Hope Through Tragedy

ME: Intro

Our time in the Word this morning is going to have a somber tone.

Because we are talking about tragedy.

As I was thinking about this,

I naturally thought of a personal tragedy my family and I experienced.

Some of you may already be familiar with my mom’s story.

She had lung issues for much of her adult life,

That eventually wore on her heart so much,

Causing congestive heart failure just a few months after her 41st birthday.

As a result,

She was on life support for 9 days until she received a life saving double lung and heart transplant.

Nearly two years later,

She ended up suffering a fatal infection of sepsis and she passed less than a week after turning 43.

The initial decline of her health,

The heart failure that necessitated life support,

Then the time in the hospital when she got sepsis,

And eventually her death,

Was a tragedy for me and my family.

And during that time,

I remember complaining about the plights that other people were facing,

Because I thought their tragedies paled in comparison.

If they really want to experience a tragedy,

They should experience what me and my family are going through.

My tragedy is far greater than what they are experiencing.

But someone had said something so simple that has been so profoundly wise to me during that time.

They said,

Each person’s own tragedy is their greatest tragedy.

I was trying to deal with my suffering in an extremely unhealthy way.

So, I am thankful to have learned this simple truth.

Whatever tragedy you face,

Whether it is the loss of a family member or loved one,

A broken relationship with a friend or significant other,

A devastating medical diagnosis,

A loss of a job,

A financial bind,

Maybe life in just a general sense,

Is not going the way you had hoped or expected.

Whatever it is,

Your tragedy is your greatest tragedy.

The tragedy in our passage this morning,

Is the greatest tragedy for the families of Bethlehem.

But by the end,

Matthew 2:13-23 teaches us that their is Hope Through Tragedy.

For the past few weeks,

We have been celebrating Christmas in April by studying the narrative of Christ’s birth and childhood.

This morning,

We are coming to the conclusion of Christ’s childhood narrative,

With this horrific tragedy,

The most sorrowful part of the Christmas story.

When thinking about this tragedy from a modern perspective,

It is natural that we would have such a hard time wrapping our minds around the thought of a king murdering almost an entire generation of male children in a small town.

It is just so cruel,

So inhumane!

It seems unthinkable!

Today,

News of an atrocity like this would spread like wildfire,

So, it is hard for us to picture a king acting in this way.

But in all reality,

A massacre of innocent children like this,

Is sadly all too consistent with human history.

It is not like King Herod just randomly woke up one day and decided to kill a bunch of children.

No, this massacre comes from a core human problem,

Specifically, following the events we heard of last week.

Where Herod heard of the birth of another king,

And instantly wanted to keep this king from taking his throne.

So, he tried to con the magi into locating the child for him,

Hoping to kill the child.

But God intervened,

Sending an angel to reveal Herod’s true intentions to the magi,

So, they took another way home,

Leaving Herod in his frustration,

Still determined to kill Jesus.

So, it is in the context of his tumultuous rage where our passage picks up.

Slide

First, warning us...

Tragedy Will Come (vs. 13-15)

Mourning is Expected (vs. 16-18)

Hope Lives On (vs. 19-23)

No matter the tragedy, hope lives on because Christ lives on.

Hope is not something that is new for God’s people.

The concept of hope predates Christ’s life on this earth.

In fact, Christmas is a reminder of the hope God’s people had for hundreds of years.

God was at work all throughout the OT,

Looking ahead to events like this baby’s birth in Bethlehem.

So, Christmas is a celebration,

In part,

Because of the life it gives to our hope!

And this is especially significant in our passage this morning.

We just saw this group of magi last week,

Travel from a far off distance to worship the young child,

Jesus Christ.

When they were preparing to go home,

They are warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

Because he is up to no good!

So, they leave to go home another way.

Right after they leave,

God then warns Joseph of Herod’s intent to kill Jesus,

So, they all pack up in the middle of the night,

And they flee to Egypt,

A 75-100 mile trip!

When Herod realizes he was ghosted by the magi,

He decided to take extreme measures to destroy this child.

So, he massacres all the males of Bethlehem who are 2 and younger.

Estimates believe the population of Bethlehem was about 1,000 people.

That is pretty close to the size of Afton according to the most recent census.

Imagine all the families in Afton who have a son 2 or younger losing their son.

This tragedy surely rocked the entire town to the core.

But after Herod dies,

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus go to return to Israel,

But they end up in Nazareth.

Matthew notes how every step of this narrative fulfills some form of prophecy.

But the question is,

What does this tragic narrative have to do with us today?

WE: Tragedy Will Come (vs. 13-15)

To put it simply, we need hope today,

Just as much as those in Bethlehem needed hope back then.

Because as much as we wish it wouldn’t come,

The reality is,

Tragedy Will Come,

And those families in Bethlehem can attest to that.

So, turn your attention to our passage,

Slide

Vs. 13 picks up right after the magi leave,

With an angel once again visiting Joseph in a dream,

Bringing a clearly urgent message!

Get up!

The angel says,

Take your family and flee to Egypt,

And stay there,

Until I tell you.

Why?

Because Herod is searching for the child to kill him!

Herod is an extreme example of a cruel and paranoid ruler.

We talked last week about his history of killing anyone he perceives as a threat to his throne,

Even his own family.

So, it is no surprise,

He is willing to do whatever treacherous act necessary to kill this child.

But God knows this.

And that is why God sends the angel to warn Joseph that tragedy will come.

Slide

In response to this urgent message,

Vs. 14 says, Joseph got right up,

And did exactly what he was told!

They all escaped that night,

Leaving for Egypt.

Two details to highlight from this.

First, this was no short or easy trip.

The realities of traveling in the ancient world is quite different from our modern travel.

They ran the risk of encountering bandits or pirates,

Which was heightened by their nighttime departure.

There was no police or emergency services for this family if something were to happen.

Safe lodging was not always available.

They experienced that when Mary was pregnant with Jesus.

So, they had to find this balance of being self-sufficient while also depending on the goodwill of local people.

It wasn’t just who they might encounter on this trip,

But what they might encounter.

This was dangerous terrain;

Sand dunes like mountains,

Desert that stretches for miles,

And dangerous canyons.

You see,

Egypt was surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Desert, the Red Sea, and the Nile River.

So, travel, not only to Egypt,

But in general,

Was pretty restricted.

The general population in ancient times did not travel just for leisure.

It was something that only happened out of necessity.

And that is the situation Joseph, Mary, and Jesus find themselves in this night.

Slide

But the second detail I want to highlight,

Is how this extensive journey started because of Joseph’s prompt action in response to God’s messenger.

Joseph’s actions were necessary to save Jesus’ life.

Jesus was a real, flesh and blood, young child.

He was fully human.

He had all the frailties and helplessness of a young child.

He did not have super strength,

He was as weak as any other young child would be.

If He were found and brought before the sword like those other boys in Bethlehem,

He would have died like they did.

So, God sovereignly worked to keep Christ alive,

Through Joseph’s obedient response to His messenger.

This highlights the significance of what God can do when we obediently respond to His Word!

Slide

Next, vs. 15 says,

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus stayed in Egypt until Herod died,

To fulfill what God had said in Hosea 11:1,

Which Matthew quotes,

“Out of Egypt I called my son.”

This is such an interesting reference,

Because this is technically not a prophecy.

Hosea is talking about God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt back in Exodus,

Where He called His people as a father calls His child to Himself.

Slide

Back in Exodus,

God used ten miraculous plagues to deliver Israel.

First, water was turned to blood,

Then, came the plagues of the frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locusts, and darkness.

These plagues led to the tenth and final plague,

Which became known as the Passover,

When God struck down all the firstborn children in Egypt.

But for His people,

God provided a way to escape this plague.

His people had to sacrifice an unblemished lamb,

Then spread its blood on their door posts.

That way,

When the angel of death came to take the firstborns,

He would see the blood,

And pass over that house,

Sparing the firstborn.

It was a picture of God’s gracious deliverance,

Which reaches a climax in ch. 14,

Where God saves His people from the Egyptians,

By parting the waters of the Red Sea for His people to cross,

Then crashing the waters down on the Egyptians.

But as the story continues,

God’s people began to rebel,

And began sacrificing to idols, forgetting God,

And His deliverance.

By the time you get to Hosea,

The people were being ruined and ravaged by Assyria.

Because they refused to return to God.

But even still,

God promised in Hosea,

To “roar like a lion” until His children returned.

Slide

So, in the light of this background,

Matthew is showing us how Jesus’ trip to Egypt,

Is evidence that Jesus inaugurates a new and greater deliverance.

The people’s wickedness drove them into exile,

Just like Herod’s wickedness is driving Jesus into exile.

But God called His people out of Egypt to deliver them,

So, He is calling His people out of exile once again,

By calling Jesus out of Egypt.

Matthew’s point is that Jesus’ trip to Egypt is more significant than Him just running for His life,

Jesus is the new Moses,

Who leads the new and greater deliverance.

This is a big deal for ancient Jews!

Moses was God’s chosen deliverer!

And Matthew is making these parallels to prove his point.

God saved His people through Moses by miraculously delivering them from slavery in Egypt.

The people remembered and celebrated that deliverance every year!

They would tell the story over and over to their children.

Generation after generation,

God’s merciful deliverance of His people was celebrated!

Now, Matthew is speaking of a new and greater deliverance?

Deliverance from what?

The angel said back in ch. 1,

This Jesus will save His people from their sins.

So, just like God delivered His people from slavery to the Egyptians,

God now delivers His people from slavery to sin!

Slide

Israel, which was called God’s son in the OT,

Was brought of of Egypt.

Now Jesus, the Son of God,

Is also brought out of Egypt.

So, Jesus is the promised deliverer,

Who saves God’s people from their sins.

Matthew is showing,

How OT prophecies foreshadow Jesus and His life.

How the history of God’s redemption of Israel,

Points forward to Jesus,

The true Son of God,

Who succeeds where Israel failed,

Who bears the fruit that Israel could not,

Who obeys the Father in ways Israel did not.

So, Jesus, the Son of God,

Represents God’s choice of His renewed people.

In light of the life of Jesus Christ,

And by the Holy Spirit,

Matthew is able to see and communicate the big picture.

Throughout Israel’s history,

God repeatedly calls His son home after captivity or exile.

So, Matthew is connecting,

How Jesus’ return from Egypt is another example of that,

But even more.

Because Matthew is revealing it as an essential step in God’s unfolding work of redemption.

Therefore, even as God warns us that tragedy will come,

We see He is still sovereign,

And the promise of redemption produces fertile soil in our souls for hope to grow.

GOD: Weeping is Expected (vs. 16-18)

Slide

But Matthew is not done teaching us.

This first OT quote sets the stage for the next quote in vs. 18.

A quote that also teaches us,

That when it comes to tragedy,

Mourning is Expected.

In vs. 16-18,

We see this pattern continue in Matthew,

Where there is a section of narrative,

Explained with an OT reference.

But the section of narrative here is painfully tragic.

It explains why Herod’s wickedness necessitates Christ’s departure to Egypt.

And although vs. 15 looked ahead to when Herod died,

Vs. 16 returns to the present moment of the narrative,

Revealing the tragic outcome of Herod’s raging paranoia.

If you remember,

Last week,

Herod tried to deceive the magi,

Using them so he could ultimately kill Jesus.

So, he lied to their face,

Telling them he wanted to worship Jesus instead.

And his trick worked.

They left believing Herod’s lie.

But now, Matthew says,

Herod was outwitted by the magi.

Really, the only reason the magi did not go back to Herod was because God had warned them about Herod.

So, Herod was ultimately outwitted by God.

But regardless,

Matthew says,

When Herod realizes this,

He is enraged, furious, livid!

So, in his rage,

He gives orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem,

Who are two years old or younger.

Because that was the age he learned from the magi,

Based on when they saw the star appear.

This is the tragedy that is central to our passage this morning.

A king committing mass genocide of innocent children,

All to kill another innocent child,

He felt was a threat to his throne.

Slide

But as Matthew teaches that mourning is expected,

He does so in a way that gives hope.

By once again,

Pointing to God’s Word,

Connecting the present tragedy to the OT.

This time, he cites Jer. 31:15.

Jeremiah 31 comes at a time when God’s people were taken into exile.

It was that generation’s greatest tragedy.

They did not just relocate to Babylon.

No, the Babylonian army came in and attacked Jerusalem.

They leveled the people’s homes,

They destroyed the entire city,

Then they took the people hostage and brought them north of Jerusalem,

To a place called Ramah.

This was the last time many of these family members were together.

Because from Ramah,

People were separated into caravans,

Split up from one another,

And scattered around different parts of the Babylonian empire.

This was a time of unimaginable anguish.

It was their greatest tragedy.

Think of how you would feel if that happened to you.

A foreign army shows up and desolates your home.

They come through Afton and just knock everything down,

All of Main St.,

The school,

The church,

All left in rubble.

Then they take us all to Syracuse,

Where each of you are pulled apart from your family and friends,

And sent to another country,

Never to see each other again.

When it comes to tragedies,

Mourning is expected.

I imagine all of us would be weeping,

It would be a loud lamentation.

The cries from Syracuse could be heard from far away.

That is what we would expect when families are being torn apart,

When you are living through your greatest tragedy.

That was what Jeremiah 31 was describing.

Weeping and loud lamentation that could be heard from Ramah.

Jeremiah specifically mentions Rachel,

The mother of Joseph and Benjamin,

Who left her for different reasons in Genesis.

Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers,

And Benjamin had to leave during a famine.

Both times,

Rachel mourned and wept over losing her sons.

So, Jeremiah uses Rachel’s sorrow,

To express the loud lamentation of all mothers of Israel,

Who are weeping for their children whom they expect will die in exile.

This is a tragic and emotional scene Matthew quotes.

Which he uses to describe the weeping and lamenting over the tragic deaths of so many children in Bethlehem.

He is saying that mourning is expected.

Slide

But there is a deeper significance here as well.

Because the tragic scene in Jeremiah 31 does not end in vs. 15.

Look at what follows in Jer. 31:16-17,

Jeremiah 31:16–17 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.

Jeremiah is saying,

God has not forgotten you.

For Israel,

In the thick of their greatest tragedy,

God promises to initiate a new covenant with them!

Giving them hope in the midst of this great tragedy!

Throughout ch. 31,

God says He loves with an everlasting love,

Therefore, this tragedy will not last forever.

And Matthew is connecting this tragic yet hopeful time to the current tragedy in Bethlehem.

He is not diminishing the reality of the pain caused by tragedy.

Not at all,

The tears are real,

The lamentations can be heard,

Mourning is expected.

But he is saying,

How in every tragedy,

Hope lives on.

As God Himself declares,

There is hope for your future!

The child is your hope!

Jesus Christ ends your mourning.

This tragedy in Bethlehem is truly horrible!

Words cannot do justice.

Innocent children dying.

The mothers who carried and gave birth to those children,

The fathers who planned to train them to continue their family legacy,

The siblings who played with them,

All are mourning and weeping...

And yet!

There is hope in the midst of this tragedy.

There is life in the midst of this death.

The child who will conquer death,

End our mourning,

And reconcile us to God,

Lives on.

The promise of God’s new covenant,

Is a promise to forgive sins and write His law on your heart.

This promise gives hope.

And this promise is established in Christ.

So, even in such a horrific tragedy,

Where mourning and weeping is expected,

There is hope that lives in this child who lives on.

Because through Him,

All of God’s people can know and love and worship God!

Jesus brings hope in the midst of tragedy,

He brings life in the midst of death.

YOU: Hope Lives On (vs. 19-23)

So, as long as Jesus lives on,

Hope Lives On.

And that is what we see in vs. 19-23.

Slide

Herod’s death is recorded in vs. 19.

Historical records indicate that this occurred in 4 BC,

Which was a couple years after the tragedy of Bethlehem.

So, it seems likely that this shameless massacre was one of his final acts.

But after he died,

Matthew says,

The angel shows up to Joseph in a dream,

And once again,

Commands Joseph to get up and leave.

But this time,

The angel says to return to Israel.

Because the ones who intended to kill the child are dead.

Which is almost identical to what God said to Moses in Exodus 4:19.

So, once again, we see an allusion to Moses,

That identifies Jesus as the new Moses.

Slide

But just like before,

Joseph gets right up in vs. 21,

And they all start to make their way back to Israel.

Estimates put Jesus at about three to four years old at this point.

But when Joseph returns to Judea in vs. 22,

It says,

He learns that Archelaus, Herod’s son, was now reigning in his father’s place.

So, Joseph was afraid to go there.

And for good reason.

Historical records indicate that Archelaus had inherited his father’s violent traits,

But lacked much of his father’s skills.

He ended up lasting for only a couple years because of it.

But since he ruled over Judea at this time,

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had to settle elsewhere.

So, Joseph is warned in a dream one final time.

Leading them to take refuge in the region of Galilee instead.

Slide

Then, our passage ends in vs. 23,

Saying that they settled in this little Galilean village called Nazareth.

Which, Matthew says was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets.

However, this phrase is not found anywhere in the OT.

Not one specific prophet ever said this.

In fact, Nazareth is never spoken of by any prophets.

So, what does Matthew mean here?

First, by saying prophets in a more general sense,

Matthew is alluding to an OT theme,

Rather than quoting a specific text.

We learn in the Gospels that Nazareth is not a well-respected place,

To put it nicely.

Nazareth was a poor town,

And people from Nazareth were pretty much despised.

For example, Nathanael asks in John 1:46,

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

This idea that the Messiah would be scorned, despised, and rejected is all over the prophets.

Perhaps most famously,

Slide

Isaiah 53:3 simply says,

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

So, it is possible that this is what Matthew is getting at,

That Jesus, the Messiah, would be despised and rejected by the world.

Because He will be a Nazarene.

Which is true.

Slide

Another possibility is that this is a reference to the Hebrew word for branch,

Which is netzer.

A word that closely resembles Nazarene.

There are several prophecies about a branch as well.

For example,

Isaiah 11:1 refers to the Messiah as a branch,

A netzer,

Saying, this branch will come from the roots of Jesse.

Meaning a descendant of David would bring salvation.

So, Matthew may have had this prophecy in mind,

Seeing Jesus’ hometown as a clue to His identity as the Messiah.

Which is also true.

Either way,

They both reinforce that Jesus is the Messiah,

The source of Hope!

And even though Herod tried to kill Christ,

Leading to a horrific tragedy,

Hope lives on because Christ lives on.

Slide

Let’s close this morning with two applications that address our two positions as sinners and sufferers.

First, application for our position as sinners.

Vs. 23 serves as a fitting conclusion to ch. 2.

The Messiah has come to save sinners,

And from the start,

We are reminded that the very sinners He came to save,

Despise and reject Him.

Herod is the most obvious example,

But we saw it last week with the chief priests and scribes as well.

They all despise and reject Jesus.

So, the uncomfortable reality is that we all do the same thing.

WE: Conc.

In most stories,

There is a clear good guy and bad guy.

Same thing is true for biblical stories.

And we love to identify with the good guy.

For example,

You’ve got David and Goliath,

Cain and Abel,

Jacob and Esau,

Pharoah and Moses.

Even in Matthew 2,

We’ve got the magi,

And Joseph and Mary,

As the good guys.

And we’ve got the religious leaders and Herod as the bad guys.

When thinking about these good guys and bad guys,

Ask yourself,

Who do I truly identify with more?

Not who do I want to identify with,

But who do I identify with?

If we are honest,

Deep down,

We are more likely to identify with Herod than the magi.

Instead of making a great sacrifice and bowing down to fully surrender to Jesus,

We become afraid of how Jesus might invade our little kingdoms.

We do not have to rule a nation like Herod.

But we like to live as the ruler of our lives, our plans, and our desires.

So, like Herod,

We don’t want another King to sit on our throne.

Now, we are unlikely to commit the extreme atrocities that Herod did.

But in our minds and our hearts,

We reject Jesus all the same.

That is at the core of what the Bible says it means to be a sinner.

And our sin is the tragedy of tragedies.

But the hope for us all,

Is that sinners are precisely who Jesus came to save.

So, the Bible says,

Repent of your sin,

Trust in Jesus Christ’s death for your sin,

And you are forgiven,

And God writes His law on your heart.

Slide

Second, application for our position as sufferers.

This is really the main application from our passage.

This idea of good guys and bad guys,

Comes from the constant war between the ultimate good guy and bad guy,

God and Satan.

And Satan’s strategy for this battle,

Is to deceive humans,

Into fighting for the throne over our lives, plans, and desires.

In our passage this morning,

Satan’s ploy made Herod an instrument of his to attack Jesus.

But the hope of the Gospel teaches,

That Satan is a defeated enemy.

His battle against Christ is in vain.

So, although Herod attempted to kill Jesus.

Christ lives on.

So, the tragedy of Matthew 2,

Is not some distant historical story.

It is a story about us.

For one, like Herod,

We are all enslaved to sin,

And we need deliverance.

But secondly,

We all are familiar with pain and hurt in this broken world.

We all suffer through tragedies in our own lives,

And we see the suffering of others through tragedies around us.

We all long for the mourning and the weeping to end.

And that is what Jesus came to deliver us from.

From our slavery to sin, yes,

And from the tragedies we suffer.

He came to put all mourning to an end,

To bring hope through tragedy,

And life through death.

He came to reconcile us to God.

He has come to love and forgive us,

Who despise and reject Him.

Later in the Gospel,

Roman and Jewish authorities who despised and rejected Jesus,

Work together to do what Herod could not,

Kill Jesus on the cross.

But by God’s grace,

And for God’s glory,

Christ came,

He gave His life for us,

He shed His blood as a perfect sacrifice for us,

And even after dying on the cross,

Hope lives on because Christ lives on.

Christ rose from the grave to bring eternal life to all who believe in Him.

This gospel brings hope through tragedy.

Tragedy is not over yet,

Even after Jesus rose from the grave,

We still see in the Bible,

Believers are attacked, persecuted, threatened, imprisoned, and even murdered.

So, members of Christ’s body are not exempt from tragedy,

In fact, Jesus teaches us that tragedy will come.

But because Jesus died to forgive our sins,

And because He has defeated Satan by rising from the grave,

No matter the tragedy,

Hope lives on because Christ lives on.

Today, Satan is still wreaking havoc all around the world.

Though he is a defeated enemy,

He still seeks to cause destruction,

And devour anyone who trusts in Jesus.

So, because of his opposition,

And the simple fact of living in a broken world,

We still expect tragedy to come our way.

But as we see in our passage this morning,

God is the good guy!

He is the victor in this battle against Satan!

And He provides deliverance again and again!

Even when Jesus was a child,

God kept Him alive as King Herod desperately sought to kill Him.

And even after Jesus died on the cross,

He lives on by overcoming the grave.

Therefore, no matter the tragedy you face,

Hope lives on because Christ lives on.

Pray.