Behold the Star of Bethlehem!

Epiphany Sunday, 1/4/15
Isaiah 9:2


Behold the Star of Bethlehem!
I. A light shining n the darkness of unbelief
II. A light in the shadow of death


Our reaction when we’re in the presence of a star—a nationally or internationally known figure—is predictable. We get excited. We forget about everything else that’s going on. We focus on the person who is standing or sitting right there. And in this age of smart phones we start snapping pictures, trying to be sure that we’re in the picture with them. We may even get brave enough to ask their permission for a picture and/or an autograph. We try not to stare. We want to respect their privacy. We know it can’t be easy drawing so much attention and causing so much commotion no matter where that person goes, but that’s the way it is. We don’t often get this opportunity to be so close to someone so famous and important.

Believe it or not, you have one of those very opportunities this morning. You’re in the presence of your
Epiphany Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He promises to be here with us every time we gather around his word and his sacrament. Are you impressed?

The wisemen certainly were. They had traveled what was likely a great distance, knowing that the star they had seen in the sky meant the Star of Bethlehem had been born. And as important and intelligent as they were, they knew this Star of Bethlehem far surpassed them in every way. Thus they bowed before him, worshipping him as their Savior and presenting him with their famous gifts—gold, incense and myrrh.

May God the Holy Spirit cause the same reaction in us this morning. He will when we realize just how blessed it is to know Jesus as our Savior. Isaiah reminds us what blessings he brings us with these words of our text, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

Those blessings become ours when we behold Jesus in faith. So Behold him! Behold the Star of Bethlehem!

Part I.

Prior to the days when the trunks of autos were equipped with release levers inside the trunk, I knew of two teen boys who wanted to know what it would feel like to be locked inside the trunk of a car. The one who was the most interested in finding offered to crawl inside, but he made the other swear to him that he would open the trunk after 60 seconds. Can you imagine yourself doing such a thing? Would being confined in a lightless, locked enclosure fill you with anxiety? Does the mere thought of it make you shudder?

That’s nothing compared with the spiritual darkness with which we entered this life. We come into this world in spiritual darkness. Want some proof that what I’m saying is true? If we entered this world spiritually enlightened, there would be no need to share spiritual truths with others. We would all know those truths by nature. There would be no need to come to know the true God. Everyone would know him.

But that’s not the way it is. God declares, “The man without the Spirit [that’s a non-Christian] does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Spiritually speaking, we’re in the dark.

And left to ourselves we would still be that way. Let me put that another way. If there were no one else to share God’s truths with you and there was no Bible for you to read and you had no access to any other Christian information, how long do you think you’d have to sit there and think about God before you’d finally hit upon the only way to be saved? Weeks? Months? Years? Ever? The central question about God is this: How do we come to have an eternal relationship with him? Left to ourselves, we would never hit upon the truth that we have that relationship with him solely through Jesus Christ.

And that’s the truth that our God caused to shine on the first Epiphany. For centuries God had promised to send a Savior, to his people, the Jews, and from his people, the Jews. But the Jews only comprised a small fraction of the world’s population. What about the rest of sinful humanity? What about you and me who likely don’t have a drop of Jewish blood in us? When God caused that star to appear and to lead those non-Jewish wisemen to the Savior, he was proclaiming to one and all that Jesus is the world’s Savior. He wants every man, woman and child who has ever lived and will ever live to know that saving truth.

And now in our lifetimes God has shown himself to be faithful to us by revealing that truth to us. That’s the saving work of the Holy Spirit. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:3). If God had not sent his Holy Spirit into my heart to reveal his truth about Jesus to me, I would be at home right now thinking one of two things about God: either that there is no god, or, that I’ll have to make him pleased with me so that I can have a relationship with him. Those are the only two choices the unbelieving mind has. But through Baptism and his word, God has sent the Holy Spirit into my heart and yours. He has revealed to us that the Child in Bethlehem’s manger was not a mere man, but also the Son of God. He caused me to trust that Jesus’ holy life and his innocent death on the cross have forgiven my sins and have opened to me the gate to eternal life.

Behold the Star of Bethlehem—a light shining in the darkness of unbelief.

How often do you wish God would fill you in, let you know, reveal what’s going to happen? Perhaps you did some of that this past Wednesday and Thursday as the calendar turned from 2014 to 2015. What will 2015 bring? Will a new opportunity present itself to me? What’s going to happen in this relationship? Will I get some relief from whatever it is that is filling me with pain? And it bothers us that God isn’t filling us in, at least not as soon as we’d like.

That’s because he simply wants to live each day trusting in him. Look at it this way: He has already revealed himself to you as the God of your salvation. He has brought you out of the darkness of unbelief to faith in Jesus as your Savior from sin. You already know that eternal life in heaven awaits you when this life is over. Of all the things that God reveals to you, he has already revealed what you need most of all, that Jesus is your Savior from sin. Trust him to take care of the rest of the things in your life as well.

Part II.

I just mentioned that the passing from one year to the next is an opportunity for us to reflect on our lives. What have we accomplished? What do we hope to accomplish? But, as you reflected on your life, did it occur to you that you might not see 2016?

We usually refrain about thinking about our own deaths. And there are good reasons for it. We don’t like the idea of being separated from the ones we love here on earth. We treasure their love and companionship. What will their lives be like without us? What will ours be like without them? It’s not a pleasant thought to leave behind a spouse, a child, a dear friend. Some can’t stand the thought of being locked in a box and placed in the ground. The thought of our own deaths can fill us with dread. Isaiah calls it living in the shadow of death. It’s always near us. We can never seem to get away from it.

We’re also not thrilled with dying and meeting the holy God who knows all and sees all. What’s he going to say about the things we’ve done? What if he recalls one or two really big sins we’ve committed? What could we possibly say to excuse our sinfulness? That’s living in the shadow of death.

You see, without our God we’d have no hope. There is no excuse for our sinfulness. We’re guilty as charged. We deserve all the punishment that God should mete out on us. In fact, we can’t even offer up to God a single day of our lives and say, “Here, Lord. Here’s one day of my life in which I didn’t break a single commandment.” There’s no amount of money, no amount of good deeds, no amount of prayer or penance we could offer to pay for a single sin. And when we die, it’s time to pay the piper. That’s living in the shadow of death.

That’s the hopelessness that would fill us if it weren’t for the fact that our God has revealed the light of life to us. That light of life is the truth that our God is not going to punish us as we deserve. In fact, he’s not even going to mention them when we see him face to face. Later in Isaiah God says, “Comfort, comfort my people. Tell [them] that [their] sin has been paid for” (Is. 40:1-2). The light of God’s truth is that Jesus took the punishment for our sins on himself. When we die, God won’t settle the score with us; he already settled it with his Son.

Likewise, that light of life removes the fear of separation. God won’t banish us from him forever. He sent the Star of Bethlehem so that we could live with him in his presence forever. That life in heaven won’t be living without our loved ones; it will be living with them and all the rest of God’s people. Your death is not the beginning of separation; it’s the beginning of reunion.

So behold! Behold the Star of Bethlehem! It’s a light in the shadow of death.

The wisemen who worshipped the Jesus knew that God had something far better than this life for them and that life was theirs by faith in Jesus. God has revealed his saving wisdom to you and me as well. He has revealed it to us through the Star of Bethlehem. Now there’s a Star to ponder and behold every day of your life! Amen.