A Concord Minute: At Christmas, God shares His son with you

“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.- 1 John 4:8-10 ESV

Merry Christmas! At the time of this column’s publication, Christmas Eve and Day have come and gone. The world now lives in the Christmas season. A short while from now, the church will celebrate Epiphany when the Magi will present their gifts to Jesus (who by then was a toddler; it took the Magi quite a while to locate him).

So what did you receive at Christmas from family and friends? Are you one of those lucky few that your spouse surprised you with a new car with one of those red bows on the hood (does that ever actually happen without the other knowing beforehand?)? Any new toys? Clothes? Other goodies? What did you receive from God on Christmas?

St. John reminds us that the entire world has received the greatest gift: Our Father has shared His Son with the world. In what is known as the “incarnation” (God in our skin), God has made Himself known to the whole creation in His Son’s birth. On Christmas, God was born like everyone else. He nursed like most babies (no formula back then). God did all the normal human things that we do. Why? Jesus was born to reconcile the entire creation to His Father! Why? Because God loves.

God indeed loves, but not in the sense of the world’s understanding of “love is love.” God loves the creation solely in and through His Son, Jesus. Were anyone wanting God’s love, he or she would know that love made plain in Jesus lying in the manger. God loves the whole creation that He would send His Son to be that sacrifice for all sin.

See, God does not love sin. God does not love sinners, per say (think about it: if God loved sinners, why did Jesus have to die to reconcile you to His Father?). God does not love that you and I are sinning nor are sinners. God loves you and I so very much that He would be born for the purpose of dying on a cross and being raised to new life so that you would not be solely a sinner anymore. God loves the whole creation, including the crown of that creation: you. How? His Son has been shared with us at Christmas so that we and all creation would be purified and made holy once more. Jesus comes to cleanse us of our sins, bring about forgiveness for our brokenness and shame, and love us unconditionally through His own efforts at the cross and tomb.

From a pastor’s heart: Merry Christmas one and all: God has shared His Son with you!

The Rev. Matthew Berry is pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Sikeston, Missouri. Based in Sikeston’s Historic North End, Concordia is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), a theologically conservative, biblically sound, Christ-centered church.