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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God doesn’t need anything. That’s something that’s taken for granted for orthodox Christianity. God doesn’t need anything, as if He lacked something that someone else could provide. What are we going to give to God that He doesn’t have? If we give offerings, that’s all from what God gave us, jobs and money. The gifts and talents we have that we use for the glory of God and the service of our neighbors, all of that was given to us by God. Those abilities and the opportunities to use them all come from God. We certainly do return to God thanks and praise, but our minds, our voices, our meditation on His goodness: all gift, all given by Him. There is nothing we have that we did not receive. God does not need anything.

Well, there is one thing. The Letter to the Hebrews says that when He—when Jesus—came into this world, He said, “sacrifices and offerings You did not desire; but a body You have prepared, or made, for Me.” The one thing God did not have, the one thing He needed, was a body. So God prepares that body for His Son in the womb of, and from the flesh of, Mary. He sends His angel to speak to her, that she will conceive and give birth to a Son, and call His Name Jesus—Yah-shua—because He will save His people from their sins. And Mary says, “Let it be to me as you have said.” Amen, let it be to me as you have said. And Elizabeth tells her, “Blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment of everything spoken to her by the Lord.” The Hebrew of Psalm 39 (Psalm 40 in English) does not say “a body you have prepared for me.” Instead of “body” it has “ears,” and instead of “prepared,” it has “dug.” “Ears you have dug for me.” That’s what God does for Mary: He digs ears to hear the Word, she believes it, and this is how He prepares a body for the Son. So there’s one thing God needed: a body.

Oh, there’s one other thing that God did not have, a present we could give Him: our hearts. But not in the way we normally think, like the song says: What shall I give Him? I’ll give Him my heart. We think, that sounds nice and sweet in the Christmas song. I don’t have all the money or treasure, frankincense, gold, or myrrh, so I’ll give Him my heart. How nice. Except that’s not a very nice present for the newborn Son of God. As Jesus says later, out of the heart comes every kind of evil. Here, Jesus, I got You something. That’s what God really didn’t have: sin. And that’s why He needed a body. He enters this world in the body prepared from the flesh of Mary, and He does it to take your sin. All the darkness, selfishness, hatred, bitterness, thanklessness, gossip, slander, anger—that’s what you give to God that He didn’t have.

The body that is prepared in the womb of Mary is a body prepared for crucifixion and burial. God was done with the offerings and sacrifices of animals, because they didn’t take away sin. At their best, in God’s own intention, all those offerings were meant to point to something and someone else. They were offered every year as a promise of what was to come: a sacrifice that did not need to be repeated. So the body prepared for the Son is the body prepared to be a singular offering, which once and for all took away the sin that clings to you in your body. It no longer belongs to you, because Jesus took it for His own.

What shall I give to the Lord, for all His benefits to me? the psalmist asks. I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Indeed, our sacrifices are not for sin, but we offer sacrifices of our mouth, as we confess and praise and thank Him. But the psalmist says something else: what shall I give to the Lord? I will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:12-13). With the Lord, it is always gift upon gift upon gift. What shall I give back to the Lord? I will receive from Him even more. Because the body He prepared, the conceived in and born from Mary, the body crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven is the very same body He gives to you. Even the flesh He receives from Mary, He gives back in abundance. Take and eat, this is My body, given for you.

God doesn’t need anything; He doesn’t lack anything—except a body and your sin. That’s the body He prepares and makes; yours is the sin He takes and crucifies and buries in the ground; and in its place, He gives you His holy body and blood. This is God’s holy gift exchange: we give Him sin and darkness and death, and He gives us forgiveness, light, and life: exactly what we need, and the more we receive, exactly what we want. This week, God dig you ears to hear and receive His Word, because you are the blessed ones who believe there will be a fulfillment of everything God has said. Let it be to you exactly as He has said, until we see Him in that body, glorified as He will make our risen bodies.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 12/20/24