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.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 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.”
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. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“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.” (Matthew 2:13–18 ESV)
Children massacred. Mothers grieving. Families displaced. Tyrants enraged. Merry Christmas!
These are the stories that don’t make it into our festive Christmas traditions. Why does Matthew include these stories in his historical Gospel account? It is because the Christmas story is one of both joy and sorrow, hope and hardship.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with excitement, even when looking through the genealogy. Jesus is King! Jesus is God with us! Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of God! Yet, celebration quickly fades away as Mary and Joseph flee for their lives.
Now we are overwhelmed with terror and tragedy.
When we leave terror and tragedy out of our cheerful Christmas celebrations, we miss crucial understandings of the Gospel as we sanitize the story of Jesus’s birth. Jesus was born in a time and a place where terror, violence, fear, and injustice ruled. In a world of conflict, how could Jesus arrive in comfort? In a world of suffering, how could Jesus arrive in safety? In a world of misery, how could Jesus arrive in magnificence? If Jesus is to be Immanuel – God with us – then Jesus must be with us in the terror and tragedy of life.
God suffers with us. However, the good news is that the sufferer becomes the Saviour!
Jesus has brought a New Exodus and a New Hope!
A new exodus cries out from the words of Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). This reference goes back to the first exodus, where God delivered his people from Egyptian slavery, showing himself as their mighty Deliverer. In Matthew’s Gospel, we see Jesus represents a new exodus. Just as God freed Israel from physical bondage, Jesus comes to free humanity from spiritual bondage. He brings a rescue from sin and death and an invitation to join the family of God, with the ultimate privilege of calling him Abba – Father. This new exodus offers freedom, adoption, and hope in a broken world. Even in the terror and tragedy of life, God is bringing redemption and rescue. God is bringing deliverance to his people!
A new hope cries out from the weeping of Rachel. Herod, in his rage, orders the massacre of Bethlehem’s young boys in a brutal response to the birth of Jesus, a King he perceives as a threat. Matthew connects this tragedy to Jeremiah 31:15, which describes Rachel weeping for her children as they are led into exile. Rachel’s grief is not just for her own children but for a suffering nation. Yet, even in the darkness of exile, God promises hope and redemption. He assures his people their sorrow will not last forever and a new King will one day come to restore them. A clear promise of God is found in Jeremiah 31: God will send a new King to establish a new covenant that will bring his people back to each other and reconcile them to God. Therefore, weep no more. In the midst of your hurting, there is hope.
Jesus does not just bring a new exodus – he ends a sorrowful exile. The promised King has arrived to conquer sin and death. Jesus ends the mournful exile, bringing hope in the midst of hurt, life in the midst of death, and freedom out of slavery.
I hope you realize this story is also ours, because we find ourselves in slavery to sin. We find ourselves in grief and pain, longing for the world to be made right. We are all in need of an exodus, deliverance, rescue. We, too, are familiar with pains and hurts in this sinful world. We know suffering in our lives and see it all around us in the world. We know terror and tragedy.
Thanks be to God, we find freedom, healing, and hope in Jesus. Therefore, Merry Christmas!
Micah Brookhart is the church planter of Garden City Church in Prince George, British Columbia.