Christmas
2
Mt
2:13-23
1/5/25
After
eighteen years as your pastor, you are now well aware that the Magi – the “wise
men” – will not show up at Good Shepherd during Christmastide – the season of
Christmas that lasts for twelve days.
Despite the fact that the Magi appear on innumerable Christmas cards,
and are found in manger scenes displayed in homes, they are not part of the
Christmas event.
Instead,
the visit by the Magi marks the beginning of the season of Epiphany as we
celebrate that Christ’s saving glory appeared in the world. It is only then
that we bring out the Magi for display behind the altar.
Now
this creates a rather puzzling state affairs this morning. Our text begins with the words: “When [the
wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and
remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to
destroy him.’” Everything in our text
occurs after the magi have visited, and then left.
However,
we won’t celebrate the visit of the magi until tomorrow – the Feast of
the Epiphany of our Lord. Clearly, we have things out of order here. The
explanation for this is that in these first two Sundays after Christmas the
lectionary has provided us with the two earliest events that we learn about in
our Lord’s life after his birth. Last
week we heard about his presentation at the temple as Simeon took the child in
his arms. This week we hear about the flight to Egypt.
We
learn that after the magi had left – having been warned in a dream not to
return to Herod – Joseph had his own dream. An angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to
Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the
child, to destroy him.”
The
magi had come to Jerusalem looking for the King of the Jews. Instead, they found Herod the Great who ruled
the land of the Jews. Herod had
displayed remarkable tenacity and ruthlessness in establishing his
kingdom. He eliminated potential threats
– including killing one of his wives, and three of his sons. Caesar August is reported to have quipped:
“It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son,” since Jews didn’t eat pork.
Herod
learned from the scribes that according to the prophet Micah, the Christ was to
be born in Bethlehem. So he sent the magi to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search
diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I
too may come and worship him.’”
Herod
had no intention of worshipping the child. As the angel told Joseph in the
dream, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain
there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy
him.” Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of
God was in this world. And almost
immediately his life is threatened with death by evil.
Joseph
took Jesus and Mary in the middle of the night, and fled to Egypt and stayed
there until Herod died. It was a fearful
trek that turned their life upside down.
Yet Matthew tells us that this threat by Herod did not negate God’s work
in Christ. Instead, this hardship was included
in God’s plan. Matthew tells us, “This
was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I
called my son.’”
Matthew
quotes the first verse of Hosea chapter 11.
Hosea’s statement recounts Israel’s history. He says, “When Israel was a child, I
loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were
called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and
burning offerings to idols.” God had
brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt, but the nation had been unfaithful.
Yahweh
had said to Pharaoh through Moses: “Israel is my firstborn son.” Then he had said to Kind David about his
descendant: “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.” The Davidic king would be Israel reduced to
one. Jesus was the Son of David – he was
the Christ. And so he was Israel reduced
to One – he stood in the place of the nation.
God
was working through Israel to bring salvation to all people. He had told Abraham, “in you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed.” Israel was to be a light to the nations. But the people had been unfaithful to God and
brought dishonor to his name. Now God
was doing something new. He was acting in his Son Jesus Christ to fulfill all
that Israel was meant to be. God was
bringing Jesus his Son out of Egypt just has he had done with the nation. Next week we will learn about how Jesus
passed through the water of his baptism just as Israel passed through the Red
Sea.
God
was at work in Christ as he went to Egypt in preparation to be the fulfillment
of Israel’s role in the plan of salvation.
But that didn’t mean there was an absence of evil and suffering. Herod soon realized that he had been tricked
by the magi. Furious, he had all the
male children two years old and younger in the area of Bethlehem killed. Matthew explains:
“Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’”
Matthew
quotes Jeremiah chapter 31. The chapter
is a word of hope to Judah that though destruction and exile were coming at the
hand of the Babylonians, God would yet restore them. God says, “I have loved you with an
everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again
I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!” In fact, at the end of the chapter Yahweh
promises the day when he will make a new covenant with them.
The
words of Jeremiah 31 quoted by Matthew are in fact the only sad statement in
the whole chapter. The Holy Spirit
teaches us through the evangelist’s words that the world’s evil cannot deny
God’s saving plan. In fact, our Gospel
text shows us that God’s plan occurs in the midst of sorrow. Ultimately it will be accomplished through
sorrow.
We
learn in our text that when Herod died, and angel appeared to Joseph in a dream
and told him, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of
Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.” Joseph took Jesus and Mary back to
Israel. But because Herod the Great’s
son, Archelaus was reigning in Judea, Joseph was warned in a dream and he went
to live in Nazareth in the region of Galilee.
Matthew tells us this occurred so that “what was spoken by the prophets
might be fulfilled: ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’”
For
Joseph, the conception of Jesus seemed to be the very worst news. Before they had been married, Mary was found
to be pregnant. It was apparent that
Mary had already been unfaithful and broken the Sixth Commandment.
Joseph was preparing to divorce her and end the betrothal when an angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to
take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy
Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for
he will save his people from their sins.”
Joseph
learned that the unique status of this child was tied to the unique role that
he would play – he would save his people from their sins. Jesus Christ the Son of God entered this
world to provide us with forgiveness. He
came to provide us pardon before the holy God for all our lustful thoughts and
actions; for our angry words; for our jealousy and coveting.
We
see in our text this morning that God acted in Christ as he brought him to
Egypt so that he could accomplish what Israel had failed to do. Yet this took place because Herod the Great
sought to kill Jesus. It meant that
Jesus and his family experienced the fear of fleeing at night to a foreign
land. It meant the little boys around
Bethlehem were murdered by Herod.
We
learn in our text that God’s saving action in Christ occurs in the midst of
sorrow and hardship. This continues
during our Lord’s ministry as the Pharisees and religious leaders continually
oppose him. They accuse him of being in
league with the devil. They conspire
together about how to kill Jesus.
Jesus
said that it would be this way. After Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ,
Matthew tells us, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be
raised.”
Our
Lord entered this world to win forgiveness.
But he came to accomplish this through his death on the cross. The cross – the instrument of brutality and
humiliation – would be the means by which he offered himself as a ransom for
many. From the cross he cried out, “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me” as he received God’s wrath against your
sin.
The
Jewish religious leaders meant the cross to be the end of Jesus. On Good Friday, when his dead body was taken
down and placed in a tomb, it looked like it was. But on the third day God raised Jesus from
the dead. Jesus was vindicated as the
One through whom God had been working to give us forgiveness and resurrection
life. He appeared to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee and declared, “All
authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.”
Jesus’
death and resurrection underscores what we find in our text today. It tells us that the world’s evil cannot
negate God’s plan. It tells us that God’s plan occurs in the midst of suffering
and hardship.
We
all want our life to go well. We want
our plans to work out. We want to have
success and comfort. When this is not the case, we are tempted to doubt God. We feel the desire to question his love and
care.
The
death and resurrection of Jesus provide us with the assurance that God
continues to love and care for us no matter what is happening. Jesus himself passed through rejection,
suffering, and death. This was not the
absence of God, but instead was the presence of God working to give us
forgiveness and everlasting life. His
suffering and death led to resurrection and exaltation.
You
have now been baptized into Christ. Paul
told the Colossians you have “been buried with him in baptism, in
which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful
working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Through baptism you already share in the
death and resurrection of Jesus.
This provides us with the ability to
trust in God’s love and care no matter what is happening. In the midst of tragedies and hardships we
cling in faith to Jesus Christ, for in Christ God has revealed that his love is
present no matter what things may look like.
Through his Means of Grace, Christ sustains us in this faith – a faith
that knows that the risen Lord will return on the Last Day to raise us up as we
live with him forever.
