Have you ever experienced a kind of whiplash after Christmas? All the wonder, joy, peace on earth, goodwill toward men, all is cheery and bright…and then January hits. Bills come due. Reality sets in.
Christmas often seems like a feel-good season that’s disconnected from the troubles of the real life. A mass-marketed departure from reality. We pretend like everything’s great, even though we know it’s not.
Modern Christmas can feel so commercialized, pretend, filtered. But you can’t say that of the very first Christmas. In this sermon we dive deep into a very raw series of events that took place in the days of Jesus’ infancy. There’s nothing commercialized, pretend, or filtered about these events.
The Bible tells us Jesus was born not into a pretend world of Christmas cheer but a rough, hostile, and broken world. He’s a real Savior for the real troubles of a real world.
In this passage from Matthew 2:13-23, we find Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fleeing in the night. It’s going to teach us three things about the King who is come.
- Jesus the Refugee: Jesus is a new Redeemer for a new Exodus. Takeaway: Jesus know what it means to be a stranger.
- Jesus the Exile: Jesus is a new Hope for a new Exile. Takeaway: Jesus knows what it means to be oppressed.
- Jesus the Nazarene: Jesus is a new King for a new Kingdom. Takeaway: Jesus knows what it means to be despised.
There’s nothing commercialized, or pretend, or filtered about this first Christmas. Jesus is a real Savior for the real troubles of a real world. Christmas is about a God who climbs into the darkest, most agonizing brutalities of this sin-cursed, Satan-dominated, death-oppressed world, and takes it all upon Himself only to burst forth in resurrection power.
God is calling us: “come follow me…from humiliation to glory…from the cross to the crown…from death into resurrection life.”
“I came all the way down… to join you where you are…Now come all the way up… and join me where I am!”
Merry Christmas, everybody. The King is come!
Matthew 2:12-23
