Introduction: I don’t know if you’ll be surprised or not when I tell you that we don’t really know the date of Jesus’ birth. If Mary or Joseph wrote down the date someplace, nobody has ever found it. None of the Gospel writers mention it. Scholars have a pretty good idea about the year—we know from Roman records about the Syrian governor Quirinius and about the imperial census and we know when John the Baptist started preaching. St. Luke tells us exactly so we could count backwards from that date. So we have a good idea of the year—probably 4 BC the way we count years. But the day and the month—there’s just nothing there. About 200 years after Pentecost somebody suggested December 25th and the idea spread. By 450 ad most churches bought in. But not all of them. Orthodox Christians in Greece and Russia still celebrate Christmas on January 6.
About the same time that early Christians were thinking about the date of Jesus’ birth, they were also thinking about the first martyrs, the first people who lost their lives because of Jesus. The most obvious martyrs were the little boys of Bethlehem. Do you remember that story? The Magi came from the East and asked King Herod where the new King of the Jews, and the scholars said in Bethlehem and Herod sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all the boys two years and under. With Christmas on December 25, the Christians decided to remember those boys—they called them the holy innocents—on December 28. Then they remembered the first martyr, Stephen, who was stoned to death by the Jews, and they set his day on December 26. You know the Czech Christmas carol, “Good King Wenceslaus looked out on the feast of Stephen”—December 26, the day after Christmas. And then—and nobody knows why because John didn’t die a martyr’s death—the Christians put St. John right between the two on December 27.
So today, December 27, is officially the Commemoration of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. That’s what John was. He was an apostle, one of them men Jesus sent out to pastor and shepherd other Christians. He was also an Evangelist, he wrote one of the Gospels along with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John wrote three letters to first century Christians which we call First, Second, and Third John. And then he wrote the Revelation, when Jesus appeared to him and told him in very symbolic language what the future of the Christian Church would be like. Some of us worked through that in Bible Class this past fall.
So we’re not wasting our time this morning two days after Christmas. John isn’t a nobody; he’s not insignificant. He’s important to our faith and life. Each of the four Evangelist has a symbol: Matthew’s symbol is a man since he wrote a lot about Jesus’ humanity. Mark is a lion; his Gospel is the shortest: it’s fast and powerful. For Luke it’s the ox, an animal used for sacrifice in Old Testament worship. Luke wrote more than anyone else about Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. And then there’s John. The symbol for John is the eagle. John spreads his wings and soars above the other three writers. He takes us places they didn’t go and tells us words of Jesus they didn’t hear. And he wrote some of the most memorable words on the pages of the Bible.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “So where is Christmas?” Well, Christmas is here in the words John is speaking to us this morning in his First Letter. I’m asking you to think about Christmas and listen to John:
Hark! The Herald Eagle Sings
1. John and his brother James were first cousins of Jesus; their mother Salome was Mary’s sister. John was younger than Jesus but he would have known Jesus as a boy. He became a professional fisherman like his father Zebedee. When Jesus came calling he and his brother and Peter and Andrew dropped their fishing nets and followed. The other eight came later. With James and Peter, John was part of Jesus’ inner circle. Those three saw events the other didn’t see. They were on the mountain with Moses and Elijah when Jesus was transfigured. They were in the room when Jesus brought Jairus’ daughter back to life. They fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus was praying in agony the night before he died. They witnessed Jesus at his greatest glory and in his deepest depths. And John saw more. He sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper. He and Peter followed Jesus to the High Priest’s palace and he watched as Peter denied Jesus three time. He was the only apostle who went to Calvary to watch the crucifixion. Do you remember how Jesus told John to take care of Mary? On Easter morning the women came with the incredible news that Jesus had risen, and Peter and John raced to the tomb and John was the first one there. There are some who think—and it’s hard to disagree—that Jesus considered John his closest friend. John describes himself as the disciple Jesus loved.
Hark! The herald eagle sings: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard. When we listen to John we’re getting a first- person account. When we read John we’re seeing what an eyewitness saw. Does the story of Jesus sometimes seem to be too good to be true? Does it sometimes seem to be a stretch to believe it? John actually saw what Jesus did and he actually heard what Jesus said. He was there. Jesus said I am the good Shepherd. John heard it and remembered it and wrote it down. Jesus said, I am the light of the world, he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John heard it and remembered it and wrote it down. He saw Jesus’ blood dripping from the cross, he heard Jesus say It is finished. He saw the grave clothes wrapped neatly in the empty tomb and he heard the voice of Jesus that Sunday night, Peace be to you. Brothers and sisters: If you ever wonder about the words and works of Jesus, if you ever worry that the story may not be true, if something you read or something you hear ever challenges the reality of Jesus Christ, then listen to John: Hark! The herald eagle sings! We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard. so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
2. After three years with Jesus, John understood the truths of God’s plan to save the world. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. John takes us back to the beginning of time; he did the same thing on Christmas Day if you were here. He shows us a perfect God, all light, and no darkness—all good and no bad. This is the God who created us in his own image, to be like him—all good and no bad. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Walking in the light is what brings love and peace and joy. Walking in the light is what ends explosions in the cities and killings on the streets. This is what ends anger and squabbles and jealousies and power struggles. Walking in the light is what glues us to God and to one another. But God does not deal with percentages. God is not impressed with 75% good or 90% good or even 9944/100% good. God makes it clear that if we keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, we are guilty of all. When John writes these words he is telling us the truth we need to hear. This is what Adam and Eve found out to their horror, what Abraham and Moses accepted as fact, what Isaiah and Jeremiah thundered, what Peter and Paul preached: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so John wrote what God and the Scriptures decree: If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Christ out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
John the apostle was there in person. He heard with his own ears and he saw it with his own eyes. John the evangelist wrote down what he heard and saw. And what he heard and saw led him to conclude: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. At the end of his Gospel he wrote, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John knew what Jesus said about sin, but he also knew what Jesus did with sin. Hark! The herald eagle sings: The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. And then he concludes: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
If this isn’t Christmas, I don’t know what is. Jesus came to our world to be the sacrifice who made up for our sins. He offered his life and death as our substitute to put us at one with God. This is why he was willing to become an embryo in Mary’s womb. This is why he was born in poverty. This is why Jesus obeyed his parents and kept God’s law. This is why he went to the cross. This is why he died and was separated from God. This is why he rose from the tomb. This is what he sits at the right hand of God. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. And this is why St. John followed Jesus as an apostle and why he wrote about Jesus as an evangelist.
Hark! The herald eagle sings. Listen to John’s song and his sermon today, December 27. Come to the cradle and confess your sins. Don’t leave any of them behind; don’t let any of them lurk in your mind and heart. Place them all at his manger. Jesus forgives them all and Jesus forgives them all forever. John saw and hear it, and he believed it. We see and hear in faith and we can believe it, too. Amen.
