Trust the holy King kept safe in His Father’s care.

 

Sermon for Christmas 2, January 3, 2021

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, Savior, and Lord.  Amen.

Matthew 2:13-23  ¹³After the Wise Men were gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream.  He said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt.  Stay there until I tell you, because Herod will search for the child in order to kill him.”  ¹⁴Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt.  ¹⁵He stayed there until the death of Herod.  This happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”  ¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Wise Men, he was furious.  He issued orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under.  This was in keeping with the exact time he had learned from the Wise Men.  ¹⁷Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: ¹⁸A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.  ¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.  The angel said, ²⁰“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”  ²¹Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.  ²²But when he heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, had succeeded his father as ruler in Judea, he was afraid to go there.  Since he had been warned in a dream, he went to the region of Galilee.  ²³When he arrived there, he settled in a city called Nazareth.  So what was spoken through the prophets was fulfilled: “He will be called a Nazarene.” (EHV)

Trust the holy King kept safe in His Father’s care.

Dear brothers and sisters of the infant King,

            It is hard to read this text without being horrified by the account.  It struck me as I was studying it that if my parents had been living in Bethlehem at that time, all the children in our family could have been wiped out in an instant, for there was a time when all four siblings were two years old or younger.  It isn’t hard to imagine the horror that was inflicted upon young families as the little ones were destroyed to satisfy the paranoid, arrogant rage of a cruel, unmerciful tyrant.

Throughout the years, many have questioned, or even denied, the events of our text as too horrible to be believed, but the truth is every detail happened exactly as reported, and furthermore, everything about it had to happen exactly in the way that it did, so that we could implicitly and without question Trust the holy King kept safe in His Father’s care.

In this text, we see perhaps the greatest contrast between two kings ever witnessed.  The weaker of the two was a horrible, spiteful, jealous, bitter excuse of a man who had no qualms about murdering strangers and loved ones without regard to right or wrong.  Herod ruled exclusively by manipulative scheming with the power brokers of his day and by striking terror into any possible foe.  He was not long for the world and died a most horrible end leading to an eternity in hell.

On the other hand, we meet the King in whom all power and authority in the universe rests yet who needed to be rescued from the raging hatred of a weak and evil man.  Thus, many foolishly question why we should put our hope in this Child being rushed out of Judea for His safety.  Though the Child would outlive Herod, He would die much younger and in the most painful way imaginable, yet He lives and will never die again, and He reigns on the throne of heaven for you and me.  So from that, I expect you already understand why we Trust the holy King kept safe in His Father’s care.

Though Herod was perhaps one of the most evil men in history, we can also see a little of him in each of us.  Herod’s great fault and failure was in not trusting the God who created this world and everything in it.  Herod desired to control his own destiny and to have everything be exactly as he wished.  His actions were always self-centered.  Everything he did was to further only his own desires.  Yet, how often aren’t we also afflicted with these same sins and desires?

This is the reason Jesus was in the position He was in that fateful night—Jesus didn’t enter the world to further His own cause, but so that He could do His Father’s will in perfect submission, humility, and trust, living in pure holiness for people like you and me who so often fall short of trusting God and obeying His will for our lives, humbling Himself even for those who like Herod oppose Jesus in every way they can. 

All authority in heaven and earth was given to Christ Jesus.  As the only-begotten of God, Jesus had dwelled perfectly at home in the glories of heaven.  Yet, the Son of God left His home of glory to make Himself the humblest of children in a sin-damaged world.  We meet Jesus in this account because He was living the complete trust in His Father’s care for you and me.  To become our holiness, Jesus made Himself a helpless infant, but Jesus didn’t cry out in fear.  He didn’t use His almighty authority and power to save Himself from Herod.  Instead, Jesus trusted His Father’s will, and He trusted the man who was put in position to be Jesus’ earthly father and protector.

Like Jesus, we should submit to those God puts in authority over us, and like Joseph, we should submit to God’s will in loving and caring for those God gives us to provide and care for.  Like us, Joseph had his faults, I am sure, yet being a righteous man, he devoted Himself to loving Jesus.

The main thing we should learn from this event is the perfect humility and submission of Jesus on our behalf, but there is more for us to learn here.  Three times in this text, we are reminded that God’s prophecies were being completed.  Therefore, we should learn that God defends and keeps His Word down to the very tiniest detail.  Many might question why a wicked tyrant was driving the course of these events, but we are assured that even though this world is populated by wicked people intent on doing only their own evil deeds with no regard to God’s Word, God will not let one little promise of His Word be defeated.  Rather, God uses even the evil intent of His enemies to further His cause of saving the world from the devil’s rebellion.

Another thing we can learn is that being faithful to the God of all creation doesn’t guarantee peace here on earth.  Though the angels sang about peace on earth, that peace is between God and the human race, not between believers and those controlled by the devil.  The devil’s hoards, both demonic and human, will always appose God’s will and Word.  As Jesus later warned His disciples, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me first.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you.  Remember the saying I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too.” (John 15:18-20) 

Now, that might not feel very comforting in the moment of trial, but we need to remember God’s end goal, which is not giving us perfect comfort on earth but eternal peace and glory in heaven.  For that, we should have every confidence, because there was not one detail missed in the heavenly Father’s care for Jesus or for our salvation.  Every prophecy and promise has been kept in Jesus.  Herod planned destruction; God provided the escape.  The whole family was provided for with the gifts brought to honor Jesus.  Egypt was an ideal location for safety for the Christ Child because though it was part of the Roman Empire, it was outside of Herod’s control.  Furthermore, God was showing the world that He never forgets even one detail of His Word or His loving care of His own.

From this text, we also learn that God intervenes in the world as He determines the need.  More than that, God intervenes with the means of grace He gives to protect us from the wickedness of Satan’s schemes.  Many people rightly shudder at the horridness of those little boys’ deaths.  At the same time, for the faithful among those families, they would have the comfort, even in their immense pain and grief, of knowing that in the rite of circumcision, God had claimed those children as His own, so that their physical deaths were not the end for their lives.

For you and me today, God provides Baptism as a means of grace by which He forgives sins, gives faith, and makes our children His own, so that even should the wicked schemes of some madman wrest a child from our loving arms, we have the assurance that the little one of faith cannot ever be taken from God’s loving embrace.  This Sunday has been celebrated throughout the history of the Church as the feast of the holy innocents.  Those little ones of Bethlehem were the first martyrs for Jesus—little ones entrusted to God’s care who died because the world hates God’s Son.  Yet, by God’s grace, we expect to meet them around the throne of our Savior praising Him for their salvation.

So, what should we take away from our worship service today?  First of all, take this truth: that Jesus lived in perfect submission and humility before His Father for you, that He trusted His heavenly Father perfectly so that you and I may be counted holy in God’s eyes for Jesus’ sake.  Trust also, that Jesus knows exactly every trouble and pain we might ever feel in this life, because He has already experienced the worst treatment evil men could dish out.

Second, take from this text God’s commitment to every word of His holy Scripture.  All the prophecies of the Bible are carried out in Jesus, always for our everlasting good, so that we can know without any doubt or worry that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved just as Jesus promised.  Furthermore, by that faith, we have life and just as Jesus rose from the grave to live and never die again, so also will we rise from the grave to dwell in peace and joy everlasting in heaven.

Finally, take from this text God’s loving care for His own dear children.  Nothing under the stars, or above them either, escapes God’s notice, and as Paul assured us in the letter to the Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?  Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him?” (Romans 8:31-32)

God the Father gave His Son into the world to rescue you and me from sin and death.  The Son, Jesus Christ, humbled Himself to be born of a woman and live in lowest estate, to endure poverty, persecution, pain, and ultimately even separation from God in our place, and death, so that the Holy Spirit could bring us everlasting life through faith in the Son who conquered the grave to live and never die again, who rules all things so that all of God’s elect will be saved.

Dear friends, there will be times when we will weep in this world.  Troubles may still come our way, even death, but Jesus lives, and because He lives, the victory is won for you and me.  We too will live in glory and peace when we Trust the holy King kept safe in His Father’s care.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.