The 3 Reformers on "Christmas" SERIES: Luther [YES]

And the angel said unto them, 

Fear not: for, behold, 

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  Luke 2:10

"Luther, of the three Reformers, loved celebrating Christmas and he

often preached upon the birth of Christ as 25th December drew near.

Given that Luther embraced the normative principle of worship, namely, that all that the Bible does not prohibit may have a place in the church, the German felt entirely justified upon celebrating the incarnation of the Son of God in a special way at least once a year.

In his sermon entitled ‘To Us a Child Is Born’ (preached on 25th December, 1531), Luther honed in upon the faith of the shepherds who, “in spite of what their five senses told them […] concluded: this is the King, the Savior, the great joy of the people. There was nothing great in the hearts of those shepherds save for the words of the angel. In fact, they were so great that except for them the shepherds saw nothing else. They were filled with those words just like drunkards and they made them known without being in the slightest bit concerned about what the great lords in Jerusalem and the Sanhedrin would have to say. On the contrary, without an inkling of fear, they preached of the poor Christ”.

Luther took advantage of the festive season to declare the Good News that had so enthralled the Bethlehem shepherds." WillGraham/EvangelicalFocus