Matthew 2 13-18 notes

A God Too Weak?

Theme of the Day: A Mother’s Broken Heart

Goal: Hearers are comforted to know that God, despite appearances to the contrary, is not too weak to save and deliver his people.

Rev. Peter C. Cage, campus pastor, Ball State University, and associate pastor, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Muncie, Indiana

Liturgical Setting

In the midst of our Christmas celebration, we are asked to remember unpleasant matters. December 26, the first day of Christmas, is set apart as St. Stephen’s Day, the first martyr in the early church. Now, on December 28, we recall Herod’s evil work as he attempted to deal with the “threat” of Jesus’ birth. These commemorations graphically depict the real suffering, terror, and death that are never far away, even as we celebrate this peaceful season of the Father’s gift of the gentle Child. Indeed, God takes on flesh and is born into such evil and dangerous surroundings precisely to save us out of it by his own suffering and death. The blood red paraments appointed for Holy Innocents stand in stark contrast to the expected white. Yet, Christmas is not over despite appearances.

The Psalm depicts God’s gracious “mindfulness” of us as he condescends by taking on flesh. The “lips of children and infants” that praise him include even these Holy Innocents who, according to the Collect, proclaimed God’s praise despite Herod’s wicked act. The death of these innocent children truly gives us “a picture of the death of your beloved Son”—a picture of God’s bloody love that reminds us how sin is to be paid for and how true life is brought only by innocent Jesus. God does not cause their death, but uses it to bring about good for the world as they provide a shield for the infant Christ. The Epistle assumes that the Christian is enduring painful trials, but reminds us that we ought not be surprised or think it strange—our weakness and sufferings are taken up by, and so interpreted by, Christ’s suffering and death for us. The Old Testament Reading records Rachel’s lament in reference to the captivity and deportation of the northern tribes to Assyria (Is God so weak that his people are always defeated and his enemy always victorious?), but then also the Lord’s promise that despite appearances, God will restore his people. His promise of “hope for the future” is a promise of deliverance for the captives then, and ultimately, the promise of his incarnation by which he is God with us to save and bring us back from the land of the enemy.

Relevant Context

Raymond E. Brown (The Birth of the Messiah [New York: Doubleday, 1993] 215–17) observes that Matthew’s two Old Testament references in this brief text recall two critical events in Israel’s history. The exodus (“out of Egypt I called my son” from Hos 11:1) and captivity (context of Jer 31:15) serve as major historical markers for God’s deliverance of his people in the midst of their suffering, weeping, enslavement. In Jesus, God does history “over again” in the New Testament. The Old Testament account of Israel is echoed and redone by God’s true Son, Jesus. What appears weak, or even as the complete absence of God in defeat and humiliation, has as its end God’s decisive act of deliverance and restoration. Even, and especially, from the cross God is in control to save.

Textual Notes

Mt 2:13: Herod. Any Bible dictionary will review the record of this personification of evil: king of the Jews though not completely Jewish himself. Disliked by those he ruled. Fits of violence and acts of brutality common—killed off the powerful Hasmonean family one by one, murdered one of his wives, executed two of his sons and thousands more. Suspicious of any competition to his power to the point of insanity as the visit of the Magi and their search for the one “born king of the Jews” shows (Mt 2:2).

ajpolevsai, “to destroy”: How bold Herod is in his evil purpose and how weak God must be that Herod so fearlessly makes plans to destroy, kill, ruin him. The same verb appears in the passion account in Mt 27:20 as the next generation of God’s enemies seeks to have the crowds choose Barabbas and “to have Jesus destroyed” (NIV: “executed”). Satan so strong, and God so weak!

V 14:  ajnecwvrhsen, “to go away” with a sense of withdrawing from danger, or leaving to take refuge from danger. Here is the Creator of the heavens and earth—a weak and helpless infant—relying completely on the care of his mother and Joseph as they flee in the night from the threat of death. What weakness!