Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ (Ro 1:7). Amen.
I am going to suggest two changes to a familiar Christmas hymn. Before you get too excited, it is actually one of my favorites. Maybe yours too. The one that I am altering is What Child Is This (CW 67).
I am not tampering with it because I am so talented. I haven’t written too many hymns in my lifetime. To be honest—zero. And this song has been around much longer than I have.
I get what the author is asking us to do. As we stand in the stable and stare at the newborn, we are to reflect and remember why the babe, the Son of Mary, came at Christmas. The King would endure nails, spear, and cross for me, for you (CW 67:2). That is looking ahead 33 years from a shed for animals to a place of execution.
But this morning we look back nine months—to Gabriel’s announcement and Mary’s acceptance.
Here is what I am proposing:
Adding a tiny word. It really is only one letter. “A.” What a Child is this.”
Switching a punctuation mark—from a question to an exclamation. What a Child is this!
We consider this as we read from …
Luke 1:26-38
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, our Savior and King,
The one the Holy Spirit used to author the third Gospel was a doctor (Col 4:14). That was Luke’s profession. He understood where babies come from—probably much better than we do, even if we have had one or two. I could give a one sentence description. More likely would be a phrase. Someone in the medical field could go into a bit more detail with a paragraph. Possibly a book.
It makes me wonder what he was mulling over when he documented this account. I realize that makes us dive into the pool of speculation. And the only thing we get as a result is wet.
No matter what was going through his mind, we know what comes out of our mouth …
What a Child Is This!
1. Because of the messenger’s announcement (26-33)
2. Because of the mother’s acceptance (35-38)
1. Because of the messenger’s announcement (26-33)
Timewise it is after the baby is born that the official notification goes out—whether a phone call or mailed letter, or the extremely personal touch of a text or tweet. But this one comes in person. And nine months early. What a child is this because of the messenger’s announcement.
This was the second time God dispatched Gabriel with baby news. Sixth months earlier (Lk 1:26), he appeared to a priest on duty in the temple in Jerusalem. Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, despite their old age, were going to be parents (Lk 1:18). The boy would be John the Baptizer, the forerunner of Jesus. Certainly that was a remarkable birth.
But nothing like this. Instead of heading to the capital city, the angel went to a quiet village in the north, to Nazareth (Lk 1:26). That was not a hot spot of activity, let alone a vacation destination in Israel. But that was where Mary was living. We learn that she was “pledged to be married to a man named Joseph” (Lk 1:27). That was more than just our engagement. Those two had made their plans and spoken their vows. Things seemed to in order and on track.
But that all shifted when Gabriel came calling. The salutation was nothing special (except, that it was an angel, of course): “Greetings” (Lk 1:28). It was like the “Good Morning” that you wished people before church.
But that is where familiar stopped and phenomenal started. “Greetings, you who are highly favored!” (Lk 1:28). She is the one to whom the Lord had been and continued to be gracious. It is good for us to remind ourselves that Mary is on the receiving end of grace, not the giving side. The emphasis is on God did/was doing; the focus is not on what Mary had done/would do.
Add to that “The Lord is with you” (Lk 1:28). That would be critical, especially in light of what would follow—both from the angel and in life. This was not what she was expecting. But now she was going to be expecting. What next? The grief of a frustrated fiancée and the gossip of nosy neighbors? Not out of the question. But God doesn’t forget his own (Is 41:10). Us either. He is with us no matter what difficulty or decision that we face.
Do you blame her? “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be” (Lk 1:29). This was uncommon, but also unclear. It is not every day that Mary had a visit from one of God’s holy ones. It kept going through her head, “What is going on here?”
Gabriel was going to clear up the confusion. But first the comfort: “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God” (Lk 1:30). There was anxiety—not so still and serene as often pictured, worse than not having your Christmas shopping done. But she could stop it. God was giving her grace—underserved kindness. Why? Why would she have the honor that only one woman in the world could have? Because. Again, not her doing, but God’s. It wasn’t that Mary was being groomed by the greats in Israel, pampered and primed. Grace. God offers that to us at Christmas too. Why us? Because. Because of grace, not our goodness like our stellar church attendance or our strenuous efforts. Grace forgives sins and opens heaven. Thank God for that favor. That is a great Christmas gift.
Grace—whether it is to her or to us, it is all because of the next sentence. He grabs her attention and goes on with emphasis: “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus” (Lk 1:31). That pronouncement is packed with information.
“You will be with child” (Lk 1:31). There would be some jumping and jostling in her womb very soon.
“You will … give birth to a son” (Lk 1:31). No ultrasound was necessary so Mary knew what color to paint the nursery or what clothes to buy the infant. A boy.
“You are to give him the name Jesus” (Lk 1:31). She didn’t have to sift through any baby books to come up with a clever or cute name. Not even shake the family tree for possibilities. Jesus. And the meaning of that was not lost on her. “The Lord saves.” Mary captures that concept in her song, the Magnificat. “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Lk 1:47). We sing the same thing. Our joy is because of Jesus, our Savior.
If that wasn’t enough, Gabriel mentions more mind-blowing things:
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Lk 1:32). Mary’s son. And God’s Son. True God.
“The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Lk 1:32,33). And also David’s Son. God sent Nathan because he was overruling David’s building plans with his own. It wasn’t about a physical dwelling—David wanted to construct the temple, but physical descendants—God wanted to continue his line. “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom [That is Solomon] … Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” [That is the Savior.] (1 Sa 7:12,16). God assured David that the Messiah would come from his bloodline. And Gabriel was making known that it was about to happen in Mary’s belly. And this King was unlike any other in history. His rule in hearts of faith, our hearts too, is unending, eternal—on earth and in heaven. Our King conquered death for us. He crushed the devil for us (Ge 3:15). And now he reigns and will rule. All authority is his to care for his own (Mt 28:18; Eph 1:20-22). Once again we gaze into the manger to see a promise made is a promise kept.
We step back in amazement as we get ready to celebrate Christmas tomorrow. Any birth is exciting. Even more so this one that we commemorate year after year. What a child is this because of the messenger’s announcement. (Remember that is what an angel is—a messenger.) And we got to eavesdrop. But it is more about what he said than who said it. Jesus is born of Mary. But he is Jesus, Savior, Son of the Most High and from David’s line. He is King. We worship him as we exclaim because of the angel’s announcement: “What a child is this!” That is a marvel at Christmas.
2. Because of the mother’s acceptance (35-38)
I know when one of my buddies sends out the family Christmas card. He will call before it hits the post office because he saves himself the foolish conversation. He will alert me that the girl in the picture is his daughter. My contention every year was that since I have never seen her, she doesn’t exist. (You can question my logic, or just me, later.) The angel’s announcement was incredible. But there is more. What a child is this because of the mother’s acceptance.
Can you sympathize with her? This was a lot to take in. The angel. The announcement. She was not a doctor like Luke. But she wasn’t dumb either. There were certain facts of life even if she didn’t have 10th-grade biology. “How will this be … since I am a virgin?” (Lk 1:34; cf. Is 7:14). She had not had the experience of being with a man. [Luke had mentioned that already twice in connection with Mary (Lk 1:27).]
The response was more of absolute truth rather than a technical answer. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk 1:35). That is more information than clarification, isn’t it? It was just going to be. And the Holy Spirit would be involved. We leave it at that. And so did Mary. Is it so well-known that our head doesn’t spin? Let it sink in one more time before tomorrow.
But the angel included more that fits under the category of astonishing. “Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month” (Lk 1:36). The formerly sterile family member just hit her second trimester.
And then there is the reinforcement. “For nothing is impossible with God” (Lk 1:37). A double negative—“nothing” and “impossible”—highlights the positive. “Every last thing is possible as far as God is concerned.” Postmenopausal birth: “For nothing is impossible with God” (Lk 1:37). Virgin birth: “For nothing is impossible with God” (Lk 1:37). No matter is outside of God’s ability or capability. For Elizabeth. For Mary. For us. We would do well to imitate Mary’s acceptance. “I am the Lord’s servant. … May it be to me as you have said” (Lk 1:38). Did she grasp the full significance of those sounds? She was willing to serve as the Lord asked her—no matter what the outcome or aftermath. Instead of complaining about what we have in front of us, we go with the Lord beside us—to do whatever he directs us. We are the Lord’s servants.
We confess it often—perhaps without blinking or thinking as the words roll off our tongues: “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary” (CW p. 41). Jesus had to be true man—to put himself under the law for us and to die for us. But he had to be free of the taint of the sin that you and I are born with—passed to us from our mommies and daddies ever since Adam and Eve.
That is why Jesus didn’t have a human father. So the angel could assert: “The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Jesus came into the world far from sin and free from sin. And the Son of God kept the law in our place and his innocent death counts for us. We are holy ones—saints. The psalmist sums it up nicely when he inquires: “O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?” (Ps 89:8). And then he instructs: “You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you” (Ps 89:8). Like the mother’s acceptance, we believe it and belt it out: “What a child is this!” That is a miracle of Christmas.
I am not so full of myself that I assume that my two modifications are going to catch on. We might have to include another musical note to chant “What a child is this.” (And now that is way beyond my skill level.) There also has to be that punctuation shift—instead of a curved line for a question mark, it has to be a straight line for an exclamation mark. There is also the matter of fighting over a hundred years of tradition and even a copyright. So we will leave it since the problems are piling up. But at the same time, we don’t have to sing it. We can say it: What a child is this because of the messenger’s announcement and because of the mother’s acceptance. We hear it—a son to be born of Mary, the Savior—and we hold on to it—faith trusts that it is so—our Saivor. And it is. Happy Advent. Happy Christmas Eve. Amen.
To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen (Ro 16:27).
December 24, 2017
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