"Jesus Visits His People"
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
We
stand, now, on the cusp of Christmas.
Soon the quiet reverence of Advent will give way to the joys and
celebration of Christmastide; and,
already, the joy is beginning to bubble.
For the Lord
visits His people. He visits His people
to save them. You it see throughout the
Scriptures that man doesn’t go to God, but God visits them. He visits Adam and Eve in the garden, He
visits Moses in the burning bush and the Tent of Meeting, He visits Joshua as
the Commander of the Lord’s Army. Man
doesn’t need to build a tower into the heavens because the Lord visits and
comes down to His people.
But in today’s
text, it’s different. Today, He doesn’t
visit His people as a burning bush, a pillar of fire, as the Angel of the Lord,
but He comes to us as one of us - the Lord comes wrapped in flesh. Can you wrap your heads around this: that the
God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who spoke into being all
that exists, enters into His creation and is, Himself, existing in time and
space, in human flesh and blood in the womb of Mary? We confess often in the Creed that Jesus was
“for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by
the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man,” but can we even begin to
understand that God is developing in the womb of a virgin? Can we even begin to wonder at the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has, in Mary, an earthly mother? The Lord visits His people to save them, He
visits for us and for our salvation; to enter His creation via the womb of
Mary, to live, to suffer, and to die on a cross.
The Lord’s first
stop, the first of our Lord’s visitation as man, recorded in the New Testamant,
is to Elizabeth and John, the baby growing in her aged womb. Two pregnant women who shouldn’t be pregnant. The womb of the senior citizen, Elizabeth,
has been opened and is bearing the heralder of the Lamb of God. The womb of the young virgin, Mary, who had
never known a man, has become fruitful by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus and His Prophet, who is to prepare His
way, meet for the first time.
And how do
Elizabeth and John react with the Lord and His mother’s visitation? Joy.
Sheer joy. “And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her
womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the
Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
What
joy they have! So the question now is this: where’s
our joy? We go through this dark and
cold world with little joy, at times.
It’s a dark world and a world full of sin. We live in a world where, in the name of
choice and freedom, babies are killed as they’re removed from their mother’s
womb. We live in a broken world where
people are murdered in movie theaters. We live in a world where peoples’ lives
are stripped from them while Christmas shopping in malls. We even live in a world so heinous that a man
would even enter into an elementary school and destroy the lives of innocent
children. We may feel somewhat safe and
isolated from this world here in northeast North Dakota, but the world is no
less broken here. The same sinfulness
that we’ve seen on our televisions these last few months can just as easily
permeate our little community. There seems to be little joy to be had, at
times. Where’s our joy?
Well, it’s there
in the text. For you, beloved in the
Lord, for you, O Christian, the joy we have, ultimately, isn’t in the things of
the world, they will always disappoint.
The joy we have isn’t, finally, in what you can look around and see, for
this world is fallen. The joys that we do
have in this life: friends, family, recreation are fleeting. Friends come and
go, family members live and die, time only gives us so much of itself to spend
at the lake, but the joy you’re given is rooted and founded in Christ, who
comes to visit you according to His grace.
For the Lord who
visited Elizabeth and John is the same Lord who visits you. He made Himself apart of His creation,
descended into this dreary world as a beacon of light, hope, and joy. He’s no stranger to the sufferings we must,
here, endure and behold on the nightly news.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who visited His people,
knows what it is to hurt, to suffer, and to die. He endured all of this for you and for this
broken world. He has visited this broken
world and has over come this sinful world by His death and resurrection. And, He continues to visit you, as He visited
Elizabeth and John.
Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit at the word of Mary, who carried the Savior,
hidden, in her womb. And such it is for
you, beloved in the Lord. Christ comes
to you, hidden, under that which seems ordinary. The world has filled your ears with much
sorrow and sadness, but Christ visits you in order to fill your ears
with the joy of His Word of Gospel, “Your sins are forgiven. This sad world shall end and the joys of
Paradise await you.” The world has
filled your eyes with all of its horrors, but with the eyes of faith, we behold
our God who comes to us in the midst of sadness with the cooling balm of His
Word connected with water that, even now, drenches your head; for you’re
baptized. This world has spoken to you
unspeakable evil, but into your mouth the Lord visits you and gives Himself to
you under bread and wine. The fruits of
the cross, all that which Jesus bled and died to win, He gives to you under
these lowly things of word, water, bread, and wine. Even in the midst of this sinful world, the
Lord continues to visit you, in order to forgive you, and not in some sort of
idea, but forgive you in real, tangible ways.
Like
Elizabeth and John, that’s the cause of our unspeakable joy in the midst of
this weary world. For where Jesus visits
His people and is forgiving sins, there’s joy.
When we behold this fallen world, it seems, there’s nothing but sin and
trouble. But when we behold the Savior
on the cross for you, there’s nothing but joy.
The Savior who comes into the presence of Elizabeth and John, is the
Savior who comes into your presence.
That’s what causes John to begin His prophesy in his mother’s womb as he
leaped for joy, pointing to the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world.
And
as Christ comes to visit us, we, too, bubble over with unspeakable joy. For the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord
who created all things by His mighty Word, deigns to visit us lowly, unworthy
sinners; who live in a fallen world.
What joy that Christ continues to come into our midst. And this joy shall endure into the ages, for
wherever two or three are gathered in His Name, partaking in His heavenly gifts,
there He is in the midst of them.
Therefore, lift up
your heads. This old world has been
overcome. Its evils shall not last. Whatever sin we must endure has been answered
for in the cross and empty tomb; for because Christ lived, died, and rose again
for you, sorrow lasts for the day, but the joys of Paradise lasts unto the
ages. We must bear our crosses, here and
now, but after the cross comes the joys of the resurrection. The Lord visits you, He comes for you that no
matter what happens in this valley of tears, you’re safe in the hands that bear
the scars of the cross. This is for
you. This is what Christ has won for
you.
So,
rejoice, O pilgrim throng! Let the world
do its worst! No matter what sadness and
crosses we must undergo, these cannot compare to the joys of Paradise and to
the joy we receive each day as we meditate on the Word of God, remember our
baptisms, and receive His most holy body and blood. Oh what joy when our Lord comes to visit us
one final time in glory, here on earth, to take us from this vale of tears to
Himself in the New Jerusalem. So the
Church throughout the earth, amidst this broken world, continues to pray: Come,
Lord Jesus! Come quickly! Amen.
The peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
unto life everlasting. Amen.
Rev. Mark Chepulis
