Dear Christian friends:

A little boy said to his mother, "I can't get up until I Jesus' face." He meant that he was afraid to get up in the dark bedroom, but when daylight came he could see a picture of Jesus hanging on his bedroom wall and was not afraid to get up.

As we begin a new year we also have our fears and anxieties. Our society gets more chaotic each year. Immorality, injustice, corporate greed and fear are increasing. The pressures of life seem overwhelming. We are filled with anxiety and doubt. There is the possibility of war and more terrorism. Our economy is slow to heal. Our hearts feel old and our spirits weak. However, as we look to Jesus, our fears and anxiety subside.

Our text, which is the Gospel Lesson for this Second Sunday After Christmas, tells us some amazing things about Jesus, especially verse 14, which emphasizes His grace and truth. Grace and truth are indispensable for our security, peace and joy as we enter the new year with Christ our Lord.


This grace and truth has been effective in us. The grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for us to have spiritual life, which gives security, peace and joy.

Since the fall of Adam and Eve all people are born in spiritual darkness and death, and really deserve to remain in that fearful and hopeless condition forever and ever. Paul tells us: "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)

And in Ephesians 2:1-3 he elaborates on this a bit more, saying, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath." And that "wrath" is God's righteous anger over sin and sinners.

However, since God is also a compassionate and gracious Lord, He wants to restore fearful, helpless, hopeless sinners to fellowship with Himself to give them life and light. He does this redeeming work through Christ, the eternal Word of God, as our text tells us. (read verses 1-4)

As the Word of God He is the very self-expression of the Father's grace and love to all people. He shows the amazing plan of God to redeem the fallen world by Himself becoming flesh in order to live among us and to suffer and die for our sins in self-sacrificing love, as John tells us in verse fourteen of our text saying, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." The Word is the person of Jesus Christ. Through Him grace and truth are given.

But, unfortunately, this grace and truth, manifested in Jesus Christ, is often rejected due to the spiritual darkness and spiritual death in our hearts. This was true, not only of people in general, but also of the Jews, God's chosen people. Our text tells us in verses 10-11, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." Jesus said to Nicodemus, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed." (John 3:19-20)

So you see the hopeless, helpless situation we all are in if left to ourselves and our own devices. On our own we will not and cannot come into the light of God's truth. "You were dead in your transgressions and sins," we heard before. A dead person can't make himself alive; but God can. We can't, but He can!

Whenever God regenerates hearts, they believe in Jesus as their Savior and receive the right to be children of God. Our text tells us this great news, saying, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:12-13)

And Peter supports this, saying, "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." (1 Peter 1:23) Such reborn people have seen Jesus' real glory, as the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth.

We are such chosen and blessed people. The fact that we are gathered here today is evidence of that. We have been baptized in the name of Jesus and have risen with him from the death of sin to the new and eternal life. St. Paul describes our rebirth and new life in Ephesians 2:4-10, "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Truly, God's grace and truth has succeeded in us! Since we are such chosen and blessed people, we can't help but give witness to this amazing grace and truth of Jesus Christ. We are witnesses to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.

Our text tells us that John the Baptist was sent by God to be such a witness of Jesus the Christ. John the Baptist testified about the Word become flesh. He pointed to Jesus as the Light every person needs for eternal life. In our text we read, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) (John 1:6-9, 15)

In spite of opposition and many hardships and deprivations John the Baptist faithfully carried out his important role as the one who prepared the way for Christ to the people of his day. He even gave up his life in this ministry.

Like John, all of us who have been reborn in Christ have a testimony to give of our dear Lord and Savior. We are obligated to witness of His grace and truth. It is not an obligation of the law and whip, but an obligation of love and grace gratitude.

We have become the children of God for Jesus' sake, as verse 12 of our text tells us, and as St. Paul in Ephesians 2 emphasizes. We are products of his grace to give glory to him in this life and in the life to come in heaven. We are eager to tell people what Jesus has done for us; and not only tell them with words but demonstrate it by our deeds of mercy and kindness to those around us who are in need.

That we may be able to do this we receive one blessing after another from the fullness of his grace, as verse 16 of our text tells us. We continue in the truth which Jesus Himself brought, because we want those who are still in darkness and death to enjoy the blessings of light and life with us.

The beginning of this New Year is a good time to think about the amazing grace and truth which has been given to us and which has been so effective and fruitful in us. And we know it will continue to be given to us through the Word and Sacraments during this year ahead. God gives it to us and recreates us not only for our own eternal joy and peace, but also that we might be a witness to others around us so that they may have joy and peace also, and with us glorify God, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Amen.