Christmas Midnight 2023

Wisdom 18:14, 15; Psalm 23:4, 5; Luke 2:10

December 24-25, 2023

“When all was still, and it was midnight, Your almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.” That’s the antiphon for Christmas Midnight. By itself, it’s serene, much like this service. There’s something joyously peaceful about assembling here when all through the town not many creatures are stirring, and celebrating the first liturgy of Christmas while everyone else is nestled all snug in their beds.

“When all was still, and it was midnight, Your almighty Word, O Lord, descended from the royal throne.” The context, however, is not so serene. It comes from the Wisdom of Solomon, and it describes the beginning of the tenth plague, bringing death to all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.

14 For while gentle silence enveloped all things,

and night in its swift course was now half gone,

15 your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,

into the midst of the land that was doomed,

a stern warrior 16 carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command,

and stood and filled all things with death

and touched heaven while standing on the earth. [Wis. 18.14-16]

Here the Word, the Logos is no infant cradled by the Virgin. He is a stern warrior. In Him was life, but He comes to fill all things with death. He “[touches] heaven while standing on the earth,” and none can stand before Him.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, but to those who receive Him not, He comes with doom and a sharp sword. The stillness before His coming is not serene, but the calm before the storm. For our world, our race, has turned from the Light and embraced the darkness. We are “the people [walking] in darkness.”

Is it not so with you? Your hearts are dark, your deeds are dark, and if they were exposed before everyone tonight, you would be utterly put to shame. In the ancient world stood one higher than us: Job, a righteous man, who gave offerings, cared for his children, and refused to even glance at young women lest his mind be tempted. And this righteous man, saw the situation of the world and perceived only darkness:

“Changes and war are ever with me.

18 Why then have You brought me out of the womb?

Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

19 I would have been as though I had not been.

I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few?

Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,

21 Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,

To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

22 A land as dark as darkness itself,

As the shadow of death, without any order,

Where even the light is like darkness.” [Job 10:17-22]

In the middle of the night we gather in part to confess we are darkness who yet yearn for Light. This is the meaning of the incarnation, this is the announcement of Christmas, that One has entered the darkness to be with us. Running as it were to the stable, we chant with the shepherds the Psalm of another shepherd: “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me.” There in the manger the prophecy is fulfilled: He is with us. And His name is called Immanuel, God with us, “I AM with you.” Death’s dark shadow is put to flight.

“Why have You brought me out of the womb?” Job cries. It would be better not to have been born. Why? “Because I Myself,” says the LORD, “shall enter the womb and sanctify it. Can you enter your mother’s womb a second time and be born? No. I myself will enter a mother’s womb, and be born for you, as you, with you, to redeem you. I enter your darkness and bring light. I enter your cradle and bring food. I enter your desert and bring living water. I enter your tomb and bring life. Yea, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I AM with you.”

These are the “good tidings of great joy.” God has entered the darkness to be with His people. The Stern Warrior has sheathed His sword and become a Child. In Him your sins are blotted out. In Him your death is killed. In Him hell is rent asunder. Forget the egg nog, and drink deeply of His blood, for it cleanses you from all sins and gives you the sober inebriation of Godly joy.

This world is dark. Left to ourselves, we can so easily fall prey to weakness, sorrow, and anxiety. Our sins are great. We deserve the darkness, the death-shadow hanging over our race. But into the darkness comes the Word, leaping down from His royal throne. He is the stern warrior who has your back … and your front. He is Immanuel, “I AM with you.” Therefore you will fear no evil, no darkness, no death. Christ is born! Glorify Him!