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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. If you grew up in the church as a little boy or little girl, you memorized bits and pieces of the Christmas story from St. Luke. Amen. About the governor of Syria, about Quirinius being who that was, of Caesar Augustus issued a decree that all the world should be taxed. The shepherds hear the angels shout glory to God in the highest and peace among men. That’s Luke’s account of Christmas, the one that you and I are the most familiar with.
This morning’s Gospel reading, that’s the Matthew account. We’re very familiar with Luke, but Luke has not its fullest meaning without Matthew’s account together with Luke. Now the short verses that are in our Gospel reading are only a part of the Matthew account of the birth of Christ. Because also in the same account of Matthew’s birth of Christ, we have also in the second chapter some very important information. And it’s only in Matthew. Okay. So the whole magi or wise men from the east aren’t in Luke’s account, they’re in Matthew’s account.
And when those magi leave to go back to their home, in Matthew’s account we have, and only in Matthew’s account do we have God fleeing Herod, Jesus fleeing with Joseph and Mary to go to Egypt. Then we have that wicked king Herod going down to Bethlehem and slaughtering the hundreds of babies two years old and younger. That seems like two totally diametrically opposed Christmases: the Lucan account and the Matthew account. But they’re not opposed to one another. They actually give the full expression of what Christmas really is.
So consider this. You and I have grown up. Our parents grew up with a Christmas that’s the same. And so did the children who grew up in Aleppo, Syria, who are Christians. But it’s markedly different from yours. So did the children who grew up and are still growing up in Mosul, Iraq, in Iran, in Afghanistan, in North Korea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Oh, and most recently in the news, in Egypt, in the Coptic church.
You see, we’re used to a Lucan account of Christmas to describe our Christmas experience. And that is a beautiful thing—a warm church building with beautiful lights, the smell of evergreens, and an organ and a choir. But let us celebrate it in a bombed-out building with the smell of gunpowder or dead flesh. Is it as Emmanuel as ours? Is Emmanuel, God with us, as much for them as it is for us? That’s the beauty of the Matthew account. Matthew highlights Joseph a little bit more, far more than Mary. Luke’s account highlights Mary, and we have to have that side of it.
But we have to also highlight Joseph, and so Matthew chooses to do so by God’s direction. And in Matthew’s gospel, Joseph is put forth as, in a sense, the center of this story. Joseph finds out that his wife, yet they had not consummated the relationship, is pregnant. You can’t be pregnant and a virgin at the same time. Either you are pregnant and no longer a virgin, or you’re a virgin and not pregnant. But the two can’t coexist. That isn’t possible except with God.
So Joseph thinks, okay, I’ve got this issue, and I’m a godly and righteous man, and I don’t want to cause Mary any kind of public scandal, so I will quietly divorce her so that this will not hit the front pages of the gossip corner at the marketplace. Kind of like you and I resolve to do things to fix relationships. We do a lot of things to fix relationships, and you know what? Nothing fixes relationships except one thing: forgiveness. It’s the only thing that lasts. We can’t resolve to do anything to fix anything, because we always break resolutions, don’t we? But not our Lord.
So even though he had a right intent, God does an about-face with Joseph, but he does it by having an angel come to Joseph. And this is only in Matthew’s Gospel, where the angel comes to Joseph and says, “Nope, that’s not what I want you to do. I want you to marry this woman, and I want you to name him Jesus.” Well, from a man who didn’t even know he was going to be a father, but he’s not a father… Kind of Joseph’s little paradox that he lives in, isn’t it? He goes from realizing his wife is pregnant to now he’s being told what the name and the sex of the child is. They didn’t have sonograms at that time, and yet he knows the sex and the name of the child.
And the child’s name isn’t just because of some distant relative. You know how sometimes it is naming children: we don’t want to offend this side of the family, and we don’t want to offend this side of the family. He was told what to name him because his role was not just as a baby. It was a baby who would die. His name would be Jesus. And in fact, it doesn’t just say his name will be Jesus to take away sins. Read it again. He shall be Jesus because he will take his people’s sins away. God in that baby is claiming you.
But that’s a lot like what the angel told Mary. “For unto you this day is going to be born in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” That’s what the angel said to the shepherds, and that sounds a lot like what the angel said here. Yes, indeed. But let’s step back for a moment. This happens, and now how long does it take from gestation or conception to birth? It’s nine months. So for nine months, this woman is walking around the town.
Walking great with child. The baby bump is the first thing that people notice, and that’s when people start talking. Just like you and I do too. When we see a picture of a bride in full white garb, but with a big baby bump, we start talking, don’t we? So Joseph has to put up with the scandal. And so does his wife. And yet God called him to live out that life of faith with the scandal. Right? I don’t see any of you or me volunteering to live a life of scandal. In fact, we do all we can to avoid scandals.
And yet that was what Joseph was called to do: to live a life of scandal. Because Joseph, yes, is Mary’s husband, but Joseph isn’t Jesus’ father. At best, he’s a guardian, a foster father. And yet he treats him as his own son. And yet he’s not his son; he’s his God. He’s his Savior. So this scandal goes on for nine months, and then that’s when we get the birth in Bethlehem. But that’s not a part of the Matthew story as much, is it? The birth of Bethlehem is, but the birth isn’t even discussed.
It’s an event that happens two years later, down the pike, approximately, when the Magi from the East come. Well, this gets at the very fact that this Christmas proclamation by God through this angel to Joseph, recorded by Matthew for you, is what brings Luke and Matthew together and brings us the full Christmas account. You and I are not worshiping in a bombed-out shelter. You and I do not have to worry that we’re going to get caught. Being in this place at this time, you and I don’t have to worry about where we travel with a cross on our car or a cross around our neck. But your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world do.
And in fact, for the first 300 years of celebrating Christmases, it was that way. Before Constantine accepted Christianity and the Roman Empire became a Christian empire, for 300 years they celebrated in shadows, in darkness, in exile. A lot like the “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” hymn, waiting for a home, for a place. The freedom that we enjoy and the privilege that we enjoy in this world fits the Luke account beautifully. We need to hear the Matthew account regularly along with the Luke account so that we realize there is only one way to look at Christmas. There is only one way: through the eyes of Matthew and Luke.
Now there are many people who will have to go home to an empty house because their Christmas changed everything. All you’ve got to do is walk through Breckenridge, Seton, St. David’s, or Dell, and there are families whose Christmas is a lot like Matthew’s Christmas. It’s a little bit more gritty. It’s a little bit more real. And there, if you call the funeral homes, they will be receiving phone calls from nursing homes and hospitals and other places to pick up people’s bodies who die at this time of the year. Where’s the “Hark the herald angels sing” when your loved one is no longer with you?
Luke and Matthew go together. They give us a full expression of what Christianity is about. It’s not always happy, happy, joy, joy. And Matthew’s Gospel ensures that we see what the life in Christ is all about. And Joseph’s living the scandalous life is an example of faith for us. God with us means not just peace on earth. God with us means God with us when we’re grieving, when we’re suffering. Emmanuel means He will be with you also when you die. Close your eyes in death. That’s Emmanuel. A God who sticks to you, not just when times are good and warm and joyful, but when things are dark, and you’re in that dark place.
Just like these people. Wait a second. These people would be the very people who are the stars in this story: Joseph and Mary. They lived out that life. What did the prophets say to Mary? A sword will pierce your own soul as well. I guess being a mother doesn’t have all the perks that it’s cracked up to be, does it? And being the mother of God surely doesn’t either.
Being God’s children means Emmanuel is with us at the best of times and at the worst of times. But here’s our Bethlehem. Here’s where we meet Christ in the flesh. It doesn’t look like a baby, but his flesh and his blood is as much there as it was in the manger. It is as much there as it was at Mary’s breast as she nursed him. And it is as much there as the body that they laid in the tomb wrapped in the same exact cloths that they wrapped him as a baby.
In fact, when you look at the icon in the back of the church of the nativity scene, Jesus is wrapped in a very unusual way. It goes all the way to his head because it is a foretaste or a picture by the artist to show that he was born to be murdered and killed. That we might always have Emmanuel with us. In the name of Jesus, who is our Emmanuel, God with us always. Amen.
For the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
