Bible Text: Matthew 2:13-23 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Christmas 2020 | He shall be called a Nazarene. And he was. It’s remarkable to see what contempt is poured on Jesus because He grew up in the backwoods town of Nazareth in Galilee. When his own disciple Nathanael hears about Jesus, he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” When Nicodemus tries to defend Jesus to the Sanhedrin, they say with pure derision, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” When Jesus visits his hometown, they, aware of how low a life they all lead in this pathetic town of Nazareth, won’t believe in him, including his own brothers and sisters. You grew up here! Now you think you’re something? And it’s with total contempt that Pilate writes the famous words above Jesus’ thorn-crowned head on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” That Jesus will be called a Nazarene means that Jesus will be mocked, disbelieved, ridiculed. To come from Bethlehem, now that’s something, the city of David, out of that city a King would come forth to shepherd God’s people, who’s coming forth is from ancient times. There’s a prophecy worthy of Immanuel. But out of Nazareth, what good comes from Nazareth? Nazareth is the label of His humiliation. And the prophets did foretell this. David says it, “I am a worm and no man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.” Isaiah says it, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should behold him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men.”
And so the grand prophecy that the Son of God has become a man, this is fulfilled on Christmas, as glories stream from heaven afar, but with it is fulfilled this most beautiful truth, that this God, who has become our Brother, will be called a Nazarene, he’ll be treated with contempt as he bears our sins from manger to cross. Because he’s been born for us. Because He loves us.
This is the Jesus we see in our Gospel lesson. He’s a Jesus to be embraced, because he embraces our weakness and our misery and our suffering in Himself.
He’s just been hailed as God by the wisemen, who travelled hundreds of miles to bow the knee to this holy Child. Now the scene changes, and we find Joseph and Mary fleeing with Him from King Herod into Egypt. Behold, your God! He runs away from death and trouble, as if he’s helpless and weak. He finds refuge in Egypt and leaves Herod to slaughter the poor little boys of Bethlehem.
Herod was an evil king. He had no conscience. In his pursuit to keep power at all costs, he killed three of his own sons, his mother, and one of his wives. He was personally responsible for the murder of thousands. His slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem, probably ten or even more little boys, was just one of his many atrocities.
When we hear of this evil, we expect God to do something about it. Why does Jesus flee away? Isn’t He God? He could have stopped this bloodthirsty maniac. He could have struck him down before he had the chance to kill those children. God’s almighty, He’s good, so why doesn’t He stop evil? This is called the problem of evil, and it’s the kind of thinking that’s always with us, always clings to us. People put God on trial because of the evil in the world. Evil people do evil things and then somehow sinful human reason decides the One we should blame for this is the only One who isn’t evil and has never done anything wrong! How ironic. How is God to blame for the evil He condemns? How is God to blame for the evil committed against Him?
Because He doesn’t do anything to stop it when He can, they say. O, but He does, He does. You just want Him to do it your way, not address your evil but only others’, and you want him to swoop down in glory and save you like a superhero, but God doesn’t do things your way. He does them God’s way. And He doesn’t take instructions from sinners on how to take care of sin.
We might not be able to summon sufficient sympathy for these unknown children slaughtered by Herod, but we all have personal experience of evil people doing evil things to us and to our loved ones, or the impersonal evil suffered from cancer and disease. And the question arises in our hearts, why doesn’t God stop it, why doesn’t He put an end to it, why doesn’t He punish the evil?
It would be wrong, I think, to preach on this text today and not mention the evil of abortion that continues to confront us. Herod killed maybe 20. The United States kills thousands every day. It’s remarkable that the secular historian Josephus, who lived in the time of Jesus, records pages and pages of evil things done by Herod, but never mentions his slaughter of the holy innocents. It doesn’t register. He ignores it. Who knows whether he even knew about it. And it’s the same today. The media and our politicians are constantly counting Covid cases, keeping a daily tally of Covid deaths, but they never think to count the deaths of the holy innocents, the unborn children murdered through abortion, numbers dwarfing the deaths due to Covid. They call for drastic measures and huge stimuli to deal with the Covid crisis, but they don’t lift a finger to stop the greater crisis of mass slaughter of unborn children. Instead of promoting family and fatherhood and Christian morality and adoption and life-long marriage between a man and a woman, they do the opposite. They mock us as fanatics for opposing this maniacal killing, while they applaud one another for their compassion. The last US budget signed by President Trump once again funds Planned Parenthood with millions of dollars. That’s the largest abortion factory in the United States, funded by your tax dollars. But few cared. Instead they all argued about a stimulus and how much money should be given away. Meanwhile the people who champion this evil and vote for it and defend it and get rich off it, while mothers suffer and babies die, they seem to lead peaceful lives and to die quiet deaths at ripe old age. So where’s God in that? Why doesn’t He answer our prayers for the little children?
I’m going to let our Gospel answer this question. And it answers it in two ways. First, Herod died. That’s what the Holy Spirit tells us. Herod died and went to hell. Herod was miserable all his life, because that’s what sin does to you. Always remember that, sinning is worse than being sinned against, always. Herod was paranoid, greedy, self-obsessed, that’s a miserable existence. And Herod’s death is famous in the ancient world, because of how painful and putrid and long it was, the details of which are too gross to mention in a sermon. He got what was coming to him. And we can be sure of this, because God says it. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And we let God repay evil as God sees fit, in His good time. Sometimes He repays it on earth and lets us see it. Sometimes not. Either way, we pray, Thy will, not mine, be done.
But we don’t simply want justice and vengeance against evildoers. How could we? What would God’s justice demand of me, of you? There are different classes of sin, for sure, and killing innocent babies is the most repulsive of them, but just as little as I can blame God for evil, so little can I claim innocence in myself. The problem is not simply with murderers like Herod and Planned Parenthood, not just with wicked politicians, no, it is with me, and I need a God who will deal with me in mercy. Yes, I want God to deal with evil, but much more than punishing the evildoers or taking pleasure in the death of Herod or any of God’s enemies, I want their repentance, I want what God wants, what He became a man to accomplish, not that the sinner die, but that he turn from his evil and live by the same forgiveness by which I live.
And this is finally what our Gospel answers. All evil. Jesus wasn’t running away from sin and from evil when He fled to Egypt. He was facing it as only He could. He went bearing the sins of the world even as a child; He went earning eternal life for the holy innocents, making them holy by His obedience. He fled to Egypt and passed right by Mount Sinai, the very place where God gave the Law that condemns all sins, the Law that condemned Herod’s sin, my sin, your sin, the Law Jesus came to fulfill, to obey in our place and take all its punishment on Himself. Jesus’ flight into Egypt and His return to Israel was a sign and a promise to you that the life He lived He lived for you, and the death He would die He would die for you.
Because after all this, He went up to Nazareth, podunk Nazareth. And He was called a Nazarene. The almighty God humbled Himself to do what no show of glory could do, no meting out of strict justice could ever accomplish, but only His love and His mercy and His humility, to bear the mockery and shame and punishment that belonged to us, to suffer all the evil of all the world, to forgive it by His blood, and so win us innocence and reconciliation and everlasting communion with our God. And against all the evils of this world you have weapons far more powerful than guns or laws or armies. You have the gospel of your Lord Jesus of Nazareth. The power of God for salvation to all who believe. Still coming to you in humble elements, but with the same power of God’s love, a love that knows no bounds, that humbled God Himself to die for you, that gives you now Jesus’ own body and blood, that puts an end to evil and death by forgiving your sin and changing your hearts to love and trust in Christ Jesus as your Lord.
And so we answer the evil around us also. O pray for political victory. Pray for justice on earth and good government. Pray for strong families, strong fathers like Joseph who protect their children and raise them in the faith. But know that there will not be perfect justice on earth. It won’t come, until the Day of Judgment. Until then, we will lose more than we win. A disciple is not above his master. So pray more for repentance. Pray for your enemies to hear Christ’s word and find forgiveness for theirs sins and reformation of their life. Pray for the strength to confess Christ when called upon, to suffer for doing good if need be, knowing that to be humbled as Christ was is a high honor in heaven at which the angels rejoice. And be at peace, finding the answer to all doubts and pain and evil in the wounds of Jesus of Nazareth, your Brother and your God. Amen.