Transcript
This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Please be seated.
Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Yes, it’s still Christmas. We have a couple more days to go.
Interestingly, we don’t always get two Sundays after Christmas. This of course being that second Sunday. As a result, we don’t always get to sit in the moments that exist between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and Epiphany. But this year, we do.
And not only do we get to sit in these moments, we get to experience the full spectrum of what these moments mean. Starting with the anticipation or as Joseph Ryberger’s the star of Bethlehem calls it the expectation. After all that is the first movement of the piece we just heard expectation. The whole earth is waiting and is commanded to open your arms.
The musical piece continues introducing the shepherds and the angel who announces to the shepherds that Jesus is born. And then Bethlehem, where the shepherds see that the angel was telling the truth, the arrival of the wise men, will accept a little bit of epiphany today since it’s only two more days away. And Mary, calm and cool and quiet, singing a lullabi to her baby. After all, the excitement has ended just as the earth is back to being still, back to the stars brightly gleaming. Except this time the world has changed and we are told at the end rejoice rejoice o world allelujah.
And then we have this gospel reading which might seem odd to add to the end of such a beautiful soulmoving musical offering. We wait, we hear, we see, we celebrate. And then an angel comes to Joseph telling him to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt because Herod is trying to find the baby and kill him.
It’s almost like scriptural whiplash. Rejoice and then escape. Matthew’s gospel literally is that hard of a transition. That’s why we chose this gospel reading because it’s what comes next.
Not some more happy stories about a baby who could raise the dead and heal the sick. Not some more enlightening stories about a man who tells parables about sewing seeds or finding coins. Not some more exciting stories about miracles that involve feeding 5,000 or walking on water. No. What comes next after Jesus’s birth and the angels and the shepherds and the wise men? What comes next is the very first time Jesus finds himself experiencing unjustified persecution and consequentially fear.
One could almost wonder if the author of Matthew’s Gospel accidentally switched on today’s news. But the reality is Matthew isn’t writing a political commentary. No, usually that’s John. John’s gospel is the one that involves commentary and interpretation. Luke’s gospel tends to be about earthly authority.
Matthew’s gospel instead is focused on the fact that Jesus, this little baby born in a manger, visited by shepherds and wise men, sung about for centuries, celebrated and exalted, this little baby is here to fulfill all the previous teachings and prophecies and expectations. Matthew wants us to know that this had to happen because it is what makes scripture true. It is what makes Jesus the Messiah, the one that had been named and prophesized about throughout the Old Testament.
Scripture isn’t always easy, and it’s also not always pretty, kind of like life. But maybe that’s why this is even more a necessary picture frame of the story of baby Jesus. You know, if each of the movements were pictures of the Christmas story, the story we know so well, which begins with Mary and an angel and a yes, and Joseph and an angel, and a willingness to be obedient, and a census, and a journey, and an inn with no room, and a manger, and a baby wrapped in swaddling cloth, and angels, and shepherds, and a star, and wise men, and gifts of gold, and frankincense, and myrr, and yes, even the persecution of an innocent baby.
Because not all of us, not all of those who knew of Jesus’s birth could fully understand the significance of it. This is not just some special baby. This is the special baby.
Now that the expectation has been fulfilled, now that the prophecies have been realized, now that the story has unfolded and the truth revealed, now that the long awaited moment has arrived, now that what was expected has been accomplished, let us celebrate. The whole world waited with baited breath for the baby to come. the one who would redefine what it even means to be part of the whole world. Rejoice, rejoice, oh world. Hallelujah. Amen.