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Matthew 2:13-23
Eli Wiesel was a noble prize winning author and a survivor of the concentration camp Auschwitz. In the book Night, he tells of his experiences in the concentration camps. In one chapter of Night he tells of witnessing the hanging of three men. These men had been part of an underground resistance and had been captured. One of the three men was nothing but a boy. When they were hanged the two large men died instantly but the boy because of his light weight suffered terribly as he slowly choked to death.
The prisoners in Auschwitz were made to watch the execution. And through it all a man behind Eli Wiesel asked out loud, "Where is God now?" And as the boy suffered he asked, "Where is God now. Where is he?" The man was not asking for God's geographical location. He was expressing an unutterable frustration and feeling that God had abandoned them. Here was a young man, a boy, who had risked his life to save other people. How could God let these Nazis torture him? They were God's chosen people, and yet this was happening. Had God forgotten them? Where was God anyway?
And down through the ages other people have asked the same question. When faced with injustice and murder people ask, "Where is God now?" It is a cry of desperation from a troubled heart. When we witness horrible atrocities we wonder how a loving God can allow such things to happen. We feel powerless in the face of such evil and our only response is to look to God and cry out, "Where is God Now? Where are you?"
We are all familiar with the story of the Three Kings. Those three wise men who follow a star to Bethlehem to worship the King of the Jews, Jesus Christ. But right on its heels is another story that is tragic and disturbing. King Herod in his evil love of power plots to kill this baby born King of the Jews. At first he plans to use the wise men to find Jesus and murder him. But the wise men are warned by God in a dream not to tell Herod but to go home another way.
When Herod realized he has been tricked he ordered all the children killed who are two years old or under killed. He didn't conduct a house to house search to find the one baby he wanted dead. He didn't ordered all the boys killed. He ordered all the children killed.
But God warned Joseph in a dream and Joseph fled to Egypt thus fulfilling other prophesies. Jesus was spared from this attempt on his life. Jesus was destined to die, but this was not the right time. So God intervened allowing Jesus to grow up and be revealed through his earthly ministry. The powers of evil tried to kill the Messiah before his time but God miraculously intervened.
(sarcastically) Isn't that just wonderful. God intervenes to save the Messiah while hundreds of other innocent children die. I don't know about you but there is a part of me that asks, "What about these children?" What about their parents and grandparents - their brothers and sisters? What about these suffering people? Its fine that God intervened to save one baby boy, but why didn't God intervene to save these hundreds of others. Where was God in this!?
I am not the first to ask this question. Christians before have asked this same question and arrived at different answers. The ancient Christians gave special honor to these children. This event was called the "slaughter of the innocents." And because these children had died while Jesus escaped, they reasoned that these children were in a sense the first Christian martyrs and that they went straight to heaven and have a special place in God's kingdom.
A more thoughtful approach is to argue that the death of these children is the necessary result of free will. God has blessed us with the free will to choose good or evil. Herod had free will. He could have chosen to embrace Jesus. But instead he chose to murder him. Herod could have tried to find Jesus but instead he of his own free will chose to slaughter hundreds of children. God had given him that free will and could not rightly take it away from him or from us. God could not stop Herod from slaughtering hundreds without being ungracious, but God could intervene to spare that one special child so that is what God did.
Where is God Now? Perhaps I have over looked a very important part of this story. This story is, after all, about Jesus, Emmanuel - "God with us." Jesus is at the center of this story. So where is God in the slaughter of the innocents. Well, God was right there, in the middle of it.
Eli Weisel came to the same conclusion in his concentration camp. As the man asked, "Where is God Now!" In his heart Eli responded, "He is there in the Gallows." Where was God in the Holocaust? One response is that God was in the concentration camps experiencing the pain. God had given the Nazis free will and they chose to use it to do evil. God could not steal that gift of free will away without going against his nature. God could also not just sit by while others suffered. So God suffered with them and was present to comfort and even to die.
God was and is where ever people are suffering. Isn't that what the Christmas story is all about. God the Almighty came into the midst of our suffering and pain to bring comfort and salvation and to hang on a tree. Where is God now as thousands die in wars and or poverty. God is there with them.
Where is God Now? We often look for God in the beautiful and pure. We look for God in decorated churches and fancy sanctuaries. And God is here because God is everywhere. In the Christmas season we look for God in fancy decorations, gold and silver objects, decorative candles. But today's Bible lesson tells us of another place to look.
If you want to find God look for pain and suffering. If you really want to find out where God is go to the slums, he is there. Go to the AIDS wards and cancer wards; God is there. Go to the war torn parts of the world where children are being slaughtered. And you will find God there.
Oh, you won't see God at first, but through Christ and the Holy Spirit, God is there. And while you are there looking for God, could do me a favor? Why don't you lend a hand to bring some comfort and peace, then you will really see God. When you come face to face with the evil of this world and you ask yourself "Where is God Now." Remember that God is with us "Emmanuel."
Matthew 2:13-23
In Heaven the celebration had just ended but on Earth years had passed. The cherubim were taking the garland off the pearly gates and Michael had just retrieved the star of Bethlehem from the sky to put it away for eternity. It was then that the call came to Gabrielle. He was growing accustomed to these frequent trips to earth. He and the other angels had made may such trips recently: There was the announcement to Zechariah that Elizabeth would bear a son named John. There was the announcement he himself had made to Mary that she would bear a son named Jesus. Then there were the several trips to help Joseph and the wise men along. But what could he be called to do now that the birth was over. What more could there be for an angel to do on earth after the Son of God had already taken up residence there?
When Gabrielle got his orders he was surprised. This announcement was unlike the others he had made. To Mary he had said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid." And to the shepherds he had heralded "Be not afraid, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all peoples." This time the announcement was not one of blessing and hope but one of warning and alarm.
In obedience Gabrielle descended to the Earth and came to Joseph in a dream. "Wake up and quickly, take the baby and his mother and flee for Egypt!" Gabrielle watched as Joseph obeyed and took Mary and the baby Jesus and fled. Is this want the Son had come to earth to do? To be awakened in the middle of the night and carried away while fleeing the forces of evil?
It was as they fled that Gabrielle realized the extent of the evil they were fleeing from. He heard the voice of wailing and lamenting as Herod's army killed all the children two and under around Bethlehem. It was true that this same Herod died and met his judgment only a few years later. But even then Herod's son took over. So When Jesus came back to Israel he had to go to Nazareth instead of Bethlehem.
Well, that's how I imagined it happening. Maybe angels have an easier time understanding thing than I do. At first glance this story of the flight to Egypt and the slaughter of the innocents seems so out of place. Why did Matthew choose to include this? The story of Jesus' birth with all its light and glory flows straight into this story of fright and mass murder. Surely Matthew could have found a more uplifting story to tie Jesus birth to his ministry. I am sure that Mary and Jesus' brothers and sisters must have shared hundred's of tales of things Jesus said or did in his Childhood. Why didn't Matthew tell us about one of these things?
If I were writing the Gospel I would have done like Luke. He tells us about Jesus in the temple questioning the scholars and wowing them. And when Mary said, "Where have you been," Jesus replied, "I was about my Father's business." That is the kind of story about Jesus' childhood that I would have recounted. If I were writing the Gospel the story of Jesus' birth would have ended with "and they lived happily ever after."
But Matthew ends it with this upsetting story of terror and murder. Who does Matthew think he is upsetting my Christmas by making be write a sermon on this passage? Couldn't he have at least put a break in there so I could preach on it some other time of the year? It just flows from one into the other. What in the world possessed Matthew to write this story down on the same piece of paper with the story of our Lord's birth?
What possessed Matthew? It was the Holy Spirit that possessed Matthew to write this account. And why did the Holy Spirit possess Matthew to do this: to show that prophesy was being fulfilled. But behind that simple reason is a more complete one. For instance, the simple answer is that the holy family must go down to Egypt so that they can come out. The prophets said that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt. To be called out of Egypt he first had to go down to Egypt.
But there is a deeper significance to this. Egypt was the place where the nation of Israel had been held in slavery. It was the mission of the Messiah to follow the mission of Moses. Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt and out of slavery. Jesus would do the same: lead people out of slavery to sin and death and lead them to the promised land of God's Kingdom.
But to lead people out of slavery to sin and death he first had to descend into the land of sin and death. The flight to Egypt was a model of Jesus' mission. He had come into this world of sin and death so that God could call him out. Jesus had come in to a world of sin to die at the hands of sinners and to atone for the sins of the world. So it is appropriate that God should call him out of Egypt; the land that symbolized slavery for the Hebrew people.
But what about the murder of the children that the church calls the innocents? Matthew said that this event fulfilled the prophesy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah had said that there would be wailing and loud lamentations - "Rachel weeping for her children" and not being consoled." This shows us why Jesus came. He came because in this world many mothers and fathers wail because of what the world is doing to their children. And God also weeps because of what the world does to His children.
So because Rachel is weeping for her children God came into a world of weeping. And when the light came into the world how did it react? The powers of darkness reacted by trying to put out the light. Herod worshipped power. When he heard that there was a King who might threaten his power base he sought to kill this King. When he couldn't get his hands on Jesus he committed indiscriminate murder in an attempt to kill the Messiah.
But that is how evil works. Whenever someone shines the light, evil will try to put it out. Like Herod evil would keep trying to kill Jesus. Death at the hands of evil was Jesus destiny. He was born to die on a cross. And when Herod couldn't kill Jesus he killed whomever he could.
Why are we taking the time only days after Christmas to hear about the flight to Egypt and the slaughter of the innocents? The simple answer is because Matthew wrote it into his birth narrative. But the deeper answer is that it shows us why Jesus was born. He was born because the world is always filled with Herods and Hitlers and Hussains. There is always someone who is trying to put out the light.
But God sent the light anyway and kept is shining. Jesus came to bring the light of God for people to see: then to be lifted up on a cross to die for all the sinful people on this sinful world so that even the Herod's and Hitlers and Hussains can be forgiving if they only repent. This story shows us Jesus' destiny and the reason for it.
I heard a gospel song based on the children's rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." In the song "Mary" was Jesus' mother Mary and Jesus was the little lamb. Jesus came to be the Lamb of God. He came to die for our sins. And lest we forget that, Matthew tells us of the evil world that Jesus came into and how he narrowly escaped death at the beginning.