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“Getting Wet”

Sermon by Dr. Greg Knox Jones
on Matthew 2:1-16
given January 6, 2008

Less than two weeks ago we gathered here to celebrate the birth of Christ. Christmas Eve was a wonderful night with shepherds in bathrobes and tiny precious angels fluttering around the chancel. At both the 4:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. services, we had real live Westminster infants who played the part of Jesus. At the first service, the baby Jesus was exhausted and slept in heavenly peace through the entire affair. No amount of carol singing was going to stir that baby Jesus from slumber.

However, the 5:30 p.m. service held something entirely different. The baby Jesus for that service was several months old, and she – yes, I confess, baby Jesus was a little girl this year – was wide awake and loving every minute of her newly found celebrity status. In fact, toward the end of the service as we were belting out “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” I swear she was both singing and conducting at the same time!

The two later services featured beautiful music, the Lord’s Supper and the glow of candles to remind us that Christ is the light in the darkness. It was a wonderful night and I adored every minute of it.

Each year at Christmas we gravitate to the nativity scene we find in the Gospel of Luke where Mary gives birth, wraps Jesus in bands of cloth and lays him in the manger. We love to hear the story of the angels suddenly appearing to shepherds watching over their flocks, the heavenly chorus singing of the birth of Emmanuel and announcing God’s desire for peace on earth. It is a dreamy and joyful scene that makes us feel warm and connected and hopeful.

And, yet, Luke does not provide us with the wide-angle view of the nativity, and so the church does not quickly race beyond the birth of Jesus to focus on other stories. Our culture has moved on. The gift-giving orgy is over, the after-Christmas sales are complete and the new year has begun. But in the church, we linger over the birth. On January 6th, the church celebrates Epiphany by turning its attention to a story in the Gospel of Matthew about wise men from the East following a star until they discover the place where Jesus was born.

This story steps outside of Luke’s pastoral setting where the beautiful young mother ponders in her heart the amazing events surrounding the birth of her child. Matthew moves beyond the stable to focus on the birth’s impact on the greater world and lands us squarely in the domain of government and politics.

According to Matthew, when Jesus was born wise men living in a foreign land spied a star in the western sky. Their eyes were transfixed on that star and so they embarked on a journey to see where it would take them. By the time they reached the Holy City of Jerusalem, they were convinced that this intriguing star – some have theorized a comet – signaled the birth of a child who was to be the new king of the Jews. They began asking around town: “Where is this new king? We spotted his star and have come to pay him homage.”

Word of their visit quickly reached King Herod, and our text informs us that

Herod “was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.” This phrase informing us that all of Jerusalem was frightened may puzzle us at first. Why would the people of Jerusalem be frightened by the news that a child who was to become their king had been born? Because Herod was serving as king, and they knew that when Herod felt threatened, all hell broke loose.

Herod was a vicious and vindictive ruler. And, how is this for paranoia? He “had his own sons executed to prevent them from inheriting his throne. You could not pick a worse time for the Messiah to be born than in the days of King Herod.”1

So when news reached Herod about the wise men searching for a new king, he called together the scribes and chief priests and asked them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him that the prophet Micah seemed to have pointed to the town of Bethlehem, and so Herod quickly summoned the wise men.

Herod had not maintained his grip on power simply because he was ruthless. He was also a wily old fox, and so he told the wise men that they would find the one they were looking for in Bethlehem. And once they nailed down the exact location of the new king, Herod said he would be much obliged if they came back and let him know the address, because he would like to deliver his own little gift.

Herod attempted to cast himself as relaxed, self-confident and unconcerned about this new king whose star was rising. But the wise men detected a quiver in his voice, and when Herod picked up his goblet, his hand shook. The wise men smiled, crossed their fingers and promised they would be back shortly.

They found Jesus in Bethlehem and delivered their famous gifts. Then, after worshiping the new born king, they headed home. But they did not go back through Jerusalem; they found another route.

Time passed, and when Herod finally figured out he had been double-crossed, he erupted with anger and hatched a diabolical scheme. He ordered all the children in and around Bethlehem, who were under the age of two, to be killed. Had Jesus not been whisked off to Egypt by his parents, Herod’s brutal violence may have claimed him as one of its victims.

The Gospel of Matthew enables us to see the wider repercussions of the birth of Christ. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, evil did not evaporate, darkness did not disappear and the whole world did not lock arms together and sing: “Give Peace a Chance.” Instead, innocents were slaughtered by a jealous king.

Rulers are threatened when competition appears. And when rulers feel threatened, evil can erupt and lives can be lost. This passage from Matthew reminds us that this was true in the ancient world, and the events of the past two weeks remind us that it is still true in today’s world. Two days after we celebrated the birth of Christ, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan because she represented a threat to the ruling powers. During the past week, what appears to be a rigged election in Kenya has produced a slaughter of innocents including a church full of mothers and children who had sought refuge from the violence sweeping their country.

The story of Christ’s birth in the Gospel of Matthew reminds us that Jesus was born into a world as harsh as our world today. And from the beginning of his life, people in positions of power recognized him as a threat to their rule and tried to eliminate him.

The birth of Jesus produced a clash between two kingdoms. Opposing the kingdom built by corrupt rulers, was the kingdom of God. It was a clash between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light; the kingdom of exploitation and the kingdom of justice; the kingdom of neglect and the kingdom of compassion.

Jesus survived to adulthood, but he did not play it safe. He felt compelled to challenge the dark forces of the world. When faced with illness, Jesus extended his healing touch. When faced with hunger, he provided food. When faced with suffering, he gave comfort. When faced with injustice, he exposed the corruption. When faced with cruelty, he extended mercy. Christ could not make evil disappear from the world, so he struggled against it. He fought it with the powerful weapons of compassion, truth, justice and hope.

Standing up against evil is not the safest thing to do. Christ opposed the poisonous powers of the world, placing his life in jeopardy. He struggled against those who oppressed the poor and overburdened the weak. He confronted those who thought laws were more important than people. He declared that obedience to God was to supersede all other obligations. And for his unwavering allegiance to God, he was considered a trouble-maker, a rebel and an agitator who must be silenced.

His family and friends tried to dissuade him from upsetting the powerful, knowing that retaliation could be swift and deadly. However, Jesus refused to yield. He was so in harmony with God’s Spirit that his calling was clear to him, and so he kept up the confrontation. But the powers of darkness refused to concede, and eventually they got him. And as his body was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb, they patted one another on the back and said, “Well, that’s the end of that.”

But it was not the end. It was only a new beginning. Christ defeated the powers of death, and his power multiplied as never before. His followers took up where he left off, spreading light into the dark places of the world.
When we celebrate the birth of Jesus we do not retreat into a fantasy world where we assure ourselves that all is well. As Matthew’s story of the birth reminds us there is much darkness in the world, and good does not always win the day against evil, and right does not always triumph over wrong.
But the example of Christ demonstrates that God urges us not to give up striving for what is right and true and just. God urges us to persevere when the blows of life pummel us and not to give in to discouragement no matter how grim circumstances appear.

And so we celebrate what Christians throughout the centuries have celebrated. That we can discover in Christ, the courage we need to stand up against bigotry, the strength we need to survive personal suffering and loss, the tenacity to go on when we feel defeated, the wisdom we need to renew rather than destroy God’s creation, and the encouragement we need to extend a generous hand to those who have no home. Christ is the light of the world, because he is the hope of the world. Following him is our key to true life.

NOTES

1. Anna Carter Florence, “Preaching the Lesson,” in Lectionary Homiletics, January 2008, p.48.

    

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