Thoughts going in, Sunday Dec 26th

Matthew 2:13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

The readings for the next few days don’t necessarily go in chronological order. For instance, the liturgical celebration of the presence (and presents) of the Magi is not observed until January 6th (Epiphany), yet the reading appointed for the first Sunday after Christmas includes aspects of the story that happen *after the visit of the Magi.

There are a few main thoughts going on in Matthew’s text here. The first is the continued divine preservation of the newborn Christ-child. The point that Matthew seems to be making is that no sooner does The Light come into the world when the powers of Darkness begin to conspire against him. And though he is the God of the universe made flesh, he is in this current state, in such a position of humility that he cannot defend himself. He needs the help of his early father Joseph, and his heavenly Father who sends the angelic warning.

But there’s also something else going on here…..something that Matthew really doesn’t spend much time on—other than reporting the “facts of the story,” and that is the fact that SIMPLY BECAUSE the Christ-child was born and came into this world, OTHERS died. Scholars tell us that given the size of the area under consideration, it is likely that under 20 boys were murdered by Herod’s troops. That’s somewhat beside the point. Whether the number was 1 or 100, it was still too many. Where’s the “Joy to the World” in this story? If you were the mother or father of one of the murdered boys, and you knew that God had warned Joseph in a dream to flee the area, how would you feel about that? How would you feel about a God who spared one baby (his own son), but let 20 others die?

This is the “side B” of Christmas. It’s like those old 45rpm records from way back in the day. They always had some great song on side A, but side B was like the throwaway. It would be wonderful if Christmas could be all SIDE A…..all “joy to the world,” all “peace on earth & good will toward humanity”….but that’s not the sort of world we live in. The world we live in is a dark place where wickedness appears to rule unchecked.

And yet, THE SAVIOR was born. Not only that, THE SAVIOR was born specifically to give his life to free us from this dark place of wickedness. Matthew does us a favor by not pulling any punches. You can’t have the Savior, you can’t have the sentimental miraculous birth in Bethlehem, until or unless you come to the realization that this WORLD NEEDS SUCH A BIRTH.

Peace,

TM