First Sunday of Christmas
December 30, 2007
Text: Matthew 2:13-23
About this time of the season, we begin to settle down to the real world. The busyness of last week is fading, leaving us with an air of unreality – “Are the festivities over already?”
That air of unreality was also part of Christmas itself. After all, the main components in the story of Christmas are not what we run into every day: a child in a manger, an angel, heavenly hosts singing, “Glory to God in the highest,” shepherds coming and kneeling in adoration. Not part of the world in which we live, these components can make the message of Christmas a sentimental journey into the past. Everybody knows, however, that on Monday morning we have to go back to where the real problems, heartaches, and headaches face us day after day.
In that situation the gospel for today speaks a relevant and powerful message. It brings us face-to-face with a human being who is in a fit of rage. He name was Herod. He was the king when Christ was born. Upon hearing the message of the birth of a new king, Herod was filled with fear and rage.
Herod’s fear was irrational. What could a newborn baby do to him? He had all kinds of military, economic and political power. Herod was a king of power and might. His insecurity drove him to a fear-filled rage.
When we look at this man of fear and rage, we see the kinds of human behavior that you and I run into day after day in the real world. We know the brokenness that fear and anger can do to people. Brokenness, fear and hurt are symptoms of the whole disjointedness of our human situation. The scriptures call our situation sin. In Herod’s fear and rage, we see a true mirror of our own condition.
There is another dimension of the real world in this text from Matthew this morning. It is the tragic slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem. Matthew tells the story in a quiet dreadful way. Herod had hoped that the wise men would lead him to the child. When they did not, Herod used his raw power and ordered the slaughter of all the boys born in Bethlehem who were two years old or younger. We commemorate the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28.
When we look at this great tragic chapter in Matthew, we recognize again the real world around us. Chapter after chapter, the pages of human history are filled with incidents in which the innocent are slaughtered. The fear and anger of those in power lashing out against the innocent did not stop with Herod. Everyday we send our children and ourselves into this real world.
On this Sunday after Christmas, the gospel reading shakes us out of a world of fantasy. It brings us back down to earth in a sudden and painful way. The world into which the Christ child came is the world of fear and rage, the world in which the innocent are often slaughtered.
However, Matthew does not end the story there. By drawing parallels to Moses, Matthew is showing us that as God rescued Israel from the land of slavery through Moses, so now God is rescuing the new Israel, the Church, through the new child Jesus who escapes the hand of King Herod. Through Jesus, son of Mary and Son of God, born in Bethlehem, God is redeeming and saving the world.
This good news of Jesus Christ stands beyond the fantasy and unreality that becomes so much a part of our Christmas celebrations. It is enduring good news that we can take with us into the New Year. 2008 will be filled with uncertainties, rage and fear, however, behind it all God’s saving purpose will be at work among His people.
Our Gospel reading this morning shows us that Jesus Christ came into a world where the cards were stacked against him. He shared all we experience in our relationships with people. He became a victim of rage, fear and death. God’s saving purpose was to have His only Son come under a condemnation fueled by injustice, fear and rage. Jesus escaped Herod only to face the cross under Pontius Pilate. His saving death redeems us who are in our Egypt, in bondage to sin and death.
God’s never-ending promise in this Child is also our possibility of forgiveness. When we feel rage against ourselves, God’s forgiveness can overcome our anger and lead us to accepting ourselves in spite of our failures and shortcomings. God forgives our past that we do not become victims of our own anger and fear. When we feel rage and anger toward others, God’s forgiveness can lead us to love our enemies, be tolerant of others different from us, and reconcile with whom we are at odds. God’s forgiveness brings us back from the tyranny of anger and rage and restores us all as His children in whom the love of God can work its miracles.
We began this morning with a question about the real world. At the end, we see that we are faced with two realms of reality. The first is the kingdom of Herod: a place of furious rage, ruthless power and the slaughter of innocent children. Herod prospered for a brief moment in history, and then his kingdom was over.
The other realm belongs to the Christ Child, Jesus. His realm has a more vivid reality and a more lasting power. He brings the power of God’s acceptance and forgiveness. Terror, assassination, rage and fear are not part of His reign. The reign of Jesus is one of peace, reconciliation, comfort and hope. His throne does not lie crumbled in the sands of time, but He lives and rules even now in the hearts and lives of His people. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
Jesus our king has been born to us. His reign alone is the real world in which we will find God’s promises of forgiveness and new life.