How do we rightly in true faith celebrate the incarnation of our Lord? We consider the glorious reason that the Son of God wrapped Himself in the humility of our flesh. Both Jesus’ coming in the flesh and His coming again on the Last Day are rooted in the days in which He came into Jerusalem in order to conquer man’s enemies of sin and death. God became man to save man, to suffer His death and condemnation in order that the gates of the new Jerusalem, the kingdom of God, would be opened to us. Our forefathers in the faith wisely set aside time before the celebration of Christmas for us to ponder the fullness and the consequence of the gift of our Savior. The world will throw all manner of distractions in front of you precisely so that you don’t think on these things, so that you don’t consider the depth of your sin and your need for salvation. That, and that alone is what Christmas is about. Let the unbelieving world dizzy itself with frivolity. Let us take the gift of the season of Advent and use it for good and eternal purposes, pondering the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God so that He might bear in His innocent flesh the wrath of God against sin. When this is our focus, then, while the world falls into sadness after Christmas because all the fun is over, our hearts may remain full of deep joy and our mouths with the everlasting praises of our God.
Pastor Ulmer