Christmas 2
Mt
2:13-23
1/3/21
Because of
the way the church year works, we don’t have the Second Sunday after Christmas
every year. We begin our celebration of
Christmas on Christmas Eve, and then the season of Christmas runs for twelve
days. Next, the season of Epiphany begins on January 6 with the Feast of the
Epiphany of Our Lord as we celebrate the visit by the magi.
Depending
on how the dates fall in a year, there isn’t always a second Sunday that occurs
after Christmas and before Epiphany.
However, I am always thankful when there is one, such as this year
because the Gospel lesson assigned for this Sunday and its timing speaks
directly to what Christmas means for us.
In the
world, Christmas has been long over. The
tree has been taken down and the decorations have been put away. Even the
“second act” of the holiday season, New Year’s Eve and Day, have come and gone.
And that means that the “holiday season” is finished. Christmas break ends for
the kids as they head back to school this week.
All of the
fun and celebrating that divert our attention are in the past. And that leaves
back with our life in this world. It leaves us with the continuing disruptions
of COVID – something that has affected life here at Good Shepherd very directly
as our church secretary Sue tested positive this past week. It leaves us with the other health issues
that afflict our life – cancer, diabetes, and heart problems. It leaves us with concerns about finances,
about our job, and about how our children and other family members are doing.
It leaves us in a world where sin, suffering and death are the realities that
surround us every day.
During the
Christmas season we have focused upon the fact that Jesus, who was conceived by
Holy Spirit, was born into this world.
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth focuses on Joseph’s experience. Joseph was ready to divorce Mary who had been
betrothed to him, when it was discovered that she was already pregnant.
However an angel appeared to him in a dream and said, “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 this was no ordinary child. And then Matthew adds, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”
The child to whom Mary gave birth
was a human being, just like you. But
conceived by the Holy Spirit, he was also the Son of God – the Second Person of
the Trinity. As Isaiah had foretold, the
virgin did conceive and bear a son. And in the miracle of the incarnation Jesus
was indeed Immanuel – God with us. He
was God with us – God living in this world as one of us, while still also being
true God. Yet we see in our text today that Immanuel – God with us – is also the
presence of God in the midst of the sin, suffering and death that we
experience in our lives.
Our text begins with a happy memory
as it says, “Now when they had departed.”
This is a reference to the unexpected visit by the magi who had come to give
homage to the King of the Jews, and had brought expensive gifts. What a
wonderful and exciting time this must have been for Mary and Joseph!
But God had warned the magi in a dream not to return to
King Herod the Great. And then we learn in our text, “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.’” An angel in a dream had told Joseph the
wonderful news about who Jesus was and what he would. Now an angel in a dream
delivers frightening news.
The angel told Joseph to get up
immediately in the middle of the night so that he could take Jesus and Mary, and
flee to Egypt. Herod had become aware of
a potential threat to his rule, and Herod was a man who did not leave things to
chance. He was a man who had no problem
killing his own children when they seemed to be a threat. Now, he was seeking to kill Jesus.
Many a Christmas card has contained
a depiction of Joseph and the pregnant Mary on the way to Bethlehem. This is a peaceful scene of God about to
fulfill his promise to send the Christ – the Savior - into the world. But in our text we hear about a very
different journey. It is one that begins
with Joseph abruptly waking Mary, as they take Jesus and leave at night. This journey is not about fulfilling the
bureaucratic requirements of a great empire. Instead it is a flight to escape
the murder of a child.
On this Second Sunday of Christmas
we continue to celebrate the incarnation of our Lord. We celebrate the fact
that he is Immanuel – God with us. But
we see that he came to be God with us in the midst sin, suffering, and
death. At the age of barely two years
old we find him homeless and on the run as his parents obey the angel’s command
and take him to Egypt to escape Herod’s plans to kill him.
We all experience times of doubt.
When the diagnosis is cancer, or the treatments drag on with no certainty about
their outcome, there is the temptation to wonder about whether God really
cares. When personal relationships in
families seem always to be poisoned by anger and harsh words, we wonder about
whether God is really with us. When the
circumstances of life bring challenges and difficulties we never saw coming, we
can find ourselves doubting God’s love and care.
Our text this morning shows us that
God is with us – that he does love and care. We know this first, because God
entered into our world in the incarnation as the Son of God was conceived by
the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
But more than that we see that Jesus Christ is God with us in the midst
of sin, suffering and death. Though
without sin of his own, he came to live in this world and all its ugliness
caused by sin. He came to live in the
midst of suffering and hardship – the same ones that we do.
But Jesus Christ came as Immanuel to
do more than just live in the midst of it and experience it. The Son was
sent by the Father to do something about it. After all, the angel said to Joseph that “he
will save his people from their sins.”
And we see this in the fact that Joseph was told by the angel to take
Jesus and Mary to Egypt.
Practically speaking, the
destination made a lot of sense. Egypt
was a Roman province, and it was outside of Herod’s jurisdiction. It was far enough removed from Judea to be
safe. And, there was a very large Jewish population in Egypt, so the family
would find a welcoming setting.
Herod’s murderous scheme may have
been the reason for the flight to Egypt.
But the trip to Egypt was about more than just escaping to a safe
place. Matthew tells us, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by
the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’” The words that Matthew says
were fulfilled come from the prophet Hosea.
In the eleventh chapter he writes, “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.”
Hosea’s statement is a description
of Israel’s past. God had called Israel,
his son out of Egypt. But the nation had proven to be unfaithful. Now God had
sent Jesus the Christ to Egypt, so that in time he could be bring his Son out
of Egypt once again. Yahweh had declared the nation of Israel to be his
“son” in an adopted sense. He had then described the descendants of king David
as his “son” – they were Israel reduced to one.
Now God was bringing his Son out of Egypt once again. Jesus was the Christ – the Messiah. He was the son who was the nation reduced to
one. Yet he was also the Son of God, begotten from all eternity.
In the prophet Isaiah, God called Israel
his servant. But Israel had
failed in its mission to be the means by which God brought salvation to all –
to be a light to the nations. Now, God
was acting through Jesus the Christ to be the true Israel - to do what Israel could not.
Jesus had come as Israel reduced to
one to be the Servant of the Lord. He
came to be the Servant who fulfilled Isaiah’s words: “But he was wounded for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement
that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Or as Jesus said, “the Son of Man came
not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom
for many.” Jesus died on the cross in order to win forgiveness for you.
Yet he did more than that. In our text today Mathew tells us about the
flight to Egypt, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the
prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”
Jesus fulfilled this word of Hosea.
Yet he also fulfilled another word from this prophet when he wrote in
chapter six, “Come,
let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he
will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before
him.”
On the third day, God the Father
raised Jesus from the dead. Through Jesus he defeated death, and began the
resurrection life that will be ours on the Last Day. God has shown us in Jesus that he not only
cares and understands, but that he has acted to defeat Satan, sin and
death. This is the victory that he has
given you in Holy Baptism as your sins were forgiven and the Holy Spirit made
you a new creation in Christ.
Until our Lord returns, we continue
to live in a world of sin, suffering and death.
But we see in our text today that Jesus Christ is Immanuel – God with
us. He entered into this fallen world
because God does love you; because God does care. Jesus
understands our struggles and hardships because he has lived them just as we
do.
But he is also the One who has obtained
the ultimate victory over sin and death.
And in order to sustain us in the faith during this pilgrimage through a
fallen world, he continues to be Immanuel – God with us. He is with us in the
Sacrament of the Altar. For here we
encounter not the two year child being taken to Egypt, but the risen and
exalted Lord who is still true God and true man. Here he gives us his true body and blood,
given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
Here he gives us food for the journey by which the Holy Spirit sustains
and strengthens us in faith. Our God is
Immanuel, God with us now through the Sacrament. And in each celebration he
points us forward to the time when he will be God with us in the glory of his
return on the Last Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment