Sunday, December 21, 2025, Fourth Sunday in Advent
“Love with Skin On”
Scripture Readings: Psalm 24; Isaiah 7:10-17; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25
Divine Service IV, with Communion
Hymns: “Come, Your Hearts and Voices Raising” #375
“O Sing of Christ” #362;
“Joy to the World, the Lord Is Come” #387
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
Love from a distance is certainly possible, isn’t it? Many of us have dear ones and relatives who are living far away, but we love them still. You can tell someone you love them in a letter, or by a text or email, or over the phone, and you should. With modern technology, you can even talk to them and see them on Facetime or one of those video apps. But that’s just not the same, is it? Love from a distance only goes so far. For the true depth of our love to be understood, sometimes is just has to be face-to-face, hands-on, and flesh-and-blood – a hand holding yours, or an arm around you. There’s really no substitute for human touch.
The God who made us loves us, like a Father loves His children; and He wants us all to know how much He loves us. God could have just looked down from heaven, and saw us down here, and shook His holy head and said, “Too bad; oh, just too bad.” He could have shouted, “I love you” down from heaven, or expressed His love to us in a written Word (which He did!) But He knew we’d need more. Weak and sinful humans that we are, God knew we’d need to see and feel His love “hands on”, that His love needed to be shown to us, for us to know how “wide and deep and high” His love for us really is.
That, folks, is what Christmas is all about. God, in His mercy, sent us His one and only Son in the flesh, to show us the depth of His love for us. Christmas is about a God who’s not far away from us, but a God in the flesh, a God with skin on, born of a virgin and laid in a manger for the sake of our sin.
King Ahaz, the 16th king of Judah, was a bad man, and a really bad king, and he led his people to share in his terrible sin. Ahaz worshiped the gods of Assyria. He rearranged the furniture in God’s Temple to make room for pagan idols. He even promoted and engaged in child sacrifice, and sacrificed his own children in the fire. And now, as a result of his sin, the enemies of Judah were attacking, and Ahaz was in terrible trouble.
And the Lord, merciful God that He is, came and spoke to him, offering His help if Ahaz would only repent and change his ways. The Lord said, “Ask me for a sign, Ahaz, anything at all, and I’ll show you who I am.” But Ahaz refused to ask. Because if he’d asked for a sign, and God gave him one, then what would he have had to do? He’d have had to change – and change is hard, especially for a heart that was hardened like his. Refusing to ask God for a sign was a way to keep God safely at arm’s length. A God far away in heaven, a God who doesn’t walk in and mess with your life, is one thing. But a God who confronts you, a God who shows up and proves Himself to be real, is another. Better not to ask, thinks Ahaz, better not to pray, than to face a God I’ll have to be accountable to.
So if you won’t ask of God, if you’d rather that God would just let you alone and let you go on just as you are -- that He will not do. His Spirit will pursue you all the days of your life, and He’ll put roadblocks in your path and give signs for you to see. God loves you too much to leave you be. So Ahaz, says the Lord - and all you Ahaz’s out there in the world - I’ll give you a sign you just can’t miss: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
That’s a sign that simply can’t be ignored, a “this will only happen once in the history of the world” sign – a signpost, a historical marker, a “star of wonder, star of might” to point you to your Savior. A child born of a virgin! That never happens; in fact, it’s a physical and biological impossibility. And yet, by a wonderful, holy, divine miracle, there the baby is.
The sign God has given us is that a special child, a holy child, would be born of a virgin, and so be born without the stain of human sin. Sin, we know, began with Adam and Eve, who passed it on to their children and to their children’s children, and “down into the circling years” in an awful, unbroken chain -- all of us conceived and born in sin, all of us guilty of sin, all of “born to die” as the penalty due for what we’ve done.
God’s most ancient promise was that He’d provide a perfect man, a perfect Lamb, “a Lamb without blemish or defect,” to be the perfect sacrifice to pay the debt of sin we owe. That’s what Christmas is all about – a perfect child, lying in a manger; His mother a virgin named Mary, chosen by God, His father the God of Heaven Himself. By a miracle we call the Incarnation, God come down to earth in the flesh, to bear our sin and be our Savior.
The perfect child was given two names. One was an earthy name for Him, Jesus, or Yeshua – a Hebrew name that means, “The Lord is Salvation.” And then also a heavenly name, Immanuel – a name that means, “God With Us.” God with us, God come to be with us, God come to be one of us -- to live as we live, to be every bit human, to experience all the hurts, pains, and griefs that we have to experience. A God with skin on, a God the people could reach out and touch, and a God who reached out and touched people with mercy, healing, and grace.
And a God who, in the end, took all those hurts and pains and griefs of ours, and all our sin, and carried it all to the cross. It was real flesh and blood, real sinews and muscles and skin, that they drove the nails into. That’s what that newborn baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, was born to do. He came to die so we could live.
There’s your everlasting sign, King Ahaz. There in the manger is the Savior you need, the Jesus who loves you to death. He won’t ever leave you alone. You can put Him aside, but He’ll never leave you. Christmas is about a sign from heaven that we can’t ignore; and all we’re being asked to do is humble ourselves before that precious child, bow down in faith and acknowledge that that tiny Jewish boy was and still is our Savior, and follow Him. One day we’ll all stand before Him, and see Him in His glorious, flesh-and-blood self; and oh, won’t that be a day? I pray we’ll all meet Him with faith in our hearts.
If you want a great thing to do for Christmas, or any time of the year, for that matter, do you know someone who needs a human touch? A card or a note or a phone call is good; please remember to do those things. But who do you know who needs an arm around them or a hand to hold? Christmas is a lonesome time for lots of people. How sad that there are children in this world who don’t know what a hug is. How sad that there are old people in nursing homes that no one touches anymore. How sad that there are people who still don’t know the love of Christ or the touch of the Savior. We who know Christ, we who know the Child in the manger for who He is, are blessed to be an extension of His arms and hands -- to be the hands-on, “God with skin on” expression of the love of Christ to the people around us, when nothing else will do. Lord, help us to do this.
Dear Father in Heaven, Your servant St. Paul wrote to us, “You also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” We thank You, Lord, that You have reached out and touched us with mercy and grace to bring us to saving faith. Father, our Lord Jesus isn’t here in the flesh today; He’s in heaven, praying for us and preparing a place for us. But may we please, Lord, bring the touch of our Savior to the people around us?
Help us to be more than a Church that calls out from a distance, but a Church that touches people where they are. May people come to know the Savior, the Christ child, Christ the Lord, by the love we show and the love we give. In Jesus’ name; Amen.
Rev. Larry Sheppard, M.Div.
St. John’s Lutheran Church, Oxford, Wisconsin
Trinity Lutheran Church, Packwaukee, Wisconsin
pastorshepp@gmail.com