Christmas Day 2021 — Esgetology

John 1:1-14

December 25, 2021

Immanuel Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA

“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him!”

Today, my friends, we remember that the only-begotten Son of God, who from eternity had no body, assumed a body in the womb of the virgin Mary. This unfathomable thing He did for us children of Adam—the Adam who once stretched out his arm, grasping fruit forbidden by God, plunging our race into bondage and our world into decay.

Adam’s son Cain stretched out his arm to slay his brother; and the human race has been at war with itself ever since.

Cain’s descendant Lamech stretched out his arms to grasp two wives, contrary to God’s design, showing the corruption of lust that has overtaken generations upon generations of men. That same Lamech boasted to his wives that he had stretched out his arms to murder a man with whom he had a quarrel.

The descendants of the Flood stretched out their arms to build a tower into the heavens. Seeking to make a name for themselves, they called not on the name of the LORD, and were torn asunder by the division of languages, which has ever since plagued the race of man.

Abraham stretched out his arms to embrace a slave woman, in an attempt to force God’s promise for a son to be fulfilled.

Jacob stretched out arms covered with animal skin, deceiving his father Isaac, and stealing the blessing from his brother Esau.

Jacob’s sons stretched out their arms and cast their brother Joseph into a pit, then sold him into slavery.

Aaron the high priest stretched out his arm to indicate the idols fashioned from gold, when he rebelled against the LORD.

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu stretched out their arms to offer strange fire before the LORD, and were destroyed.

The twelve spies stretched out their arms to grasp the fruit of the land of promise; but ten doubted God’s promise, and died in the wilderness.

The people then stretched out their arms to pick up stones, with which they would have struck down Moses their redeemer.

The sons of Israel stretched out their arms to welcome the daughters of Moab, idolatrous women who plunged the people of God into whoredom.

Moses stretched out his arm in anger to strike the rock, and was denied entrance to the land of promise.

Samson, mighty Nazirite, stretched out his arms to embrace Delilah the Philistine, leading him to lose his eyes and then his life.

David the great king stretched out his arms to embrace another man’s wife, then again to strike down that man, Uriah the Hittite.

Absalom, son of David, stretched out his arm to betray his father, seizing for a time his kingdom. His hair was caught in the arm of a tree, and there he was struck down by Joab, with three darts to the heart.

The sons of Israel stretched out their arms to foreign gods of wood and stone, and so went into exile and captivity.

Again and again, the arm of the Lord stretched out to His people, inviting them back as a father to a prodigal son, as a husband to a straying wife. But they would not.

At last, the prophets fell silent, and four long centuries passed; and the promise faded into obscurity, legend, myth.

Finally, in the days of Caesar Augustus, the LORD stretched out His arm once more. How did He respond to His people’s rebellion, lust, anger, hatred, betrayal, and impiety? What does the mighty arm of the Lord do? He becomes a tiny infant, with two little arms stretched out to embrace His virgin mother, the maidservant of the Lord. Then, those arms becoming strong in His father Joseph’s carpentry shop, He goes forth to stretch out His arm everywhere. His outstretched arm heals the sick, restores sight to the blind, cleanses lepers, makes the lame walk and the deaf hear. With His outstretched arm He calms the sea and silences the wind. With His outstretched arm He feeds the hungry in the desert. Stretching out His arm, He touches the funeral bier, and restores to the widow her son. With outstretched arms He, as a man, petitions the Father.

This is why He comes. This is why the Word becomes flesh. This is why Christ is born: to undo and restore the whole history of man’s corruption.

But for all this, still men are not finished. He came to His own, and His own received Him not.

Judas stretched out his arm to receive coins for his treachery.

Simon stretched out his arm and with a sword sliced off the ear of Malchus.

The Jewish guard stretches out his arm and slaps Jesus, who had spoken no evil. They blindfold Jesus and stretch out their arms to pummel Him. Hurled by the rough arms of soldiers to Pilate, then to Herod, and back to Pilate, Pilate finally puts out his arms to wash his hands, as though that could cleanse him of his guilt. Roman soldiers torture Him and plait a crown of thorns which causes blood to run down the brow of the virgin’s Son.

And then, the arms of Jesus which once grasped for Mary are stretched out in a loving embrace of the whole world, on the cross where hung Mary’s Son.

This is how the outstretched arm works the LORD’s salvation. Not now in judgment and wrath, anger and rage, but in love, mercy, pardon.

The wide open arms of the mighty God still beckon to you, for “He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.” And “all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”

He came to His own with outstreched arms of mercy, but His own received Him not. But as many of you who have received Him in the regenerating waters of Holy Baptism, to you has He given the right to become children of God, who—like Jesus—are born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a husband, but born of God.

In Advent we prayed, “O Adonai and ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai: Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.” Today our prayer is answered. Today the arm of God is revealed “in our poor flesh and bone,” as God becomes man for our salvation.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him!” Merry Christmas! +INJ+