Children come back [Christmass 2]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 46:1-7

• 1 Peter 4:12-19

• St. Matthew 2:13-23

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
Jesus speaks to you on this 9th day of Christmass from His Gospel heard today, saying:

“that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’”

 
Now, there are two problems with this prophecy, allegedly. The first problem is that Egypt is the primary symbol of hatred towards Israel, due to its history of Hebrew slavery and genocide. The second problem is that the sign that will tell the Holy Family to run away to Egypt will be the murder of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem.
 
The hatred, anger, and fear aroused in faithful Jews by these signs should be enough to give you pause and think about how the Holy Family felt about all these words from the angel. You should also be angry with how God must work through such symbols of suffering in order to reach us.
 
But history tells us that Egypt did not remain hostile, as is evidenced by our Savior being able to flee His own people’s wrath to that country in safety, and the murder of the Innocents only lasted an evening, then ended. Evil has its day, but does not last past that. Even on top of that, God has turned what was evil, to work His good and gracious will. 
 
However, our holy family is in flight from a country which is supposed to be God’s country. Israel, the land flowing with milk and honey, promised by God to His people as the Promised Land. The same has drawn her sword against the hand that feeds her and sustains her.
 
What we will do, as faithful, baptized believers in Christ, is run with the Holy Family. They see the evil, murder committed by God’s supposed people, and they run from it. This is our plan of action whenever we see any of the Revelation, End Time stuff begin to happen. Don’t sit and stare, just run.
 
But where to run? Jesus returns from Egypt after Herod is dead, but the same evil sits on the throne. Jesus does not even return to the promised land, but grows up outside of it. One of the reasons we are to flee abominations rather than sit and fight them is because, even if we were to be victorious over one, two more would take its place.
 
So where to run? We run to true power, not just apparent goodness. Christ ran to Egypt, which was not a Christian nation, but was at least more liberty loving towards her neighbor. Which meant that the Gospel had a higher chance of being allowed in public there, rather than God’s own land. 
 
The Christian runs towards the Gospel, no matter where it is preached. True power is the Word of the Cross (1 Cor 1:18). But not just the Word of the cross, the Word Himself. St. Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 1 saying, “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
 
We run to Christ. And when we do, when we follow Him to the manger, then to Egypt, then to Nazareth and beyond, we are brought to the Gospel. The Gospel that says, even the dead shall rise from their graves (Ez 37:13).
 
This is the Gospel of both today and of our celebration of the Holy Innocents. Our Old Testament reading from both celebrations.
 
What our Savior has spoken to us today in Genesis 46, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again;” is a promise made to Jacob, renamed Israel.
 
This is a promise made to Jacob, the deceiver and swindler of birthrights. Yet even to such a man, God grants Him all the rights of a first born. Not the first born of his father Isaac, but the firstborn of God, the “firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29), “firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15), “the firstborn from the dead” (Rev 1:5). 
 
God goes down with Jacob into the land which will enslave and murder his descendants, in order to be enslaved and murdered with them. And in His murder on the cross, give all His saints the right to become heirs, the firstborn, themselves, freeing them from their oppression.
 
In the second Gospel to which we flee, Jeremiah 31:17 spoke of Rachel weeping for her dead children, from last Wednesday’s Service. Yes, the Lord tells us that she can not be comforted here, what mother could. But there is a promise that we missed there, which will comfort Rachel. It says, “There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back.”
 
As easily as Christ fled to Egypt and returned, so too will we and our children return from the dead to which sin, death, and satan have condemned us. “Your children shall come back.” 
 
Christ’s flight to Egypt is His fight to cleanse this world of slavery to sin, death, and the devil. He goes into all places of corruption and evil, to bring comfort, peace, and victory. He leaves Egypt a better place. When He dies and rises again, He leaves Israel a better place all by giving faith to believe in Him and become children.
 
Children prepared to be sacrificed, but knowing that it will only be a sleep, for Jesus has born the full brunt of all worldly hostility on the cross. And though the Foe will rage and spite, one little word can bring him down: liar. 
 
Neither Egypt’s hostility or indifference nor Israel’s indifference or hostility can prevent the Gospel from being preached and the sacraments administered according to it. In any and all situations, Christ’s atonement for our sins, the same sins of Egypt and Israel, remains true. 
 
Thus, where there is life there is hope and God has given us life. Also, where there is eternal life, there is eternal hope. In Christ, God has given eternal life to us and all believers in Christ. In this promise and hope, hostility is turned to care and concern, hatred is turned to sympathy, and suffering is turned into hope, for Christ is risen from the dead. Alleluia.