Matthew 2:13 – 23 | The War On Christmas

I love a good fight. I don’t love unhealthy conflict. I don’t like to fight just to fight but I do love a good fight. I don’t like to be defeated.I like to win and I like to be on the winning team. Losing doesn’t seem to be appealing to me. Winning feels like progress. Defeat feels like a slow death.And the Christmas season in all of it’s beauty and all of its sparkle and all of its glitter can bring about a sense of defeat for many people.

Matthew 2:13 – 23…

¹³ 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.” ¹⁴ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵ 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.”

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ¹⁷ Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸ “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.”

¹⁹ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, ²⁰ saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” ²¹ And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. ²³ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Christmas can be a beautiful season but it can also be a season of conflict. People love to argue and Christmas gives us many things to argue about. Everything from arguments about happy holidays versus Merry Christmas to boycotting Starbucks to not shopping at Target or Walmart to debating the real date of Jesus’ birth to arguing about the significance of Christmas trees to pontificating about the pagan origins of the holiday itself.

After all, according to some scholars, December 25^th in ancient Rome was the ‘Dies Natali Invictus,’ ‘the birthday of the unconquered sun,’ the day of the winter solstice and at the same time, in Rome, (it was) the last day of the Saturnalia, which had long since degenerated into a week of unbridled carnival. Which sounds kind of familiar if you ask me. There are lots of reasons to go to war with each other over Christmas.

And add to all of that the fact that we in America have the freedom of speech in our back pockets because of our Constitution. Every time someone starts a debate about Christmas you get a melting pot for Christian guilt, meaning that if you are a Christian you better agree with me on this issue or that issue. And then of course we have social media to blast away on too. The war on Christmas in our culture is definitely real.

Now, I hope you know that I’m being snarky and sarcastic when I say that I’m pretty sure this is the entire reason the gospel writers wrote their accounts of Jesus’ birth. I’m certain that their implicit desire was to equip Christians with the weapons for the culture war on Christmas. I’m certain that Jesus is standing on the edge of the floor of Heaven cheering us on every time we start or engage this kind of culture war.

Now to be fair, I admit that I love a good fight and I love to win. So it’s tempting for me to argue many of the points I’ve drawn our attention to this morning. But my responsibility as a believer is to be under the authority of the Scriptures while drawing our attention to what captures the attention of our hearts.

And as I turned my attention to the Matthew passage with these things in my mind this week I was actually kind of stunned to see that there really is a war on Christmas that took place in Matthew’s time and is still being waged in our time today. Though it might surprise many of us to see what’s really going on in this story.

Matthew’s Story Of The War On Christmas Is Eye Opening

Now to be fair, Matthew as well as none of the other gospel writers use the term “Christmas” in their writings. It might surprise you to learn that the word “Christmas” is found absolutely nowhere in all of the Bible. You also don’t find anyone in the Bible using the greeting “Merry Christmas”. But, and this is an important but, the word “Christmas” does mean,“the sending of the Christ”.

So when we say “Merry Christmas” we are actually saying “Merry sending of the Christ”. And there are many people in this world who do not claim the name of Christ and still live as enemies of Christ therefore we should not be surprised or offended when we are called to live in relationship with these folks while laying down our rights to things like free speech just like our Savior who also laid down his rights to go to the cross for his enemies.

The way Jesus makes war against his enemies doesn’t look the same as the way we often make war against our enemies. Instead of coming in hot and trying to win the culture war he comes in humility in the form of a baby born in obscurity. Jesus wasn’t concerned with winning political platforms to further his agenda and he didn’t lobby for social reform. Jesus is actually the hero of Christmas who defeats his enemies by dying for villains.

He’s the King of the world for sure but he’s a different kind of King than you would expect. He’s the kind of King that makes earthly kings angry. He’s the kind of King who makes war on his enemies from a position of perceived weakness. That’s the story we pick up in Matthew.

#1: We See Jesus’ Family Running To Egypt (13 – 15)

In verses 13 – 15 the wise men complete their mission to come and worship the baby King of the Jews and they leave. And after they leave an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and he instructs him to grab baby Jesus and his mother Mary and flee to Egypt because Herod is about go on a killing spree throughout the region in his unbridled attempt to destroy baby King Jesus before he can take his throne. As if Jesus was really interested in physical Earthly thrones in the first place. What a deceived and despicable little man Herod was.

Matthew also tells us that Joseph obeys the word of the Lord through the angel and he steals away under the cover of night to take refuge in Egypt until Herod’s death. All of this of course happened to fulfill what the Lord had prophesied through the prophets that Jesus would be the fulfillment of Israel who would set them free from their slave masters in Egypt. Make no mistake, Jesus comes to set us free from the slavery that seeks to defeat us but he defeats our enemies in radically different ways than we would expect.

#2: We See King Herod Waging War Against Jesus (16 – 18)

In verses 16 – 18 Matthew shifts his focus. Baby King Jesus has been preserved by the sovereign providence of our Heavenly Father through the words of an angel and the obedience of his human parents. He is safe in Egypt. So Matthew shifts his focus to the evil king Herod. And what we find is an evil, despicable man who becomes so furious with being deceived by the wise men that he goes on a murderous rampage killing every little boy under the age of two throughout the region of Bethlehem.

And as horrifying as this thought is, this atrocious event was a fulfillment of ancient prophecy that helps to set the scene for how serious this war on Christmas really is. Babies were being torn out of the arms of their mothers and murdered right in front of them. The devastation through out the region would have been unprecedented.

The fear, depression, doubt and worry of an entire nation would have been palpable in the weeping and crying of families amidst the screams of babies being murdered in their front yards. Make no mistake, this war on Christmas is far more serious than you may imagine. My sin caused Jesus to enter into this world as a baby who was being hunted by a ruthless Earthly king. My need to have my sin paid for affected the lives of families that I’ve never met and it caused them to endure the horror of their sons being murdered right in front of them. Let that sink in.

#3: We See Jesus’ Family Hiding In Obscurity (19 – 23)

In verses 19 – 23 King Herod dies. Now according to scholars there are at least six different Herods mentioned in the Bible. The most memorable one I think is the one in the book of Acts whose death is attributed to being eaten by worms.Sounds like a nasty way to go. But, he’s not the same Herod in our passage today. This Herod does die, thank God, but we do not know how he dies.Regardless, after his death, an angel directs Joseph to come out of hiding in Egypt and to return to Israel.

And upon arrival, Joseph learns that one of Herod’s sons is the new ruler of the region. So after being warned in a dream he moves his family to a small insignificant village called Nazareth in the region of Galilee. This would be similar to desiring to come to Hastings but instead moving into Harvard or Blue Hill or Doniphan or Trumbul because Hastings is unsafe.

Again, this too fulfilled ancient prophecy that the baby King would make war for the freedom of his people from a position of obscurity and weakness. Jesus didn’t set himself up in the biggest city of influence so that he could win the war. He set himself up in a position of perceived weakness and obscurity.

Why Does This Story Matter?

When you think about all of this it all seems to fit in the broader narrative of the Bible. Jesus doesn’t win the war by winning debates or winning political campaigns. To be honest those battles are smoke screens for the real war against Satan, sin and death. And Jesus wins that war with two trees that he created as the very people whom he had also created and came to save are nailing him to them.

A brief survey of the Scriptures reveals that there has been a war on Christmas from the beginning that will last until the end. And again,Christmas simply means, “the sending of the Christ”. The story of the serpent in Genesis is the story of the war on Christmas. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent would be at war. Cain and Abel are an extension of that very war. Pharaoh enslaving the Israelites in Egypt is an extension of that war.King Herod in our passage today is an extension of that war.

Persecution in the book of Acts is an extension of that war. The dragon in the book of Revelation is an extension of that war. Ephesians and many other places in the Scriptures describe the spiritual war on the sending of Jesus as our Savior. The world we live in is a broken place that is caught in the middle of a spiritual war zone. And the tempting thing for each of us is to enter into that war zone and fight the wrong battles.

For all of the American commercialization of Christmas there can still be an underlying sense of defeat and despair for many of us. We runaround like crazy in this season. We spend too much money on unneeded things in this season. Families experience more conflict in this season than any other time of the year. Churches oftentimes lose sight of what’s most important in this season. And all of this can lead to a deep sense of defeat for us.

Could it be that we need a fresh perspective in this season? In a world that is caught up in one hot debate after the next over the stupidest things, wouldn’t it be great if the church could have a conversation that didn’t reflect the world’s preoccupation with polarizing arguments?

How refreshing would it be to walk into a church or to walk into a gospel community where believers are actually applying the truths of Christmas to their hearts and lives? What would it look like for us to do this in a transformative way rather than having the same old worldly conversation about whose views trump the other person’s views while repackaging it in Christian language?

What if we as Christians stopped arguing about what we need to preserve and instead we started talking about what can never be taken away from us? What if we started living from a place of victory instead of fighting from a place of defeat? The truth of the story of Christmas is meant to set you free from what you used to be defeated by. Its meant to set you free from the fight you fear losing.

Conclusion

Where you once were defeated by your fear the truth of Christmas is meant to set you free to live in peace. Where you once were defeated by your addictions the truth of Christmas is meant to set you free to live in holiness.Where you once were defeated by your depression the truth of Christmas is meant to set you free to live in joy-filled worship.

I don’t know where many of you are at right now as we gather today. I don’t know what you walked in with this morning. But there are three things I do know that I want to leave you with today.

#1: Every one of us struggles with defeat

Where do you feel defeated right now? Many of us struggle with loneliness or depression or anger or despair or boredom or lust or envy or bitterness or busyness or fear or worry. The list of what we can be defeated by is endless. Every one of us struggles with a sense of defeat somewhere. Where are you walking around in defeat right now?

#2: Every one of us has a very real enemy

We have a real enemy who is seeking to steal our joy, kill our intimacy with God and destroy the image of God in us. Satan is literally working overtime, round the clock to defeat us. He comes at you by enticing your inner desires, by tempting you through the world’s values and by influencing you through demonic oppression. Every one of us has a very real enemy who is seeking our defeat. Where are you living in defeat this Christmas season?

#3: There is a God, his name is Jesus and he is undefeated

Jesus is the reigning champ. He was sent to this Earth to be born in the flesh, to live, to die, to be raised from the dead, to ascend to Heaven to the throne of God and he is returning as the reigning undefeated champion to gather his family from the clutches of evil and deliver us safely into the presence of the Father in Heaven. Our Savior is undefeated.

When you look at the world we live in it’s appropriate to mourn the devastation and the horror of the effects of Satan, sin and death. It’s appropriate to oppose evil and even resist persecution. But oftentimes our opposition to evil and our resistance of persecution looks more like Christian pride where we pat ourselves on the back for not being as lukewarm as that one guy over there or as evil as that other girl across the street.

My prayer is that this wouldn’t be us. My prayer is that we would be known as Spirit led people who live peaceably and lovingly in our community because we rest in the truth that the war on Christmas has been won. The real battle for each of us now is to live from a place of victory over Satan, sin and death because our Savior, the Christ who was sent into this world, is undefeated. – Amen? Hey Merry Christmas guys!