The Savior Who Needed to Be Saved

December 29, 2013


Matthew 2:13-23
The Escape to Egypt
13 When they [the Wisemen=the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
The Return to Nazareth
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

I want to start with a bit of Bible background for today’s Gospel reading, and then ask the question of the Catechism book: “What does this mean?”

King Herod the Great had a horrible reputation of jealousy, suspicion and treachery. He murdered or had assassinated hundreds of people: for example, the Sanhedrin high court, another 300 court officers, his wife, his mother-in-law, his eldest son and two other sons. So we can understand how he would become jealous and treacherous when he heard the news that a child had been born who was going to be king. We read how he had carefully inquired of the Wisemen when they had seen the star. Even then he was working out the age of the child so that he could make plans for the murder. And then as soon as the Wisemen had left, he swiftly put his savage plan into action. He gave the orders that every male child under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding district should be slaughtered. Bethlehem was not a large town, but the number of children would be about 20 or 30 innocent babies. To express the sorrow and grief that Herod caused, the Evangelist Matthew quotes from Jeremiah 31:15. “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Rachel was a wife of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, and so Rachel’s children are the children of Israel. Genesis 35 tells us that she died in the area near Ramah and was buried in Bethlehem. Also, Ramah is the name of a town in the area, just north of Jerusalem where captive Jews were massed before being taken to exile in Babylon. So Jeremiah shows the grief for the captives in the picture of Rachel crying from her grave. In quoting Jeremiah's lament, Matthew shows the grief of Rachel and all the other mothers who cry for slaughtered children.

But God sent an angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” Joseph woke up immediately and left for Egypt in the middle of the night before the soldiers came. Going to Egypt was perfectly natural. For centuries before Jesus came, when some peril or drought or war or persecution came, Jews would seek refuge in Egypt. Abraham and Jacob took their families there during famines. When the Babylonians threatened Jerusalem, many people went to Egypt. And so, every city in Egypt had its colony of Jews. In the city of Alexandria there were actually more than a million Jews. So Joseph was doing what many Jews had done before, and when they reached Egypt, they would not find themselves amidst strangers, because in every town they could find Jews who had sought refuge there.

The Gospel writer, the Evangelist Matthew, likes to show that Jesus' life is in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Matthew 2:15 says, “And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’” In Hosea 11:1, this is a simple statement of how God had delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in the land of Egypt. But Matthew is saying that Jesus, in his life, is participating in the history and life of the nation of Israel. Of course, Jesus will not save the Israelites from slavery like Moses did, but he will save the world from slavery to sin and death.

King Herod actually died in the Year 4 BC, so if we add about 2 years for the appearance of the Star and the travel to Egypt, then Jesus was probably born in the Year 6 “Before Christ.” And so the new year which beings in a couple of days should be the Year AD 2020, probably. Someone made a mistake in the calendar somewhere. But anyway, when Herod had died, the angel of the Lord appeared again to Joseph in a dream and told him to return to the land of Israel. It seems that Joseph wanted to return to Bethlehem. This was the town of King David and a logical place for the Messiah King to grow up, but when Joseph feared that the new king might kill the Child Jesus, God again warned him in a dream and directed him to Nazareth. To show that this was the will of God, Matthew 2:23 says, “So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene.’” It is important to show that it was the will of God that Jesus was raised not in Bethlehem but Nazareth. Because in John 7:40-42 we have this dialogue:

40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

But we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and we know that the Jews were correct in saying that Christ must be born in Bethlehem, just as they told the Wisemen in Matthew 2:4-6:

4 When Herod had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”

“What does this mean?”

All this tells about a Savior that needed to be saved. Jesus was going to save the world, but he came as a weak little baby. He who would help the world was helpless. He needed to be saved by people who loved him. When he was threatened by Herod the Great, God sent an angel to warn Joseph to flee. When he was threatened again at the time of Herod's son, God sent another angel who comforted Jesus and gave him strength not to flee. For when the soldiers came again in the middle of the night to the Garden of Gethsemane, he did not flee. When mocked and tempted on the cross he did not come down and save himself. He stayed, and in so doing saved us from our sin. At his resurrection, the angels come again, no longer in a dream, but to proclaim that Jesus had been raised and is truly our Savior. He can save us in time of our danger. He can give us a place of refuge. He can bring us back safely.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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