Second Sunday after Christmas (1880)

Matthew 2:13-23 Immediately upon the birth of Christ came the message: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." Soon, however, God also ensures that no carnal and vain hopes in regard to the future glory of the little child Jesus may intermingle in the joy of faith in the same. Namely Simeon, before he goes home in peace, in that wondrous blessing not only must prefigure to the newborn Savior His road of suffering, but also say to Mary, "A sword will pierce through your own soul." The servant of the Lord has thereby at the same time testified beforehand the sufferings that are in Christ and the glory afterwards to all lovers and followers of the Savior and the entire Christian Church to the end of days by the Holy Spirit.1 His prophesying already begins to go abundantly into fulfillment in our Gospel today. It testifies to us: The truth that the kingdom of the Lord Jesus was a cross-kingdom on earth; we recognize this truth 1. from the flight of the little child Jesus to Egypt, as well as from His return trip to Nazareth. An end of all suffering of the child was not made by the gifts of the wise men, rather the prophetic words of Psalm 40 should be fulfilled in His delicate childhood: "evils have encompassed me beyond number"; yes the incarnate Son of God was about to humiliate Himself gradually deeper and deeper in His holy youth; because a. when He was born one had behaved extremely indifferently to the arrival of the promised Messiah, and now even a king seeks the child, but in order to destroy him, b. in Bethlehem even a poor manger had been able to serve as His lodgings; here we see, "The Son of Man has no place to lay His head"; because . the King of Kings must be able to conceal Himself before a shadow king Herod in the night by a hasty flight, . the fatal hostility against the Prince of Peace does not die out with the tyrant Herod, even before his successor Archelaus the child cannot be safe. From all this we not only see that this child is the promised Savior2, i.e. actually "the newborn King of the Jews", but also of what nature His kingdom had to be. If the King had to undergo such a work of the cross in order to destroy Satan's kingdom and to found a kingdom; therefore His kingdom is only the fruit and reward of His sour work3 and hot struggle under nothing but cross and suffering, then His kingdom here on earth can only be a cross-kingdom. "As it has now gone in those days with the Child Jesus, it still goes these days with the Holy Gospel.... The Child Jesus Himself in the cradle had it no better, we will have it no better."4 Even Mary and Joseph had to suffer with Him.5 The servant may indeed not want to have it better than his master. Even today the Savior cries out to all His disciples on His way of suffering: "Where I am, there also shall my servant be." Where one experiences the saving power of God of the words from the cross, there one also soon finds the chalice of the cross.6 As Christ
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1 Peter 1:11-12. Matthew 2:15, 23. 3 Isaiah 53:11-12. 4 Luther, Erlangen Ed. 6:114f. 5 KELG 413:6. 6 Matthew 20:22-23.

Himself, so must His Church on earth be exposed to the hate of Satan and the world.7 As Christ on earth had no continuing city, so we Christians must be strangers and pilgrims on earth and therefore should look for another country.8 As the escape of Christ took a blessed end, so finally all our crosses.9 2. from the murder of the innocent little children in Bethlehem: a. they were indeed in fact innocent little children . before God; because they were clothed in the innocence of the promised Messiah by the circumcision, and as they still "were two years old and under", they could not have willfully thrust away the grace received, together with faith and a good conscience10, . before the world; they had inflicted it with nothing, so they had to be slain ignominiously11; b. yet they had to serve under the cruel sword strike of the Herodian henchmen breathe out their tender life and indeed according to God's premeditated counsel12. Many before them and after them have not loved their lives unto death for the sake of the name of Jesus. The world thinks, of course, Christ was to honor His servants differently and better, but His shame is their honor, His father honors them and finally takes them with honor. These children did Christ the honor that they were allowed to be His first blood witnesses and martyrs in the New Testament.13 It was not the end of them, they are certainly children of salvation. Luther: "Christ wants to be weak and suffering on earth with His own so that he makes the mighty fools and ashamed, and requires their fury to the fact that they make His heavens (although ignorant) full of saints and martyrs, so that His kingdom will be the more full, and He comes to judgment and gives the tyrants their wage, before they equip themselves."14 It is necessary and beneficial for us that we are chastened by the Lord, as the mothers of Bethlehem, in order that we are not condemned together with the world.15 If we are not able to justify ourselves before God in our well-earned cross, then the innocence of Christ comforts us. For our sake the Father condescends to our weakness and also covers our self-redeeming infirmities16 under the cross with His mercy.17 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God, as it shall dwell in a peaceable, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Alas, we would be there! F.S.

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Matthew 10:34; John 15:18-19. Hebrews 11; 2 Corinthians 5; Philippians 3. 9 ELHB 65:11. 10 Cf. Revelation 14:4. 11 Cf. Luke 13:1-5; John 9:2-3 with 1 Peter 2:19-20, 3:14, 17; 4:15-16. 12 Matthew 2:17-18. 13 Cf. Psalm 116:15; Psalm 72:14; Acts 5:41; 1 Peter 4:12-14; Matthew 5:10-12; Luke 6:22-23; Matthew 10:39. 14 From "Military Sermon Against the Turks". 15 KELG 276:4. 16 Matthew 2:22. Joseph's fear. 17 1 Peter 4:19; LSB 467:7.