Worship

Christmas 1                        December 28, 2025
Matthew 2.13-23                Pastor Wolfe

Promises Kept, Prophesies Fulfilled

Every Christmas season Christians gather around the manger and marvel in wonder at the Word made flesh. We sing of joy in the world at the message of the herald angels. We gaze at Jesus, who came into the world to be our brother in humanity. And if we’re doing Christmas right, we keep in mind all that this Son of God would go on to do for us in his life. Perfect obedience in every moment and every way. A perfection that he gives credit for to us that we might be judged righteous. We remember the cross that is to come where our sins are paid for and our debt fully paid. We rejoice in Jesus’ empty tomb and ascension to heaven as signs of his victory won for us. Yes, Christmas is all about Jesus. And it should be.

Today though we worship under the theme “Son of God.” And that short phrase from the hymn Silent Night reminds us that Jesus didn’t do this all on his own. No, God the Father was always with him guiding and protecting. The Spirit was ever present, bringing comfort and rest. This morning we see from Matthew 2 that the Son of God was never alone. The Father protected his Son, his plan, and our future by saving him from an evil king. Christmas is about Promises Kept and Prophesies Fulfilled. And it didn’t end after one silent night. God kept working for his Son, and he keeps working for us.

First, just a word about the timing here. I know it’s just four days after our Christmas celebration and the order of things can get a little confusing. This account isn’t happening right after the shepherds visited the manger to worship the newborn king. Christmas traditions have confused a lot of people on the order of things, and the order of the gospel lessons in worship after Christmas makes it even more challenging. You see, next week you’re going to hear about the visit of the wise men. This account happens after that. And even the visit of the wise men likely comes at a different time than you may think. We don’t know how many wise men there were. We don’t know when they visited. It almost certainly wasn’t that first Christmas night. It was probably weeks and months later. I’ll let Pastor Pedersen talk about that more in our Epiphany service next weekend.

Again, today’s Gospel reading comes immediately after that visit from the wise men. The Magi came, following the star, to seek out the “child who has been born king of the Jews.” That star led them to Jerusalem, where they went to King Herod to ask the whereabouts of the newborn king. To their credit, the priests and teachers of the Law, knew Micah 5 and told Herod the king would be born in Bethlehem. So he sent the wise men there, but with special instructions: “Go and search carefully for the child; as soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too many go and worship him.”

You see, Herod was no believer, at least in the true God. He wasn’t even a Jew. Any news of a king being born to the Jews was bad news for him. He had no intention of paying homage to Jesus. He wanted to end what he perceived as a political threat to his power.

But this child was no threat to Herod’s kingdom. He was the central piece to God the Father’s far greater and far more important plan for mankind. He was the fulfillment of centuries-old promises and prophesies to his people. And God would not allow some mere man to bring his plans to ruin. So God warned the Magi in a dream about Herod, and they returned home by another route. When Herod realized that his plan had failed, he was enraged. He ordered the murder of all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the Magi. (Part of why it makes sense that the Magi likely visited some months after Jesus was born.) Most commentators estimate that with the size of Bethlehem at the time, Herod’s soldiers probably slaughtered somewhere around 20 children. Just to protect a throne that God had no interest in.

But it wasn’t just the Magi that God warned. He sent an angel to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” And so we don’t even get halfway into the Christmas season before the evil of sin rears its ugly head. I get it – the death of innocent children isn’t something we want to think about this time of year. Christmas is supposed to be joyful and merry. I mean, the Christmas decorations haven’t come down, the leftovers haven’t even been eaten, and we’re already reminded just what the world can be like.

But Matthew quotes the prophet Jeremiah to remind us of an important truth. Even this evil act was known to God before. “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Rama, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.’” In even this evil, God showed that he works to keep his promise and fulfill his prophecies. The evil of man had brought pain and devastation, but God delivered a Savior through it.

This child was too important to leave to chance. God had directed all history to this moment, and his promises were coming true fast and freely now. God had brought Jesus into the world born of a virgin to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah. He had brought them to Bethlehem for the birth to fulfill his prophecy through Micah. The mothers who wept for their sons fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. And now God would save the Savior by going to and coming back from Egypt just as he had promised through the prophet Hosea. When they returned they would settle in Nazareth to fulfill yet another prophecy. In spite of how tragic it all looked, God had a plan and he was working it to perfection.

Of the four Gospel accounts, Matthew is the one that was written most directly for Jewish believers. He records more prophecies and Old Testament connections to Jesus than any of the other writers. He’s also the only one to record the slaughter of the innocents and the escape to Egypt. And commentators believe there’s a reason. There was another child in Israel’s history who was saved from a slaughter shortly after his birth. Moses was spared as an infant from Pharaoh’s command to kill every baby Hebrew boy. Do you remember the story? Moses’ mother hid him in a basket in the Nile River, where he was found and taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses was delivered so that he could save God’s chosen people. In the same way, Jesus’ deliverance indicates his role as deliverer too. Of all places, God directed Jesus to Egypt for safety. In a sense, Jesus was the new Moses, the deliverer of God’s people. Readers of Matthew’s Gospel would have immediately made the connection between the two. Just as Moses was spared to bring freedom to God’s people, so too Jesus was spared.

Only, we know that Jesus’ life was spared to do much more than save one nation from slavery to another. Moses led his people to God by bringing the law, but Jesus brings God to his people by announcing the Gospel. Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise of peace and hope and life in the Old Testament. The night of Jesus’ birth the angels announced peace, but not peace on earth. We see that in Herod’s awful action. We know that in our world today as tragedy hasn’t lessened and violence still abounds.

No, we have peace with God. Where our sins bring conflict, Jesus brings peace. Peace through the life he lived and the innocent death he died. Peace through his glorious resurrection and his unfailing promise to bring us life everlasting.

This is the peace that the world doesn’t get. The first question I usually get when I share my faith with a skeptic or unbeliever is the question of suffering in the world. Why do children still die? Why do the powerful abuse that power? Why would a loving God let this all happen? Ultimately I can’t answer that question. God’s wisdom is beyond ours and his reasons beyond our understanding. But two things I know: God is good, and promises to work out all things for the eternal good of all who believe and trust in him. And…God will always work to protect his promises and fulfill his prophecies.

That’s the truth we learn in this tragic, and magnificent, Christmas account. 2026 won’t be a year of peace on earth. It just won’t. Not on an international scale or in our personal relationships. Sin by us and sin to us will still make the world hard. But the angels’ promise of peace remains. The peace that God’s promises are certain and that his eye is unwavering. Brothers and sisters, this is the peace we have in knowing the Son of God who came to us on that Silent Night. The peace we have in knowing his Father hears our prayers and answers them in a better way than we even know to ask. May that peace be your greatest Christmas gift this year. And may you walk that peace this year and always. Amen.