Roughly 3,000 years ago, the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes said: “What has been will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” Today, things really aren’t any different. The winds blow, the waters flow, and babies cry in church. People fall in love, lovers get married, flowers bloom in the spring and leaves fall off the trees in the fall. Women get together and brag about their children and grandchildren, while men get together and try to out-brag each other about any other topic you can think of. Our parents complained about how loud we played our music, and today we complain about how loud our children and grandchildren play their music. Dogs are still stupid, and cats still pretend that they rule the world. What has been, will be. And what will be – well, it’s old hat. There is nothing new under the sun.
Nothing new – except one thing. “One thing” truly does break the mold, but even it was built on what already had been. Many centuries before this “one thing” came to be, an old woman who had never been able to have a baby suddenly found herself to be very, very pregnant. Her name was Sarah, and at the age of 90 – that’s right, 90 years old – she gave birth to her son Isaac. Many years later – now only a matter of months before this “one thing” came to be – yet another elderly woman who had never been able to have a baby also found herself with child. Her name was Elizabeth, and even though she was decades past the years of child-bearing she gave birth to a son we know today as John the Baptizer. Once again, God did the undoable, creating life where age and experience and common sense tell us that no such life was possible. Miraculous? Absolutely! The conceptions of Isaac and John, however, still followed the rules of nature that we politely call “the birds and the bees.”
But the “one thing” that is truly new bypassed the birds and the bees. For what is new under the sun is that the virgin conceived a Son – actually more than that, the virgin conceived a child who is the virgin’s own creator. Just like the prophecies had said. God did the undoable. He created out of nothing. From the womb of the Virgin Mary he crafted for Himself a body like Adam’s – a body like your body. The God of all creation clothed Himself in our flesh and blood.
Even though he either didn’t or couldn’t believe it, this was the sign spoken to Ahaz, the King of Judah. Even though it has long since come to pass, it is the sign spoken still to every believer and to every nonbeliever. It was the sign of God doing what was humanly impossible. Here it was the call for Ahaz to believe that God would deliver his weak and tiny nation from a vicious coalition of powerful enemies. It was like a call for a condemned man who is staring upward at a dropping guillotine blade – a call to believe that God would stop that razor-sharp blade just before it would slice into his throat and separate his head from his body. It was crazy, it was impossible, it was unbelievable. It was almost like God had become some second-rate standup comedian, and the joke was anything but funny.
It certainly would seem that way when you live your life by what you can see and feel instead of by what you believe through faith. The truth is that Ahaz was a bad king who trusted his common sense over all of those divine promises. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with a sign from God, because then he would be believing what he did not want to believe. But before we think too badly of Ahaz, we need to take a look in the mirror to face the reality that we’re no different than he was. Just like Ahaz, we weary our God. How long will He put up with you having your ears filled with His promises while your heart grumbles, “Oh, sure …” How long will you weary Him with your worries, when He has shown you time and time again that He will always care for you? How many years can He stomach your refusal to believe what you cannot see, to trust what you cannot feel? How long, Mr. or Mrs. Sinner?
God promises you no tomorrow, but he promises grace and forgiveness to you today. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the sun. So repent, and never forget that repentance is always in season, 365 days per year. Today is a very good day to put a stop to your wearying of God and for finding rest from your own weariness in the Savior who carries all of your sins and bears all of your sorrows.
Isaiah told Ahaz: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” God’s plans just never cease to amaze us! The Father did not send His Son to earth with flesh and blood manufactured in some celestial laboratory. “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” This Son comes from heaven above to earth below through a woman of flesh and blood. The death that Eve brought into this world through her disobedience would be undone by the One who is born of a daughter of Eve, the Virgin Mary. On the day that our first parents committed their first sin, God promised that a woman’s Seed would crush the head of the serpent Satan. How can this be? It can only be – it can only happen – when God says that it shall be and when the woman who is a virgin conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Just as the first Adam had no earthly father, this second Adam had only God as His Father. Jesus came to make God your Father, too. Not just your Lord and not merely your Creator, but your true Father. And that is exactly what He does, for His name is who He is: Immanuel, God-with-us, God-on-our-side, God-become-man. He sums up in Himself all humanity. From the first man made of the dust of the earth to the last man to stand upon that earth: Jesus takes up the flesh and blood and bones of each of them into Himself. Everything He did was one small step for this man but one giant leap for mankind. He stepped forward in faith, and mankind leaped forward as faithful sons and daughters of the Father. He stepped up to the cross, and all mankind leaped onto the cross to be crucified with Him. He stepped out of the grave, and all mankind leaped out of their graves of sin and tombs of death to stand alive alongside of Him. He stepped up to the throne of glory to take His seat beside His Father, and all mankind leaped upward to take their seat with Him. He has undone the undoing of Adam and redone all mankind.
You have gained far more in Christ than you lost in Adam. As St. Peter tells us, when you were baptized into His body you became a partaker of His divine nature. With His flesh as your food and His blood as your drink, your cup overflows and your body is filled with Him who fills all things. He fills you with what is good: forgiveness, everlasting life, innocence, perfection, love, peace.
The “one thing” that is new under the sun has changed everything under the sun. For in Immanuel, in this Child of the Virgin, God is now man and man is now God. Through Him the Father sees you, and through Him you see the Father. Everything is as it should be. Your sins have been forgiven and your death sentence has been overturned. The blade of the guillotine has been stopped and your life has been saved.
It is no joke – it is as real as it gets. The Virgin has conceived and borne a Child, and that Child has been everything and has done everything that God sent Him to be and sent Him to do. In Him, creation is restored. You are made right with God. Something new is under the sun. Yes, in Him, everything is now new.
Note: This sermon is freely and largely adapted from an Advent sermon series that originally was published in Concordia Pulpit Resources.
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