January 4, 2015: Flight to Egypt

Matthew 2:13-23

¹³ When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.” ¹⁴ Joseph got up and, during the night, took the child and his mother to Egypt. ¹⁵ He stayed there until Herod died. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I have called my son out of Egypt.^[a]

¹⁶ When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. ¹⁷ This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet:

¹⁸ A voice was heard in Ramah,
    weeping and much grieving.
        Rachel weeping for her children,
            and she did not want to be comforted,
                because they were no more.^[b]

¹⁹ After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ “Get up,” the angel said, “and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. Those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus ruled over Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee. ²³ He settled in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.

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There’s a scene in the hit T.V. show Friends that reminds me of our lesson for today. One of the characters, Phoebe, walks into her apartment while her friends are coming to the end of watching the Disney Classic Old Yeller.  If you have seen this movie, you already know why they are all crying.  The family dog (“Old Yeller”) has fought off a wolf that was about to attack the family.  Unfortunately, however, he has contracted rabies because of the wounds he received in the fight.  All of Phoebe’s friends have seen this before and they all know that “Old Yeller” will have to be put down. It’s a very sad ending! 

Phoebe doesn’t understand why they are so upset.  She says, “Why are you all so upset, it’s Old Yeller, it’s a happy movie!”  When they ask what she means, she goes on to say “Happy family gets a dog: frontier fun.” She believes that Old Yeller fights off the wolf and that’s the end of the movie. This mistaken notion comes from her childhood: her mother had always turned off the TV and said, ‘The End!” before the sad part came. I suppose her mom wanted to shield her from the sadness.  But now she sees the actual, very sad, ending.  She even tries to yell, “The End! The End!” but it doesn’t work and, inevitably, the dog is shot.

As we read our lesson today, the tail-end of the Christmas story, we might feel a bit like Phoebe.  As kids we learn about the “Three Wise Men” or “Magi” who travel to Bethlehem, we hear about how “Evil King Herod” is fooled and little baby Jesus escapes with his family to Egypt.  Many children’s versions of the story often leave out verses 16-18 where Herod has all of the little boys in Bethlehem (ages two and under) butchered.  It is a truly awful scene, certainly worse than Old Yeller, but we might have a similar reaction to Phoebe: “Wait, that can’t be in the Christmas story! The Christmas story is meant to be happy! It’s meant to be hopeful! What kind of world do we live in?!?!”

Sadly, the answer is that we live in a world where children are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, slavery, starvation and death. All you need to do is watch the news to find out that what happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago is certainly not an “exception” to history, it is the rule. How many countless mothers for thousands of years could be described with the words: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and much grieving. Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were no more.” ?

There are two very pertinent questions that arise from a reading of this passage.   What does it say that Jesus and his family escape when so many other children don’t?  And also, why does it always seem like there are always Herods in this world who aren’t defeated like we hope they will be. To answer these questions, I turn to a sermon my father gave on this very passage many years ago. He spoke of two things:

1)     Jesus and his family will indeed escape Herod’s soldiers while other children won’t. His time has not yet come.  But there is a cross in his future. Many years from now he will not run from the pain and suffering that is handed down from the powers that be.  He is with us in our suffering.  

2)     For all of his vicious, deadly and frightening attempts to remain in control Herod ultimately lost the power he held. Herod is dead.  He is no longer king.  The Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, is enthroned on high and will never be replaced. 

Herod is dead. Jesus is alive.  Herod has lost his power. Jesus never will.