From Heaven Above to Earth I Come 

Luke 2:8-18

     One of the wonderful things about the Christmas season is the music.  I know that I’m not the only one who feels that way.  Stores are filled with the sounds of Christmas music.  Some radio stations are playing Christmas music all day long.  It seems like every entertainer has a Christmas album of some kind.  This isn’t just true for our time.

Down through the history of the Christian Church, the Christmas story has been told in music.  One of the great Christmas hymns in our heritage is one that will be the focus of our meditation this evening and next Wednesday as well.  “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come” goes all the way back to the time of the Reformation.  It was written by Dr. Martin Luther.  Originally it was put to the tune of a popular folk song but later it is thought that Luther himself wrote a new melody, the one that we are using this evening.  This song was actually written by Luther as a Christmas pageant for His family.  He enjoyed putting together something special for Christmas each year.  The first five verses were to be song by an angel and the next two express the thoughts of the shepherds.  The last eight verses were sung then as our response to the angel’s announcement.  Tonight we will look at the first half of the song and next week we will meditate on the second half.

     To really get into the mood of this hymn you have to use your imagination.  First of all you have to take yourself back to Wittenberg, Germany and the Luther home in 1534.  Imagine the excitement of Christmas and the anticipation of the beginning of what Father Luther had prepared for his children and his wife Catherine as well as the students and other family members who shared their home.  Suddenly in walks a man dressed as an angel and he begins to sing the words that we sang a few moments ago.  At the same time we are taken back to the hills outside of Bethlehem, two thousand years ago on that first Christmas night.  As the shepherds watched their flocks, suddenly a bright light shown all around them and an angel appeared to them and announced the greatest that ever had been proclaimed. 

     Imagine also the great thrill that it was for everyone involved. The greatest privilege belonged to that angel.  The angel had been sent from heaven by God to bring the news that a special child had been born.  This child will bring joy to all the earth.  The world had been waiting for centuries for this news to be proclaimed.  Now the time had come and who better to announce God’s Good News than a special messenger from heaven, one of God’s holy angels.

     To hear the heart of the angel’s message, we will sing verses 3, 4 and 5 of hymn 358.

     The angel’s message in Luther’s hymn presents the message that the angel proclaimed to the shepherds as we heard it in Luke 2.  This Child is the Christ, the Son of God.  When the angel uses the title Christ, we are reminded of the fact that this child is the Anointed One.  He is the Christ, the one anointed by God to be our Prophet, Priest and King.  First He is our Prophet.  Through His teaching, the will of God would be revealed.  As our Priest, He would offer Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of the world once, for all.  We would learn from His perfect life how a child of God should live.  He would also show us how to pray as He Himself prayed for us.  As our King, He would lead His people in battle against the forces of the devil and He would lead us in the victory march to our heavenly home.  He is the Christ, the Anointed One, who responded to our great need for reconciliation.  He hears your sad and bitter cry as the hymn says.  Just as God heard the cry of the Israelites in their slavery in Egypt, God heard the cry of His people in bondage to sin and sent the Savior to set us free.  We are set free from the punishment that we deserve because of our sin.  Even the name of the little child would tell us that He is the Savior.  The name Jesus that was given through the angel’s messages to Mary and Joseph means “the Lord saves.”  He saves His people from the power of sin, death and devil, all powers that would try and separate us from God.  

     This was all part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  It might be surprising to some that the Father planned this wonderful blessing to begin with an infant.  When you think through what God did though you can understand why it had to be this way.  Jesus came as a tiny baby so that as a true human being, He could be subject to God’s Law throughout His life.  We often forget that Jesus did more for us than die on the cross.  He also lived a perfect life in our place.  He had to be a true human being to live under the Law and be subjected to the temptation of the devil.  While He was subjected to the temptations of the devil and the requirements of the Law, He lived a perfect life and that satisfied God’s requirement as our substitute.  The end result of all that Jesus did through His perfect life, His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, is that we can share with Him the glory of His heavenly kingdom.  The barriers have been removed and by faith we can enjoy the hope of heaven now in our lives and the blessing of heaven when the Lord calls us home.  That is the Good News that brings joy to all the earth. 

     One might expect that such a wonderful gift from heaven would be found in the grandest palace surrounded by the most comfortable accommodations and a host of servants to see to every need of mother and child.  But the angel had a different description for the place where Christ, the Savior, would be found.  You will know that you have found the Christ Child when you come to a manger bed and the child is wrapped in swaddling clothes, in other words, strips of cloth, the only thing that could be found to keep the little child warm.  What an amazing contrast!  The Son of God, the Christ, the Promised One of God, the Savior of the world is born in a stable with a feed box for a bed.  There is no warm blanket knitted by grandma in which to wrap Him.  He is laid in a bed of straw and has strips of cloth, perhaps torn from the bottom of Mary or Joseph’s robes, as His first royal clothes.  Instead of an army of servants surrounding Him, the animals look on in wonder as their Creator and King shares their home.

     Let us now follow the shepherds as they heed the angel’s directions.  Let us sing verses 6-7 of hymn 358.

     These verses describe what the shepherds found when they left their fields and came to Bethlehem.  The circumstances and surroundings were more familiar to the shepherds than a palace would have been.  Perhaps that tells us something about the fact that this baby came for all people.  He came to be one of us.  He came to touch our lives.  He came as a humble, human being so that we could relate to Him.  We could see that He would understand our hurts, our pain, our sorrows.  He would know what it meant to be in need, what it meant to suffer shame, what it meant to experience loss.  He would know and He could help.  Yet with all the humble circumstances, He is still the Son of God.  His coming was announced by God’s own messenger, the angel.  His coming was in fulfillment of the prophecies of old.  His coming was part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  That is reason for joy and celebration.  Christ the Savior is born!

     Just like the angel said, the shepherds found Him in the manger.  In the same way, we encounter our Savior in the manger each year as we celebrate His birth.  We have to be impressed each year as we think that this little baby in the manger is the Son of God.  He left His throne in heaven to be a traveling preacher where He would encounter criticism, ridicule and hatred from the leaders of the church.  He left His throne in heaven to suffer the worst kind of execution that the Romans could dish out.  He did all that for you and for me.  He did it so that we could be rescued from the power of sin, death and the devil.  He did it so that would have the hope of heaven.  This baby is our Savior.  He is the Son of God.

     This is wonderful news.  It is news that was fittingly announced by a glorious messenger of God.  It was news that came to humble people here on earth.  It is news that calls for a response.  The shepherds came to Bethlehem and saw the baby.  They left the stable with hearts filled with joy.  They went and told everyone they saw about the wonderful experience they had that night in the fields and in the stable.  We are called to gather around the manger bed once again this Christmas season.  What difference will this Christmas celebration make for you?  Will you simply shuffle back to your home when the season is over, put away your decorations, find a place for your presents, vow to go on a diet and then get back to your old sad routine?  That’s not why the Savior came.  Advent is a time for repentance and forgiveness.  It is a time to repent of your old sinful way of life and to grow in your faith through the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is a time to leave behind those things that have held you back from expressing your faith with joy.  It is time to leave behind those things that have prevented you from growing in the Word.  It is a time to prepare your heart to meet your Savior when He comes again.  One day it will not just be an angel who says, “From Heaven above to earth I come.”  It will be Jesus Himself who comes from heaven above to earth.  When He comes He will pronounce judgment upon the world.  Those who are prepared for His coming through faith will be taken to heaven to enjoy the eternal celebration in the glory of God’s presence.

    As you consider your response to the angel’s message announcing the Savior’s birth, may you be moved to seek out the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can grow in your faith and be better prepared for the Savior’s return.  Next week we will return to the world of Luther’s Christmas pageant as we look at the second half of the hymn “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.”  May your response to the angel’s message and your response to this Christmas season be one of joy, hope and service in God’s Kingdom as you wait for your Savior’s return.  Amen