Opening illustration: A young boy desperately wanted a bicycle for Christmas, so he asked his parents for the bike; His parents wanted to teach him the importance of prayer, so they suggested the young boy should write a letter to Jesus and pray for one instead." Not pleased with the response of his parents, he immediately threw a temper tantrum and his parents sent him to his room.
Once he was in his room he decided to take his parents advice and write a letter to Jesus.
Dear Jesus, I’ve been a good boy this year and would love a new bicycle. Can you see if I can have a new Bicycle? Your Friend, Johnny. This went on for a while … all in vain.
Then Johnny looked deep down in his heart, which by the way was what his parents really wanted. He knew he had been bad boy and hoped he would receive something simply because Jesus loved him. He then crumpled up the letter, threw it in the trash can and went downstairs, where his mother had a Nativity set on the fire place mantle. He then took the statue of Mary wrapped it in a blanket and hid it under his bed. Then he wrote this letter.
Dear Jesus, If you ever want to see your mother again – give me a bicycle. We have to admit some people will try anything to get what they want for Christmas! This was so real for Herod and also for many today.
Introduction: Today I must tell you an awful story and one that we should never forget. It is the story of how a lot of babies were killed by a very jealous king. It is also a story about Jesus and God's plan to save him from death as a baby. Many Christians (adults and children) have been beheaded or killed during this past year for their faith in Christ. Those whose image of God is Superman have little patience with the God, who does not make life perfect for everyone. By their admirable zeal that the world be made right, they are, however, kept from seeing the goodness and beauty of God-made-human. This Jesus, born in the midst of Herod’s brutality, knows our suffering, comes to the frightened and the sick and the hungry, feeds and heals, and teaches the presence of God’s power wherever there are tears.
Christians do not worship a God who simply fixes problems. We worship a God who comforts those who suffer and who visits us with dreams and visions and insights as with Joseph.
What did the flight to Egypt fulfill?
1. The EXODUS (vs. 13-14)
We know that Herod's intention was not to worship the Child but to kill Him. That's why Herod wanted to know when the star first appeared. And that's why Herod wanted the Magi to report back to him. When the Magi found the Christ child, they worshiped Him and gave Him gifts. But did they report back to Herod as requested? In His providence, God prevented that from happening.
The distance from Bethlehem to Egypt is about 200 miles. The trip probably took them at least 10 days to complete on foot. I am sure they must have faced threat of thieves and muggers along the way. If the trip was so difficult, why did God command them to go to Egypt?
First of all, Herod's power did not reach to Egypt so the Christ-Child would be safe there. Second, historically Egypt has been the land of refuge for those fleeing from Palestine for one reason or another.
• It was in Egypt that Jacob, and his family found refuge during the years of famine in Canaan (Genesis 42f).
• When King Solomon sought to put Jeroboam to death, "Jeroboam fled to Egypt" (1 Kings 11:40).
• When the citizens of Judah killed the governor who Nebuchadnezzar had placed over them, they forced the prophet Jeremiah to flee with them to Egypt (Jeremiah 41:17).
• In light of all this, it was only natural that Egypt was the place that Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus went to for safety.
While they are in Egypt the horrific slaughtering of all children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under took place. I don’t think this can be brushed over, and I think it might be a place to spend some time this week, as hard as that is in the Christmas season. We are not unfamiliar with the slaughtering of children in world news. The school children killed in Pakistan just before Christmas, the teenage girls kidnapped in Nigeria earlier in 2014 - these are world news stories that will possibly be brought to mind with this text. Could it speak to our pain and grief and confusion about these modern-day situations? Possibly! What happens when absolute power goes unchecked? What happens when fear of the unknown drives decision-making?
Related to this is the hard truth that the coming of Jesus didn’t immediately eradicate sin from the world; his birth didn’t stop horrible things from happening. Nevertheless, his incarnation as an innocent infant does stand in stark contrast to the corruption of the adult Herod. The promise of the incarnation is not that all difficulties will cease to exist, but that in the middle of them all, God is trying to do something completely different – not fighting power with power, but overcoming power by choosing weakness, not fighting violence with violence, but offering peace in its midst. This fulfilled the exodus prophecy of the Christ child in Hosea 1:1.
2. The EXILE (vs. 15-16)
Herod sent his soldiers to Bethlehem. And they killed all the boys two years old and under. The scene in Bethlehem that day must have been heart-rending. Mothers must have clung desperately to their little boys when they heard the soldiers marching down the street going from door-to-door. Fathers must have tried to hide their sons in secret hiding places. But all to no avail. When the soldiers were done with their bloody work wailing mothers were holding their dead babies, and powerless fathers sobbed in rage, clenched their fists, and silently vowed to get even. Even so, Jesus, the Savior of Israel, escaped the edge of the sword by the providential care of God.
Jewish audience would immediately recognize a scene from Israel's history in this story: a scene of Israel in Egypt. At that time, Satan used another leader – the Pharaoh of Egypt – to shed the blood of Hebrew children. All the boys born to the Hebrew women were to be killed by the midwives. When this scheme failed, Pharaoh commanded that all the baby boys be thrown into the Nile where they would either drown, be eaten by crocodiles, or killed by poisonous water snakes.
We can draw another similarity between the two stories. Matthew tells us about the rescue of the baby Jesus, the Savior, from the designs and plans of a wicked King Herod. Exodus tells us about the rescue of another infant, another savior, the baby Moses, from the designs and plans of the wicked Pharaoh in Egypt. The baby Moses, if you remember, was put into a basket placed among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter came to the river to bathe, found the basket, adopted the baby Moses as her own child, and – in an ironic twist – paid the mother of Moses to nurse him.
Bethlehem makes Matthew think of Rachel. Rachel was the wife of Jacob, who died near Bethlehem giving birth to a son. With her last breath before she died, she named this son "Ben-Oni," which means "son of my trouble" (Genesis 35:18).
When we look at the actual prophecy of Jeremiah, we see that Jeremiah thinks of the crying of Rachel at the time of the captivity and deportation of Judah in 590 B.C. You can imagine the scene. Jerusalem has just been conquered. The city has been set on fire. The victorious soldiers loot, rape, and kill. Those not killed – mostly women and children – were taken to Ramah. You can almost hear their cries, their wails, their lamentations – because of husbands and sons killed in battle, because they are being dragged away from home, because of rape and murder.
For Matthew, the blood of Bethlehem calls to mind, then, the two greatest crises faced by God's Old Testament people: the blood of the Hebrew children in Egypt, and also the blood of the Exile. Once again, history is not merely being repeated. Rather, it is being fulfilled in Christ. This fulfilled the massacre prophecy during the birth of Christ in Jeremiah 31:15.
3. The promise of SALVATION (vs. 17-21)
Christ’s return to Galilee was no fluke of coincidental but in God’s design to fulfill His redemptive plan for each one of us. If Jesus’ parents had not listened and heeded to God’s warning to take refuge in Egypt until the death of Herod, Christ’s life could be endangered and probably the act of salvation thwarted. The salvific plan could only play out by keeping Jesus alive until the time was ripe for his ministry and death on the cross.
Throughout history, other people have had the name "Jesus." And, in the Old Testament period, more than one person was given the name "Joshua," the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek name "Jesus." But no matter who they were or what they did, they could not begin to compare to Him Who is the fulfillment of the ages (1 Corinthians 10:11). For Jesus, above and beyond all others, is the Savior. Jesus, above and beyond all others, lives up to the glory of His name. The Apostle Peter can say, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts like 4:12).
Jesus is the fulfillment of salvation history. This also means that the horrors of the past – the blood of Hebrew children in Egypt, the cries of Rachel, and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile – are as nothing compared to the agony of hell experienced by Jesus. What Jesus underwent for our sakes, to save us, is far greater than the greatest crises faced by God's Old Testament people.
Jesus is the fulfillment of salvation history. This means that the salvation and freedom of the past – from Egypt, from Babylon, from Pharaoh – is as nothing compared to the salvation and freedom that is ours in Christ. The results of God's acts in the past are but a "shadow" of the things that await the people of God (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1). In Christ "God had planned something better for us" who believe (Hebrews 11:40). This fulfilled the salvation prophecy through Christ for all of us in Matthew 1:21.
Application: Therefore, ours is a better Savior, Who endured a worst suffering, and gives us a better salvation. Now, how do you respond to Him Who is the fulfillment of the ages? Like Herod, and all Jerusalem with him, do you hate Him and fear Him? Or, like the shepherds and magi’s, do you bow down before Him and worship Him?
