First Sunday After Christmas   

December 29, 2013

Matthew 2:13-23

In Nomine Jesu

Just when you thought you had survived Christmas, think again. There is no time to catch your breath. No time to rest. You must run with haste. You must keep watch on every side. You must keep your heads up so that you don’t fall. Your redemption has drawn intimately near in the flesh of the Christ child. But you must listen carefully for many masquerade as the voice of the infant priest. An angel of the Lord warns you of an angel of death, a tyrant with a sickle in his hand. He is frothing at the mouth, seeking your life and the One who has come to give you life. He seeks the One whom you, sons of Israel, have longed for, the One you have adored in a manger, the One you have wisely worshiped as the very Lord of heaven and earth. Death for this tyrant is a means to an end. Newborn life to him is a threat to his throne and power, his ego and his image. Along with the holy family you are to navigate the harrowing journey into Egypt and out of Egypt. But you find that the pace is too fast. You can’t keep up. In the end it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Beneath this darkened flight we struggle to make safe the path for ourselves and our family, to keep them from the tyrant’s reach and to never let any harm come to them. So all I want for Christmas then is Him who is able to keep my feet from stumbling, to enlighten my path by His merciful glory and to ensure safe passage through death unto eternal life. All I want for Christmas is the Son whom the Father called out of Egypt.

When the Lord speaks His promises fulfillment is simply a matter of time. But to us, in our sinful flesh, we anxiously watch the ticking of the clock. We labor and we sweat blood and tears waiting to see that which we have confessed to be true. We cry out with Rachel, lamenting the atrocities of our flesh and the flesh of our neighbor. We suffer pains of hell, done at the bidding of a paranoid and devilish king. We watch in terror as the seedlings of Jesse’s tree are cut down and the fruit of our wombs are somberly cradled in the fresh turned earth. On this night in Bethlehem there are no angel choruses, no peace on earth, and no good will of man. The streets of Bethlehem are void of any peace and the will of man is horrific and filled with bloodlust. And the flight to Egypt is traversed with images far too gruesome to understand and a fierce cry of deliverance.  

Egypt. It’s more than just a piece of land. It’s more than Pharaoh’s, pyramids, and petrified mummies. In giving His people the Ten Commandments the Lord says, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” [Ex. 20:2]. When the little ones asked their elders about the Passover what were they to say? “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt and the Lord has brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand” [Deut 6:21]. The exodus is the definitive Old Testament act of the Lord for the sake of His people. Egypt is shorthand for “slavery.” The Lord is the God of armies, the mighty commander who goes forth to rescue His people from the chains that bind them. Yet even the watershed deliverance out of Egypt was not enough to keep Israel from stumbling. Over and over again, this ungrateful son Israel would chase after phony gods. Assyria, Babylon, and then finally scattered around the world under the Roman Empire. Israel was everything that the Son was not. And the Son was everything that Israel could never be. Before the birth of Jesus the kingly family of David was bankrupt. Hosea 11 chronicles the continual cycle of rebellion and grace. No abiding help was found in the sacrificial offerings. No peace in the sprinkled blood of goats and rams. No forgiveness in the ritual themselves. The forgiveness was in the One whom the rituals pointed to. Even the deliverance from Egypt was temporary. The great flood Noah’s time didn’t put an end to all sin. The great deliverance from Egypt didn’t put an end to all slavery. If man was going to have enduring deliverance they would need to be delivered from themselves.          

With a vicious king on His heals, Jesus entered Egypt, the land of slavery. The unblemished lamb is taken by his surrogate father Joseph to safety. “The flight to Egypt was no mere chance but divine promise and fulfillment. In Egypt, Jesus became completely one with the suffering and joy of his people, of the people of God, of us all. In Egypt, he is in a foreign land, with us. With him, we will also leave the foreign land to go to the land of God” [Bonhoeffer DBW 15:495]. Coincidence doesn’t fit in the plan of the Lord. Yes, Egypt was the place, but the promise, the hope, the new life, was to be preached to the ends of the earth. This isn’t mere illustration for the minor prophet Hosea. Jesus isn’t an object lesson for St. Matthew. Jesus’ flight into Egypt and exit out of Egypt reaches to the core of your human existence, the gut of your life. Jesus entered Egypt, a place representing slavery, just like He entered your bondage of human flesh, your Egypt. Lest you forget, you live in Egypt just as much as the Israelites did. This isn’t just about prophesy, it’s about saving you. Pictures of Jesus are nice. They look good on the shelf, on the wall, in the church. Examples of Jesus are great to show aright the love of God, to live in such a way that your life is patterned differently than the way you once lived in Egypt. Yet pictures and examples don’t save you. You need a real flesh and blood Jesus. He who does what His name means: save His people from their sins.   

Jesus has come into your Egypt, your slavery, and submits Himself to your punishment, your chains, your taskmasters of sin, death, and the devil. He has come to be the first-born son of Israel that you could never be. He knew your spirit was unwilling and your flesh was weak. He knew that His flesh was strong to save and His spirit mighty in battle. He knew your love often went cold and bitter. He knew His love would explode the boundaries we often set to it. His love would cover and multitude of sins, our countless gods we craft in our wood-working heart—our gilded images of money, job, family, and the sweat we perspire playing the charade of a perfectly happy Christmas. We make internal and external deals with the tyrants of this world. The lines we once drew in the sand are lost in the desert of sin. The confessions we once confessed are passed over for a more elastic definition. We dictate how others are to feel not wanting them to mess up the high-wire act we have walked in order to make everyone happy. But all our fast moves in our fast life have us departing into the hands of tyrants. We are striped of our soul, our heart is hardened, and though we look alive, we are all but dead inside. The gods of our hearts, fantasies, and otherwise lustful escapades are liars and murderers of all that Lord has created and desires. They cannot quench our longings; they can only make us thirstier. They cannot give us life for they have no life in themselves.  

Just when you thought you were helplessly given over to the tyrants that chase after you. Just when you saw Christmas as yet another time to survive the hopes that never came to fruition and the fears that did, your Christ-mass has come. He is the very salvation of the Father, God and Man together-God with us. He is the very freedom of God, not the freedom of this world, but the freedom by which you are truly set free. No more running. No more anxious waiting. No more worry about seditious kings and tyrants that seek your life. He is your peace, your path, your life. You hear the voice of the infant priest for He cradles you in His own cradle, a manger of newborn light, a crèche of forgiveness and love. Though your life has been sought by the tyrants of sin and death, out of Egypt the Father has called His Son, He has called Him to rescue you. Joined to the Son in Holy Baptism and strengthened by the manna of the Holy Supper your Father has called you out of Egypt. Though you find yourself in a strange land, chased by sin and death, out of breath and no where to go, the battle tested and risen Son grafts you into His fold of refugees, forgiven and loved. By water, blood and Word you are granted safe passage, you are on your way to the Promised Land of the Lord’s glorious presence. You fear no evil for Christ has walked the way you must tread. He has gone into Egypt ahead of you. He brings you out with Him, unharmed. He takes you along for the ride through death into life. And He sustains you as you follow. Take eat His body. Take drink His blood. Here is food for the New Year, food for all the years, months, weeks, and days of your embattled life. Beloved, your Egypt’s have an end. Your Herods are dead, even though they froth at the mouth and are chained to a destiny of fire and hell. The messenger of God will come to you and speak to you what was spoken to Joseph, “Rise, go to the place I have prepared for you: those who seek your life-yes, death itself, are dead.”    

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son [+] and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.