micah 5:2-5a, Isa 9:2-7, Matt 1:18-25, Matt 2:1-12, John 1:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

There is a popular Christmas song called “Mary Did You Know?”  The idea behind the song is that we wonder how much Mary knew about her Son and what He was going to accomplish.  

The answer is that she knew some things, but not other things.  

This is how God works with all of us.  He reveals what we need to know at a given time, but there are also many things that remain a mystery until they happen.  So Mary certainly knew that she was going to bear a Son, even though she knew that she had not known a man.  She knew that the process took nine months, and so she knew when her Child was going to be born.  She knew what the prophets and Old Testament scriptures taught about the Messiah.  But there was indeed much that she did not know as well.  She would find out like everyone else as the future slipped into the present, and then made its way to the past, to history.  

The first thing that we ever knew about Jesus was recorded in the Book of Genesis, and was actually spoken to Satan immediately after Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden.  God told the devil – within earshot of Adam and Eve – that the “Seed of the woman” would crush the head of the serpent, of the devil, and in the process, the serpent would bruise the heel of the Savior.  

The expression “seed of the woman” makes no biological sense.  But it must have started to make sense to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the “most highly favored lady,” as she was told by the Angel Gabriel that she would bear the Savior without the seed of a man.  Blessed Mary knew the Scripture from Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” 

Mary also knew – from the prophecy of Micah – that she would give birth in the little town of Bethlehem, “too little to be among the clans of Judah,” and yet her Son was to be “Ruler in Israel.”  She knew that He was to be “great to the ends of the earth” and that “He shall be their peace.”

She knew that David’s Royal City is called “Jerusalem,” in her language, ‘the City of Peace.”  Her Son will be the Prince of Peace, the fulfillment of David and of the promise of peace in the great city.  

She knew that like Bethlehem, she was not great.  And yet she knew that the Lord often chooses the weak – even the seemingly impossible – to carry out His mighty will.  

Mary knew the prophecy of Isaiah, “Unto us a Child is born, to us a Son is given… His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” and that He would sit on David’s throne “from this time forth and forevermore.”  She knew that “the people who walked in darkness” will see a great light, her Son, who would shine on the world’s darkness and death, and replace it with light and life.  

Not only would Mary hear the announcement of her pregnancy from an angel, she was to hear the “song the angels sing,” the Gloria, the praises of heaven and earth to “God in flesh appearing” to whom she would give birth.

Mary was to know more of the particulars when the angel of the Lord would also appear to her fiancé Joseph, saying, “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Mary was also to come to know the suffering that would follow her and her Son, as the devil and his allies – among whom were King Herod – would try to destroy the Fetus within her.  She came to know more when the magi from the east came bearing gifts.  For not only did they come to pay homage to her Son the King, they also “fell down and worshiped Him.”  For it had been revealed to these wise men “what child is this,” and so they brought the treasures of their land: “incense, gold, and myrrh” to this King of kings” who “salvation brings.” 

Mary most likely did not know about her Son’s crucifixion, that He would save us by grace by means of His blood shed on the cross.  But St. Simeon did give her a hint when he held the baby Jesus in the temple: “Behold this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” 

Mary knew that her Son’s mission to save the world would involve suffering.  But thankfully, the exact nature of His passion and her own heart-piercing sword, was withheld from her.  Mary did not know all of the details.  For God is merciful, dear friends.

And in the course of time, after Mary witnessed her Son fulfill His mission to save us at the cross, after she had seen Him risen from the dead, after He had ascended into heaven, after her own death, after Sts. Peter and Paul would be put to death for the sake of the name of Jesus – the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who took Mary as his own adoptive mother to live in his house, St. John the Evangelist, would reveal to us the sublime truth, the eternal mystery, the details of which that Mary herself did not know unless it had been revealed to her, that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

This, dear friends, is the mystery revealed to us in the flesh of Jesus and in the Word of the Holy Scripture.  The eternal Word, the utterance of the Father “Let there be light,” in some way that we cannot understand, took flesh in the womb of the virgin, becoming the Seed of the Woman, the King of Israel, the Savior of the World, Immanuel, God with us, the Prince of Peace.

This child did not begin His life at His birth or at His conception.  For He is the eternal Son of God, “of the Father’s love begotten [before] the worlds began to be.” 

Mary knew about Jesus from the “seers in old time” who “chanted of [Him] with one accord.”  Mary knew “the voices of the prophets” and just what and Whom they “promised in their faithful word.”

And now, dear friends, Mary knows, the angels and the saints know, the whole company of heaven knows, Satan and the demons know, and we who have been saved by His redeeming grace, we who bear the gift of eternal life in His name and by His blood know: We know that He is the Christ, the Son of the Father in flesh appearing, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born to save us from our sins, He is Jesus, Immanuel, God With Us, the Christ.  And we sing with the heavenly hosts:

Christ, to Thee, with God the Father,

And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,

Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving

And unending praises be,

Honor, glory, and dominion,

And eternal victory

Evermore and evermore.  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.