"The Reason for Hope" Second Sunday after Christmas January 5, 2014 Matthew 2:13–23
Hope is one of those things you’d rather not have. You’d rather be in full possession now of what you are hoping for. Hope is one of the greatest things there is, but you don’t know that because you’d rather not be in the position where you need hope. Thus it goes for you in your sinful flesh and as you live in this fallen world. You need hope. You don’t want it, but God is going to keep prodding you so that you may come to see that hope is exactly what you need and precisely what you should desire. By His grace you will come to see that living in hope is where you thrive. The opposite of living in hope is being stuck. You think you’re exactly where you need to be. There is nothing ahead of you to look to. There is nothing outside of yourself to look to for what you need. Now, your sinful nature thinks this is just great! In your sinful flesh you think you’re right where you need to be, where you want to be! But it is your sinful nature that wants not what is best for you but what is destructive. Satan is at the root of evil. He doesn’t appear in the Gospel reading, but he is behind the ruthlessness of King Herod. Herod rules in fear and tyranny. He is powerful and overreaches with his power. Anyone who tries to stand in his way gets cut down. He will stop at nothing to preserve his power. It’s a bit ironic that for all his efforts at trying to kill the baby Jesus in order to preserve his own throne, Herod ended up dying after that. Herod ruled in fear but he also lived in fear. He was beholden to his sinful flesh and the ways of this world. The contrast to this in the Gospel reading is Jesus. Never once does Jesus say anything. Never does He take any action. Of course, He was a baby. But He is the true King, He is true God, and yet, He rules as King not in power or fear, but in reliance on His Heavenly Father. And how does His Heavenly Father act to preserve His Son? Through the sending of angels in dreams. Through the faithful actions of the earthly father of Jesus, Joseph. It’s not just that Jesus did nothing, and the angel, and Joseph, and of course God the Father, did everything because Jesus was just an infant. The way Jesus was involved here was in the same way He was in His ministry and in His suffering and death. His life was entrusted completely to His Heavenly Father’s will. His actions were submissive and reliant on the path His Father led Him on. Also, it’s not that these events were things that happened to Jesus and have no connection with you. These things didn’t just happen to Jesus. In telling you these events Matthew shows you that God was the one who was in control. Not Herod. Not even Joseph. And not even the angels. It was God all along, as three times that certain events happened in fulfillment of prophecy and three times that an angel appears to Joseph in a dream to direct him. When God chose to save you by becoming as one of you He knew better than you do that this world is a place of evil and sorrow and tragedy. You ask why certain things happen to you. Jesus knew ahead of time what would happen to Him. You wish you could escape the difficulties and the pain life brings. Jesus came to earth embracing the suffering He would endure. But knowing these things ahead of time didn’t make it easier for Him. Knowing ahead of time made it all that more imperative for Him to continue to go through it. Because He did it for you. He did it to bring you through the pain, the sorrow, the sin, the guilt, and the evil of this world. You want to be removed from them, the good news is that you will be. You can know this. But you also need to know that it won’t be just yet. It will be in His timing. And that’s where hope comes in. You need hope. You need to know now what God already knows. You can’t know the future, and yet, because of hope, you can. You don’t know all the details of how things will play out, but you can know in certainty what God has already prepared for you. You know you are forgiven. You know you are saved. You know, as Peter says in 1Peter 1, that “according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” Paul talks of this hope in Colossians 1 as hope that is “laid up for you in heaven.” Hope is not a wish that things will turn out okay. Hope is something already in place. Everything God has accomplished for you for your salvation is already stored up for you in heaven. He will bring you to it when He brings you through the trials you experience now. The Epistle reading today says that you should “not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” This passage is extremely helpful in understanding how as a Christian you live in hope. No one wants to be persecuted for being a Christian. There are many Christians around the world imprisoned and put to death for being Christians. You don’t face that here. But you do live in a society that undermines Christianity. You live in a world that mocks faith and trust in an unseen God and belief in Jesus actually having been born and actually suffering and dying for your sins. No one is pounding down your door with an AK-47 in one hand and handcuffs in another. But you are going against the grain in holding to your Christian beliefs. People make you out to be antiquated or weak or judgmental or just simply strange for believing that the Bible is actually the Word of God and that God actually exists and that Jesus actually is God and the only Savior. Peter is saying that you shouldn’t be surprised at this. It was happening two thousand years ago, it’s happening now. It will keep happening as long as the globe is rotating on its axis. That’s why Peter speaks in a way that is smothered in hope: “therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” Hope is the best thing you have going for you. What all those people out there don’t know is that what appears to be the secret to happiness and fulfillment in this life is fleeting. What God has prepared for you is already there, and it will last forever. That’s why Joseph listened to the angel and moved forward in faith. His wife had just given birth to the Son who was his Lord and Savior and here he was needing to care for them. It was his duty to love them and protect them. Herod was enraged that the Wise Men did not return to him with the location of the birth of Jesus. Joseph undoubtedly wondered what kind of life he would be living when the Son born to his betrothed not only was God in the flesh but now in mortal danger at the hands of a maniacal king. Hope is what he needed and hope is what God gave him. God didn’t pave a road that navigated through the danger such as a tunnel that goes under water, keeping you safely alive. But God did protect him and guide him so that he could bring his family safely through the danger. He had hope because he saw that when God speaks it is true and worthy of confidence. The words of people and the actions of people are ultimately unreliable. Even he was unable to do what was right for his family on his own. He gladly placed himself under the guidance of God and trusted in the words of the angel. When Herod was out of the way and Joseph returned, he was rightfully concerned about Herod’s son, Archelaus. Now that Archelaus was reigning in the place of his father, he was not much better than his father. And so God guided Joseph once again, back up to Nazareth where Joseph and Mary had originally lived. The thing we are clued in on that Joseph wasn’t is that these events were in fulfillment of Scripture. The first one, going down to Egypt to flee the insane hatred of Herod, was in fulfillment of this prophecy from Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” The second one, the reaction to Herod’s ungodly wrath of the slaughtering of the innocents, was in fulfillment of this prophecy from Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” The third one, where Joseph returned his family to Nazareth is taken from a few passages in the Old Testament, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” In Hosea the statement, “Out of Egypt I called my son,” refers to God’s people Israel. But here in Matthew’s account it is God referring to His only Son, Jesus. This shows us that Jesus is the one who didn’t just do things for you to save you, He does them in such a way that you are incorporated into His life. You are brought into new life because you are brought into the life of Christ. This is the reason for hope. Jeremiah was a prophet who prophesied often of judgment and who was the recipient of much scorn. The title of his second book, Lamentations, captures the spirit of his life and prophecy. And yet, in the midst of the sorrow, there was always hope. Listen to these words from Jeremiah that describe the kind of hope Christians have even in the midst of great tragedy such as described of the mothers who lost their precious children: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.” And finally, “‘There is hope for your future,’ declares the Lord.” There’s a lot more there in Jeremiah 31, but that captures the spirit of hope in the midst of great sorrow and grieving. The one in the Gospel reading who never speaks or does anything on His own is the one who is the central figure. He always is. Jesus is the one who came in humility and continued to submit Himself to His Heavenly Father’s blessed will in order to save you. That is the reason you have hope. That is, He is the reason you have hope. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
