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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 265

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
of the kings of Israel and Judah makes abundantly
clear the need for a greater fulfillment of the promise
to David. Thus, through prophet and psalmist the
hope for a greater “David” remained alive, and Israel
continued to look forward to the fulfillment of what
God had promised David.62
Brown explains how God provided this greater “David” in a
way that satisfied the Biblical and cultural requirements for
a child to be a “son of David”:
But for Judaism, as the genealogy indicates, the royal
lineage of the Messiah had to be traced through a
series of fathers to David. Matthew gives the answer to
the modern question [“How can Jesus be Joseph’s son
if Joseph did not beget him?”] when Joseph is told,
“She is to bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus.”[63] Judaism wrestled with the fact that it is easy to
tell who is a child’s mother, but difficult to tell who is a
child’s father. To establish paternity, it is not sufficient
to ask the wife because she might lie about the father
in order to avoid being accused of adultery. Rather
the husband should give testimony since most men
are reluctant to acknowledge a child unless it is their
own. The Mishna Baba Bathra (8:6), written some 200
years after Jesus’ birth, is lucidly clear: “If a man says,
‘This is my son,’ he is to be believed.” Joseph gives such
an acknowledgment by naming the child; thus he becomes the legal father of Jesus. (This is a more correct
description than adoptive father or foster father.) The
identity of Jesus as Son of David is in God’s plan, but
Joseph must give to that plan a cooperative obedience
that befits a righteous man.64
Jesus’ identity will be even further clarified by the names
given Him by God through Joseph: “Jesus,” and “Immanuel,”
— but you already know that!

13. What are some of those ramifications?
Think of the many ways our identity as God’s sons and
daughters is called into question, ways that might even
tempt us to doubt our identity as God’s sons and daughters.
Against all of these questions, arguments and temptations,
we can cling to the following assurances (among other)
from God’s Word:
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God, who were
born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will
of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13).
“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of
Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand
to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal. 3:7–9).
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For
you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom
we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then
heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided
we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with
him” (Rom. 8:14–17).
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,
who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge
against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to
condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than
that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who
indeed is interceding for us.” (Rom. 8:31–34).

Concluding Discussion

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

This final question has important ramifications not only
for how we think of Jesus’ identity, but for how we think of
our own.

When God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), it didn’t get
“sorta” light out. In the same way, when He declares us to
be righteous, we are not “sorta” righteous, we are righteous
indeed. When He calls us sons, we are not “like” sons; we
are truly His sons.

62
Gibbs, Matthew 1:1–11:1, 75. Gibbs provides the following passages as examples
of this Davidic expectation: Is. 9:7; 16:5; 22:22; 55:3; Jer. 23:5; Ezek. 34:23; 37:24;
Amos 9:11; Zech. 12:10; and Ps. 89:3–4, 49; 132:10–11, 17.
63
In Matthew’s Greek, the angel uses the second person singular form of the verb
≈ “you, Joseph, shall name him” rather than the second person plural ≈ “you both
shall name him.”

Raymond E. Brown, “The Annunciation to Joseph (Matthew 1:18–25),” Worship
61, no. 6 (1987): 487–488.
64

There is a danger that in all this discussion of Matthew 1, we
might lose another very important dimension of the text.
The word that Matthew uses for “betrothed” or “engaged”

Session 3: Luke 2:1–14

Luther apparently struggled with some of these same issues.
As Luther works his way toward the exposition of the text,
he writes,
The Gospel is so clear that there is little need of
learned interpretation. It is only necessary to ponder
it well, to contemplate it, and to take it completely into your heart. None will derive more benefit
from it than they whose hearts hold still and who
divest themselves of material considerations and
concentrate diligently on it. This lesson is just like
the sun: in a placid pond it can be seen clearly and
warms the water powerfully, but in a rushing current it cannot be seen as well nor can it warm up
67

AE 52:7-31.

Hans J. Hillerbrand, introduction to Sermons II, vol. 52 of Luther’s Works by
Martin Luther, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974), x.
68

Drum, frommer Christ,
wer du auch bist,
sei gutes Muths und laß dich nicht betrüben.
Weil Gottes Kind
dich ihm verbindt,
so kanns nicht anders sein, Gott muß dich lieben.65
Thou Christian heart,
Whoe’er thou art,
Be of good cheer and let no sorrow move thee!
For God’s own Child,
In mercy mild,
Joins thee to Him; how greatly God must love thee!66
[The following non-metrical translation of Gerhardt’s verse
captures the important thought of the final line that is not
represented in the TLH translation:
Therefore, good Christian,
Whoever you may be,
Be of good courage and do not let yourself be dismayed.
Since God’s Child
joins you to Him,
it cannot be otherwise: God must love you.]

65
Paul Gerhardt, Paulus Gerhardts geistliche Lieder: Getreu nach d. b. seinen
Lebzeiten erschienenen Ausgabe wiederabgedruckt, 5th ed. (Stuttgart: Samuel
Gottlieb Liesching, 1869), 26.
66

Translation composite. “O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is” (TLH 81:4, LSB 372:4).

18 | Justifying Christmas — Leader’s Guide

books like Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christmas,72 but even
Paul Maier’s The First Christmas73 provides abundant information along these apologetic lines.

the water as much. So if you wish to be illumined
and warmed here, to see God’s mercy and wondrous
deeds, so that your heart is filled with fire and light
and becomes reverent and joyous, then go to where
you may be still and impress the picture deep into
your heart. You will find no end of wondrous deeds.
However, in order to start out the simple people and
to give them incentive, let me show them a little how
to go about it; later on they may go into it a bit more
thoroughly.69

Introduction

The length of this session’s portion of text prevents us from
giving careful consideration to all of the details it includes.
If the instructor discovers, while leading this session, that
his students are not as familiar with Luke’s Gospel as he
would like, the coming new year would be an ideal time to
return to Luke and work through it in greater detail. Our
theme and Luther’s outline will give focus to and set boundaries for this session’s discussion; the historical background
and literary context of our passage belong to that fuller
Bible study of the Gospel as a whole.

is the usual Greek word for that relationship — yet it is not
simply a legal term. The history of its usage includes the
ideas of courting, of “wooing and winning” a woman’s heart.
The story of our Savior’s birth is a love story on many levels!
We must not lose sight of that. How can our lessons about
justification taught by this text enhance rather than diminish its power as a love story?

Closing Thought

Justifying Christmas — Leader’s Guide |

This session will follow a different format than Sessions 1
and 2. We will let Luther himself provide our outline for
Session 3, an outline found in his sermon on “The Gospel
for Christmas Eve,” which comes from his 1521 Christmas
Postil when Luther was a “guest” at Wartburg Castle.67 It
is doubly appropriate that we should take a look at this
sermon today. First of all, it’s only fitting that we should
hear more directly from Luther during this anniversary
Advent/Christmastide. Secondly, and perhaps even more
importantly, it’s appropriate that we look at this sermon
because the Postil “does not contain actual sermons,
preached by Luther, but sermon guides, homilies written by
him for the use of other ministers.”68 What we find in this
“sermon” is the way Luther instructed his fellow pastors to
preach on Luke 2. For this hour, then, we, too, will become
Luther’s students.

265

Discussion Questions
Read together Luke 2:1–14.
1. What do you think we are to believe on the basis of this
passage?

This paragraph would make a very nice introduction to and
rationale for the entire season of Advent, and Christians
today need these encouragements as much as did the Christians of Luther’s day. Today, our class will seek to become
a still pond for God’s bright sun. Luther continues with a
cursory overview of the matters narrated in the text and
then gives us our two-part outline for this session:
“Now let us see what sort of mysteries, hidden
things, are presented to us in this story. Generally
speaking, there are two matters which are expressed
in all mysteries—the gospel and the faith, i.e., what
one is to preach, and what one is to believe, and who
are to be the preachers and who are to be the hearers. Let us have a look at these two matters.”70

If your discussion hasn’t already brought you here, return to
verses 10–11. Anyone who has ever seen A Charlie Brown
Christmas already knows that the answer to our question
must lie somewhere in these words of the angel. And, in
fact, Luther writes,
Rather the faith that is the right one, rich in grace,
demanded by God’s word and deed, is that you firmly believe Christ is born for you and that his birth is
yours, and come to pass for your benefit.74
What could be good news of a great joy for everyone? “For
unto you.” It is a little unfortunate, though understandable,
that English translations try to smooth out the very choppy
sentence that forms the heart of the angel’s good news. In
the original, it reads as if each word were to be pondered
and savored before moving on to the next, and yet each
word builds to the climax of the whole:

The First Matter: What One Is to Believe
Like any good preacher who wants to keep his hearers
guessing, Luther immediately reverses the order he has just
proposed; he begins with faith. It may come as something
of a surprise to some students that Luther begins by saying
that what follows is not enough to believe:
This faith does not merely consist in believing that
this story is true, as it is written. For that does not
avail anything, because everyone, even the damned,
believe that.71

ὅτι ἐτέχθη ὑμῖν σήμερον σωτὴρ ὅς ἐστιν χριστὸς
κύριος ἐν πόλει Δαυίδ.75
[hoti etechthē hymin sēmeron sōtēr hos estin christos
kyrios en polei Dauid.] 76

only that the historical facts surrounding Jesus’ birth are
true — won’t come any closer to saving us than believing
that Humphrey Bogart was born on December 25 in New
York City to Maud Humphrey, a descendant of John Howland who “came over” on the Mayflower. Look again at the
words of verse 11.
2. Put your thumb over the words “for you.” Is there
good news of great joy in anything that remains? Why
should the fact that another child has been born bring
me joy? Why should today be better than any other time?
What good is a Savior unless he’s going to save me? Can I
rejoice at the announcement of a Christ or a Lord without
knowing whether or not he will be a merciless tyrant or a
cruel dictator? Why should I care where this child is born
if he has nothing to do with me?
Many of us know the joy of having a child born to us, but
what exactly does it mean to have a child born for us? In answer to this question, Luther introduces a very fundamental
theme of his theology and a very fundamental theme of
Biblical theology.
For the right foundation of all salvation which unites
Christ and the believing heart in this manner is that
everything they have individually becomes something they hold in common.77
Many will be familiar with Luther’s language of the “wonderful exchange” (der wunderbarliche Wechsel) that takes place
between Christ and the believer, but they probably think
more of the connections to Good Friday and Easter than of
those to Christmas, more of cross than of manger. Here, for
just one example, are Luther’s comments on Is. 53:5:
The name of Christ, then, is most agreeable. The
chastisement, or punishment, of our peace, that is, His
chastisement is the remedy that brings peace to our
conscience. Before Christ there is nothing but disorder. But He was chastised for the sake of our peace.
Note the wonderful exchange [mirabilem mutuacionem]: One man sins, another pays the penalty; one
deserves peace, the other has it. The one who should
have peace has chastisement, while the one who
should have chastisement has peace. … And with
His stripes we are healed. See how delightfully the
prophet sets Christ before us. It is a remarkable plaster. His stripes are our healing. The stripes should be
ours and the healing in Christ. Hence this is what we
must say to the Christian: “If you want to be healed,

Surely that “everyone believes this” is a bit of “homiletical
hyperbole,” even in Luther’s day, but the point he makes is
worth considering more carefully. Any number of books on
“this story” — including especially those written by and for
Christians — offer helps to firm up people’s belief that this
story is “true, as it is written.” We might think right away of

Notice that the very order of the words emphasizes that this
good news is about a birth for you. Luther is right; believing only that Jesus was born that night in Bethlehem, even
believing that He was born of a virgin mother — believing
72
Lee Strobel, The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the
Child in the Manger (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998).
73
Paul L. Maier, First Christmas: The True and Unfamiliar Story in Words and
Pictures (New York: Harper & Row, 1971).

AE 52:8-9.

AE 52:14.

Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 184.

The study follows the Greek transliteration convention presented in The SBL
Handbook of Style, 59–60.
76

Justifying Christmas — Leader’s Guide |

AE 52:15.

20 | Justifying Christmas — Leader’s Guide

2019 Convention Workbook