Flight
The Second Sunday after Christmas – 1/5/2025
Matthew 2:13-23
Rev. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion from God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our Gospel lesson from St. Matthew’s second chapter with special emphasis on verses thirteen through fifteen which read as follows:
“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[1]
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The events around our Lord’s birth are a little bit complicated. Now I don’t mean that they’re complicated as to whether it happened or not. I mean simply that there is a bit of timeline confusion that gets put forth during this time of the year concerning the events of the Nativity. So, let’s do what we can to set the record straight.
The date for Christmas, that is, the 25th of December, was calculated by a pious tradition that noted that prophets would die on the date of their conceptions. This would mean, when reckoned to our modern calendar, that Jesus would have died around March 25th and the date of His conception would have been the same date. This is why the Christian church observes March 25th as the feast of the Annunciation, commemorating the visit of St. Gabriel the Archangel to Mary to announce her pregnancy on that date. If we track nine months after this date for a birth date, we come up with December 25th as the date. While there is a logic in this and some have even made arguments from Scripture that would lend credibility to it, it is unfortunately not precisely recorded in the Bible. At any rate, the purpose of celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus is less about being perfectly, chronologically accurate and more about celebrating that our Savior became a man in order to give us redemption and salvation. And this is certainly worth celebrating even if it isn’t exactly on the money. I simply wish to point out the logic for this date having nothing to do with paganism or secular celebrations.
The next thing the Bible records is that our Lord’s birth was attended by angels, shepherds, and the appearance of a star. This star was likely a supernatural celestial event, though some contend that it was a ‘normal’ conjunction of planets or other heavenly bodies. Either way, this heralded, announced, the birth of the Lord and brough the visit of the Magi, the wise men from the area of what is now Iran.
As we will commemorate tomorrow, these men visited the Lord some time after His birth, but this was likely within a few weeks at the most given that the family was still in Bethlehem when they visited. Sometimes people assert that this visit was a long time afterwards, up to two years, given that Herod killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem two years of age and under. This is more likely because Herod was known to be paranoid and cruel, that is, was his way of taking extra precautions to be sure that the new born King was taken care of.
After this visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, they were warned in a dream to avoid Herod and went home by a different route. Mary and Joseph, in turn, fled with the infant Jesus to Egypt. This both confirmed the prophecies of the Old Testament, as noted here in our reading, and kept our Lord from being put to death before His time.
What then are we to make of this flight into Egypt? We have already discussed the practical aspect of keeping Jesus safe from Herod. But it also undid one of the great sins of the Old Testament people of God. When Israel was brought back from slavery in Egypt, they rebelled against God and sinned against Him. Our Lord Jesus, on the other hand, went into Egypt and came back to the promised land without sin of any sort.
This sets a theme for the life and ministry of our Lord’s life. What the people of God did not do, what they failed at, Jesus does in their place perfectly.
This means two things for us. Firstly, our Lord is not unfamiliar with hardship that comes from sin. He was forced to flee for His life due to unjust persecution by a corrupt king. As a man, our Lord knows full well the utter misery that comes by sin. But, our Lord is no mere mortal man, He is also God and, as such, is not content merely to suffer with us. No, He set His sights on overcoming sin and defeating death and destroying the rule of the devil.
There is a strange notion that I’ve run into where people are satisfied with the idea that God Himself has come to be in solidarity with us, that is, has come to suffer what we suffer and experience what we experience to show His concern. But without Him coming to do something this does us no good. God does indeed experience the reality of sin and hardship by becoming a man, Jesus Christ, but He does not become incarnate in order to merely show us He understands. And while we can certainly find some comfort in knowing that God Himself knows what we are going through, we must not leave our understanding there. This view is very deficient in understanding what God does for us.
God not only understands, but His great love and understanding have bid Him to go and do something about those things that make us suffer in this life. He paid the debt of sin, utterly destroying it for all believers. He has rolled back the unstoppable tide of death for His people. And He has overthrown that rebel, Satan, who sought to usurp God’s rule of this world that He has made. All of this was accomplished in the death of our Lord Jesus. His life for yours.
And even more, God has promised that all things work for good for those who are in Christ Jesus, that is, those who love Him.[2] Even when we cannot see the good in evil and suffering, take heart that all of these things work together for God’s good purposes. Jesus and His parents fled into Egypt to escape certain death. They fled political persecution of the most basic sort. And yet this, which was intended as evil for our Lord by Herod, was for the good of us all, as it allowed our Lord to fulfill Scripture and show clearly that He is the Messiah, our Savior.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen
The peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Matthew 2:13-15 English Standard Version
[2] Romans 8:28
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