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Rise and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear baptized believers in Christ’s Church, Happy New Year! But what is happiness? Where do you find happiness? The unbelieving world has already moved on past the decorated trees, the unwrapped presents, the overflowing tables of food and all the festivities of December as they continue to chase the things of the world for self-pleasure, desiring to feel happiness, that unknown emptiness. But the chancel of the church is still dressed in white as we continue to focus on God’s gift to the world in the sending of his son, born of the Virgin Mary, born in the little town of Bethlehem—the incarnation, God in the flesh, the creator of all things entering into his creation.
Now these 12 days of the Christmas season that followed December the 25th will eventually lead us up to the Epiphany of our Lord on January 6, where we will celebrate the entrance of the wise men. They followed the star from the east westward, bearing gifts for the king that was born among the Jews. Even though time had passed since the shepherds visited that baby-filled manger, these Gentile scholars traveled from afar to a residence in the village of Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. They will bow down and they will honor and they will worship the King born of the Jews, King Jesus, who is now standing before them as a little toddler of one to two years of age.
This is a season of celebration. This is a season of joy. The wait is over. The promise sent to send a Savior into the world, which was first spoken by God to the devil in the Garden of Eden in the presence of Adam and Eve, and upon the prophets of God through time gave additional details of his coming into the world to the Old Testament Church, has now been fulfilled in the person of Jesus, who is the Christ, true God and true man, King of kings and Lord of Lords.
Now things will be all good for us in all manners on earth. True perfection, true happiness, right? As we ponder this thought, is this why the church has placed the Feast of St. Stephen the Martyr on December 26th, immediately following Christmas Day? Commemorating his standing before the Sanhedrin and the others who had gathered, he spoke about God’s continued goodness, God’s continued grace upon the people of Israel through the centuries, as well as their continued rejection of God and His representatives as they chased the things of this world and their immoral and ungodly activities.
Stephen equated their father’s rejections to that of what they personally did to Jesus, as God’s representative, God’s Son, the Savior of the world. He was proclaiming the law and the gospel of God’s Word to them. But instead of confessing their sins, they reciprocated with hatred and rejection. For Scripture states, now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him, and their emotions overflowed into actions as they picked up stones to end his life.
As Stephen was being struck and the stones were piling around his feet, he said, “Lord, receive my spirit,” and falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. In the midst of all of the sin-inflicted brokenness of this story, there was the one who was the possessor of peace, and he was the bearer of truth. The gift that he had received from God through Christ Jesus, Stephen was dispensing continually, continually those gifts all the way to his last breath, for he knew that he was not losing, but he was gaining an inheritance in heaven as a gift from his Lord and Savior.
But now, from the worldly perspective, to what happened to Stephen, an atheist who believes that they have clinched the formula that proves that God does not exist. It goes like this: if God exists, and if God is good and all-powerful, and there is bad in the world, this proves that God is not real because God is not able to stop the bad things that are happening. But like the religious leaders of the day of Stephen, they are blinded to the truth.
Is this why the church has also historically placed today’s gospel lesson in the season of Christmas on December the 28th? It’s called the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The wise men had departed from Bethlehem to return to their homeland by another route without going through Jerusalem as requested by King Herod. This change of plan was due to a warning that was given to them in a dream.
There in Bethlehem was good. There in Bethlehem was perfection that dwelt in the middle of this broken world, corrupted with sin. In the midst of all of the other baby boys in that region was the means of salvation who was on a mission, but it would not be fulfilled in that place at that time. For there was so much more for him to say and do according to the sacred scriptures. So the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.” So he did, fulfilling the words of Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Now when Herod learned that the wise men had disobeyed him, he was furious. He had no intent to worship the newborn king but to destroy him, for he wanted no rivals for his throne. History proves this to be true. For he had his brother-in-law, who was the high priest, drowned. He put to death 46 members of the Sanhedrin. He killed his mother-in-law, his favorite wife, and two of their own sons, for he considered them potential competitors to his place of power and prestige. It was even reported that Caesar Augustus himself once said it is better to be Herod’s dog than to be one of his children.
When placed in this context, his order in the second chapter of the Gospel of Saint Matthew does not seem that far out of character. His soldiers went into the region of Bethlehem and they killed all the male children who were two years old and younger according to the time that had been asserted to him by the wise men. His evil act destroyed lives. His evil act destroyed families. His evil act destroyed communities. The streets were full of wailing and tears.
These little ones that are the ones referenced to and remembered in the Feast of Holy Innocence are also considered by many to be the first martyrs for Christ. The crime of these circumcised sons of Israel that deserved death was their association with Jesus. In the midst of all the tears were their cries of, “O Lord, have mercy on us.”
At that point in their lives, God seemed absent from their trials and their tribulations. Bad seemed to be the victor, but outside of their knowing, God was present, and He was working for their good. Matter of fact, God was one of them, a human being on a mission to save them from the biggest enemies in their lives: sin, eternal death, and the power of the devil, and to provide for them a place where only good exists that will be eternal.
Do you see for yourself how this text applies to you? Has bad ever touched your life, your body, your marriage, your family, your relationships, your livelihood, your home, your community? And you could continue with a list of things that would be particular to you. Has bad ever touched your life? Those days are tough. Have you ever cried out to God, “Have mercy on me,” raising your voice extra loud because you felt that he was so far away? I have.
Be assured, brothers and sisters in the faith, he is near you, he is near me. This truth is not based on our awareness or our feelings, but on the word of God and the Word made flesh in our lives. The bad in this world, which has corrupted man’s nature and all creation, is because of the fall and the domino effect due to the original sin that is passed down to generation to generation through procreation.
The Lord has never promised you and me a rose garden here on this world, but he has promised to be with us as he provides for us and leads us, you and me, through the thorns and the thistles of this life as we sojourn by faith through the valley lows and we go across the mountain highs as he works for the good of those who love him according to his perfect timing and his perfect will.
Like the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, God had freed them from the bondage of Egypt, had brought them through the Red Sea, provided for their daily needs, and was leading them to the promised land as he dwelt among them in the pillar of fire by day and the pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. Their journey was a type of our spiritual walk.
God has freed us from the bondage of sin, death, and the power of the devil. And because of the blood of the Passover lamb dripping down the wood to the ground for us, we have been brought through the waters of holy baptism. Now God tabernacles in us with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as we sojourn through the wilderness of this world.
Instead of the miracle of the water from the rock and the manna and the quail from heaven, he gives us his body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith for the journey as aliens and strangers in a place that is not our home. The Apostle Peter encapsulates this in his first letter when he writes, “According to his great mercy, God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
In this you rejoice. Like St. Stephen, it is a peace that passes all understanding. It is true, yes, it is true that Jesus was not in Bethlehem when Herod’s soldiers slaughtered all of those little baby boys, but like the sheep that were raised on the hills outside of Bethlehem for the purpose of the sacrificial system at the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus’s future destiny would lead him to that same city to be pierced for our transgressions once and for all.
On the cross, he would die for you to pay the price for your sins. So through Jesus, you have peace with God. A true happiness that is divinely given. And on the third day, he rose from the dead confirming all that he had said to be true, which includes the promise to always be with you during the good days as well as the bad ones, and that one day in the future, you will receive in the fullness all your inheritance in heaven.
To brothers and sisters in the faith, as we step into the year 2023, we do not know—and I do not know—what it will personally hold for each of you, but this I do know, and here I proclaim it to you with great joy and happiness: that in Christ, you are victorious.
For Peter continues in his letter as we wait for that day of the coming of the Lord Jesus, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” So we walk, we step into this new year with something that God has given to each of us and through all the circumstances, with the words the prophet Isaiah that we carry in our ears: “Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,” which means God with us. Amen.
The peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
