The Holiness of Christ

In an underappreciated way, Christmas is all about holiness. Christmas transcends mere sentimentality, rooted instead in God's holiness that enables and infuses the Advent themes of love, joy, peace, and hope. Drawing from the angel's announcement in Luke 1:35, where the child is called "holy—the Son of God," this sermon connects the Incarnation to Christ's divine otherness, moral purity, and sacred separateness. Amid the chaos following the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walks on the sea, revealing his deity through echoes of Old Testament imagery like Job 9:8 and Psalm 89:9, where God alone treads the waves and stills the storm.

As Peter steps out in faith but sinks when his eyes shift from Christ, illustrating how misplaced fears stem from a deficient view of Jesus' holiness—far more awe-inspiring than any storm. Ultimately, the glory of the Son of God shines as Jesus rescues Peter, calms the wind, and elicits worship: "Truly you are the Son of God." This holiness, embodied in the Incarnation and proven on the cross, relieves us of temporal anxieties by reorienting our ultimate fear toward God, and as A.W. Tozer notes, relieves us of ten thousand temporal problems.