“Twelfth Night”
Original sermon given on January 5, 2025, written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Twelfth Night”
Matthew 2
Matthew 2
In the name of the Living God and the Christ who has come to us. Amen.
To quote a familiar song: on the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: “twelve drummers drumming”. As you might know, Christmas is not just a day, but an entire twelve-day season celebrating the birth of our savior. I hope your celebrations didn’t end on December 25th, the First Day, but began then. Rejoicing and feasting can continue right up until tonight. (See, yet another reason to break your New Year’s resolutions.)
So if today indeed is the twelfth day of Christmas, that means tonight is “Twelfth Night.” The most famous thing about the Twelfth Night is Shakespeare’s well known comedy of the same name. Even if you don’t remember the plot from high school AP English, you’ll surely know a couple of the play’s memorable lines such as, “If music be the food of love, play on” (I, i); or “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.” (II, v)
The fun and frivolity of the play lies in its mistaken identities, swapping of places, great reversals, and depiction of a world turned upside down. The twelfth night of Christmas was traditionally a night filled with such things. (You can add this to your list of party ideas.) Amid a great deal of revelry, masks were worn and games of trading places and mistaken identities would commence. In particular, a “Lord of Misrule” would be chosen among the servants of the household. He/she would, with cap and cape, rule in the place of the prince or noblemen or bishop or abbot for the evening and was put in charge of all the revels.
How well would this work in your own household? At your school or college? Or your place or work? Or the city of Chicago? The youngest child is in charge for the evening. A freshman sits in the president’s chair. The newest employee sets the agenda for the day. The city worker on the lowest pay scale takes over for the mayor for the end-of-the year holiday party. Hmmmm… What do you think? Fun idea, but a lot could go wrong.
Indeed, if you tried it, it would be a time of great reversals and a world turned upside down, I think you’ll agree.
As we read the familiar account of the Magi visiting the Holy Family for Epiphany, we surely must be struck by the great reversals outlined for us by the Holy Spirit, in Matthew 2. First, the Magi make the remarkable, arduous journey all the way from the far east to visit who? A little babe of questionable origin, born to a servant girl, in a fringe province of the Roman Empire. Here is where they give their gifts: not to Herod, in his magnificent Jerusalem palace; not to the high priest, presiding over the newly rebuilt temple; not to the head of the Roman garrison stationed there. All these are bypassed and the star rests over a humble home at nearby Bethlehem.
Bethlehem, though just one of thousands of little villages, has its own reversal too. We would never even have heard of “O little town” had not Jesus, the eternal Christ not been born there. But St. Matthew, paraphrasing the prophet Micah, tells of this village’s great reversal: “You are by no means least in the land of Judah.” Bethlehem would not be great for who she was, but because of the greatness of who was born within her.
A great wicked reversal is seen in Herod’s attempt to slay the baby Jesus. He pretends to seek sincere worship, but only manipulates things for destruction. Herod works diligently to identify the child in order to slay him. His motives are jealousy, insecurity, and rage. In contrast, the Magi seek diligently in order bow humbly before him, giving their gifts to him.
What they find there is certainly far more than they expect or deserve. When they set out months before, they know not where it will lead or how it will end. Yet, they follow that star — relentlessly, recklessly, even — who makes a trip like this? And there they discover, veiled in human flesh, the King of all the universe in the humblest of homes. The greatest made the least; the most powerful become vulnerable; the creator of the universe, needing his own creation Mary to care for him. What a reversal they find.
The list of great reversals goes on and on in this account in Matthew, but the most important thing is that the reversal is made real for us this morning. Our world, your world too, must be turned upside down when you behold this holy child. This is more than a starlit story; or a fulfillment of prophecy; or an epic quest of seek and find. If this is true, that God was in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to himself, and that it all starts here with the Babe of Bethlehem, then nothing can be the same anymore. You can’t be the same anymore when you believe this. Our own lives must be reversed, turned upside down, because of this one truth. What journey too long to make for him? What gift too precious to give him? What change too difficult to make for him? What night too dark to be enlightened by him?
The greatest reversal, of course, is found in the central message of the gospel for us. That the Lord of Heaven and Earth — not just a King in Israel, or an Emperor in Rome or Babylon or Persia — but that the One to whom all things belong, and from whom all things come, would descend to earth to take our place. Yes, in our own flesh and blood, but then one day upon our cross of sin and shame. What a world turned upside down is this. What a great reversal. We, the lowly, sinful creation, are given the gift of heaven. He, the perfect, precious holy son of God is given hell for us. We receive his righteousness as a gift for salvation; he receives our wretchedness. We are set free; he is condemned. We made kings, he made a slave. We are given life, he death. It is unfathomable, isn’t it, this sacred “mistaken identity,” that I become the righteous one and he the sinner in my stead. It turns my whole world upside down, this kind of love. And I hope here it does yours as well.
Happy twelfth night. Blessed Epiphany.