2013 11 by Baptists Today

Matthew 2:13-23

with Tony W. Cartledge A Strange Beginning to a Happy Ending

hristmas, as many people have experienced, has a dark side. With its blatant commercialization, emotionally charged memories and gift-enhanced anticipation, it’s easy to expect so much of Christmas that the season cannot help but be disappointing. Families who have experienced a recent death or divorce see an empty spot under the Christmas tree where the loved one’s presents used to go. Those who are alone at Christmas may feel more lonesome than at any other time of the year. The original Christmas story also had a dark side – a very dark side. We don’t like that part of the story, so we tend to gloss over it, but there it is, hiding behind the manger scenes and fireplace stockings, haunting the alleys of Bethlehem. The dark side of Christmas is about insanity and brutality and death. It is about pulling up stakes, running through the night, and living on the edge. It is the story of baby Jesus, boy fugitive. A stealthy escape (vv. 13-15) Only Matthew tells us this story, which differs in many respects from the version told by Luke, in which Joseph and Mary were natives of Nazareth who returned there soon after Jesus’ birth. Matthew, in contrast, portrays them as living in a house in Bethlehem. Matthew alone recounts a series of terrifying events surrounding Jesus’ birth and early life, each foretold by an angel who appeared in Joseph’s dreams, Additional background information online where you see the “Digging Deeper” icon

The Unconquered Man, depicting Yuzif Kaminsky, the lone adult survivor of the Khatyn, Belarus, massacre, carrying his dead son.

Dec. 29, 2013 Mat hew 2:18 — Matt “A voi oice ce was heard in Rama Ra mah, wai ailing and loud lament ntat ation,, Rachel weeping for herr ch chilidren; she refused too be consoled, because th they ey are no more.”

with each event fulfilling some Old Testament prophecy. Only in Matthew do we hear of the wise men who traveled far in search of a baby king they had seen in the stars. Assuming that King Herod would know of such an auspicious event, they stopped in Jerusalem to inquire, unintentionally alerting the paranoid ruler to a potential rival. Herod was a harsh and unstable potentate who also happened to be of Edomite descent, so it’s no surprise that he was unpopular among the Jews and feared a possible overthrow. When the wise men alerted Herod to the predicted birth of a future king, which his religious advisors said could have taken place in Bethlehem, he paid close attention – and later was infuriated when they departed his kingdom without returning to report the child’s whereabouts, as he had demanded while feigning a desire to pay the child homage (2:1-8). After the wise men found the house where Jesus and his parents lived, they paid their respects and presented the family valuable gifts (2:9-11). Warned

in a dream to bypass Herod and return by “another way” (2:12), they foiled Herod’s efforts to learn the child’s specific location. Joseph also had a portentous dream, instructing him to flee with his family to Egypt because Herod was seeking to kill (literally “destroy”) the child (v. 13). Joseph packed up his family and left “by night,” presumably the same night in which the dream had come (v. 14). This was done, Matthew says, to fulfill the prophet’s words: “Out of Egypt I have called my son” (v. 15, from Hosea 11:1). When Hosea spoke those poignant words, he was thinking about how God had called Israel out of Egypt, not about a future Messiah, but that did not bother early Christians, who were diligent in searching for connections between the Hebrew Scriptures and the life of Christ, and didn’t hesitate to employ a popular Jewish practice of searching for hidden meanings, drawing typological connections between ancient and present days. Thus, while the prophet clearly had an entirely different intent, early interpreters believed they could perceive a

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