Matthew 2:13-23 Peril of Christ

January 30, 2019January 30, 2019 Joanne Hagemeyer

So far the story is interesting, even beautiful, remindful of all the nativity pageants we’ve seen, Christmas cards with wise men on their camels. The rest of the story is pretty harsh. King Herod wasn’t going to let it go.

“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘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.’”

God had given this king many opportunities to know Him. Herod had all of the scriptures right there at his fingertips, and access to the most knowledgeable people about God and religion in the whole world. Herod lived right there in Jerusalem, God’s holy city. And he had even personally seen to the rebuilding of the temple, now covered in gold, magnificent by night and day, sacrifices and incense being offered around the clock.

God had given Herod every possible chance to be in relationship with Him, including first chance at receiving the Messiah. But Herod had grown to despise the thought of God’s deliverance through Christ because it seemed like it would mean he would lose his throne, his power, and his wealth.

The loss of fellowship with God is humankind’s greatest, most devastating tragedy. Having been made in God’s image

We are like God in spirituality: Only humankind received God’s breath, or “spirit.” We are aware of God and His presence, and have the ability to commune with God. We can be made one with God through regeneration by His Holy Spirit. But instead of being spiritually alive, Herod was spiritually dead. God’s presence felt like a threat to his own power; he set out to thwart God by killing God’s Son.

We are like God in personality: God gave humankind intelligence, an ability to think and to know, feelings and emotions, and a will: the ability to make choices so we can correspond to God in obedience, experience His presence, to enjoy Him with overflowing joy, as the Magi did. But Herod had allowed his entire personality to become twisted by his jealousy for his crown.

We are like God in morality: God gives humankind a simple test, teaching us to know the difference between right, which is obedience to God’s word, and wrong, which is choosing something apart from God’s expressed will. The chief priests remained unmoved by God’s word, they chose to do nothing. Herod was troubled and unnerved by God’s word, he chose to try and destroy its fulfillment.

God revealed to Joseph what was about to happen, and Joseph obeyed God’s guidance.

“So [Joseph] got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt…”

How quickly, and completely, am I apt to obey what God reveals to me?

“…where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”

This is the second fulfillment of prophecy. It was important that Jesus go into Egypt.

Jesus was to be the people’s savior, One Who had experienced every aspect of His people’s lives and history. God’s plan for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus was to save them from disaster by hiding them in Egypt, just as God had brought Jacob’s clan to Egypt thousands of years before, to save their lives during the famine.

It must have been only a matter of days before Herod realized the Magi were not coming back through Jerusalem.

“When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”

Mayhem is part of life in a fallen world. The moment Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, murder was soon to follow as their firstborn son murdered their second, godly, son in cold blood. No one is exempt, not even the most godly.

Nothing escapes God’s notice. No one can thwart His plans or undermine His purposes. Yet, even so, events never spiral out of God’s control, as if He lacked power or insight to control what goes on in our little planet. Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine what could possibly have been God’s plan here, as He allowed the desperately wicked and evil King Herod latitude to put all these precious babies and toddlers to death.

We can still know anything and everything that happens in the lives of His people happen only by God’s permission, and always fulfill His purposes. God always has a purpose in what He allows, even if we don’t know what it is. From our perspective tragedies look meaningless and senseless and chaotic. But God specializes in taking evil and bringing good out of it. For ever believing family during that awful time in Bethlehem, God had a plan for good.

Tragedy can serve as a wake-up call. Sometimes it takes the horror of some awful event to wake up the otherwise stubborn coma of unbelief. As one theologian, C. S. Lewis, put it, “Pain is God’s megaphone to a deaf world.”

It is possible to embrace hope even in the middle of a tragedy. God’s hand is always held out to you in the middle of your suffering with the invitation to grab hold and count on Him to pull you through.

This world is not our final home. When terrible things happen, as happened to these shocked and grieving families so long ago, it is good to remember this fallen, broken world, riddled with sin, is not our final home. We were created for eternity, and tragedy can never change that.

This life is only a transition period, a prelude to what God really has in mind for us. The all-absorbing “now-ness” of our experiences severely limit our perspective. We want to rewind the tape, we look at how it could have been different, but God says “Look forward.” Look into eternity. For all those who love Him, Jesus says “I AM preparing a place for you to take you to be with Me forever.”

All passages taken from the New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

(Thoughts taken from “Where is God When Bad Things Happen?” by Luis Palau)

Matthew 2:1‑12 Proclamation of Christ

January 11, 2019 Joanne Hagemeyer

After the scribes and chief priests had presented their case, Herod was convinced.

“Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.’”

Herod was of course disguising what he really wanted to do, so he could manipulate these well-meaning foreigners into doing his leg work for him.

The wise men believed him.

“After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.”

How were they able to follow a star? Matthew doesn’t tell us, but certainly God was in it, because He makes Himself known to the people who genuinely look for Him.

So let’s stop a minute and think about all the responses Matthew has recorded so far to God’s proclamation that His Son has been born.

The people were bothered, vaguely worried, instead of excited and eager for their promised Messiah. Their ruler was a cruel and capricious king. They didn’t want anything to disturb him because that meant he would, in turn, take it out on them, people would get hurt, there would be upheaval and crackdowns.

Maybe you’re there. You like when the Bible talks about things that already are a part of your life, things that agree with how you view life already. But when you get to a part that doesn’t agree with your views you feel bothered. You feel vaguely worried, sensing this is going to mean upheaval in your life, and it might hurt.

How prepared are you to receive God’s guidance and how willing are you to follow it?

Herod was insanely suspicious, always worried that someone was going to try and take away his power and wealth. For all his good qualities as a ruler, this one trait ruined every good thing he did. Instead of him controlling his life, and ruling his realm, this one trait controlled him and made him a tyrant of his realm.

Is there some trait in your personality that is driving everything else, overshadowing your other good qualities because you are not reigning in the excesses of this one trait? Maybe it’s your short temper. Maybe you are a critical person, always pointing out what’s wrong with other people. Maybe it’s your love of shopping, or your love of gossip.

Maybe it’s your fear of people, or fear of anything new. Maybe it’s your self-consciousness. Maybe you are overly sensitive and see insults and slights in just about everything people say to you. Herod believed God’s word, but instead of rejoicing that God had brought the wise men right to his door with this incredible good news, he felt threatened, slighted, insulted by God. He wanted to destroy the fulfillment of God’s promise.

When do I resist God’s word and see it as a threat to my happiness?

Scribes and chief priest Religion was their work. These were the seminarians, ivory tower academics, deeply religious traditionalists, who considered themselves as perfectly keeping the law, above reproach; they knew it all and observed all the religious mores. Bethlehem was only five miles away, but they made no move to see if the Messiah had really been born there so they could worship Him.

As the teachers and law keepers, they didn’t feel the need to be taught anymore, the need to grow anymore; they considered themselves above all that, and above the people who still needed that.

You might find yourself there, Bible study has become a little ho-hum, it’s your work, you get it done, that makes you feel good, but it isn’t igniting your heart. You’re looking around at the people you feel still need it, so you’re keeping up with your Bible study for someone else.

How closely are you watching for God’s guidance in your own life?

Matthew 1:18-20, Divine Heredity

December 22, 2018 Joanne Hagemeyer

God did not only provide a royal lineage for His Son, He provided a miraculous, divine lineage as well.

“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’”

The virgin birth has been questioned in recent times, but Matthew makes a big deal about it. He was careful to explain each of the names in Jesus’ genealogy were fathered by the name before it: “Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob…” and so on. Until you get to verse 16 in the genealogy, which states,

“Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.”

Because Mary and Joseph were married before Jesus was born, Jesus inherited Joseph’s lineage. But Joseph did not father Jesus. Instead, Matthew said Jesus was conceived in Mary through the Holy Spirit. God fathered Jesus Christ.

It is a pivotal point in Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ story. Why a virgin birth? Was there a biological reason? A moral reason? All we can say is that in Genesis 3:15, God said the deliverer would come from the seed of the woman. This is the way God had always planned to give the world the Messiah.

The ancient Jewish wedding customs were a little different than the way we do things now. Typically, the marriage was arranged between the parents when the future bride and groom were still children.

Everyone in the community would know these two were promised to each other, to be married when they grew up. Up until the betrothal, if the girl became unwilling to go through with the arrangement, she had the option of backing out, and her family could then make a new arrangement with a different family. But once the girl and the boy both came of age, a legal ceremony called “betrothal” would be performed which would have the couple exchange absolutely binding vows, tantamount to a marriage.

During the betrothal time there would not be much contact between the bride and groom, each would live with their parents, and not enter into any of the privileges of marriage. The betrothal period lasted about a year to prove the bride’s virginity and to give the groom time to prepare their new home.

When the time was right – something only the father of the groom would determine – the formal wedding would take place, and the groom would take the bride to his family home to begin their married life together.

It was during this betrothal time that Mary was visited by the angel, and Joseph found himself in the predicament of having a pregnant fiancé.

If the baby had been his, he would not have hesitated to take Mary as his wife. Instead, he was troubled. The only way out of a betrothal was for it to be broken by another legal contract called a divorce, which is what Joseph determined to do, quietly, in order to protect Mary’s dignity and the reputation of her family.

We’re not sure when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant. In the gospel of Luke, chapter 1, it says an angel came to tell Mary what was about to happen. Mary was perplexed since she was not married, and she was a virgin. But the angel explained the child would be fathered by the Holy Spirit. Something unique would take place inside of her that would allow the Son of God to be born from her body.

Somehow, under the direct action of the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, the second person of the Godhead, the Son, was implanted in Mary’s uterus.

Amazingly, Mary said yes. Every woman since Eve had been hoping and praying for this honor. But Mary must have also known that, given the circumstances, this was not going to be easy.

Right after her encounter with the angel, Mary left to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who was experiencing her own miraculous pregnancy, carrying John the Baptist. In Elizabeth, Mary found someone who understood completely what was happening to her. Mary must have used the next three months to think and pray through her feelings about her own circumstances, as she helped Elizabeth, and stayed for the birth of Elizabet’s son John.

So, doing the math, here. Mary received the angel’s astounding message. She must have told her parents soon after. A plan was devised for Mary to see her elderly relatives, the priest Zechariah and his wife, Elisabeth. By this time, Elizabeth was six month’s into her miracle pregnancy, and the story of Zechariah’s own vist by an angel would have been well-known by now. Mary stayed at least three months, and most likely four months, for we know she was there when little John was born, and most likely stayed to help Elizabeth through those first weeks.

When Mary returned home, there is no doubt her own baby bump was showing. In a small town like Bethlehem it would have taken only a few hours for that news to have rippled out to everyone!! Think of the curtains fluttering as neighbors watched Mary come home! Think of all back doors banging as people ran from home to home, spreading their story! (If you’ve ever lived in a small town, you know exactly what I mean.)

Unlike Elizabeth, Mary was just a girl, unmarried and pregnant in a time when that was considered a crime punishable by death. She was willing to obey God, but she didn’t know how God was going to work it out to protect her.

God’s immediate protection came in His wisdom of choosing the right man to be the earthly father of His Son. The ancient Jew would have been horrified and repulsed to find out his betrothed was pregnant. But Joseph was a righteous man, he didn’t want to expose Mary to public disgrace, which would have resulted in her execution by stoning. That Joseph did not want any harm to come to Mary, or the baby, speaks volumes about his godly character, and tender compassion.

This is how righteousness is displayed, in the fruit of the Spirit, where you reach out in love and mercy, instead of having the knee-jerk reaction of saying “I can’t handle this, you’re going down.” He opted for quiet legal action, he would be free to marry someone else, a virgin, and she would be free to raise her child, and possibly even marry the man who had fathered it.

While Joseph was considering a quiet divorce as the most merciful thing to do in the situation, God took the initiative in protecting both Mary and Jesus by sending an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream, reassuring him the child was supernaturally conceived by God Himself.

When I was a young girl, there was an enormous social stigma attached to having a baby when you weren’t married. You got sent away to extended family, had the baby in secret, started another life, or gave the baby up for adoption, very privately. Children raised out of wedlock didn’t have the same legal rights as children born to or adopted by a married couple.

But right around the 1970’s that all changed with abortion laws and the legalizing of all children’s rights, regardless of whether they were raised by a married couple. Today, forty years later, lots of single women actively pursue getting pregnant, there isn’t any stigma at all, it’s actually kind of popular, except in some conservative circles, so it’s harder to imagine what this must have been like.

But try.

Even though they were living in Nazareth, which was not as strong a religious community as Jerusalem, and was actually sort of a cosmopolitan trade center for its day, Jospeh and Mary were both godly people. Try to think how difficult it must have been to face the family pressure, the social pressure, the disapproving stares when they attended synagogue. The father is who?!

They never even had a big wedding, but hurried through a small private affair, just like a shotgun marriage. Yet, both Mary and Joseph were convinced that God knew what He was doing, and would take care of them all along the way.

God often uses difficult circumstance to accomplish His will

God’s will was to have His Son, the Son of God, be born to this little family, and the Lord took care of them.

God’s will today is to make you like Jesus Christ. So, He puts difficult people in your life to shave off your rough edges, to polish you and transform you. His will is to let others know about Him, and His will and His word, so He puts you together with people who need to hear about Him, maybe in your workplace or your neighborhood.

God’s will is to show you His love and His grace, and He can only do that when He has your complete attention, so He often uses difficult circumstances to focus you. What’s the difficulty in your life right now? I’d be surprised if there wasn’t at least one thing going on right now.

How willing are you to trust God, to have faith in Him, that He knows what He is doing, that He is good and loving and powerful enough to take care of you all along the way? How willing are you to lean into the struggle and give it all you’ve got, so you will be cooperating with God as He accomplishes His purposes in you?

James Tissot, “Annunciation” | Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain]

Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)

December 24, 2017December 26, 2017 Bill Smith

Jesus the Game Changer

December 24, 2013January 9, 2014 Justin Hibbard1 Comment

Baseball Players of Advent: Joseph the Sacrifice Out

December 22, 2013December 22, 2013 Justin Hibbard

What young boy hasn’t stepped onto a baseball field, stood beside home plate, and pretended to swing for the fences? We picture ourselves in the pressure of batting in the 9th inning, with two outs, the bases loaded, and then knocking the ball out of the park to win the game in clutch fashion. We dream of living that moment depicted in the movie the Natural starring Robert Redford. However, more often than those dramatic moments, baseball games are won through the small details – the sacrifice flies, the executed bunts, the hits and runs. Instead of telling their player to swing for the fences, crafty managers will sometimes ask players to hit the ball in a way that will get the batter out while advancing the runner. It’s a strategy known as small ball.

This year for Advent, we are focusing on the “baseball players” in the story of Jesus’ birth. We’ve looked at Zechariah the Captain, John the Baptist the leadoff hitter, Simeon the Franchise Veteran, and this week, we’re taking a look at Jesus’ adopted father Joseph – the batter who was asked to sacrifice.

Imagine being engaged to a girl and finding out she’s pregnant. Imagine for just a moment all the thoughts that would run through your head? How could she do this to me? Who is the father? What if my church community thinks I did this? What will they think of me? How do I explain this to people? You can imagine Joseph’s desperate dilemma.

We’re not told much about Joseph, but we’re told that he was a righteous man, and instead of publicly humiliating Mary (which he was entitled to do), he decided that he would break-up with her quietly. However, just as he had made up his mind to divorce Mary, an angel of the Lord visited him in a dream and informs him that Mary’s child was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and this child would save his people from their sins.

In obedience and trust in God, Joseph married Mary. It was a decision that required a lot of sacrifice. Every husband dreams of a wedding night with his bride, yet, Joseph waited to consummate his marriage until after Jesus’ birth. Every father looks at their child, mesmerized with the idea that they co-produced this human being. Joseph would look on Mary’s first born knowing the baby was not biologically his. One of man’s oldest traditions is to name their son, but Jesus’ name was chosen for him. On a couple of occasions, Joseph would have to move his family and pick up his life in order to protect his adopted son.

Joseph is like the superstar power hitter that was asked to bunt. You can imagine the important game. There’s runners on base, the team is behind, only an inning or two remain. This is the moment to be clutch. However, instead of telling the all-star power hitter to swing for the fences, the coach says, “I want you to bunt the ball. I want you to advance the runners and in the process give yourself up.” It might infuriate a big hitter. Not only will they miss their opportunity to shine in the spotlight or make ESPN’s Top Ten, the decision won’t better their personal batting statistics. You can imagine how much the home crowd would boo the manager if they saw their best hitter square up to bunt the ball in a clutch moment. A decision like that would send many all-stars into the eye of the camera or the Twittersphere to vent their displeasure about their coach’s decision. But the best team players understand that the game is much bigger than just one person. They understand that more often than not in baseball it’s the sacrifice out that wins the game.

Joseph teaches us what humility and service to God looks like. He had so much at stake – his career, his reputation, his own satisfaction, and instead of thinking about himself, he sacrificed everything for the Kingdom of God. While Jesus, as the Son of God, didn’t need an earthly example to follow, He certainly received it in His biological father Joseph. Joseph committed his life to serving his adopted son and Messiah. He may not have realized it at first, but that became his life mission and his legacy.

Baseball Players of Advent: Simeon the Franchise Veteran

December 15, 2013 Justin Hibbard

Who doesn’t love winning the championship? Who doesn’t tie their cleats in April dreaming of holding the trophy in October? At the end of the season, when only one team celebrates, there’s a peculiarity that emerges. The new players are excited, jumping up and down, showering each other with champagne. They’ve completed quite the feat. But the veterans, especially the ones that have waited their whole careers for that moment, they lift the trophy like a giant weight off their shoulder. The way they cry over it, the way they kiss it, the way they cherish it – their long suffering produces an unmatched appreciation. They haven’t just played the season for that moment. They’ve played their entire careers for that moment.

This year for Advent, we are focusing on the “baseball players” in the story of Jesus’ birth. We’ve looked at Zechariah the Captain, and John the Baptist he Leadoff Batter. This week we’re focussing on Simeon – the Franchise Veteran.

In Luke 2, we’re told that Simeon was a righteous and devout man who had the Holy Spirit on him. This old man was living for one promise – the Lord told him that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. Eight days after Jesus’ birth, the Lord led him to the Temple. As he waited there, Joseph and Mary entered, carrying their newborn to the priest to be circumcised and dedicated. Simeon didn’t hesitate. Like a seasoned player waiting to get his hands on a trophy, Simeon grabbed Jesus and began singing praises.

We can imagine the fear and awkwardness that Joseph and Mary must have felt. Knowing that they were charged with caring for the Messiah, they must have lived with a heightened sense of awareness. This trip to the Temple was most likely their first public appearance, and right away a crazy old man snatched Jesus right from their arms.

As they soon found out, this man was more than a stranger. He was a prophet. They didn’t fully understand the weight of the baby in their arms, but Simeon knew. He was finally holding the Messiah.

Joseph and Mary were thrown very quickly into the story of Advent. The angelic visitations, the virgin birth, the challenges that came with parenting the Messiah, the things people said about their baby – it probably seemed like a giant whirlwind to them. How many times they must have asked each other, “What just happened?”

But Simeon, he was a man waiting for this very moment. Like the veteran who is handed the trophy and the microphone, years of longing and hoping poured forth from his heart like pure gold. Lou Gherig’s words, “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” were enshrined into baseball’s legacy. Simeon’s words would be enshrined into the Gospel forever.

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Simeon teaches us the beauty of waiting on the Lord. Often times we pass off the Lord’s promises because we haven’t invested our heart into it. Jesus aptly said, “Where your heart is, there your treasure is also.” As Simeon demonstrates, when our hearts are fixated on God and His promises, we will wait, hope, and trust in Him. And when the Lord decides to faithfully fulfill those promises, they will seem all the sweeter to us. “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus” is the hymn of veterans who appreciate the glory that comes through long suffering, waiting, and hoping.