From the history of how Christ was born in Bethlehem.
Luc. 2, 1-15.
And it came to pass at that time, that a commandment went forth from the emperor Augustus, that all the world should be appraised. And this valuation was the very first, and came to pass at the time that Cyrenius was governor in Syria. And every man went to be appraised, every man to his own city. Then Joseph also departed out of Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, into the land of Judah, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; that he might be esteemed with Mary his familiar wife, which was with child. And when they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she bare her first son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger: for they had no other room in the inn. And there were shepherds in the same region in the field by the hurdles, tending their flock by night. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came unto them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them: Fear not; behold, I proclaim unto you great joy, which shall be to all people: for unto you is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this is the sign that you will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And immediately there was with the angel the multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and goodwill toward men.
This feast of the Nativity of our dear Lord Jesus Christ was instituted among Christians primarily for the purpose of preaching and teaching the story, so that it may be remembered by the young people and the common man, so that they may form it in their hearts and learn to recognize their Savior. For even if it is said yearly, it cannot be preached or learned at all. Therefore we will divide the gospel into two parts. First, the Historia tell in the most simple way how they
*) Wittenberg edition: In the church in 1533; Walch: Anno 1533, in his house. D. Red.
After that, listen to what the dear angels preach and sing about it.
The first part of the Historia is this: that Christ was born just at the time when under the emperor Augustus the Jews and their property were valued for the first time. Then our dear Lord Christ began to reign, however secretly, in the world, and the great emperor Augustus must serve him with his empire, however ignorantly, and give cause by his commandment for the virgin Mary and her trusted husband Joseph to journey to Bethlehem, and as the prophets had foretold, to bring the Savior of the world to light there.
Otherwise, if this had not been caused by the emperor's command, Joseph and Mary would have remained at home. But Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, therefore the emperor must give cause for it, and thus serve the Lord Christ for his birth; although neither the emperor nor the world knew anything about it. For otherwise the world is so wicked and unfaithful that it would rather have hindered it than promoted it. But God leads his regiment in such a way that it must do ignorantly at times, where it could never be brought to knowingly.
3 When they came to Bethlehem from Galilee in Judea to obey the emperor, the evangelist says, the time was right for the virgin Mary to give birth. All things are unprepared and unskilled. Behold, the two spouses are in a strange land, in a strange city, where they have neither house nor farm; and though they have friends there, as was scarcely the case, yet they have no regard for them. Above all this, the city was so full at that time that, as the evangelist says, they had no room in the inn, so they had to go to the cowshed and make do there like poor people. There will have been neither sponge, linen, cushion, pillow nor feather *); a bundle of straw must have done the best, that they have made themselves a little resting place with the dear cattle. There, in the hard winter at night, the noble fruit, the child Jesus, is born.
This is briefly the history, which the evangelist undoubtedly wanted to present to us, who are otherwise so cold, although he could warm our hearts a little, because our Savior was born so miserably into this world. Bethlehem would have been worthy of sinking into the abyss of hell if it had not shown so much honor to its Savior by lending him a cradle or a bench for a pillow. His cradle is first of all the dear mother's bosom, then the manger or crib. This is how one cradles the child. The poor cradle, she does not want to get cold,
She may cover herself with her little coat and other small things she had with her, for there is no one here who would lend anything to the child or mother, serve them, or help them with the smallest thing.
Why does the evangelist paint this birth as so poor and miserable? Because you should remember it and never forget it, and also let it go to your heart, and especially because you hear here that it happened too well for you, that you should be happy about it and also grateful to God. It is a long journey from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem, yes, as far as from Saxony in Franconia, if not further. It must be remembered that they did not bring or carry much household goods. So the swaddling clothes or whatever else belongs to such trade will not have been very delicious, that she might have wrapped the infant in her apron or shirt and laid it in the manger. For she could not always have it in her bosom, had to warm its little cloth, make a little bed for it and do other things. However, the dear child had to make do in the manger in the straw and hay. Joseph also had to do the best he could, and it may well be that some maid in the house served them with fetching water and other things, as in an emergency, when everyone should be willing to help. But this is not written. And it can be assumed that even though it has been said that a young woman was lying in the cowshed, no one took care of her.
Fie on you, you shameful Bethlehem, who are so hard and merciless against your Savior that you do not do him the slightest service! You deserved better the punishment than Sodoma etc., that brimstone and fire rained down from heaven and destroyed you. For although the Virgin Mary was a beggar, or, to speak in terms of breeding, a dishonest woman who put her honor behind her, one should still have been willing and inclined to serve her in such distress and time. Yes, nothing will come of it, this child must be wrapped in cloth and laid in a manger, then it will stay. This is how this Lord shall be conceived on earth, when the others
splurge, eat, make great splendor with beautiful clothes, splendid houses etc.
7) This is the first part of the history, which is therefore prescribed for us, so that we may learn to grasp the image in our hearts of how our dear Lord Jesus was born so wretchedly in this world, so that we may learn to give thanks and praise to God for such a great good deed, so that we poor, wretched, even condemned people may come to great honor today, because we have become one flesh and blood with the Son of God. For the very eternal Son of the eternal Father, through whom heaven and earth were created from nothing, became, as we have heard, a man and was born into the world like us, without any sin. Therefore we may boast that God became our brother, even our flesh and blood. This great honor did not happen to the angels, but to us men. Therefore, even though the angels are a more glorious creature than we are, God has honored us more and higher and has drawn closer to us than to the angels, because He became not an angel but a man. If we human beings could understand this and believe it with all our hearts, then such unspeakable grace and good deeds of our dear Lord God should certainly give us great joy and drive us to thank God from the bottom of our hearts, to love Him and to gladly do His will.
In the papacy, a story was told that the devil came to a church for mass one day, and when the words were sung to him: "Et homo factus est, the Son of God became man," and the people stood and did not kneel down, he hit one of them on the mouth and scolded him, saying: "You rude rascal, are you not ashamed that you stand like a stick and do not fall down with joy? If God's Son had become our brother like yours, we would not know where to stay for joy. I do not believe it to be true, for the devil is too hostile to us and to the Lord Christ.
It is certainly true that the one who wrote it had a high spirit and well understood the great honor that has come to us in that the Son of God has become man: not like Eve or Adam, who was made from the earth; but he is even closer to us, because he was born of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, like other men, without her, the Virgin, being alone, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, without sin, and received from the Holy Spirit this fruit that was given. Apart from this, he is like us and a true natural son of a woman.
9 Adam and Eve were not born, but created. For God made Adam from the earth, and the woman from his rib. But how much closer is Christ to us than Eve is to her husband Adam, since he is our flesh and blood? We should esteem this honor highly and form it in our hearts that the Son of God became flesh, and that there is no difference between his flesh and ours, except that his flesh is without sin. For he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and God poured into the soul and body of the Virgin Mary full of the Holy Spirit, so that she was without all sin when she conceived and carried the Lord Jesus. Apart from this, everything was natural in him, as in other men: that he ate, drank, hungered, thirsted, froze, as in other men. Such and such natural infirmities, which are inherited by us because of sins, he, who was without sin, bore and had, as we do, as St. Paul says: He was found in all things a man like us, who ate, drank, was merry, and was sad.
(10) That is, to be deeply humbled and brought low. For he might well have become a man, as he is now in heaven, having flesh and blood like us; but he does not do what we do. He could have done this from the beginning, but he did not want to do it, so that he would show what love he has for us, so that we could rejoice, comfort and boast that we have a brother in heaven, of whom we may, indeed, should accept. For one
unhappy man is the one who does not accept him, nor feels this joy in his heart.
(11) This is the reason why this history is preached yearly, so that every young heart may form it in itself and thank God for it, saying, "There is no need for me, for I have a brother who has become like me. etc. Why he became like this and what he wanted to accomplish by it, I do not yet say. For this is why he saved us from sin and eternal death. But I will now speak only of the glory of the whole human race, of which we should boast with truth and rejoice that the Son of God has become man. All people can boast of such honor. The Christians, however, have a higher one after that, that they should enjoy such honor also in eternity. This is the first thing we should remember about this story.
(12) On the other hand, this excellent high example also serves us: Because Christ, the Son of God, has so humbled himself, and turned all his glory to poor flesh, and the divine majesty, before which the angels tremble, has so lowered himself, he walks therefore like a poor beggar; above in heaven the angels worship him, here below on earth he serves us and lies down in our mud: Because then, I say, the Son of God has done these things, we also ought to learn to praise and honor him, to be gladly humble, and to take up our cross according to his word, to suffer all kinds of tribulations, and so to follow him. For what harm can it do us, or why should we be ashamed of suffering? because our dear Lord suffered frost, hunger and sorrow. But it was especially wretched and miserable, as I said, when he came and was born on earth. There was neither vessel nor room, neither pillow, nor swaddling clothes, nor bedclothes; he had to lie in a manger, before the cows and oxen. So then your dear
Cousin, yes, even your brother, the king of heaven and earth and all creatures within, lies down so miserably; fie on you, why would you want to be so glorious and suffer nothing at all? Who are you then? Is it not true that you are a poor sinner, who is not worthy to lie on a heel? Yet you lie there on a soft bed, while your Lord lies on hard straw and in a manger.
(13) But is it not a grievous bargain? We see here in what humility and poverty our Lord Jesus lies for our sake; and we want to be junk lords, to go out free and suffer nothing. But this is a bad rhyme, when the Lord is born in such misery and poverty, too good for us, and dies for us on the cross etc.; and we lazy rascals want to sit in good peace and quiet forever! No, that does nothing: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above the Lord," says Christ. etc.
(14) Wherefore let us learn well, and consider earnestly, first of all, to what honor we are come in that Christ is made man. For it is such an honor that if one were an angel, he would wish that he were a man, that he also might boast: My flesh and blood sits above all angels. Therefore, we humans should consider ourselves blessed. May God grant that we understand it, take it to heart and be grateful to God for it. On the other hand, we should diligently consider the example of Christ, what he, who is Lord above all lords, proved to us poor people in his first future and suffered for our sake. This would move us and drive us to gladly help and serve other people from the heart, even if it would make us sour and we would have to suffer a little over it. May God help us to do this with His Holy Spirit, through our dear Lord Jesus Christ, amen.