Extracts from a Martin Luther sermon on Luke 2.1-14
Luke’s Gospel is so clear it requires little explanation.
But it should be well considered and taken to heart. No one will receive more benefit from it than those who calmly and quietly banish everything else from their mind and diligently look into it. It is just as the sun is reflected in calm water and gives out vigorous warmth.
In Bethlehem
The evangelist shows that when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem they were the most insignificant and despised, so that they had to make way for others until they were obliged to take refuge in a stable, to share with the cattle, while many a wicked man sat at the head in the hotels and was honoured as lord. No one noticed what God was doing in that stable. He lets the inhabitants of large houses eat, drink and be merry; but this comfort and treasure is hidden from them. O what a dark night this was for Bethlehem that was not conscious of this glorious light!
See how God shows that he utterly disregards what the world is, has, or desires; and furthermore, that the world shows how little it knows or notices what God is, has and does.
See this is the first picture with which Christ puts the world to shame and exposes all it does and knows. It shows that the world’s greatest wisdom is foolishness, her best actions are wrong, and her greatest treasures misfortunes.
Born one with us
But the birth itself is yet more pitiable. There is no one to take pity on this young wife who was for the first time to give birth to a child. There she is without any preparation, without either light or fire, alone in the darkness, without anyone offering her service as is customary for women to do at such times.
Mary’s experience was not different from that of other women, so that the birth of Christ was a real natural birth. Grace does not interfere with nature and her work, but rather improves and promotes it. Likewise Mary, without doubt, also nourished the child with milk from her breast and not strange milk, or in a manner different from that which nature provided. I mention this that we may be grounded in the faith and know that Jesus was a natural man in every respect just as we, the only difference being in his relation to sin and grace, he being without a sinful nature.
It is a great comfort to us that Jesus took upon himself our nature and flesh. Therefore, we are not to take away from him or his mother anything that is not in conflict with grace, for the text clearly says that she brought him forth, and the angels said, unto you he is born.
Making angels rejoice
But what happens in heaven concerning this birth? As much as it is despised on earth, so much a thousand times more it is honoured in heaven. If an angel from heaven came and praised you and your work, would you not regard it of greater value than all the praise and honour of the world could give you, and for which you would be willing to bear the greatest humiliation and reproach?
What exalted honour is that when all the angels in heaven cannot restrain themselves from breaking out in rejoicing, so that even poor shepherds in the fields hear them preach, praise God, sing, and pour out their joy without measure? Is not all the joy and honour experienced by all the kings and nobles on earth to be regarded as only dross and abomination, of which no one likes to think, when compared with the joy and glory here displayed?
Shepherds
Behold how very richly God honours those who are despised of men, and that very gladly. Angels could find no princes or valiant men to whom to communicate the good news; but only unlearned laymen, the most humble people upon earth. Could they not have addressed high priests, who it was supposed knew so much concerning God and angels? No, God chose poor shepherds, who, though they were of low esteem in the sight of men, were in heaven regarded as worthy of such grace and honour. See how God utterly overthrows that which is lofty!
Faith
Let us now look at the mysteries set before us in this history. In all the mysteries here, two things are especially set forth – the gospel and faith. That is, what is to be preached and what is to be believed, who are to be the preachers and who are to be believers. These we will now consider.
The right and gracious faith which God demands is that you firmly believe that Christ is born for you, and that this birth took place for your welfare. The angel declared: ‘Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people; for there is born to you this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’ He does not simply say, Christ is born, but to you he is born; neither does he say, I bring glad tidings, but to you I bring glad tidings of great joy. Furthermore, this joy was not to remain in Christ, but it shall be to all people. This faith no wicked man has, nor can he have it; for the right ground of salvation which unites Christ and the believing heart is that they have all things in common. But what have they?
Christ has a pure innocent, holy birth. Man has an unclean, sinful, condemned birth. ‘I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me,’ says David. Nothing can help this unholy birth except the pure birth of Christ. But Christ’s birth cannot be distributed in a material sense, neither would it avail anything. It is, therefore, imparted spiritually, through the Word; as the angel says, it is given to all who firmly believe so that no harm will come to them because of their impure birth. This is the way and manner in which we are to be cleansed from the miserable birth we have in Adam. For this purpose, Christ willed to be born, that through him we might be born again, as he says in John 3.3. It takes place through faith.
Every Christian may rejoice
We see here how Christ, as it were, takes our birth from us and absorbs it into his birth, and grants us his, that in it we might become pure and holy, as if it were our own, so that every Christian may rejoice and glory in Christ’s birth as much as if he himself had been born of Mary as was the Christ.
O this is the great joy of which the angel speaks. This is the comfort and exceeding goodness of God that, if a man believes this he can boast of the treasure that Mary is his rightful mother, that Christ is his brother and God his father.
‘Make this birth your own’
This is the only way in which Christ can be rightly known so that conscience is satisfied and made to rejoice. Out of this grow love and praise to God, who in Christ has bestowed upon us unspeakable gifts. This is what is meant by Isaiah 9.6: ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,’ – to us, to us, to us is born, and to us is given this child.
Therefore, see to it that you do not find pleasure in the Gospel only as a history, for that is only transient; neither regard it only as an example. But see to it that you make this birth your own and that Christ be born in you. This will be the case if you believe.
If Christ has now thus become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through him and have received your inheritance without any personal merit, but alone through the love of God who gives to you as your own the treasure and work of his Son, it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbour as Christ has done to you.
FOOTNOTE
In 1520, Luther’s benefactor Frederick the Wise, requested Luther prepare a postil, or sermon, for every Sunday of the Church Year. His postils were expository studies of the lectionary readings assigned to the Sunday and were intended to serve as expository guides for other priests to help them prepare their own preaching. This article has taken extracts from one of the postils prepared for Christmas Day. JEB
