Tonight is the Night
Christmas Eve
Luke 2:1-14
December 24, 2025
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear saints, tonight everything changes. Tonight, something important happens. For tonight, in a small room, something incredible is delivered. Someone’s life will be forever changed. That is, if they match all the numbers. The last time I looked, the Powerball drawing tonight is worth an estimated $1.7 billion. The cash option is estimated at $780 million. The cashier seemed surprised that I did not want tickets for the second-largest jackpot in our nation’s history. I suppose that makes sense. This is life-changing money. But for many jackpot winners, it is also life-ruining money.
It makes you a target. People you know will want things from you. They will ask you for things or money. Have sob stories where they deserve your charity…whether the story is real or not. People have been killed after winning. Sometimes by robbers who target you, others by robbers who pretended to be friends until they could ‘finish the job.’ Even if you escape with your life, they can still steal your mammon. I mean, money.
But it doesn’t end there. Events like winning a jackpot can change and strain relationships. If you are single, good luck finding someone interested in you and not your money. Then there is the boredom and even guilt that comes. Guilt that you did nothing to have everything. Boredom that your days are free, while everyone else still toils.
What is worse is that statistics say 70% of lottery winners actually go bankrupt. Probably not from a nearly $2 billion ticket, but professional athletes end up broke while and after making hundreds of millions of dollars.
But why do I bring this up? It isn’t to get you to buy a ticket. It is to show where hope lies. Tonight, many hope for a Christmas miracle. That their ‘lucky numbers’ or their Quick Pick ticket is the right one. They think a windfall can lift the darkness around them. Darkness that has been around since the beginning of time.
Things change in the darkness. The darkness is scary and can be dangerous. It is in the dark that evil meets and schemes. Where the seedy underbellies of city and town thrive. There is a reason the unlit alley is scary. That the dark room seems to press in on you.
But it was in the darkness that the Lord spoke the words, “Let there be light.” It was in the night that the Lord’s judgment on Egypt came, where the firstborn of Egypt, even Pharaoh’s son, was destroyed and Israel was vindicated. Where, at the Red Sea, the Lord spends the night driving back the waters that Israel would cross on dry land.
Several times in the Old Testament, we see the Lord work on behalf of His people in the darkness. We recall Gideon’s 300 men, or when God causes the Syrian army to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army in the night. They abandon their camp and run away in fear, leaving it for lepers to find and bring the good news to Samaria when God answers Hezekiah’s prayer and sends an angel to strike down the 185,000-strong Assyrian army of Sennacherib.
While the world schemes in the night, the Lord breaks through it. There is no darkness in Him. He causes it to become light, because He is the Light. And a little over 2,000 years ago, the Light forever pierced the darkness. But unless you knew, you would have never known.
It did not sound like God breaking into His creation. It sounded like a young woman in agony. Like the desperate cry of a newborn. It didn’t look like the nursery of a king. It was the smell of a barn and the feed trough of an animal. But He was there. The Light who had just broken into the darkness.
And this good news had to be proclaimed. And it is, not to the might who were living in splendor and soft clothing. But to the humble and scorned. To some lowly shepherds in a nearby field. It is dark. Real dark. The darkness of the middle of the field; no such thing as light pollution. And suddenly, it was bright. Not just light, but the weighty glory of God. And in that brightness, an angel caused the shepherds to fear greatly.
Again, that makes sense. Even prophets, in the presence of the holy, fear. Yet the words of this angel dispel any need: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
This is, indeed, good news. The Messiah is here. The darkness’s days are numbered. Soon, its power will be vanquished.
The proclamation is enough. Nothing more needed to be said. But the angel goes on: “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” God’s word, His promise, is enough. But even more grace is given to the shepherds. They can see the fulfilled promise with their own eyes.
What joy! What grace! Immanuel is here. God is with His people. In the flesh.
And heaven cannot contain itself. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
You are among those with whom He is pleased. He created a perfect world out of love for you, His creation. He gave a good Law. Gave a promise of deliverance after the Fall. Kept that promise through various schemes of the devil trying to overturn God’s will and plan.
God breaks through the darkness to bring His light. In the darkness, your Messiah takes His first breath. In the darkness, He is betrayed. In the darkness, even though it was the middle of the day, He takes His final breath. He descends to the gloomy darkness of hell to proclaim His victory. And in the darkness, just as the sun begins to rise, He rises too.
He is the true, life-changing, eternal jackpot. And winning all for you, blessing you with life and salvation, you are made a target. But do not fret, for Jesus is the stronger man. He raids the devil’s kingdom and overthrows his throne. He will battle the devil and demons. He will face off against His own creation and people. And He will conquer it all, winning your redemption in the process.
But it all begins tonight. Because tonight, everything changes. Tonight, something important happens. For in a small room in a small town just south of Jerusalem, someone incredible is delivered. Where a poor family welcomes the virgin’s firstborn, lying there in a manger. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Nativity of Our Lord
Luke 2:15-20
December 25, 2025
Through the Eyes of the Shepherds
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
It’s the middle of the night. You’ve been out in this field for hours. Just like you were last night and, it seems, every night. Even when you’re used to the long nights, your eyes get heavy. And it’s even harder in the cold. But, as far as you know, it is just another night like so many before it. Just another night…until the darkness is suddenly gone and everything is lit as if it were day. And now someone is standing there who was not there just three seconds ago. This ordinary night has just become the most frightening night of your life.
And then, he speaks: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Whatever you understand of this message, the man you now recognize as an angel continues, “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
If this was not overwhelming enough, now the sky explodes with light and sound: And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Just as quickly as everything appears, it is gone. The night surrounds you once again. The stillness comes over you. But the sights and the sounds continue to ring in your minds. You cannot help but think of what you have just seen and heard. And you start talking about it. Your group decides, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
You quickly leave the fields and make your way into the little town. You find Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. And awe overcomes you. You see what you heard from the angels. And you cannot help yourself; you tell them everything you saw on this very night. You see deep contemplation in Mary. Finally, you all return to your fields and your flocks. This ordinary night has just become the most joyous night of your life.
Now things are different. Your eyes are open. Your shoulders are lighter. You cannot help but praise and glorify your God. Not only because of what you have seen, but because of what He is accomplishing. The long-awaited Savior has arrived. The root of Jesse has finally cracked the surface of the soil. And you realize that the peace being made known, made manifest, is for you.
This is because the Light will shine. Think of our Introit. In a world of darkness, a light pierces through. And while the darkness is a frightening place. A place where evil abounds, your God is still at work. And on this day, we celebrate that to us a child is born. A child who brings peace between God and man.
Think of what we heard from Isaiah, words that Jesus will confess about Himself in the synagogue at Nazareth: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
All these things your Lord has done. He instructs, he convicts, and he comforts. He tells you of His peace and absolution. He takes and heals your heart. He frees you from sin’s captivity. The gates of hell are destroyed, no longer able to bind those He calls to Himself.
In this, you have true joy. For your salvation comes. Now, in a manger. Soon, on a donkey. In glory upon a cross. In victory over the grave. And, one day, descending upon the clouds, ending all strife and bringing you and all His holy people to the New Creation. Where you will dwell with Him and all the saints forever and ever. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Originally posted at What does this Mean? Blog: https://whatdoesthismean.blog
The posts in the blog What does this Mean? are now available at What does this Mean? | Rev. Robert E. Smith | Substack
Rev. Brent Keller
Trinity Lutheran Church
Guttenberg, Iowa
and
St. Paul Lutheran Church
McGregor, Iowa
©2025 Brent Keller. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com.
