Matthew 2 13-18 2003
Holy Innocents, Christmas I
Matthew 2:13-18
December 28, 2003
“Is Our God Too Weak?”
Introduction: Is this any way for God to come and save? Always at a disadvantage? Born of a young, obscure girl who gave birth in a shed with only a carpenter to support her? A baby in a feeding trough? It seems so shabby! A God so weak! This One in the manger rocks the whole world? This One wrapped tight in swaddling clothes is the One to destroy the grip of sin on you? And today you hear how he has to flee; God must flee from the devil’s agents, who leave a city littered with the bodies of dead boys two years old and younger. Their mothers weep while Jesus is whisked off to Egypt in the middle of the night. Here, the Creator of the world is in danger, completely dependent upon his parents to protect him. Here is your God . . . at a disadvantage, a God so weak.
I. It’s tough to get around the discomfort of the Holy Innocent boys of Bethlehem. It is tough to get around the discomfort, suffering and pain that you have in your life. There is a question that comes to mind, “Is God too weak to prevent it?”
A. The boys die and their mothers mourn “because of” Jesus. This is such an unpleasant image in the middle of Christmas. They die because of Jesus, who himself comes to die for them! It’s a hard slap, a vivid reminder of the harsh realities of life.
B. What turmoil are you dealing with or silently suffering today? The Epistle for today assumes that you are suffering something: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” Even stranger is the remedy that is offered: “Rejoice, reoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ.” Rejoice as you suffer . . . with Christ, or better said, as Christ suffers with you with the suffering that begins already at his birth.
II. So soon after his birth, Jesus, that is God, is already on the run. He seems so weak and vulnerable!
A. Satan is already after him to do away with the promised Savior. The joy of God becoming flesh, the happy picture of Christmas, is quickly followed by the Child jarred awake, bundled up in the night. The angel of Joseph’s dream doesn’t say, “Think about leaving,” he says, “Get up right now, escape!” How strange that Jesus, God, is at such a disadvantage and is in as much mortal danger as any two-year-old boy in Bethlehem. But so are all those who are called by His name, as Christians we too have to deal with real enemies like sin, death, and the power of the devil, and it will be no other way. Where does God ever say, “Follow me and escape the cross”?
B. Yet, precisely in all of his disadvantages and weaknesses, Jesus is giving us life with God. Make no mistake, through Jesus, it is God at work for good in all these weak looking things, then and . . .here and now for you, as you too experience the disadvantages, and weakness, humiliation and suffering that you endure on account of Christ. Don’t be ashamed, but “praise God that you bear His name,” the name that you were given at your baptism, the name of Christ.
III. Like the rest of the world and even, at times, us in the church, Herod has figured out how to be “religious” and “spiritual” . . . without Christ.
A. Herod sounds so convincing and sincere to the Magi as he tells them that he only wants to worship the King! He wants to go to church with the Magi, and all the holiday crowds, to bow down and show reverence to Jesus. But of course Herod wants something else. He wants the Christ-threat out of the picture so he can be the unrivaled king, and he believes he can do it. How bold Herod is in his evil purpose and how weak he must think God is that he so fearlessly makes plans to destroy and kill, Jesus, God. After all, at two years of age He must be a weak little “king.” We, too, find Christ to be a threat to who we want to be, for our plans and desires that we no are against God’s will, our lives lived apart from him, and we, too, think we can ignore him. He is, after all, a God so weak!
B. Herod thought that he was a victim of a conspiracy to overthrow his reign. Herod is not the victim of a conspiracy, but of God’s plan to deliver the world from sin and death and satanic power. Luther observed, “We see how the little baby Jesus, while still in the manger, filled the whole world with fear.” Look how Herod reacts . . . to a Savior! This baby is not so weak after all to cause such a strong and evil reaction. Herod plots to kill all boys so that Christ will die too. But even in this tragedy, God is not absent. Precisely in the midst of this seeming weakness and this real death, the Father has sent his Son to work salvation.
IV. Despite appearances to the contrary God is not too weak to save his people.
A. He delivered his people of old by action and with the promise of Christ. He heard their cries from slavery in Egypt and called them out by a mighty deliverance in the exodus. He comforted their mourning as they were led into exile. Rachel’s weeping is answered by the promise of restoration, reward, and hope.
B. He delivers you now in Christ. “Strong” Herod lost his battle with the “weak” Christ Child, who lives. “Out of Egypt” the Father called his Son to fulfill what he was given to do as God with us to die on a cross even for those who seek his destruction. “There is hope for your future” and you have returned “from the land of the enemy” because Christ has defeated death and the devil by his death and resurrection. God is in control—not Herod, not death, not Satan, not us! What appeared so weak, a little Child versus an evil king, God on a cross, God dying, is God in his power saving his people from their sins.
V. Thus we can trust in Christ, though he is forever at a “disadvantage” in this world.
A. It is easy to reject the way that he comes in such seeming weakness and frailty. As a baby. As a two-year-old. As the hidden God manifested in human flesh. And of course God never appeared weaker than when He submitted Himself to be crucified, dead and buried. A God so weak. He appears weak today as He come to us, In preaching, In water Baptism, In the absolution pronounced by a mere pastor and in bread and wine.
B. Yet, he is not a weak God. This is “merely” the appearance of your God in weak things. What your God does, how he comforts and forgives you, is not weak, but the very power of God to save. This “weakness” is stronger than the strength of man or kings or Satan. You are not left alone to be overwhelmed by despair, heartache, or death, but, like the innocents, he brings you through death to life.
Conclusion: This weak-looking God cannot be thwarted. He can be mocked, rejected, ignored, and treated casually by us, but not destroyed. For even amidst your tragedies and personal suffering, the trials, pain, weakness, and even death that you know in your life, God hears your voice as he heard the mothers in Bethlehem. And as to them, so he says to you in your suffering: “You will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your future.” That hope is now. Indeed, as the Collect for this Holy Innocents Day says, the “wicked death of innocent children” has given us “a picture of the death of your beloved Son.” Their horrible death contained then a picture of another, future death—a glorious death with a resurrection. And this Jesus is delivered to you now from this altar. The Son that the Father called “out of Egypt” is given also here for you. Jeremiah’s “hope for your future” is right here in the flesh as Jesus promises. Deliverance from your real enemies of sin, death, and hell is on the altar in bread and wine. This “God too weak” is not so weak after all. He is God with us—given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins, for your life, and for your salvation. Amen
