Fourth Sunday in Advent Service

St. Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

The theme that’s printed on the cover of our bulletin on this Fourth Sunday of Advent is, Our Lord Comes to Save. 

This had been foretold in prophecies like the one in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, Chapter 40 (1-8): “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” This means that sinners have received from Him a double portion of His blessing, though they deserved the opposite. That is a declaration of God’s mercy. It is a prophecy of a coming Savior, really (because no comfort, no tenderness from God toward people would be possible otherwise). It wouldn’t be possible for sinners to be comforted before God if a Savior weren’t coming. Iniquity can’t just be pardoned without a Savior. A perfect God can’t accept imperfection. The imperfection must be removed so that He is receiving to Himself perfection like He created. It can only be removed with a Savior.

And a Savior can’t be just anybody. Our epistle lesson from the book of Hebrews is included in our program for this morning because it discusses this person who is qualified to save sinners. This Savior is qualified as that because He is God’s Son, for one thing, and the one through Whom God created the world (we say these things in the Creed, don’t we, about the only-begotten Son of God…very God of very God…by Whom all things were made). 

And, in fact, the writer says of Him that He isn’t only God’s Son, but that He is God Himself. Calling Him the radiance of the glory of God, the writer means that to see Him in His fullness is the same as it is to see God in His fullness (because He is God). The writer says the same sort of thing in another way: that this person is the exact imprint of [God’s] nature. In fact, Jesus said one time, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9). And He didn’t mean by that that He is the Father; they’re two different persons. But He definitely meant that He is God.

So, in our text for today, it’s important business when the angel who appears to Joseph to explain Mary’s surprise pregnancy by the Holy Spirit says, you shall call his name Jesus, and, they shall call His Name Immanuel. 

Joseph is to call the child Jesus, [because] He will save His people from their sins (the angel says). Comfort, comfort My people. They need comfort because guilt brings us the opposite. We even can get to a point at which we doubt God’s love for us when we have become caught up in sinfulness. We get to where we can’t even believe that it would be possible. The fact that God would have to instruct someone to comfort His people demonstrates that they don’t know where they stand with Him anymore. They don’t know if they have in Him friend or a foe. The people Isaiah was originally writing to with those words had gone so far astray from God and had experienced so much of His resulting anger, that they really were in a vulnerable state. They needed this encouragement from Him. 

The devil can even come to a person in that situation and make things worse. You might have experienced this sort of feeling. He accuses, saying, “Who do you think you are, expecting God to be merciful to you when you have so willfully opposed Him like this? You really have some nerve, don’t you, thinking you still have access to Him? You think He still thinks of you as His dear child? You think He can just get past this? You knew what you were doing; and you still did it. Comfort, comfort My people, God says.

He will save His people from their sins. Joseph in our text, was one of His people, who was anticipating the coming of the Savior (though it’s very evident that he had no idea he would play a role, like this, in its story). He was an ordinary man who had found what he knew to be an ordinary young woman to be his wife. They were betrothed; so, as good as married (a divorce would be necessary if they wished to end it). Clearly, he had great affection for her considering that even apparent infidelity didn’t quell his desire to protect her like a husband. She hadn’t done anything wrong; but as far Joseph and the rest of the world would be concerned she had. What other explanation could there be?

In the Catechism, in the discussion of the Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, it says that, in that commandment God requires that we excuse [our neighbor] as far as the truth will permit. In other words, we don’t pretend like something that’s happened hasn’t happened. It’s important that we not speak ill of our neighbor; but we don’t make up stuff that isn’t true in order to falsely preserve our neighbor’s reputation. 

Of course, what happens in our text represents a real pickle. God knows that this solitary exception to this particular law of nature has occurred. He has done it. The Holy Spirit has brought about conception in Mary’s womb. But it’s completely beyond reason. It would have been unreasonable for Joseph or anyone else to try to explain a pregnancy by some other means than what we know. Still, we might imagine him wishing something (anything) else could explain it.

Joseph’s conclusion was that he would shield her from the worst of what could come to her as a result of this. He would act lovingly toward her. He would avoid publicly charging her with something that would ruin her - certainly, and maybe even end her life. 

It’s interesting that his evident love for her reflected the child she carried. What that child represents is God rescuing those who have done wrong, so that they are protected and preserved. It’s representative of Him loving those who have made themselves unlovable (I know that Mary didn’t do anything wrong; the illustration limps, as one seminary professor used to say. We leave the comparison at Joseph mercifully putting away her apparent sin as much as it was possible for him to do so). 

We said it’s important business that the angel directed Joseph to name the child Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. Also it was important that the angel said this child would be called Immanuel, which means God with us. We talked earlier about guilty sinners not knowing whether they have in God, friend or foe. Immanuel says friend, doesn’t it? Immanuel - God with us says God is not someone we must be afraid of, Who holds our sins against us, and Who desires our condemnation. Immanuel says God loves the unlovable. It says He puts away our sin by sending to us the One Who bears it in our place. It says He protects and preserves us like the ultimate husband whose love for His betrothed endures even her guilt and shame. 

The child conceived in Mary by a miracle of the Holy Spirit is God with you as well. He is your Lord Who has come to save. Not just anyone could be your Savior; but this one can, because He is uniquely qualified as the perfect God. He doesn’t have any guilt of His own, and can bear yours and mine so that it is put away and no longer condemns us. In Him, your iniquity is pardoned because He has made you perfect, so as to be accepted by God, received by Him like what He created.

Let us pray: Lord God, heavenly Father, the prophet foretold this child that would be called Immanuel, God with us. He is Jesus, your eternal Son through Whom all things are made. He saves us from our sins. Draw us to Him in this season, that we might cling to this One Who makes us perfect in His atoning blood. From every foe deliver them that trust Thy mighty power to save, and give them vict’ry o’er the grave. Amen.

Other Lessons for this Week:

Isaiah 40:1–8

“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.

“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.”

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever.

Hebrews 1:1–12 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the begin-ning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”