“The Poor and the Humble made Rich”
Luke 2:1-20
12/25/06
So, why announce such a special birth to a bunch of
shepherds? Shouldn’t it have been announced to the
theologians - the religious leaders of the day who were the teachers of
the Scriptures, the ones who were supposed to be looking forward to the
coming of the Messiah? Why announce Christ’s birth to a
bunch of ignorant shepherds? Who was going to believe them,
anyway? People would be much more disposed to believing their
leaders rather than some poor, lower class shepherds, wouldn’t
they? Why does God always seem to choose the weak things of this
world to shame the strong? It’s just as Mary had said,
“He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart; He
has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who
were humble.”
It’s not, of course, that the poor and the
humble are any more worthy of God’s good news and gifts.
They are born in sin just like everyone else is, dead in their
trespasses before God, worthy of His judgment and wrath. This is
what the Scriptures state of the condition of all men, and the poor and
the humble constitute part of all men; therefore, they too are
sinners. But the poor and the humble are more easily convinced of
this, because they have little or nothing in the way of possessions to
hold onto and trust in for their security, and they are reminded daily
by their contemporaries of their place in society, that they are on the
lower end of the social scale and are viewed as outcasts, unworthy of
being shown mercy and compassion. The rich and the arrogant, on
the other hand, trust both in their possessions and their social status
and, therefore, see no need for a Savior. Thus, Jesus says of
rich people that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
It’s very difficult (from a human perspective) to convince a
rich, self-sufficient person that he is poor in God’s eyes and in
need of the true riches of God’s grace in Jesus. And yet,
nothing is too difficult for God. God can and does bring even
rich and arrogant people too to repentance and faith. But the
fact is, most of them will reject His gifts.
But here we’ve been talking about
“them” and not about ourselves. The Scriptures never
allow you to sit on the fence or watch the game from the
sidelines. Each of us is forced to answer the question for
himself: “Am I an arrogant rich or a humble poor
person?” The answer to this question lies not in how you
feel about yourself nor in your good works towards others nor even in
what others say about you, but in what God says about you in His
Word. According to His Word, you may have very little in the way
of possessions and yet still have an “arrogant-rich”
attitude. And you may also be fairly wealthy in this world and
yet have a “humble-poor” attitude. But the Word of
God is the great equalizer, for with it God brings down the proud and
exalts the humble. He does this with His words of Law and Gospel.
God’s words of Law put us all in the same camp
with Mary who confessed her lowly condition before God. Even
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David and King Solomon, with all their
wealth, had to confess the same thing, that according to God’s
words of Law, they were poor on account of their sins, they lacked the
righteousness of God, and they were in need of His grace and
forgiveness. God’s Law tells us that we have nothing to
offer Him, nothing to give Him, nothing to barter with to get Him to
have mercy upon us. God’s Law puts us in our place before
God, and that place is under the tyranny of the devil, in the kingdom
of darkness, lost in our sins, and under the sentence of eternal
suffering and death in hell. Even the poor shepherds were in this
condition, wandering about not only in the physical darkness of the
night, but also the spiritual darkness of sin. All of us, rich
and poor alike in this world, must be brought to the realization that
before God we are nothing but poor beggars, waiting for our heavenly
Father to have mercy upon us, simply on the receiving end of His
gracious gifts.
Only when you have been brought there with Mary, the
shepherds, the tax-collectors and sinners are you then in the position
to hear God’s words of Gospel and receive from Him His riches in
Jesus. As with the shepherds, the Gospel comes to you in the
darkness of your sins under the tyranny of death and the devil and
announces to you a Savior. This Savior is Jesus Christ, who saves
you by lifting you up out of your poverty and giving you His
wealth. He transfers you from the kingdom of darkness into His
kingdom of grace, He declares you righteous, clothing you with His
righteousness at Baptism, He forgives you all your sins, and He makes
you an heir with Him of the Father’s kingdom. And so in
Jesus you are made extremely rich. These riches are so great that
they cannot be measured, for they include the gift of a gracious and
merciful heavenly Father, His comforting Holy Spirit, and His Son Jesus
Christ along with all the benefits He won for you on the cross.
With the Gospel, God promises Himself to you, and with Him as your
reward, you are richer than the richest person on earth. And even
though you may have many possessions in this world, you do not find
your life in them, for God has seated you at His right hand in Jesus,
has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Him, and grants you resurrection from the dead and a new heaven and a
new earth in which to live together with Him face to face forever.
No wonder Mary treasured up in her heart all that
the shepherds told her about Jesus, because what they were telling her
was true treasure, eternal treasure - the gift of a Savior on whose
account we are at peace with God. And this is your treasure too,
given to you not only at this time of the year, but every day for the
rest of your life. Every day is a Christmas day for the
Christian, a day for celebrating the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And where are we given this gift? The
shepherds were told where to go to find this gift - to a manger.
There they would see the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes.
But He moved on from the manger. He went to Mt. Calvary where He
was nailed to a cross. But He didn’t stay there either; He
went to the grave, where instead of swaddling clothes He was wrapped in
burial linens. But they could not hold Him either, and on the
third day He rose from the dead, appeared to many of His disciples over
a period of 40 days, and then ascended into heaven to sit at the right
hand of the Father.
But His ascension to the Father’s right hand
does not mean He is now absent from us. As He promised, “I
am with you always, even to the end of the age,” and “Where
two or three are gathered together in my Name, there I am in their
midst,” and again, “I will never leave you or forsake
you.” Jesus still lets Himself be found by the poor and the
humble where He has located Himself for you in His means of grace -
your Baptism, the proclamation of the forgiveness of your sins, His
Word, and His Holy Supper. These are the “mangers”
today where Jesus has located Himself for you. These are the
places to which you are told to go, where you will receive Him and His
gifts to you today.
And having received these gifts, we rejoice in God
our Savior, as the shepherds did, and give Him thanks. Like the
shepherds, we tell others about the gifts God has given us, that they
too might receive those gifts. And like the shepherds, we glorify
and praise God, our heavenly Father, for He has had mercy upon us poor
sinners and given us all the riches of His grace in His Son, Jesus
Christ, so that we might be heirs of His kingdom and live under His
mercy now and forever. Merry Christmas! Amen.