Christmas 2 Sermon

Sermon for Christmas 2   2025

Christmas 1 fell on 28 December 2025, which is Holy Innocence Day. I therefore gave Matthew 2:13-18 some attention there. As a result for Christmas 2, when Matthew 2:13-18 is the appointed Gospel, I reserved the account of Simeon and Anna in the temple with Jesus. Thus the Gospel for this day is Luke 2:22-38.

2 Samuel 7:1-16

Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, 2 that the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains."

 3 And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your mind, for Yahweh is with you."

 4 But it came about in the same night that the word of Yahweh came to Nathan, saying,  5 "Go and say to My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD, "Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in?  6 "For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle.

 7 "Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"'

 8 "Now therefore, thus you shall say to My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over My people Israel.  9 "And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth.   10 "I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly,  11 even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you.  12 "When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your Seed after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish His kingdom.  13 "He shall build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

 14 "I will be a Father to Him and He will be a Son to Me; who when iniquity is laid on Him* [when I make Him sin], I will correct Him with the rod of men and the stripes of the sons of Adam,

 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from Him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.  16 "And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever."'"*not  “when (or if) He commits sin, I will chasten Him”

2 Corinthians 5:21-6:2

21 He made Him sin in our place, who knew no sin,  that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.

6:1 And working together, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain-- 2 for He says, "At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you"; behold, now is "the acceptable time," behold, now is "the day of salvation."

Luke 2:22-38

22 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord

 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord "), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."

 25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devoted, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, that they might carry out for Him the custom of the Law,

 28 then he himself took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

 29 "Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart In peace, according to Thy word; 30 For my eyes have seen Thy salvation,
31 Which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 A light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Thy people Israel."

 33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him. 34 And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this One is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed-- 35 to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed-- and a sword will pierce even your own soul."

 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.

 38 And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

“. . . my eyes have seen Thy salvation.”  Luke 2:30

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

A small downpayment for man’s ghastly debt of sin and iniquity was paid with the first shedding of Jesus’ blood, when He was eight days old. And He was called Jesus. Jesus, the Redeemer. He would make payment for man’s sin in its entirety. But this complete payment would not be made until Jesus was full-grown, until He was 30 years old, the unblemished male chosen by the Father for sacrifice, both publicly displayed and thoroughly examined for blemishes before the people—before Jew and Gentile. The Lord may have been speaking of just this when Isaiah wrote, "In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will guard You [PRESERVE You] and give You for a covenant of the people, ...”

As we heard last Sunday, Herod tried to short-circuit God’s divine plan if he could. He would have all Jesus’ blood shed then and there, for his purposes, not for God’s holy purpose of redeeming the entire human race. God would not have it. He preserved Jesus from that danger. He let the innocent blood of infant Jewish boys be shed in place of Jesus, in order that at the proper time Jesus’ might “restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages”: that Jesus might redeem the Land and bring into the Promised Land the remnant of Israel and a host of Gentiles—so that the Land would be too small to hold them all.

For this reason, once in human flesh, God made the sinless Son of God SIN in our place. Of this the Lord prophesied in 2 Sam 7 when He spoke to King David, "I Myself will be a Father to Him and He Himself will be a Son to Me; when iniquity is laid on Him [when I make Him sin], I will correct Him with the rod of men and the stripes of the sons of Adam, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from Him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.  16 "And . . . your throne shall be established forever.".

“when iniquity is laid on Him.” All of the translations say, “when he commits iniquity, I will chasten him.” OR  “If he commits iniquity, I will punish him.” But they fail to translate accurately just what the Father is saying about His Son on the throne of David. Better is “who when iniquity comes to Him.” Best is “Whom in being made iniquity/sin, I will chasten Him with the rod of men and the stripes of the sons of Adam.” This is what St. Paul declares to us, that “in our place God made Him sin, who knew no sin.”  That is how God reconciled the world to Himself. God told David that He was going to visit David’s Seed with all the punishment stored up against sinful mankind since the beginning. Even so, writing later, Isaiah keeps repeating the same thing. “He was reckoned as a transgressor, a sinner; He bore the iniquities of all.” But this One Isaiah says was a Wonderful Sinner [as Dr. Luther notes]. For He is a sinner, but He carries not His own sins and iniquities, but those of others. That is how the Lord is describing David’s Seed who will reign forever in His kingdom.

If you owed the bank for your car and your boat and your house and your business but had nothing with which to pay, so that the Tryon Daily Bulletin listed all your property to be auctioned off, you would be a terrible debtor, wouldn’t you be? And you would be ashamed and looked down upon throughout the county, especially if everyone knew you as a squanderer and a cheat and a thief. But if some hardworking, prosperous young man came along and assumed your debt and carried it on his back and brought to the bank ON YOUR BEHALF prior to the sale all that you owed—if he came with your debt, to pay it all, he would be a Wonderful Debtor. And you would be an undeserving but grateful owner of your property.

Our iniquity could not be paid for with gold or silver, or any number of good deeds, but required the holy, precious, innocent blood of the Son of God poured out by beatings and stripes, and upon the bloody cross until Jesus, our Sacrifice, was dead.

Taught by the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament this is what Simeon and Anna beheld in the infant Jesus—the world’s Redeemer, and as Simeon describes Jesus: the Peace-offering for our sin. They saw the Suffering Servant of God who would pay for their sins, because their sins would all be laid on the head of this Child—the way the high priest laid the sins of the people of Israel on the head of the scapegoat

Moses writes, On the Day of Atonement  “Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send it away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness  And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.” Leviticus 16.

Was Simeon a priest? We do not know, but we are not the first ones to wonder about that. In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Simeon is called a high-priest. That is not Scripture, but someone’s legend. What we know for sure is that the Holy Spirit filled Simeon with special revelation so that he knew exactly who the Christ-Child was and when He would be brought into the temple. He also prophesied how Jesus would be opposed and that Mary would behold Jesus’ suffering.

Jesus in the temple with Simeon sets the stage for the next major account in Jesus’ life: for Simeon heralds Jesus as “a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel.” How fitting that we sing what Simeon taught us after we receive Jesus’ body and blood in the sacrament for our forgiveness and salvation. Jesus’ very body, on whom all our iniquities were laid, is laid upon our tongue, so that we behold Him not with our eyes but with our taste-buds as we receive the host which Jesus has made His body. Miraculously, in perfect harmony with all that the Scriptures have recorded in the Old Testament and in accord with Jesus’ institution of the New Testament in His blood, we eat the Peace-offering which Simeon held in his hands and drink the blood of the Unblemished Lamb offered for our salvation. In this way, our risen Lord Jesus reigns through His Church on earth and guards and preserves us for life with Him forever in heaven.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.