(The Bethlehem Candle)
Scripture Matthew 2:13-23
Where is your favorite place to go for
a walk? Is it in your neighborhood? In the woods? At a park? Along the lake or
ocean shore? Through a creek? In a building? Jesus often taught or even healed
people while walking. He might stop for a moment, but it seemed that he was
always heading somewhere. It was like he was on a journey and knew where he was
going but often got stopped long the way to teach or meet someone's needs.
We have all already taken one of the
two biggest journeys we will ever take - it happened the day we were born. We
journeyed from the warmth, comfort, and safety of our mother's womb into a
cold, daunting, unsafe, and totally unfamiliar world. Some of us came headfirst,
some feet, some had to be surgically removed, but we all share that incredibly
shocking experience going from our mother's world into this world. Think about
what an even greater shocking or traumatic event that was for Jesus. That
brings us to the first part of his 3-part journey from heaven to Bethlehem, to Egypt
and to Nazareth.
BETHLEHEM - Jesus, like
all humans is born into a place that is totally unfamiliar - from Mary's womb
into a cold smelly barn. Even more so from the majesty of heavenly glory to an
insane, sin ridden, violent, anti-god world. Phil 2:5-8 Christ Jesus: Who,
being in very nature God, let go of his God equality, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death —
even death on a cross!
(We come from the womb to the world / Jesus
came from heaven to earth.)
Despair.com has a poster which reads, “Despair: It
always gets darkest just before it fades to pitch black.” Too many
people live without hope, going from one dark event to another. I wonder
if that is how the Jews felt in the time just before Jesus' birth?
They
had been a privileged people, one of the only groups allowed to self-rule, to
self-tax and to be free from military service in the Roman Empire. Julius
Caesar had granted these rights because Judaism was older than Rome itself.
But then came Octavius who instituted a census, which was to occur every
14 years. So what's the big deal about a census? Ancient Empires
took censuses in order to tax based on how many people, how many sheep, cows,
how much land or homes you owned. The taxing was not just for the local
authority but the mighty Roman Empire and this taxing changed everything for
the Jews. Sleepy little Bethlehem was not that - it was jam packed with people
including Roman soldier everywhere.
This simple event was a signal to the Jewish people
that their favored status was in the process of being revoked and that they,
like everyone else, were nothing more than a conquered, subjugated people.
Simply having Romans in the land would have seemed pretty dark, but
having them prepare to tax would have felt like pitch black. It would be a
return to slavery, a proverbial return to Egypt.
Jesus is born a king (wise men confirm
this), but he is born a rejected king. We are born into the world - but the
world rejects us and will give us a finite number of days.
If the act of birth (in Jesus case in
Bethlehem) was not traumatic enough, then the next part of the journey is
fleeing for his (for our lives) to a foreign land - that former land of
slavery.
EGYPT - Jesus' journey to
Egypt was unplanned but necessary much like our life's journey is unplanned but
necessary. Mary, Joseph & Jesus had to journey to a place that was
difficult but ok compared to being murdered. (We journey through this life that
is difficult but ok for the time being.)
Let's look at our text for today that describes how this unplanned
journey was set in motion.
Matthew
2:13-23
When the wise men 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." (Hosea 11:1 "When Israel was a child, I loved
him, and out of Egypt I called my son." This was obviously about Moses and
the Exodus from Egypt to the promised land. However, even at the writing of the
NT it was unquestionably seen as one of those prophetic words for now and then
- it stated what had taken place -the exodus- and what will take place -Jesus
needing to hide in Egypt before returning to Israel.)
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." (Here again is
a prophetic word for now and then. Rachel gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin and
the Benjamites lived in Ramah just north of Jerusalem. Jeremiah says she was
weeping because those taken into Babylonian captivity were first assembled in
Ramah before being "exiled" to Babylon where they were "no
more". Rachel never even knew Benjamin because she died at his birth)
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. (Very possibly was heading back to Bethlehem near
Jerusalem where Archelaus was ruling as one of 3 of Herod's sons in different
locations) 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." (No prophet mentions this but is a recurring theme
among the prophets about the Messiah living in a "no-nothing place" -
Even Phillip said - "Has anything good ever come out of Nazareth"
which emphasizes Christ's identity with the lowly and outcast.)
NAZARETH - Journey to a
place that your Father says is wonderful - he calls that place your home. (We
go from earth to heaven which God calls our eternal home - we go there
trusting.) Who is the one who will get us to the home that is designed for us?
Jesus - the rejected king, the rejected messiah, the rejected God who most
people turned away form.
Isaiah
53:2-3 He grew up before him like a
tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he
was despised, and we esteemed him not.
It is this Jesus who sees Nazareth as an idyllic place
to grow up and learn how to build things with his hands, and his spirit, before
revealing himself fully to the world as it's redeemer. Nazareth was home, a
place of family, warmth, comfort and joy. Others didn't think much anything
about Nazareth - Jesus called it home. Jesus has a place like that for us
called heaven. He is the baby turned carpenter who is currently building our
rooms in his Father's heavenly mansions. He promises to one day come and take
us there if we will just believe.
We journey from our Bethlehem (the womb) to our Egypt
(a foreign land=life) while we journey toward our Nazareth (our eternal home)
and Jesus shares stories of our eternal home while walking with us through our Egypt.
The question is, will we be like the disciples on the road to Emmaus who did
not recognize who he was and not care about the forever home he describes for
us and shares how to get there, or like Thomas who says I will not believe
unless I see, or like Mary Magdalene who thinks Jesus is just the gardener
outside his empty tomb, or will we like all of them, put our faith in him and
see him for who he really is - the King of kings, Lord of Lords, and perfect
Prince of peace, bringing salvation not in a manger, but on a cross bearing his
broken body so that we might live and complete our journey to heaven?
Into the midst of that pitch black night, the angels
brought a blinding light with the good news that "Today in the town of
David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."
COMMUNION
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