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Children grow up, and they do it fast.
There are great joys in watching them grow up. Smiles abound when they learn to read, when they graduate, when they gradually learn responsibility and politeness, when they marry and have children of their own.
But watching children grow up also hurts. You cannot protect them from everything. You know that they will suffer from failure, heartbreak, sickness, guilt and more. Some people don’t like our children. Some people will oppose our children, especially if they have a Christian confession.
They are born into a broken world and they are born broken themselves. We watch them get hurt by others and also hurt themselves and their pain is our pain because they are yours.
Today, like every Sunday, we consider our Lord Jesus. But the First Sunday after Christmas also has us beginning to consider what it might to be the mother and adoptive father of our Lord Jesus.
Baby Jesus will grow up, and He is not a neutral figure.
Even from the moments before His birth, some sought to kill Him while others sought to worship Him.
The Son of God became flesh, and in becoming flesh, He became a part of family, so that everything that happened to Him touched them deeply as well.
Luke 2: 33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed. 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
Many will rise in Him
He will heal many.
He will give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.
He will raise up the dead.
He will preach good news to the poor sinners- my own eyes have seen your salvation.
He will give life and light because He himself is the Light and Life – a light to lighten the gentiles.
He will reveal God’s will to many lives and teach many about what God thinks about them – Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to Your Word. Glory to God….
And yet, many also will fall because of Him
He also encounters many who will not be healed by Him by refusing to acknowledge they are sick.
Many refuse to have their eyes and ears opened by His Word.
Many dead in their sin remain dead by constantly looking for life in themselves and in the things and people of this world.
Many don’t seek to know what God thinks about them through the Word of God, seeking instead to ask what the world thinks about them or what they think about themselves. Mary and Joseph…concerned about the Law of the Lord…Simeon and Anna…Law and in the temple continually…
He was so often rejected in His humility between His birth and death and He continues to often be rejected as we stand in between His ascension and second coming.
He will die bearing the false name of criminal and be mocked and spat upon.
And we are in Him and He is in us. He is a part of us as He was a part of Mary and Joseph.
One time, some were seeking Jesus and said, “Your mother and brothers are looking for you.”
And Jesus said, “My mothers and brothers are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”
Mary’s baby who was placed in a manger, had a cross placed on Him, and He now tells us to take up our cross and follow Him.
Mary’s whom she carried in her womb for nine months, was carried to a tomb, and now we say: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Unlike our children’s death, pain, and suffering – this child’s death is for His mother’s resurrection, and yours.
His pain is for her healing, and yours.
His mocking is for her honor, and yours.
His seeming defeat is the promise her victory with Him of sin, death, and devil.
Our Jesus and His Words do cause the rising, and fall of many. It causes great division, but they also cause a greater reunion.
Peace between God and man.
The beginning of peace between man and man.
This Christmas season, we repent for every time that we have rejected our Jesus and His Word and His will. His Word is living and active and pierces our hearts, our thoughts and our intentions, which are filled with greed, lust, anger, arguments, doubt, a lack of desire to pray, being surprised when we are disappointed with the promises of this life and not desiring the promises of His Word, coveting and much, much more.
Allow yourself to be cut to the heart by His Word in order that you may also be healed with His Word.
He is as present for you today as He was in Mary’s womb and Simeon and Anna’s arms. He is present to give you comfort. He is present to rise you up from the death of your sin and sorrow and heal your heart. He is present to give you all wisdom and strength as you hear His Word and receive His sacrificed body and blood to eat and drink.
Mary’s baby grew up and we pray that He help us continue to grow up in Him today. Amen.