What Child is This? A Meditation for Christmas

Pr. Paul McCain posted this excellent meditation on a Lutheran forum to which I belong earlier today.  Simply outstanding!
 

 

What Child is This?

What child is this? A figment of the pious imagination of the “primitive” first Christians? Some so-called “Christian” scholars suggest that this Child was just a human child who grew up to be a great teacher of love and peace and from that came his reputation as being divine. Talk about missing the mark!

What child is this? Sadly, often this Child is remade in our own image, molded, shaped and accommodated to our trends and times. This Child’s cosmic struggle with sin, death and hell is often pushed into the background. We dare not ever forget that this Child was set as a sign for the rising and falling of many. This Child is the stumbling block over Whom many have tripped and fallen in their mad dash toward self-fulfillment or self-chosen forms of religion.

What Child is this? This Child is the One who stands as the ultimate evidence of God’s wrath against sin, for this Child’s arms would one day be extended on the cross, there suffering and receiving the wrath of God against the sins of the world! The rough wood of the manger foreshadowed the rougher wood of the cross! How can we ever appreciate how great is the Father’s love if we do not realize how great was this Child’s sacrifice for the sins of the world?

What Child is this? This Child is none other than the Word of God in the flesh, the One who reveals the Father, the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed and Most Holy Trinity. This Child is the fulfillment of all the hopes and dreams of all the years, before and ever since. In Him, you have redemption, the forgiveness of all your sins, for this Child was the atoning sacrifice, whose body and blood, given and shed, cleanses you from all your sins.

What Child is this? This Child is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the promised “Immanuel” – truly God in the flesh. He dwells forever among us in grace and truth, working His way among us and giving His gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation wherever and whenever His Gospel and Sacraments are given out, truly the greatest gifts of Christmas!

What Child is this? You know. By grace, you know! He is the One who for your sake became poor, so you might become rich with God’s lavish mercy, love and peace. Such a treasure! Such a blessing! Such a Child is this!

May God bless you and yours during this sacred season of Christmas and may you be richly blessed as you worship and adore the Lord Jesus Christ.

O Dearest Jesus, Holy Child
Prepare a bed, soft, undefiled.
A holy shrine, within my heart,
That you and I need never part.