Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23
Sermon Series: Mary, He called her Mother – Sermon 06
He’s famous for his gothic horror and dark fantasy films but I can still remember when Timothy Burton (picture) produced the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas (picture). I remember thinking, “Who’d want to watch a horror movie about Christmas?” Apparently, lots of people. That’s why they keep making horror Christmas flicks like Black Christmas, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Bad Santa or Krampus (pictures). I’ve never seen any of them and have no desire to. Give me White Christmas or Elf, even Home Alone (pictures). That’s the real Christmas…but sadly, it isn’t.
One scene, from that first Christmas, the one we’re looking at today plays out like a Christmas horror film. Matthew’s second chapter opens with some gentle Magi from the East visiting the home of Mary and Joseph, worshiping the young child, Jesus, and giving Him extravagant gifts.
This last puzzle piece informs us that Joseph and Mary have decided to stay in Bethlehem. Why not? They’ve left behind a scandal. They’ve found a home to rent or perhaps Joseph built some simple hut on borrowed land according to the customs of their culture. We discover that Joseph and Mary have moved into a house in Bethlehem and Jesus is now a toddler.
What happens next is the arrival of the wise men and their entourage, creating a traffic jam outside their home that the Shekinah glory briefly illuminated to direct them. Once inside, Matthew tells us, And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). They see the child, now a toddler with Mary, and fall down to worship Him.
It’s hard to imagine what Mary must have thought about it all. Yet, almost as soon as they’ve finished Jesus’ baby shower, God warns both the Magi and Joseph in dreams that King Herod wants to murder Jesus.
We’re continuing our series, Mary, He called her Mother. If you follow the liturgical church calendar, we’re not that far from the end of the Christmas Season. Last Sunday was Three Kings Day commemorating the visit of the Magi to worship Jesus.
There’s nothing more exciting than having a baby. Mary and Joseph have had wonderful visitors. The angels announced His birth. Shepherds came that same night to worship Him. Simeon and Anna rejoiced over their child in the Temple. Foreigners from the East worshipped and gave Him royal gifts.
For Mary this must have all seemed like a dream. Then, Joseph shakes her awake…they had to leave…now, tonight! The king’s soldiers are coming to kill Jesus. Can you imagine her terror, what she must have felt, learning that evil Herod is plotting to take the life of her Son? It must have seemed like a real Nightmare of Christmas. Can you see Mary working it over in her mind in shock – He wants to kill my baby. Today we’re working our way through the last nativity scene recorded in the Bible. If you’re taking notes…
1. You can know the truth but reject the truth
On any given day, the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed to millions of people. Some may hear the message in a church. Some hear it on the radio or television. Others read it in books and magazine articles. Some hear it from a friend. They all hear the same message but respond in different ways.
This account always amazes me. The wise men came to Jerusalem seeking the King of the Jews. You’d expect to find the king in the capital. Herod knows they aren’t looking for him and wants to know what’s going on.
“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet” (Matthew 2:3-5).
Some people know the truth but ignore it. The priests and scribes knew where Jesus was to be born, even that He’d been born but did nothing. There are some who hear the gospel but have no response. Maybe they have life “figured out” and aren’t open to anyone pointing them in another direction. They may have concluded that the gospel is irrelevant. Or they think they’ll accept it later, at a more convenient time. Is that you? Have you tuned God out? God’s truth must either be accepted or rejected. There’s no halfway point. Knowing the gospel or knowing a little about Jesus isn’t enough. One must act upon the knowledge in order to be saved.
The Magi didn’t have as much knowledge about Jesus as the clergy in Jerusalem, but they acted on the knowledge they had. They stepped out on faith. They found the Christ Child and worshipped Him. They found salvation but the religious leaders didn’t. That brings us to Herod.
Some people know the truth but reject it. Every Christmas movie seems to have a villain. Herod is the original Christmas villain. It’s not a shock that Herod tried to kill Jesus. Herod would have no rivals. He alone wanted to have the title “King of the Jews.” He’s also known as Herod the Great (picture) and he was going to stay that way.
He wasn’t even a Jew. He was an Idumean, a descendant of Esau. He was given the title “King of the Jews” by the Roman senate. He’s a cruel political animal. In very volatile political times, He survived. He took the throne when just twenty-five years old and reigned 42 years. You didn’t survive for over four decades back then unless you had some skills.
He also survived a civil war early on in his reign and never again was really challenged. He’s been alluded to as the “first Nero” because of his brutality toward his enemies, real or perceived. In a day when Rome ruled the world, Herod ruled his domain with an iron fist. If a movie were made of his life, he’d probably be played by someone like Danny Devito (picture). It’s said that Herod was not a big man, probably only about 4′ 4″.
He was wealthy and powerful. He had big resources launching massive building programs, rebuilt the Temple and even had visions of grandeur of outdoing Solomon’s temple. He had nine or ten wives, but he never worried about alimony. When Herod got tired of a wife, he’d just have her executed. While those are his marriages, no one knows how many flings he had.
He was vicious and cruel, a sadistic killer who slaughtered officials, generals, senators, soldiers and citizens that he suspected of disloyalty. On one occasion a faithful soldier told him, “The army hates your cruelty and there isn’t a common soldier who doesn’t side with your sons, and many of the officers openly curse you.” This soldier thought this would gain him favor with Herod, but Herod ordered the man put on the rack and stretched until he cried out name after name of the traitors. He even confessed the names of innocent men, anything to stop the torture but Herod pressed them to continue until the man died. Then Herod rounded up all the accused and had them torn to pieces while he, the historian wrote, livid with rage, jumped up and down as he screamed for them to die. No wonder Caesar Augustus, who’d made Herod king over this region of the empire, remarked on one occasion that he’d rather be Herod’s swine than Herod’s son.
Yet Herod was religious. Years ago, a homeless man used to hang around the Moody Bible Institute, begging money from students. Many of the students would try to win him to the Lord. As they’d talk, they’d quote Bible verses to him. Sometimes though when a student misquoted a verse, Old Jim would stop the student and then re-quote it correctly. Though he’d heard D.L. Moody preach, badgered successive groups of students through the years for money and even knew the Bible well, he was far from Christ.
Herod built several temples. He was very religious if it suited his purposes. When the Magi came looking for the King of the Jews, he called in the local theologians. He uses God’s Word like a religious Ouija Board with little effect on his life. He wasn’t going to allow God’s Word to change his heart but used it for his own agenda.
He even believed what the prophet Micah prophesied 500 years earlier. He sent them to Bethlehem (Matthew 2:8). It’s one thing to know the Bible, it’s another to trust, submit to and obey it. Herod used it but spurned it.
The wise men’s question, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? rattled Herod’s world. Troubled means to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread. Herod was the first one to suffer from Christmas anxiety. This baby is a threat to his power.
He’s now an ill, old man. Scholars think that he suffered from venereal disease which may have added to his derangement. Herod was so insecure on his throne that some think his motivation for building the Temple was to give him access to the genealogies stored there so he could destroy them, and with them the promise of the Messiah.
A Christ-follower is not someone who knows the truth or even does some religious things. A Christ-follower is someone who trusts Someone – they completely trust Jesus and His sacrificial payment for their sins.
2. We can trust God to protect us
Before He’s old enough to be cognizant of it, Jesus’ life is already plunged into a life filled with suffering. Before He’s old enough to go to school, a deranged king wants to take Him out.
Have you ever noticed the pockmarks or dimples covering the surface of a golf ball? They make the ball look imperfect. What’s their purpose? An aeronautical engineer who designs golf balls says that a perfectly smooth ball would travel only 130 yards off the tee. That same ball with the right kind of dimples will fly twice as far. These apparent “flaws” minimize the ball’s air resistance and allow it to travel a lot further.
Until 2001 dimples covered about 65 to 75 % of the ball. But Steve Ogg (picture) of Golf Ball Development designed a golf ball that’s aerodynamically perfect. He covered the ball with a series of ridges, aligned as interlocking hexagons and pentagons like chicken wire. He achieved what’s been dubbed the “holy grail of ball design” – 100% surface coverage. His golf ball with more dimples was the best aerodynamic ball in existence.
What does this have to do with Mary and Joseph? What does it have to do with our faith? Lots. Our lives don’t have lots of flat spots. By flat spots, I mean easy times. Our lives are like a golf ball – dimpled. The irony is that the dimples make it fly better. The flaws reduce the drag.
To put it another way, the suffering you’ve faced doesn’t ruin your life. Enhancement of your life may actually come from all those difficulties.
You lose your job. That’s a dimple. Your boss has it in for you. That’s a dimple. You get up the courage to ask her out and she says “no.” That’s a dimple. Your son gets in trouble. That’s a dimple. The doctor finds the lump is malignant, that’s one of life’s tribulations. You get the idea.
Your life resembles the surface of a golf ball much more than the surface of a beach ball. A beach ball is smooth and shiny on sunny days. The golf ball, dimpled, gets cuts, grass stains and mud on it…just like you and me.
On the golf ball, the more dimpled the surface, the better. It helps it go further. In life we grow stronger with challenges. Ironically, our struggles are what by His grace God uses so that we can grow stronger in adversity. God used suffering to build the faith of Mary. He does the same with us.
In the middle of the night, “Joseph, get up.” Get up in the middle of the night, get your family ready. Mary, hurry and get Jesus dressed and get out the door. The verb tenses indicate single acts. In the middle of the night – get up, get Mary and Jesus and run for our lives. Joseph, you don’t have time to pack a cart with the furniture you made. Mary, you’ll have to leave that crib. Grab what you can wear or carry and run. Where are we going? Another country, where you’ll hide out until you’re told you can return.
So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He 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 called My Son (Matthew 2:14). In other words, in the evil of Herod’s attempt to kill the Christ-child, we get a peek behind the curtain at the sovereign control and protection of God. The evil paranoia of Herod is used to fulfill the predictions of God’s word and the purposes of His will.
But it was a hard path for Joseph and Mary. Have you ever taken your family on an emergency trip? No time for a map; no choice of departure time; no time to pack just the right things.
The word flee in the original means to seek safety in flight. It’s the same word that gives us our word, fugitive. In other words, “Joseph, take Mary and Jesus and run for your lives!” You’re Israel’s most wanted! Why? Herod wants to kill your little boy. Where do we run? Egypt!
The wording indicates that their flight is the beginning of action that’s to be continued. They weren’t to stop until they were safely in Egypt, beyond Herod’s reach. From Bethlehem to the border of Egypt was 75 miles. Joseph was given no specific address or told that anyone would be waiting for them when they arrived, or where they’d be staying. Not even directions for the safest route…just run! Now? Now in the middle of the night!
Please don’t miss this. Could God have protected Joseph and his little family right under the vain nose of Herod? He could have deposed Herod and killed the soldiers. God could have blinded those soldiers or miraculously hidden the family like a suitcase of smuggled Bibles the communist guards never saw. He could have but He didn’t.
God chose to protect them by the very ordinary and un-miraculous means of flight. The will of God meant hardship, but He’d sustain them. The message for them to run was supernatural – God’s word arrived in a dream. God’s Word has arrived to us in a Book. His Spirit through conformity to the Word provokes our hearts and minds as we take steps in obedience to Him. All our questions aren’t answered. I know mine haven’t been and neither are theirs. God did not do something for them that He withholds from you.
No special miracles to turn Egypt into paradise. Nor has God promised to turn your Egypt into paradise. This is not our paradise. It’s not our heaven.
Their escape from Bethlehem and long journey to Egypt was the same kind of journey any other ordinary family would have had to endure. But their journey was more difficult. Now they were Israel’s most wanted. All the way there you can easily imagine that Joseph is looking over his shoulder. They imagine the clattering of hooves behind every sand dune. They want to stop and rest longer than they allow themselves. Their hearts never really stop pounding all the way to Egypt and they have to be asking, “Why?”
God’s angel told them. This will be the fulfillment of one more prophecy that validates the authenticity of the Messiah’s claim. God said He’ll come out of Egypt and He did. Egypt becomes their hiding place until Herod dies. Jesus would be the picture of Israel’s calling from that same country. Israel was spoken of in the Old Testament as the son or sons of God (Hosea 11:1).
The Son of God illustrates Israel’s deliverance. But there’s more. Christ not only illustrates the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, He also illustrates our deliverance from sin. Because you can’t beat sin without Jesus. You need the gospel. You must believe the gospel, or you’ll never be free of Egypt.
One more thing and this is so cool, it gives me goosebumps. We know Mary and Joseph are poor. How will they pay for an emergency trip to Egypt? The gifts of the magi – gold, frankincense, and myrrh – were certainly very expensive items. I think God provided those gifts to finance the journey of our Lord and His parents in Egypt.
3. We can trust God’s prophecies
“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more” (Matthew 2:16-18). Nothing is more horrible than the murder of a child.
Herod’s soldiers stormed into every home in Bethlehem. Swords in hand, they raged from house to house, searching for little boys under two years of age. Each time they saw a baby they ripped its clothes off to see what sex it was. Babies murdered right before their parents’ eyes.
There is something about children that threatens evil people. Remember Pharaoh ordered the Jewish baby boys killed. Russell Moore (picture) writes: “Satan hates children because Satan hates Jesus. When evil destroys ‘the least of these’ (Matthew 25:40, 45), the most vulnerable among us, it destroys a picture of Jesus Himself, of the child delivered by the woman who crushes the head of our reptilian overlord (Gen. 3:15). The demonic powers know that the human race is saved, and they’re vanquished by a child born of woman. And so they hate the children who bear His nature…the satanic powers want the kingdoms of the universe, and a child uproots their reign.”
It’s this child that threatens Herod. After the true king of the Jews is referred to in Matthew 2, Herod is never again called a “king.” This child threatens all evil powers. This one born in a manger was a sign of judgement, yet He is peace to those who put their trust in Him.
The actions of Herod defy imagination. He’s 70 years old – diseased, crippled, infected with untreatable venereal diseases so that his intestines are literally rotting. His bodyguards must rotate frequently because they can’t bear the stench emanating from the pores of his skin. His physicians can’t heal him; warm baths won’t soothe him; his body is covered with ulcers and his legs are too swollen for him to walk. But no king will have his throne. Even though he knows his death is imminent, he grasps his throne. He’s the perfect picture of depraved, stubborn mankind.
There is great weeping in Bethlehem. Historians estimate that there were at least 30 or more children under the age of 2 in Bethlehem. Instead of the religious leaders rushing to Bethlehem to crown the young Messiah, the soldiers of Herod stampede in and rip little boys from their mother’s arms.
Rachel is weeping for her children. This represented all Jewish mothers who wept over Israel’s great tragedy when Jerusalem was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies in the days of Jeremiah. Their weeping was a foreshadowing of the mothers in Bethlehem who’d weep bitterly over the massacre of their little boys.
Yet Herod didn’t know that even his crime was a fulfillment of Scripture. What makes Herod’s evil viler is that he knew the little boy he was trying to kill was the Messiah. This first century antichrist was a pawn in the hands of Satan attempting to destroy the seed of the woman – the virgin born Messiah.
4. We can trust God’s program
Herod died and God gives Joseph another dream. No rush this time. Poor Joseph will never lie down again without wondering. “Will I make it through the night?” The difference now is a lack of urgency. No need to flee. Notice the reassuring message the angel delivers, For those who sought the Child’s life are dead (Matthew 2:20).
So, Joseph thinks they’re in the clear. Their months of hiding in Egypt are over. But while they are on their way home, Joseph learns that Herod’s son Archelaus has been given the throne. Archelaus is worse than his father. He inaugurated his reign by killing 3,000 Jews in the Temple during Passover. His reign was so bad that Augustus, the Roman emperor, no saint himself, finally banished him after nine years of atrocities.
Joseph had every reason to be afraid. And so, God came to him again in a dream and told him to settle in the regions of Galilee. Joseph moved his family and settled down in Nazareth. Guess what? This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene (Mattew 2:23).
Nazareth was located about 55 miles north of Jerusalem. The inhabitants in those regions were people known for being rough, uneducated and even uncivilized. It was an insignificant village, just a common place filled with common, ordinary people trying to make a living.
The earthly origins of Christ were as challenging and difficult as you can imagine, an outdoor shelter for a birthplace. His parents on the run as fugitives, immigrating to Egypt and then back to Israel where they built their lives in obscurity. That’s because Jesus is one of us. In fact, He is far more ordinary than any of us. That’s the Incarnation. God became one of us!
Conclusion
Let me share three thoughts and leave them for you to think through…
- The will of God does not circumvent the challenges of life.
- The love of God does not eliminate attack by the enemy.
- The promises of God do not lessen responsibility by the believer.
As we tie this up, if you can see past the blood and violence, there’s good news. In the baby Jesus, God entered this world—this corrupt, evil, unjust, sin-loving, war-mongering, baby-killing world. God entered this world. He didn’t wait until it was safe. He didn’t make it easier for Jesus than it would be for anyone else. God entered this world, just as it is with all its evils and dangers. Before His Son could say one controversial word, the powers-that-be tried to snuff Him out.
God came to this world not with a sword in His hand but with a cross on his back. He didn’t come to destroy this evil world but to redeem it. But our redemption had a high price, one paid with Jesus’ blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
Yes, Jesus got a pass on that wicked, bloody night in Bethlehem. His time to die would come some thirty years later on a hill outside Jerusalem where another ruler flogged the living daylights out of him and then killed Him on a cross. No sword for Jesus, but nails and a spear.
In the Bethlehem massacre, Herod thought he’d gotten the best of Jesus. He didn’t In the Jerusalem crucifixion, the powers that killed Jesus thought they’d gotten the best of Jesus, too. They hadn’t. Jesus rose from the dead! Jesus came to redeem the world, and He redeemed it through a cross. He sealed that redemption with the resurrection.
That was God’s plan. The cross and the resurrection, the promise of Jesus’ return remind us that evil doesn’t get the last word; God gets the final word.
That’s the gospel. It’s good news. That means that even though we live in a world where evil sometimes sits on the throne, people murder children, and good people suffer terrible things, we can live in the peace of Christ because we know how the story ends.
And we know that until the story ends, God is with us in Christ. He’s with us—today. He’s with us no matter what comes. He’s with us when we laugh and when we cry. He’s with us when we celebrate and when we suffer. He’s with us all the way to the end of the story.
And this is the end of the story: Jesus wins, Herods lose; justice prevails, evil is vanquished. God’s light—extinguishes darkness forever.
He came so we could win too. We will if we believe the gospel, trust Him and commit our lives to Christ, becoming part of His forgiven family.
Have you believed the gospel? It’s not about doing anything. It’s about trusting in a Person. Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?