The Best Shot :: Matthew 2:13-23
The voices were so heavenly. The light was so bright.
There we were ... just nine days ago ... flocking to the sweet sounds and colorful wrappings of Christmas. We look forward to that every year, don’t we? Christmas ... Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, Family, Gifts, Innocence.
Oh, how we wish the joy to the world that the Lord is come would never fade away.
Oh, how we long for permanent peace to his people on earth.
Yet, here we are, on just the second Sunday after Christmas ... And suddenly ... it’s all gone. Darkness is beginning to overwhelm upon us. The wails of the world have begun all over again.
Where is our baby Jesus now who lay down his sweet head?
Where are the herald angels now singing glory to the newborn king?
It becomes so overwhelming.
It's mine ... It's all mine, Herod the Horrible cries. Kill them. Kill them all. Don’t leave even one 2-year-old alive. I am the king of my castle!
It’s such a shocking jolt to our sensibilities.
What happened to all the giving and receiving?
Can we have Christmas in January?
1. Well, that’s doubtful with all the Herods of the world thinking they call the shots.
If you thought Christmas would bring an end to all the turmoil of 2020, guess again. As our readings from Matthew and Peter in particular ... and even Genesis remind us ... you who are marked by the sign of the cross will face fiery trials ... You will suffer ... You will be insulted for saying you’re a Christian.
The world will shame you and judge you. It will bring headache and heartache and senseless suffering upon you. All that God is ... and all that He represents ... is and will be detested and disdained by the world and the devil.
I am the king of my universe, the world declares. I call my own shots!
We might say that King Herod, in this instance, is the anti-Christ. But we might even say he is the devil incarnate as he rages in vile jealousy and contempt for God while ordering the slaughter of all of the children younger than two years old in the region around Bethlehem. What does that say about our world, which demands we provide abortion on demand? Nine hundred thousand babies slaughtered in the US alone.
Yet a beautiful thing is still happening in our reading today ...
EVEN IN THE MIDST OF DARKNESS, GOD IS STILL CALLING THE SHOTS
2. We’ve been reminded of this fact in our readings for weeks now.
Today’s sermon is no different than the last nine. We hear God calling the shots.
He alone brings us the light of life (1 Jn 1:5). He alone makes all things new (Jn 1:3). ... He takes our lowliness (1 Sam 7), guilt (Ps 80), and shame (Zec 9:9) ... He enables us to hear and see his Gospel through his prophets (Dt 18:15), as he comforts us (Isa 40:1) and opens our hearts (Mal 4:6) because he alone is our righteousness (Jer 23:5).
Today is no different ... God calls the shots to bring good out of all the horror the world continues to dish out.
Matthew writes: Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt.
3. Do you see it? History is repeating itself as God calls the shots.
Twelve hundred years before Christ, God called the shots by telling Jacob, who we can also call Israel, not to be afraid to go down to Egypt. I, the Lord your God, call the shots. I, the Lord you God, will make you a great nation down there.
Go to Egypt, I will protect you.
Go to Egypt, I will lead you out.
Go to Egypt. The Promised Land is still yours.
So the sons of Israel blindly followed God’s call into Egypt, which more often than not ... although not necessarily here ... represents spiritual bondage.
Now we see in the Christ child, the true Israel following God’s call.
Joseph, don’t be afraid, the angel of the Lord told him. Flee to Egypt. I will protect you. Through this exile ... as strange as that sounds ... God’s Word will be fulfilled.
Arise now. Go while it is still dark. I will lead you.
Rest your faith in me. And then ... once Herod the Horrible dies ... I will return to you in another dream to tell you it’s time for your Son to be called out of Egypt into the Promised Land and to settle in Nazareth, fulfilling all of multiple Old Testament prophecies. There are two very specific ones here ... from Hosea 11 and Jeremiah 31. But there are many underlying ones too.
He will be called a Nazarene ... that is, he will be despised and rejected by men (Isa 53:3) because nothing good comes from Nazareth (Jn 1:45). He will be like us in every way ... he will weep, and hunger, and thirst for righteousness. He will long for salvation from the Lord.
Yes, God when calls the shots, it comes true.
Although God works from within the framework of sinful history, he does not operate as we might expect: He calls the shots in surprisingly simple and obscure ways.
Sometimes, those simple ways are too obscure for us. Take Christmas for example. Not only is the birth of Jesus ... God in the flesh ... obscure, but the reason we celebrate Christmas every year is not to remember that the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head. It’s not to remember angels we have heard on high ...
No, the reason we celebrate Christmas is to remember why he was born to begin with.
4. The Innocent One was born to be slaughtered by evil men who thought they could call their own shots.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, your sin has a terribly horrible price: It slaughtered innocence. Unlike all of those poor children who were slaughtered under the weight of Herod’s horrible ax, Jesus was truly innocent.
He knew no sin. He lived a sinless life. He is in all respects the only innocent man.
And like the mothers at Ramah, we should weep for every sin we commit.
We on the other hand are born in sin. We are ripe with sin ... steeped in sin. Sin is literally killing us. All too often, we pay no attention to what God has done for us. All too often we become furious when others try to tell us how to live and what to do. We are proud, arrogant, and abusive people. We insist on calling the shots for ourselves.
5. But God has another plan for our lives. He calls the shots for us in Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was born to be mocked for us ... scorned for us and bleed for us. ... He was born to be persecuted .... to suffer for us ... be forsaken for us ... pierced for us ... and die for our transgressions on the cross. He did all this so we would never have to experience a single second of his suffering for us.
Standing in the place of all of Israel ... and in baptism you are part of Israel ... God called the shots by sending our Lord Jesus into the midst of our darkness and sorrow to bear our sin, appeasing all of God’s wrath.
Finally he called for his resurrection from the grave to give you a living hope.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, because he called the shots in this way, the keys to the kingdom are now yours.
Look to the font of your baptisms. Here is our Lord and God leading you on your own exodus from the bondage of sin through the greater Sea of Reeds, from death to life. Here, He drowns all your sins that pursue you and threaten you. Here is where the death sentence you deserve for sin is put to death. Here, he has raised you to new life.
God isn’t waiting for you to make a decision to live. He calls the shots, coming to you and breathing His life into you. He calls the shots, sealing you and making you his own blessed child. He calls the shots, leading you back to the font where your baptism is drowned.
The Egyptians never had a chance while pursuing God’s people into the wilderness. And sin doesn’t stand a chance against the Baptism God pours out upon you.
Remember this! Never forget this!
Baptism is a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Then look to this altar.
Here, at this altar, your same God and Lord has called the shots for your good and his glory. Here, in front of all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven who will join us today in glorious joy, our Lord Jesus delivers to you the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Take and eat, he says. Take and drink, he says. This is for the forgiveness of your sins. Do it often.
God calls these simple shots of word and sacrament for your good and his glory.
6. Then allow God to call the shots for your life, like Joseph before you, entrusting your souls to a faithful Creator.
No matter how bad things may get on this side of eternity ... No matter how loud the wails of the world become ... no matter how much suffering and sorrow you may have to endure ... remember ... in baptism, you belong to Christ. Nothing and no one can ever take that away from you.
Notice ... I never said you won’t suffer while residing on this side of eternity.
If you’re hearing something different ... and that especially includes what your heart is telling you ... you’re being lied to.
In the very midst of life, snares of death surround us.
But in, with, and through faith in Christ ... as we rest upon the Lord’s sure and certain promises ... even as we are called to walk through this valley of darkness ... we know that our faithful Creator will guide us and lead us into the promised land.
His precious blood was shed to win full atonement for our sin.
He calls us to humbly trust in Him, holding fast that
in him there is forgiveness ...
in him he will guard and protect us ... now and forevermore.