THE LAST WORD
Christmas Day 2022
Readings: Isaiah 9:3-7; Heb. 1:1-12, John 1:1-14; Psalm 89:1-30
25 December a.d. 2022
THE LAST WORD
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. AMEN.
The last word. Everybody knows how good it feels to have the last word. You have said it all, and nothing remains to be said, in fact, nothing more can be said, because, you have said the last word.
Today in Hebrews 1 St. Paul tells us that God has said his last Word. He spent ages, at different times and in different ways, speaking to men.
Sometimes he sent his word by prophets, who would cry out, “Thus saith the Lord,” but you all know that very few people listened to the prophets. And those few who did listen and take their words to heart, were just as likely to KILL the prophets to shut them up and stop God’s word as they were to receive that Word and believe.
Then came what the Bible calls “the last days.” This is not some secret schedule of time that you need a thick Scofield reference Bible with a pop-up map of the New Jerusalem to de-code. It means what it says: the LAST days, the days that are different somehow from all the OTHER days that had ever been. Not the very last day (singular), but last DAYS plural.
What makes them the LAST days?
Because in them, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and God is no longer speaking to men in prophecies, in ways that vary and at unpredictable times.
No, in these last days God has spoken to us by his son, and that makes everything different, because that Son, the Word of God, is also God’s Last Word.
His Son Jesus Christ says everything about God that men need to hear. All the words that God ever spoke by the prophets only pointed to this last Word.
The message is no longer spotty, or unclear, or untimely, or obscure, or set off in the far future. No, Jesus Christ is God’s last word, and the message could not be clearer or brighter or plainer.
Why? Because:
This Word is God
This Word is Man
This Word has purged our sins.
This Word sat down.
THIS WORD IS GOD
What does St. Paul tell us about this Word? What does he look like? WHO does he look like?
He is the very brightness of God’s glory. All things that shine in God and make the angels and creation sing to him, are seen in the Son.
He is the “express image of [God’s] person.” When you look at him, you see the Father. The Son is literally the “spirit and image” of the Father.
If that is not plain enough, St. John tells us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There never was a time when Jesus Christ was not, never a time when he was not with his Father, and never a time when he not God. From all eternity, Jesus Christ is God.
The Son is the heir of all things, the only-begotten Son. The Father withholds nothing from him, and gives him all things. He is better than angels, because his inheritance is greater than anything they can hope to obtain. He is the Son in person, the heir of all things.
The Son made all the worlds and all things, and more than that, the Son “upholds all things by the word of his power.” What does that mean? That not one atom in the universe can keep from exploding unless the Son himself actively and consciously holds it together. The world works, only because the Son makes it work.
This Word is God.
THIS WORD IS MAN
This Word is Man. St. John says, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth.” He had to be God to bear the infinite burden of mankind’s sin, but he had to be fully man, so that sin might be condemned in the flesh of man.
St. Paul tells us in Hebrews 2 that this Son did not take on himself the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, the flesh of man, made like his brethren in all things, fully man so that he could know all our weaknesses and sorrows and suffering and also make atonement for us as our faithful high priest.
THIS WORD HAS PURGED OUR SINS.
And this Word has done just that. This Word has purged our sins. The Son is God’s Last Word because there is nothing left to be said. He has already accomplish our salvation, and nothing can be or need be added to it. If sending his only-begotten Son to take on our flesh, teach us about himself, show us the way to eternal life, then suffer torture and die on the cross to atone for our sins does not show you God’s good will and love, well, there’s nothing left to say.
This Word’s sacrifice has been accepted by the Father who spoke by him, because he has sat down on the right hand of the father and entered into his rule and kingdom. We have peace with God because he has accepted the Word’s sacrifice.
THIS WORD SAT DOWN
This Word Sat Down. “When he had by himself purged our sins, [he] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Now when does a speaker sit down? When he has said everything he has to say. When he has had his last word.
But when does a labourer sit down? Only when his work is done. His job is over. His task is accomplished, he puts down his tools, because he haas nothing is left to do.
Jesus sat down “when he had by himself purged our sins.” Mission accomplished. Sins removed, peace secured between God and man. Work done, nothing left to do, not another word needs be said.
THE WORD IS FOR YOU
The Son of God Jesus Christ is God’s last word spoken to men. When you have heard that Word, God has nothing left to say to you. Everything God wants you to know is said in the person of Jesus Christ alone, and God says, “This is my beloved Son: hear him.”
Now if you have heard the Son, and kissed him, then there’s nothing else to say. Your joy is already full and will be forever.
And if you haven’t heard the Son, if you haven’t listened, if you are not convinced that the Word really is both God and Man, that God really does accept Christ’s payment for your sins, if you are not persuaded that there is peace and eternal life for you with God through Jesus Christ, nothing else can be said, because God’s Son is his very last word. Jesus Christ says it all.
Last night we heard that the Gospel was contained in only two words that the angel uttered: “Fear not.” Yet I suspect that every one of you still keeps some fear that he just can’t hand over to God yet, some fear that keeps him from trusting God completely.
So it is with the words, “Christ sat down.” They contain the whole gospel. They mean that we can stop standing on our own, that we can sit down, too, and enter into Christ’s rest. It means that God has done everything, and that there’s nothing we can bring him, nothing left for us to do except to love him.
But I doubt that you all are altogether sitting down with Christ. I know I don’t always live in the presence of “Christ sat down.” This morning I woke up only thinking about all the things I had to do, the great long list. It keeps me from entering into Christ’s rest, from sitting down with him.
Hebrews 4 discusses at length entering into Christ’s rest. You remember that God rejected the ancient Israelites in the Wilderness and kept them out of the promised land forever, because they refused to enter into his rest.
Christ has done everything. His great work – your salvation -- is over, finished, accomplished. Having redeemed you, Christ sat down.
He sat down. Rejoice, and sit down next to him. Ω
Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son,
And to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning,
Is now and ever shall be,
World without end, Amen.
THE COLLECT FOR CHRISTMAS DAY
ALMIGHTY God,
who hast given us thine only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him,
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin;
Grant that we
being regenerate,
and made thy children
by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed
by thy Holy Spirit;
through the same our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth
with thee and the same Spirit ever,
one God, world without end. Amen.
