“THE SON CALLED: DELIVERS YOU”
Saint Matthew 2: 13-23
Sunday after New Year: 3 January Anno Domini 2016
Father Jay Watson SSP
God’s pastor, maybe again Saint Gabriel, appears to Saint Joseph, Guardian of our Lord, and imparts God’s holy Word: “Arise…take the young Child and His mother…flee into Egypt…until I bring thee word…Herod seek[s] the young Child to destroy Him.” Thus it was and always will be. The world, its kings, and all of our own “old Adam” wannabee kings, the flesh, the demons, and Satan, seek to destroy the Child. To destroy the word or to silence the word is always the devil’s goal. Kill Christians, make Christians flee or surrender in abject quiet and submission is what the world seeks. And to make an example of defiance, the angels, are always persecuted and slain; the pastors are martyred one way or the other.
But the grass withers and the flower fades. Herod died and eventually Archelaus died too. We know from the Book of Acts that Herod Antipas also died after stretching out his bloody hand to attack The Lord’s Church.
Babies are slaughtered; a King flexes his muscles and bares his fangs, and the Christ Child nestles securely in His Mother’s bosom. Herod builds up his influential “reach” in Judea, and the Christ Child sojourns for a while in Egypt under the protection of The Carpenter. Life under the Cross was already a reality for The Christ. In weakness and servitude would He fulfill the Law and rescue His people—rescue His Mother, Guardian, and all of His brethren to come.
Christ went to Egypt for a stint of physical security, maturation and growth, yes; but He went to fulfill Hebrew Scripture, His own prophecies made when the Prophets spake, and to fix all the mistakes of those children of His that first went down, south, into the Land of the Pharaohs. Joseph sold into Egyptian slavery by sinners, brothers, was raised up by The Lord to be the guardian of His people, the protector of Jacob (Israel) and Judah the Lord’s own forerunner. Out of Egypt did God call home Joseph and all His children when the Exodus began. The Law did not get them across the Jordan. Moses kills, and Moses died. Joshua, Jesus the Christ, led them across on dry ground, even as He would be the same WAY home when Herod was dead and the Holy Family was again summoned by the word of a pastor, a Messenger from Heaven: “arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel.” Jesus carried them home. The Babe guided them via Joseph’s sanctified wisdom, not to Judea but back to Mary’s and his original domicile of Galilee of the North—the land intersecting with the Gentiles. Though prophecy was fulfilled that The Christ would be born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, this LIVING Bread from Heaven would be a Nazarene—a ‘root’ that would be both the origin and the flowering of righteousness. For you, Jesus is not just the descendent of King David but also the New Adam Who brings light to all gentiles.
Christ carries you this day, not a donkey, in His own arms as your Guardian and Savior. With Mary, the Church, you are brought to the root of all forgiveness and peace: His loosing forgiveness and His restorative Meal.
Rachel’s weeping in this veil of tears may go on, for a moment, there is much sadness and brokenness. But the Promise, The Word, endures, and in its—His embrace of Mercy, the tears are wiped away and the stinging grief is bound up and bandaged in His own Body and Blood. Holy family, you are home!
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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