Luke 2:21 * New Year’s Day 2005 * Professor Daniel Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. A Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord.” Amen.
Did you make it till
When you say “Happy New Year!” do you mean it? Do you think this year, 2005, will be happy? While we want to think optimistically, let’s face it: 2005 is a big unknown; dark, uncharted territory for us to travel, and who knows what will happen? I could get sick. I could go bankrupt. I could be devastated by some really bad news. “Happy New Year” is more of a wish than a prediction, isn’t it?
No, it’s a prediction. As children of God, I can predict for you and
you can predict for me that, come what may, 2005 will be a happy year. There will be joy. There will be fulfillment. There will be security and peace because of
that Baby whose birth we celebrated eight days ago. Today is the eighth day of Christmas. When the Christian church set it aside as a
special day, they weren’t thinking of anything called New Year’s Day. They were thinking of this one little verse
from Luke chapter 2, where we are told that the eight day old Christchild was
circumcised and officially given the name Jesus. Brothers and sisters, when we consider what
the Son of God was doing for us on this day, even as a little baby, we have
every reason to predict for each other
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We
know 2005 will be happy because for those who believe in the Christchild it
will be I. A Year Covered by Jesus’
Blood
and II. A
Year Lived in Jesus’ Name.
“On
the eighth day it was time to circumcise him.”
Luke records it very simply, almost matter-of-factly. But when we consider what circumcision was
for God’s people back then, it really is quite shocking that the Christchild
was circumcised. You see, circumcision
was a special rite given by God to the father of the faithful, Abraham. God commanded circumcision for Abraham and
all his male descendants as a special sign that he had received them into his
family. He had forgiven their sins by
virtue of the Messiah who was to come.
Circumcision was God’s way of telling his people: “I choose to deal with you in my grace, not
my anger. This is my promise to you.”
So
what’s so shocking about baby Jesus being circumcised? He didn’t need the forgiveness of sins for he
was without sin! He didn’t need to be
brought into God’s family for he is God!
But here’s why the God-man submitted to God’s command of circumcision—as
Paul wrote to the Galatians: “When the
time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to
redeem those under law.” Just eight days
after he came into this world, Jesus was shedding his blood to substitute for
us under God’s law. No, he didn’t need
forgiveness. But we do. He was not subject to the law’s curse. But we are.
He came to take our place under God’s law, to keep it perfectly for
us. Even as a little baby.
The
blood Jesus shed at his circumcision was a foreshadowing of the blood he would
shed thirty years later upon the cross.
About that blood the apostle John wrote:
“The blood of Jesus purifies us from every sin.” On New Year’s Eve a person tends to look
back. If we are honest we must confess
that 2004 reads like a catalog of sin.
And with each sin we put another brick in the wall of our separation
from God. On New Year’s Day a person
tends to look forward. If we are honest,
we must confess that our sinfulness will not go away in 2005. Happy New Year?
Dear
fellow sinner, the blood of Jesus purifies us from every sin! And 2005 will be a year covered by the blood
of Jesus. In shedding blood at his
circumcision your Jesus was taking your place under God’s law for this new year. The blood
of Jesus knocks down that wall of sin separating us from God and washes it
away! The blood of Jesus guarantees the
penalty pronounced by God’s law has been removed! The blood of Jesus proves that God sees us as
his holy people, cleansed forever from the stain of sin! And the blood of Jesus covers 2005! That’s why we can say “Happy New Year!” and mean it.
In
the Chinese culture each new year has a name, more
specifically the name of an animal. The year of the horse.
The year of the monkey. And so on.
For Christians around the world there really is only one name for each new year. It is the
name that was announced to Mary and Joseph by an angel before Christ was
born. It is the name that is above all
other names. 2005 will be the year of
Jesus. We can wish each other “Happy New
Year” because 2005 will be a year lived in Jesus’ name.
“He
was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been
conceived.” Thus St. Luke describes one
of the most important functions of a circumcision, the official naming of the
boy. Jesus is the Greek form of the
Hebrew name Joshua. It means “the Lord
saves.” For any other Jesus, the meaning
of that name would be a fine confession of faith—the Lord saves! But for this Jesus the name marked him as the
One, the Lord, who would do the saving.
That’s what the angel told Joseph before Jesus was born: “You are to give him the name Jesus, because
he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus, the Lord saves. It’s not
just what that baby was to be called.
It’s what that baby would do.
Christmas
leads to Good Friday. The reason God
became man as a baby was to die as our Savior.
I have heard of churches who chose to
commemorate that fact by stripping their large Xmas tree of its branches and
using the trunk to construct a cross for Good Friday. He came into our life to die to give us
eternal life. Jesus—he will save his
people from their sins. His name is
Jesus because he is our Savior.
Friends,
I hope we don’t hear that word “Savior” so much in church that we forget just
what he saves us from. I suppose there
are all sorts of earthly saviors. A
doctor might save us from disease. A
firefighter might save us from a burning building. But earthly saviors are so very limited. None of them can save us from that one thing
that would condemn us permanently: our
own sin. Doctors cannot cure death
because they cannot remove sin.
Firefighters cannot rescue anyone from the fires of hell because they
cannot take away sin.
If
you and I are to live a happy new
year, we need a sin remover! We need a
Savior from sin! Listen to his
name: “Jesus, for he will save his
people from their sins.” 2005 will be a
year lived in the name of Jesus. That
means when Satan says “you are a sinner and that means your mine,” we can say
“you have no right to me because you have been crushed, Satan, by Jesus my
Savior from sin.” 2005 is the year of
Jesus. If we must walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, we have a staff to lean on and his name is
Jesus, my Savior. If the darkness of
death envelopes us, we have a bright light on the other side of death and his
name if Jesus, my Savior. Jesus! He saves his people from their sins! What a sweet, sweet name for us to cling to.
And,
friends, as we cling to him, he carries us right into this new
year. In 2005, will we prosper or
will we falter financially? Will we
succeed or will we fail? Will we live or
will we die? I don’t know and you don’t
either. But I know this: Jesus, our Savior, is with us all the
way. He doesn’t take sabbaticals. He doesn’t take years off. He rules creation for the good of his
people. He always lives to intercede for
us. His word shall never pass way. The gates of hell shall not prevail against
his church. Fix your gaze upon him as
you journey into the new year. Focus not so much on what you may or may not
accomplish, but on what Jesus has already accomplished. He has saved his people from their sins. Nothing that happens in 2005 can change
that. You live under his name, and
that’s why we can say “Happy New Year!” and mean it.
The
ancient Romans gave the first month of the year its name: January.
Janus was their two-faced god, one looking back, one looking ahead. Brothers and sisters, on this first day of
the first month of a brand new year, look back.
Look back to the precious blood Christ shed to wash away your sins and
make peace between you and God. Look
ahead. Look forward to every day the
Lord gives you as a day that will be lived in the name of Jesus, your
Savior. I’d say there’s every reason for
me to wish, no predict, for you: Happy New Year!
Amen.