Matthew 2,13-23. 2. Sunday after Christmas

 Matthew 2,13-23           0721 

2. Sonntag nach dem Christfest 012

Enoch. Genesis 5,18-24 

3. Januar 2021

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who did suffer Your dear Son, Jesus Christ, to become a stranger and a sojourner in Egypt for our sakes, and did lead Him safely home to His fatherland: Mercifully grant that we poor sinners, who are strangers and sojourners in this perilous world, may soon be called home to our true fatherland, the kingdom of heaven, where we shall live in eternal joy and glory.  Amen. (Veit Dietrich) 

2. »Now when the Magi had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: „Rise, take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the Child, to kill Him.“ ¹⁴And he rose and took the Child and His mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: Out of Egypt I called My son. [Hosea 11,1] ¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the Magi. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more. [Jeremiah 31,15] ¹⁹But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying: ²⁰„Rise, take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.“ ²¹And he rose and took the Child and His mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. ²³And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that He would be called a Nazarene.« 

3. In his insightful commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, Jeffery Gibbs writes the following: „Jesus the individual is God’s Son in his own person. Even as a child, Jesus is God’s Son, not by any process of adoption, but by right. He recapitulates or summarizes and repeats the history of the nation of Israel. The sons of Israel went down to Egypt and came up again; Jesus the Son goes down to Egypt and comes up again. The sons of Israel came up from Egypt because God was freeing them from bondage and captivity. Jesus, on the other hand, comes up from Egypt in order that he might live and grow and finally save his people from their bondage to sin (Mt 1:21). With the first “son,” God was acting to save “him.” God had acted to save his second and greater son from Herod (Mt 2:12-15), and now God is acting so that, through Jesus, he would save Israel. Historically, Jesus takes the place of Israel, and reenacts its history, but where Israel failed, Jesus succeeds.“ 

4. In today’s Gospel pericope, Matthew points out 3 ways Jesus does this, and He is still an infant! And yet, Jesus is not merely Israel reduced to one, but He is all the Gentiles reduced to one as well. Yahweh told Abraham that in his offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 22,18). The Prophet Isaiah also proclaimed the following words from Yahweh Himself: It is not glorious enough for the Messiah to redeem Israel; He will also be a Light for the Gentiles so that My salvation reaches to the end of the earth (49,6). We sing Simeon’s confession of this in our Nunc Dimittis: Jesus is the Glory of Israel and the Light of the Gentiles. 

5. Matthew cites 3 Old Testament prophecies that the Infant Jesus fulfilled, particularly Hosea 11,1 and Jeremiah 31,15, and in doing so Matthew develops a typology that Jesus is the embodiment and representative of the nation of Israel (Gibbs 136). Whereas Old Testament Israel persistently rebelled against Yahweh who had redeemed them from Egypt, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law and is faithful to His Heavenly Father. Jesus takes the place of Israel, and redeems its history, but where Israel failed spectacularly, Jesus succeeds marvelously (Gibbs 142). Jesus is Israel reduced to 1 who will save His people. He goes „where they went (to Egypt and back), by standing where they stood (in the waters of the Jordan), by fighting and winning spiritual battles where they fought and lost (in the wilderness for a period of 40 years), and ultimately, by dying where and how they deserve to die: in their place as the ransom payment in the place of all (20:28; 26:28)“ (Gibbs 143). 

6. The Gentiles are included in the „all“. The first Gentiles to be in lightened by Jesus are the Magi. Then the Egyptians beheld Jesus during His brief sojourn there. Later the Greeks living west of Nazareth in the Decapolis. Then all the nations to whom Jesus sent out His disciples to baptize and teach. On 1. January the Church celebrated the Feast of Christ’s circumcision and the giving of His name. In His circumcision, all people, all the nations, are circumcised once and for all, because Jesus represents all humanity. Of this, the Apostle Paul proclaims: »In Christ Jesus you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses in the circumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands« (Colossians 2,11-14).

7. We have celebrated the birth of the world’s Savior. Today we are reminded that not everyone is overjoyed at Jesus’ birth and that they might attempt to turn a happy day into a mournful day. But St. Matthew is very clear on this point: God wins the victory for those who suffer on account of His Son’s birth. God remembers those who suffer for the Name of Jesus and He will reward them with heavenly blessings that far outweigh the earthly tribulations they may suffer. The Psalmist assures us that: »For Yahweh’s anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy arrives in the morning. O Yahweh, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, so that my glory may sing Your praise and not be silent. O Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to You forever!« (Psalm 30,5.11-12). May this be on our hearts, minds and lips as we remember the good times and the bad from 2020 and look ahead to the new year 2021 where Jesus will be with us no matter the circumstance bringing good for us in every situation.  Amen.  

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, whom of the angels praise; receive the joyful noise we lift up across the earth to glorify your name, so that we serve you with gladness.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

  Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 1:1 – 11:1. Copyright © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.