Matthew 2:11-18
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Scripture Reading
(Matthew 2:11-18) 11On
entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and
they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure
chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And
having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left
for their own country by another road.
13Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, 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."
14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by
night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until
the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by
the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my
son."
16When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise
men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in
and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to
the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17Then
was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 "A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."
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SERMON
I hope you each had a wonderful Christmas. We had a fine Christmas.
After all of the folderol (great, fun folderol, mind you) we had a quiet
home Christmas- just Sue and Jon and me. We got up really late (which
will probably not happen for many years). We ate our traditional green
eggs and ham [yes we like them Sam I Am]. Don't ask. We didn't start
opening gifts until 11 AM. Jon is 2 1/3. Last year he didn't much care
about the presents but the boxes and paper he was crazy about! Boxes for
hiding and rolling around in and paper for chewing! We thought maybe we
would fool him this year and just wrap up boxes with pretty paper. Then
we thought better of it. This year Jon got nice gifts but he really went
nuts over the bubble wrap that protected some of his gifts. With his
Barney slippers on he did a fine new dance- the Bubble Wrap Stomp.
As I considered what text to preach on today I considered a couple of
things: first, from a traditional and liturgical point of view Christmas
is not over yet. The Christmas season this year lasts until January 6-
Epiphany. Secondly, I looked for a text that does not get preached on so
often as to be too familiar. And thirdly, I wanted to take a good look
at the world into which Jesus comes. Why did he come and what difference
does it make?
The text is not a popular one- the Massacre of the Innocents- Herod's
killing of all little boys two and under in and around Bethlehem in
order to be rid of his rival, Jesus, the toddler King. Maybe having a
two-year-old boy in Barney slippers has made me sensitive to this text.
In any case, I do not believe I have ever heard a sermon on it. We even
tend not to sing the haunting, disturbing carol associated with it- the
Coventry Carol- Mary's lullaby for Jesus just before Herod's monstrous
act of murder.
"Lullay, thou little tiny child. By, by, lully lullay. O
sisters too, how may we do, for to preserve this day, this poor
youngling for whom we sing. By, by, lully, lullay. Herod the king in his
raging, charged he hath this day, his men of might, in his own sight,
all children young to slay. Lullay, thou little tiny child. By, by,
lully lullay. Then woe is me, poor child for thee, and ever mourn and
say, for thy parting not say nor sing, by, by, lully lullay."
It is a terrifying story- made all the more terrifying by events that
have forced us to see the cheapness of human life many hold in our
violent world.
One of the great Christmas movies is It's a Wonderful Life-
the 1946 classic Frank Capra film. Jimmy Stewart stars as a depressed
George Bailey- so depressed he is thinking of taking his own life. An
Angel Second Class named Clarence gives George a chance to see what life
would be like if he had never been born. What he sees gives him hope and
zest for life. Pastor Dr. D. James Kennedy took this as a springboard
for the question, "What if Jesus had never been born?" What
difference did it make?
This is kind of a good news/bad news story. First the bad news. Herod is
not the only one who wished Jesus had never been born. Philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche coined the phrase "God is dead" and saw
Christianity as a poison. Jozef Stalin and Mao Tse Tung each tried to
eradicate Christianity and millions of professing Christians were
slaughtered. Hitler wanted to be rid of Christianity after he had
finished with the Jews. Another 16 million died. In the news today,
Indonesian Muslims are calling for "holy war" against
Christians. Thousands have already died. Persecution against Christ and
His people has never been more intense. Wherever people want to be rid
of Christ people become expendable. Theologian Dale Bruner put it this
way- "Those who begin by hating the Child will end by hurting
children. Hating revelation leads to hurting people. If people will be
ungodly they will be inhumane. Herod is the Gospel's earliest evidence
of this fact."
But the crux of the matter is far more than a story about
"them" bad guys and "us" good guys. "All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," Paul tells us in
Romans. It is about what the Scripture calls "the mystery of
iniquity". It is about why all human beings are fallen enough, bad
enough to need a Savior. The bad news is bad.
Do you believe that? Survey says that most people, even church people,
believe people are basically good. Scripture and history say [X- wrong
answer] otherwise. Not long ago a Norwegian statistician recorded every
war that had ever been fought. His findings? During 5,560 years of
recorded history there have been 14,531 wars- that is 2.6 per year! The
statistics on child abuse are awful. There are also the thousands of
acts of uncontrolled anger, words that leave wounds, some life long.
People abandon their marriages at an alarming rate. People lie, cheat,
steal, yell profanities at others while driving and spend so much time
at work that they do not communicate with their own children. And it is
not just what we do- it is also what we fail to do. Why is there hunger
in the world? Because we permit it. Why are there children by the
millions living in the streets of the world's cities. Because we permit
it. The Scriptures say, "If we say we have no sin we are
self-deluded and strangers to the truth." No, people are not
basically good. They are basically fallen and need a Savior.
We learn from this text that if Jesus is Lord then we are not. Matthew
intentionally shows us two rivals to kingship. Notice this: Matthew
calls Herod "King Herod" until the Magi worship Jesus.
Immediately after he is never again called king- he is symbolically
dethroned. Jesus is the true King and King of our lives. His. Yours.
Mine. Everyone's. Although Herod is a particularly graphic example, the
human person is infected with a diseased self-centeredness. It shows
itself in all people. Incurvatus in se is what Martin Luther
called our condition- curved in on ourselves, which by definition bends
us away from the Living God. We want to be king but we stink at being
king. But if Jesus is king, then what we thought was our sovereignty is
over. We are not here to get our way. We are not here to get ahead. We
cannot live life any way we choose. We are here for the sake of the One
King.
Ooooeee. Are you ready for some good news? About a century ago a French
engineer asked his students, "What is the most important thing to
come out of a mine?" After many guesses at this mineral and that
precious stone the engineer said, "The most important thing to come
out of the mine was the miner." Amen! Each human life is made in
the image of God and important enough for God to send His Son to die
for. You see, the innocent boys were killed in the beginning of the
Gospel and the innocent Son of God at the end. He died for our sins and
to gain for us salvation. You, I, the boys of Bethlehem, and our enemies
and persecutors are that precious to God. What difference has it made?
Is the world a better place because Jesus was born?
Here's the really exciting stuff. Before Jesus women had few if any
rights and their lives were cheap. In ancient cultures, women were
property of their husbands. Read Plato, Aristotle, texts from ancient
China and India. Jesus deeply valued women and so do His people after
Him. Over the centuries Christianity abolished slavery. In America 2/3
of the members of the abolition society in 1835 were ministers! There is
still slavery in Communist and Muslim lands. When a slave is seen as a
brother in Christ and the image of God slavery had to go- it took a
while- but in Christian lands it went. Gladiatorial shows, with their
fights to the death, were ended in the fifth century because a monk
named Telemachus was killed when he jumped into an arena to stop two
gladiators from killing each other. Because of the desire of Christians
that every person have access to the Bible and be able to read it on
their own literacy and education flourished. Almost every one of the
first 125 colleges and universities was begun as a Christian
institution. Harvard was begun with a grant of money and the library of
Rev. John Harvard. Most secondary schools and colleges in countries like
Egypt and Cameroon were started by Presbyterian missionaries. I could go
on- hospitals, health care for missionaries, science human rights and
much more.
But I want to get back to children. A Gallup poll in 1990 showed that
Christians gave $19 billion to charitable causes, primarily those
dealing with children and the elderly. World Vision, Samaritan's Purse,
Christian Children's Fund, Compassion International, George Mueller's
orphanages, the YMCA all founded to care for and reach children with the
Good News of Christ. Right now, as we sit here in this sanctuary, a
young man from this church and his two friends are living out a call
from God on their lives. Walley Fipps came to youth group, a few years
ago, kind of a wayward kid. God got hold of his life. In the last year
or so the Lord showed Walley the thousands of children living on the
bitter cold winter streets of Romania and told him to go do something
about it. We met together weekly and prayed over this. As a venture of
faith, today Walley, Seth and Syrus are finding and feeding and sharing
the love of Jesus with the street children of the city of Constanta.
Walley considers it an honor and a high calling. And so do I. He is
making a real difference in this violent, lonely, loveless, devaluing
world. He would blush if he heard this and say it was Jesus who is
making the difference. And he would be right. Peace rules the day when
Christ rules the heart.
I want Jesus to reign in this world. I want people to come to Him and
accept Him as Lord and Savior. One of the reasons I want this is a
selfish reason. Unlike Herod's world, a world that killed all the
Bethlehem two year olds, I want a safe, beautiful, love filled world for
my boy in his Barney slippers to grow up in.
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