Great is the mystery, worthy of all telling. The Word became Flesh and tabernacled among us. Who would have known it? Who would have done it that way? A virgin mother will give birth to a Son; the Creator will join His creatures. The Infinite will contain Himself within the finite. God will become Man–and that Man is now God. God will be with us, born as a baby. But that’s for Christmas day.
But before it all happened, the Prophet Micah told us where it would all happen. It would take place in Bethlehem. So small are you, Bethlehem, that Micah the Prophet must call you Bethlehem of Ephratah or someone might mistake you for another: Bethlehem of Zebulon. Yes, Bethlehem of Ephratah, so small are you that even ancient maps have forgotten you, not placing you on the yellowed parchment of old.
The year is 735 BC. The prophet Micah stands forth to speak; a sturdy voice and convicting air confronts the eardrums of all within earshot. Every eye stops, gazing on God’s prophet. Micah then cries out, “Hear O Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: ‘The promised Messiah will be born in the little town of Bethlehem of Ephratah.’”
Disbelieving calls pierce the air. One screams out: “How can the Promised One, our Messiah, be born there? Surely there are better places in Judah than Bethlehem, Ephratah.” And with a resounding voice the people concur. But Micah stands fast: “Doubt not the living and active Word of Yahweh; so will it be as I have said.”
Bethlehem, Beth-lechem, “house of bread”: that’s what the name means. It was Judah’s bread box. From you will come the One who will feed His people with everlasting bread–manna from Heaven. He who would come from Bethlehem would come to give His own body in the bread of His Holy Sacrament. Even the town’s name, Bethlehem, testifies to Jesus.
But Micah also called that place Ephratah, “fruitful.” For the One from Bethlehem came–not just to provide a place of fruitfulness, His Church–but even to become the fruitful yield, the food, that would feed His flock. The House of Bread gives birth to the One who will become the food, the Ephratha, for his people. Even the name Ephratah testifies to Jesus.
Bethlehem was a town where everyday folk lived and worked. Although the town had one famous person, King David, it was still where farmers labored, and shepherds kept watch over their flocks. And that tells us something about our Savior. He didn’t come to us in a palace of kings!
So the Savior Micah foretold would come from a little town, not a king’s palace. He would come from an insignificant clan of people. But His royal lineage would reach beyond the beginning of time, for the One from Bethlehem would be God Himself. Unlike King David, the ruler Micah foretold would be different. This Ruler would be “from old, from the days of eternity.” He would be God in the flesh.
And you can’t get more located than Bethlehem, a real town in a real place. Look to the little town of Bethlehem to marvel at your Savior’s birth. Jesus lowered Himself to our level. No one is so low for whom He did not descend. He was born in a stable and laid to sleep in feeding trough. He was born in Bethlehem, not in Jerusalem. He was born in a town like Kimberling City, not New York.
And so our Savior will come as a man, as one born within His own, once perfect, creation. He will live as a real human, amid the waste and welter of this world, brought about by His own creatures’ rebellion. The God who knew no sin will become sin for us, so we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He will come to save common folk, like those who live in Kimberling City, Blue Eye, or Reeds Spring.
As creatures born in rebellion, we often let power and glory capture our imagination. And so, we don’t expect God to do His work through the humble and lowly. But that’s what Bethlehem shows us. That’s what Jesus would become, humble and lowly, when God will be born in human flesh.
Oh, Bethlehem, in your countryside, lambs are born and raised for the Temple sacrifices, from which only the perfect yearlings became the Temple slaughter. But from you will come THE Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He will be without blemish, THE sacrifice to whom all the Old-Covenant sacrifices pointed, and in whom all those sacrifices found their power and meaning.
Bethlehem, you are but a small town, but One will be born within you who will make your name great. As it surprised many that anything good could come from Nazareth, who but the prophet would predict that you, oh Bethlehem, would bring forth such a ruler?
For the Lord humbles the mighty and exalts the humble. He esteemed the humble state of His servant, Mary, so all future generations would call her blessed. He calls fishermen, tax collectors, and prostitutes to be His disciples. He shames the wise of this world and glorifies the foolish. He turns weeping into joy, sin into righteousness, and death into life.
It’s God’s way to His work within what our sinful nature often despises. It’s to show you that God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). He won’t come to us as God in all His glory. Jesus will be born in a little town looking like an ordinary boy. You have to trust the God’s written and revealed Word to know what He will be.
To the eye, He will look to be just another ordinary newborn. Poor child: He will have no cozy crib, but a feeding trough in which to sleep. But the Word reveals what the eye cannot. This child is the Savior, the Christ, the Lord. His birth will become a matter of truth, prophesied by Prophet Micah. He will be born as the Savior, our Lord–the Way, the Truth, and the Life–whether one believes it or not.
Look to the little town of Bethlehem to see the Savior. He is more than just a man, for “she who is in labor has given birth” to God in the flesh whose “existence is from of old, even from eternity.” He will become our sacrifice, offering the perfect, holy life that God demands, dying the death that we deserve. Only God can, in His faultless life and blameless death, burn away the shroud of our eternal death.
That Satan also knew. And so, from the moment of Jesus’ birth, Satan would unleash every weapon in His arsenal to keep the Christ from saving us fallen beings. We heard such a truth today from the book of Revelation, told to us in graphic imagery.
The great fiery dragon would stand in front of the woman who was about to give birth, all so it could devour her child when it was born. Satan tried to do just that, working through King Herod to kill the infant Jesus. But the Virgin Mary would still give birth to a son who would rule all the nations with an iron scepter, for He came to save all, the many, not just a few. And Christ will not waver in His work to save us; He will be as an iron scepter. He will not shrink from what that Father has given Him to do.
And so Bethlehem and the cross become linked in an unbreakable bond. Jesus was born in Bethlehem to die on Golgotha. Yet, Jesus didn’t die on the cross, only to leave you unsure of where He would bring you the forgiveness that He won there. For Micah did more than prophesy that Bethlehem would be the birth place of Christ. He also declared “He [our Savior] will stand and shepherd them in the strength of the Lord.”
Where does that happen, where does Jesus “stand and shepherd [His Church] in the strength of the Lord”? Where does Jesus stand and feed His flock? Right here, here in His Church, this House of Bread! Here, He feeds you with Himself. Here, the precious promises of the Gospel become yours in the Body and Blood of Christ. Here, He feeds, strengthens, and keeps you in the one, true Faith unto life everlasting.
Indeed, He is God’s Gift to the world, given to us, to you, and to me. All who trust in Him will not die because of their sins but, instead, receive life unending, life eternal.
That’s why you are safe “in the strength of the Lord,” as Micah foretold. For Christ is your safe harbor from your eternal enemies of death and hell. Your sin no longer condemns you. Christ washes away your sins in His blood-cleansing sea of forgetfulness, as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Here in His Church, His House of Bread, He feeds you with Himself, the Bread of Life (Matthew 26:26-28). Satan’s accusations of guilt fall on deaf ears. God remembers your sins no more.
God has forgiven and forgotten your sins; in Christ, your conscience is clean. Death’s reign is done. Death has now become but the gateway into life eternal. Hell has no claim on you. The fiery dragon’s fury was all spent and exhausted at the cross of Christ.
The Holy Spirit that Jesus has sent breathes the fire of faith into your heart by Word and Sacrament, stopping the fiery dragon in his tracks. Death has died; its sting is no more. The grave lies silent, no longer mocking, for even when you die, you still live. Jesus has broken the fiery dragon’s jaws and has become your peace. In the child of Bethlehem, all is eternally well, for He brings wholeness to what sin has ruined.
Know this: Nothing can take Christ’s promises away from you, for He was born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, to make it so. And no one can take you away from Him, for He seals that promise in His death and His blood. And He, the Bread of Life, gives you His life in His Church, His House of Bread. And what God has done, no man may put asunder.
It happened in Bethlehem, it happens here, all for you. Amen.
