Christmas I (3 January 2010)

Christmas 2009 is over! The tree is still up, but it looks mighty empty underneath. All that’s left of the turkey is a bare skeleton. The excitement of Christmas took weeks to build to a crescendo … and then it’s over. Life has gotten back to normal. AND … many people suffer from the post-Christmas blahs … a kind of depression after all the hoop-la of Christmas … the "Post-Christmas Blues".

Think of what it was like for Mary & Joseph. We spend the weeks before Christmas preaching about the events leading up to … and including … the birth of Jesus. But we seldom hear a sermon about what happened to them AFTER Christmas. Some people don’t consider Joseph to be a very important character in the Christmas story. The Bible doesn’t record anything that Joseph ever said. He is usually ignored. The emphasis is always on Jesus, Mary, the Shepherds, the Wise Men. This morning, Joseph is the central character. His and Mary’s lives are going to be turned upside down … topsy-turvy. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Just prior to the start of our lesson, the Wise Men visited Mary & Joseph and presented them with their 3 gifts. The Holy Couple goes to bed, and Joseph has a DREAM. NOW … this isn’t the first DREAM that Joseph has. While an angel appeared to Mary and told her in person of her forthcoming pregnancy, God always spoke to Joseph in a dream. ANYWAY … the angel tells Joseph in the dream to flee to Egypt, because Herod is going to try to kill Jesus. There are several things I want us to see here.

1st.- JOSEPH’S OBEDIENCE – "and he arose, and took the young child and His mother, and came to the land of Egypt." Joseph didn’t waste any time. He didn’t wait until morning … he got them packed THAT NIGHT and headed out to Egypt. Think about what this meant for Joseph. He and Mary had traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem … expecting to stay only for a few days and then return. They hadn’t planned on MOVING … lock, stock, and barrel! Their FAMILY was back in Nazareth … they hadn’t even said "Good-by". They didn’t bring a wagon, loaded with their furniture, valuables, and furnishings. Joseph probably had a carpenter shop back in Nazareth … what would happen to that? In the middle of the night, God said "Move!". Joseph didn’t argue with God. He didn’t ask God for "Plan B". He didn’t wait to try to figure it all out. He just OBEYED. I think that’s why God chose Joseph to be the step-father of Jesus. God knew his heart … that Joseph was sensitive to God’s will.

2nd.- GOD’S PROVISION –When God calls, He provides … AMEN? God wouldn’t have told Mary & Joseph to go to Egypt, and then say, "You’re on your own … Good luck!" They would need enough money to live off of while down in Egypt … and God provided it for them through the Wise Men. We are told in v.11 just before our lesson, Entering the house, they (the Wise Men) saw the child with Mary His Mother, and bowed to the ground in homage to Him; then they opened their treasures and offered Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

3rd.- HEROD’S ANGER – v. 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethelhem, …from two years old and under.. Talk about "Post-Christmas Blues"! This isn’t usually included in plays about the Christmas story. We leave this part out. Mary & Joseph and baby Jesus running for their lives … fleeing the country. Dead babies left behind. It’s not part of our holiday picture, is it?

Let’s take a little closer look at Herod. He was a mean, vicious person. History has a lot to say about him. Caesar Augustus was quoted as saying that it would be better to be King Herod’s pig than his son. Pigs were protected by law … Herod’s family weren’t. King Herod had already killed 2 of his own sons … he had one of his ten wives executed. He killed his 18 year old brother-in-law, because the Jews liked him better than they liked him. He also killed that wife’s grand-father, and her 80 year old uncle, who had once saved Herod’s life. He also killed his own uncle. What’s a few babies in Bethlehem to King Herod!

4.- GOD’S PLAN – It had been God’s plan all along (Hosea 11:1) for Jesus to come out of Egypt … just like His children did 1500 years before under Moses. Mary & Joseph wouldn’t be alone in Egypt. By this time, Egypt was also under Roman rule … but Herod didn’t have any power there. There was already multiplied thousands of Jews who had fled there to find safety from wicked King Herod. There were Jewish settlements there … with synagogues and a Temple. The land that had once ENSLAVED the Jews, God used to now PROTECT the Jews.

Now we come to our lesson for today, King Herod finally dies, not long after Mary & Joseph go to Egypt. Before his death of a very painful and horrible disease … AND … knowing he was about to die … he ordered all the Jewish nobility to be shut up in the hippodrome, and surrounded by soldiers. When word came of his death, they were to be slaughtered. He wanted there to be weeping and wailing at his death … and he knew they wouldn’t be crying over HIS death. He died, but the order was never carried out!

St. Joseph has another "dream", and the angel speaks to him once again telling him to return his family to "the land of Israel" We are told "And he arose" … no questions … no arguing … no problem. It’s time to go back home. God had protected them, and now they could return to Israel.

2:21 – But when he (Joseph) heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee. Another "dream"! Joseph had heard that Herod’s son was on the throne, and Archelaus was worse than his father! There was a riot in Jerusalem, and Archelaus stopped it by killing everybody in the crowd. He went into the Temple one Passover, and executed 3,000 Jews. Finally, Rome had enough, and banished him to what is now France, where he died. SO … being warned by God in a dream … they headed North, as fast as they could, to Nazareth in Galilee. It was famous for not being famous. No one had ever heard of Nazareth. It isn’t even mentioned in the Old Testament at all. It was so INSIGNIFICANT, that in John 1:46, Nathanael said "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

God wanted His Son to be raised in a place outside of politics … outside of prosperity … outside of notoriety. He wanted His Son to be raised in a simple village, without fame or prestige.

What can we learn from all of this?

1.- The Safest Place To Be, Is Where God Leads You.

o The Wise Men followed a star, and it led them to the Christ-child.

o The Wise Men followed God’s instructions in a dream, and they escaped Herod’s wrath.

o Joseph followed the Angel’s instructions in a dream, and escaped to Egypt.

o Joseph followed God’s instruction in a dream, and escaped the wrath of Archelaus.

The safest place you can be, is in the center of God’s will. Whatever path you take in life, God knows where it will lead. How much better to follow the path that He leads you down.

2.- A Christian Isn’t Exempt From Troubles.

Look at all the suffering and trouble that the 1st Christmas brought about:

o The Wise Men, avoiding the wrath of Herod.

o Mary & Joseph fleeing for their life.

o Multitudes of innocent babies killed by a mad King.

This was just a baby … God’s baby boy. Why didn’t God just get rid of King Herod? That would have solved the whole problem.

BUT THEN, why doesn’t God just get rid of the Devil? ANSWER: He will. AFTER ALL, it was Satan who was behind all this evil … just like he’s behind all the evil in the world today. Look at what happened to King Herod … he died. Look at what happened to Archelaus … he died in exile. God will win out in the end. IN THE MEANTIME … He always gives us the strength to win every battle … when we follow the path He sets before us.

3.- God Is In Charge.

You can always feel safe when you are living in God’s will. That’s not to say that bad things won’t happen to you. BUT … God is in charge. Everything that happened in the Christmas story was planned out by God. You can see His hand in the Christmas story every step of the way. God is in charge.

Joseph and Mary experienced "Post-Christmas Blues". They didn’t have their baby in Bethlehem, then "live happily ever after". Their dreams of going back to Nazareth to live a quiet and peaceable life, were postponed for a few years. Their life was nothing like they had planned … or expected.

Maybe we are experiencing "Post-Christmas Blues". Maybe our Christmas wasn’t all that you expected. Now that Christmas is over, maybe the excitement has passed … AND … our balloon has popped.

GUESS WHAT? God is still in charge! He didn’t leave Mary & Joseph in Bethlehem to go it alone. He didn’t leave them in Egypt to tuff it out. God is still on the Throne. God is still in charge!

Deacon Michael Grear (29 December 2009)