Intro
We have an old 13th-Century Christmas carol, later paraphrased in the 1850s, called “Good King Wenceslaus.” King Wenceslaus was a real person. In the 10th century, he was the Duke of Bohemia. He was also a devout Christian.
One morning, on his way to the Divine Service, a band of ruffians, led by his own younger brother, attacked him. They murdered Wenceslaus, but not before he could say, “May God forgive you, brother.” People remembered such a story and Wenceslaus became a saint of old sung about in a Christmas carol.
The first stanza of “Good King Wenceslaus” goes like this: “Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, when a poor man came in sight gathering winter fuel.”
Today, the 2nd day of Christmas, the Feast of Stephen, is when the Church remembers her first martyr.
Main Body
But, right now, you might be thinking, “I like that Christmas carol about Good King Wenceslaus, but a martyr’s day one day after Christmas? How depressing!” Yet, here we are. The songs of the angels are still ringing in our hearts. Even so, today, a murderous, violent mob confronts us. Stephen dies. That just doesn’t fit our message of peace and goodwill.
But Christ’s Church usually defies our cultural expectations–and today is no different! Today, the Church directs her children to remember a death the day after we celebrate our Lord’s birth.
This shouldn’t surprise us. What’s the center of the Christmas Gospel? Jesus, our Savior, came into this world to die that He may give us His life. We remember the martyrdom of St. Stephen today, so we don’t forget the real reason for the season.
Even more, why do you think the last gift from the Magi was myrrh? Myrrh is an embalming ointment for burial. It wasn’t some meaningless detail that Mary would wrap her newborn Son with strips of cloth when she laid Him in the manger. These strips of cloth resemble the strips of cloth that would wrap Jesus in death as He lay in the tomb.
The saving Word of the Gospel is that this infant, Jesus, was born to die that we may live. This is the joy of Christmas! Any spirit of Christmas, which has us separate our joy somewhere from the cross of Christ, is a different spirit, not the Holy Spirit.
What we may find odd, when we remember Stephen’s death, is how filled he was with joy and the Holy Spirit as he breathed his last breath. Stephen’s face shone like the face of an angel. How odd it seems of God, to teach us that our Christmas joy lies more than in a birth, but also in a death.
But this is not just in any death. Our joy is in Jesus’ death for us. It’s also in our own death–only because we die to be with Christ. This is a far better reality than this life under the power and curse of sin. For through death, God destroys the final vestiges of our old Adam as we await the body’s resurrection and everlasting life.
The Apostle Paul, when he was still Saul the Pharisee, willingly took part in stoning Stephen. After Paul was turned to Christ, he wanted to become like Christ in His death, so He might be fully changed into the image of God’s Son. Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life that I am now living in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). That was the Apostle Paul’s confession, for whom living was Christ and dying was gain (Philippians 1:20).
Now all this joy-of-death talk doesn’t appeal to my sinful, comfort-loving flesh. And I would wager that it doesn’t appeal to yours either. To understand why our death in Christ is something to look forward to, we must remember that Paul took part in Stephen’s martyrdom.
Paul looked at Stephen, who was standing before the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin. He saw that Stephen’s face was shining like the face of an angel. That’s because Stephen was looking to Jesus, the founder and finisher of our faith. Stephen saw Jesus, who endured the cross and despised its shame, sitting at the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 12:2). Stephen’s face reflected the One whom he saw and confessed–Jesus Christ!
You see, that which we gaze on in our hearts, we will reflect in our lives. Our lives reveal–and even betray–what we love and trust in above all else. That’s why we, as God’s own, are to be where God continues to come to us to give us Himself. The more Jesused you become, the more Jesus you reflect.
In our old sinful nature, we obsess with ourselves. Our sinful selves don’t give a hoot about God, that is, the real God. In our sinfulness, our focus is inward. This is nothing but vanity, the emptiness of our sin. The Old Adam in us is fascinated by our own beauty, which is, in truth, not true beauty but ugliness of body and soul.
But through St. Stephen, God calls us turn away from ourselves and fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and finisher of our faith. In God’s unfathomable love for us, He has brought us to faith by the Word of the Gospel. In His deep love for us, He has done everything needed to save us. As Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
The words that Stephen spoke breathed out Jesus’ own words on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). To those who look to Christ in faith, God no longer holds such sins against them. God has forgiven them.
Like Stephen, we are to see God’s glorious face in our risen Lord, Jesus Christ. We are to reflect what we see by faith, even as the moon at night reflects the illuminating light of the sun. We shine with a righteousness that is not our own. We shine with a righteousness that is only ours because we are joined to Jesus Christ, the One who is righteous.
By the Holy Spirit’s working, we, like St. Stephen, look to Jesus, the founder and finisher of our faith. For the joy set before Him, our Salvation, Christ Himself, endured the cross. He despised its shame and is now at the right hand of the Father, where He speaks for us on our behalf.
When we hear, in faith, Christ’s Word of absolution, we look to Jesus. When we, in faith, come to receive Christ’s Body and Blood for our forgiveness, we look to Jesus. When we, in faith, attend to Christ’s Word as it is read, preached, and taught, we fix our eyes on Jesus. And when we, in faith, sing the Word in our hymns and pray the Word in the liturgy, we fix our eyes on Jesus.
As that happens, God the Holy Spirit continues to change us into the likeness of Christ. So says the Apostle Paul. He writes, “With unveiled faces, seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into the same image, from glory to glory, and this from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Our mortal bodies, even right now, are dissolving into death. Yet, the new nature within us–created in Christ Jesus–is rising forth, ever being renewed by the Holy Spirit working through the Word. It is as the Apostle John says. “We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
Seeing Christ, by faith, makes us like Him. And on the Last Day, our change will, at last, be fully completed. Then, we will fully reflect and share in Christ’s resurrection majesty. As the Apostle Peter says, then we will fully become partakers of Christ’s divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
This brings us back to Christmas. For in Christmas, God the Son became one with man that we might become one with God.
Conclusion
So, this St. Stephen’s day, calls us to turn away from our self-obsession and our earthly possessions. This day calls us to lift our eyes that we may gaze on Christ alone, and the holy calling we have in Him.
For Christ is our new self. He is our true self. By His holy birth, life, death, and resurrection–and our Baptism into His body–we are joined to Him. God the Holy Spirit moves us in faith to live a new life, a life in Christ. And it is in that Life where we become what we were created to be, the image of Jesus Christ, who is the Great image of God the Father for us.
May God the Holy Spirit continue to fill you with His power, just as filled St. Stephen. Like Stephen, may you look into eternity and to long to be with Christ. Indeed, may God the Holy Spirit keep you in the one, true faith that you may hear Christ say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Amen.
