The Other Christmas Story

Matthew 2:13-23

 

        I imagine we have told the Christmas Story about every way imaginable.  We ponder Luke’s version which has Mary, Joseph and the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manager.  We kind of include Matthew’s story which is told from the perspective of Joseph.  It includes Wise Men from the East who confront and rebuke the advances of Herod.  I think most of us prefer the Luke story with Jesus being taken to Jerusalem and presented to the priest Simeon.  After the ceremony Jesus and his parents return to Nazareth where the child “grew and became strong, filled with wisdom and the favor of God.”

        Matthew has a different story to tell.  Sometimes I think that it is good that the passage we will read this morning comes the Sunday after Christmas.  A lot of folks are traveling and to be honest a lot of folks came to the Christmas Eve service and are done with church for the week.  For whatever the reason, the Sunday after Christmas tends to be a pretty sparse crowd.  So maybe this passage is best read when most of the folks are home.  Or maybe this is a passage that should be read when everyone is here, so no mistake is made as to why God felt it was necessary to dwell among us.

        Let me refresh your memory. King Herod went ballistic when the wise men “went home by another way.”  Historically we know Herod was not the most stable of personalities.  He was convinced everyone was out to take his throne.  Herod took the kingship by murdering his father and he kept it by killing his two brothers and even ordered the death of one of his sons.  Herod trusted no one.  When the Wise Men informed Herod of the birth of the Messiah, the king set into action a horrific law declaring every child under the age of two would be killed.  Jesus managed to escape but many a parent had an innocent child ripped from their hands.  Quoting Jeremiah, Matthew wrote, “There was wailing and weeping throughout the land from mothers who could not be consoled.”    

        There is no disputing the evil and tyrannical nature of Herod.  But Herod represents more than an historical psychopath.  Herod embodies the underbelly of the human experience.  Herod is those unspeakable horrors that conflict with God’s desire for harmony.  Herod reminds us that God’s plan for the salvation of humankind is just as necessary today as it was 2,000 years ago.  Jesus was born to embrace you and me and anyone else with the unfathomable boundaries of God’s grace.  Herod is a microcosm of the world in which we live with all its dangers and uncertainties.  Herod might be that person who is trying to undermine you.  Herod might be a job which enslaves you.  Herod might be a friend who overwhelms you.  Herod might be a lifestyle that leaves you crippled in more ways than you can imagine.  Sometimes we become Herod, leaving a path of broken relationships in order to grasp some mysterious aspiration that seems always just beyond our reach.

        Whatever the circumstance, when Herod disrupts our lives, we long for a place of respite, of safety, of escape.  We search for a place to wipe the slate clean; a chance to start all over; a land where Herod cannot follow us.  Mary and Joseph, much like their ancestors fled to Egypt.  The long arm of Herod could not stretch across the Nile.  The Holy family was safe among the Pyramids.  Jesus could be nursed without fear of death.  But the destiny of Jesus was not in the land of Egypt. 

        In many ways Egypt symbolizes something just as perilous as Herod.  Egypt is the place to which we rush when the world begins to crash down on us.  Egypt seems safe, an oasis.  But there is always a price to pay for the hospitality offered.  The sons and daughters of Abraham welcomed the generosity of Egypt when famine ravaged Palestine.  They loved it so much when the drought ended, they chose to say.  They forgot all their customs; they forgot what it was like to be free.    Worst of all, they forgot their God.  By the birth of Moses, the children of Israel had been enslaved not only by Pharaoh but by their failure to remember their Holy covenant.  Egypt, the place we flee to escape adversity, quietly rocks us into a false security where we forget our past and ignore our future.  Egypt numbs our minds and extinguishes our destiny. 

        But God does not forget.  Just as Yahweh lifted the children out of captivity and sent them on the treacherous road to the Promised Land, God brought Joseph home.   Herod had died, but the road Jesus was to travel was not less perilous than the one his ancestors had trod years before.

        To cross the Jordon,

                One must walk through the wilderness.

        To cross the Jordan,

                One must face a death threatening personal crisis.

        To cross the Jordan,

                One must risk the unknown.

        Imagine the decision Joseph had to make;

                Stay in the imaginary safety of Egypt,

                                                Or

                Travel in the real world,

                        Where Herod lurks

Around every corner.

 

Sometimes the Christmas Season can give us a false sense of security.    We think to ourselves, “Why can’t the whole year just be Christmas?  Why must we leave this warm place of peace and tranquility?”  The answer begins and ends with the question Joseph must have asked, “Why do we have to go back to the land of Herod?”

I think the angel of the Lord probably said to Joseph, “You are not going back to the land of Herod.  You are going back to fulfill the promise of God.”

 Imagine how our lives would be different if we could come to believe that the mystery of Advent and the celebration of Christmas could really make a difference in our lives.  Imagine how this January might be transformed if our eyes are opened to the possibilities afforded by God’s grace.  Imagine taking one small step to change the way Herod has disrupted our life.

A midnight trip to Egypt, or perhaps the Christmas season, has always served as a respite from our personal Herod.  Truth is we all need to be rescued from something  and sometimes we even need to be rescued from ourselves.  God knows this.  In the next couple of days we will  go back into a world filled with Herods.  How might tomorrow be different from yesterday?

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “Salvation is a word for the divine spaciousness that comes to human beings in all the tight spaces where our lives are at risk.  Sometimes it comes as an extended human hand.  Sometimes it comes as a bolt from the blue.  Either way, it opens a door through what looked like a wall.  This is the way of life and God alone knows how it works.”

We all love Luke’s cozy story of Christmas. But we better not ignore Matthew’s. Why?

Because Herod is always out there.

But so is God. 

        Amen.