The Lord and Giver of Life - Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:1-8

Have you been born again? This is a question that sounds a bit odd to many of us this morning, a question we might expect in a church from a different tradition, like a Pentecostal church. Yet this is what Jesus tells Nicodemus we all need, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'" Paul also talks about new life, contrasting the new life with being dead in our transgressions and sins. In both Ephesians and John, new life is found in following Jesus and accepting him as our Lord and Saviour. Paul tells us again in Colossians that we are dead in sin, but made alive with Jesus; powerful words of hope!

Paul talks about being dead in our transgressions and sins. This is about our spiritual condition, a heart and soul thing, not a physical body thing. There’s a lot of brokenness today that creates a death of hope, a dying of peace and safety; there’s hurt inside many that kills any chance of dreaming of something better. I volunteered for years at a downtown ministry in Thunder Bay with men whose families had shattered, with children from broken homes, many filled with parents struggling with addictions. I saw the scars and trauma in their eyes. They came looking for hope, for help, for a new start again. Many of them only knew of God as a someone who hated people who broke his rules. The family brokenness, the breaking down of being community together in a society focused on 'me first,' has led to lots of loneliness and brokenness. When they would come to that place of accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, it was amazing the transformation that happened as they accepted God’s grace in Jesus.

Paul's not saying that you can't experience joy, satisfaction, accomplishment, or even love in your life without being made alive in Jesus, just that it has no roots to it. I have many friends who don't want anything to do with God or religion and have happy and fulfilling lives. They’re accomplishing a lot and doing a lot of good things and they don't feel dead. Yet in God’s eyes they are dead because they’re disconnected from Jesus who is life. Life’s not just about breathing, it’s about being anchored in Jesus as Lord.

Without Jesus and the Holy Spirit, the good things in life, the good things we accomplish, the happiness we feel all depends on us and our ability to make life go well, but what happens when life goes hard? We often discover that the things we put our trust in for happiness end up failing us at some point. In small and large ways, we've made the good things God has given us, God’s blessings into gods small "g" gods that we lean on to make us happy and satisfied. When you judge life by how you feel, you’ll make sure you surround yourself with stuff that makes you feel good. Yet in the end, everything you've done comes to an end because it’s focused on this life. If death and nothingness is all that you have to look forward to, life loses its meaning and purpose.

An old friend continues to say 'no' to Jesus, he’s admitted that he sometimes wonders why he bothers working hard, does good things, and helps others, and his only answer is because it makes him feel good. He's been married and divorced twice and was living with his girlfriend. His happiness depends on keeping her satisfied enough to stay with him. This is what Paul's talking about when he talks about “gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.” This is what Jesus is getting at with Nicodemus, when life and happiness depends completely on what we do and have, the “flesh giving birth to flesh” idea instead of the “Spirit giving birth to spirit.” I've always been a "God" person in his life and so we would talk about happiness and having something constant in our lives instead of things that keep changing. We’ve talked about God and why Jesus is that constant in my life. I’ve talked about how Jesus makes me a different person; someone he keeps talking to about Jesus. Being born again for him will look like exchanging his small 'g' gods for Jesus. This is a decision we all need to make.

Tim Keller mentions how some of the unhappiest people he's met are those who've succeeded in life but then found that as they accomplished all their dreams, they were still restless. The more they achieved, the more they needed in order to feel fulfilled and happy. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a member of the ruling council, a man dedicated to fulfilling all the laws and requirements of the Jewish faith, but still he’s seeking more, finding that doing the law wasn't filling that emptiness in his heart and soul that needs more. Nicodemus shows up one evening; hoping to find something to fill those empty places in his soul.

Jesus identifies Nicodemus' heart longing, that emptiness in his soul as a longing for the kingdom of God. Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus, "How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!" You have to wonder how can someone as educated as Nicodemus not understand that Jesus isn't talking in literal terms, but pointing to something deeper. Jesus is trying to help Nicodemus see is that, instead of seeing life through the lens of following all the rules or his accomplishments, Nicodemus, and many of us, need to see and experience life from a new starting point. Jesus points to the need to have the Holy Spirit renew your heart, soul and mind so that you approach and live life through Jesus instead of yourself. We've messed up our hearts and souls through sin so much that it is described as death. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the only ones who can un-mess us up again and bring us into new life.

I was talking last week with someone about how faith is a heart and soul thing, not a rules and law thing. Faith is rooted in relationship with Jesus; this is what Paul’s getting at when he tells the Ephesians, “Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” There’s that word “grace” again, rooted in our relationship with God, rooted in God’s great love for us; a love that looks like sacrifice, that looks like Jesus on a cross reconciling us with God our Father again and bringing new life. There’s a whole lot of death and life talk here by Paul; our souls are dead in our sins, but he keeps pointing us to the offer of new life and the generosity and grace of God, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Receiving the new life that flows out of God’s grace, means letting go of your old life and your wants; letting God take charge and shape your life his way instead; inviting the Holy Spirit to wash the old away and dress you in new clothes with a new family name and identity anchored in Jesus. You’ll begin to embrace new priorities and cultivate a new focus in life based on accepting Jesus completely, letting go of your fear and embracing trust and faith in Jesus and his plans for you. You may be called to embrace some of the chaos that comes from loving the prodigal as God does; reaching out to the hurting and broken, coming alongside those that are rejected and ignored by loving those Jesus loves, helping them know they too can have new life, that there’s hope because of God’s amazing grace.

You’re invited by God to embrace his grace. You’re God’s handiwork, created to do good works, to be grace to others. Living our new life in and with Jesus frees us to accomplish Jesus’ goals because the old stuff no longer holds us back. It may seem small to you to lead someone to Jesus, but the angels in heaven celebrate every time someone comes to Jesus, making that small thing in your eyes something that has eternal consequences. Your new life allows you to continue the things Jesus was doing as he told his disciples in John 14, ^" Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

Your new life is a sign of hope to others looking for healing and hope in their own lives. You’re witnesses of the power of Jesus in the world still today; of the power to hope again after life throws you a curveball. Jesus sees who you are and all the potential he’s placed in you when he created you. The church is here for the world, Jesus has put us here, not for ourselves, but to go out wherever Jesus has placed us to serve and to bring healing, and to make disciples by offering them the new life found in Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit in you brings change into our community that ripples out in ways that you can't even imagine as the Holy Spirit blows wherever it pleases. We’re part of building a community of strength and hope and health rooted in Jesus; living out what the kingdom of God is, where people focus on living for others, offering them God’s grace.

Spiritual Blessings - Ephesians 1:1-14

                         

I love this letter of Paul to the church in the city of Ephesus; it’s a letter filled with theology, enough for a seminary education, all rooted in the 2-word phrase “in Christ.” Scott Hoezee identifies these theological gems introduced in these first 14 verses, “The Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Divine election. Redemption through Jesus’ blood. The baptismal seal of the Holy Spirit. The doctrines of creation and providence. Salvation by grace alone. Eschatology. Faith. Sanctification. The proclamation of the gospel. It’s all here.” Yet at its heart, Paul reminds us that our faith is rooted in Jesus, it’s all about God, and, as two great Jacob’s, Eppinga and Prins, keep reminding me, “it’s all about grace!” Throughout this entire letter, we’ll be reminded over and over again that our salvation is completely begun and carried out by Jesus; we’re unable to contribute to our salvation in any way, and the grace in this completely changes us for the better.

Ephesus is the most important city in the area; a commercial, cultural, and religious hub that drew people from every part of the known world, and even from parts unknown, making it a fascinating mix of cultures, languages, and faith beliefs. Paul spent two to three years in Ephesus building the church. Because of its location on major trade routes and its multi-cultural population, Ephesus was a strategic place to build a church that could spread the gospel news far and wide.

It was customary when you wrote letters in Paul’s time to open with greetings and blessings and then introduce the different things you’re going to talk about in the main part of the letter. Our verses this morning is the greeting and introduction part to what Paul is going to go more in-depth about and what we will be reflecting on over the next few weeks as we journey through Ephesians.

Paul reminds his readers that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus. The Greek word for “apostle” literally means “one who is sent” and can refer to a representative or anyone sent on a mission. An apostle is given the authority of the one who sent him while a disciple is still a student, someone who is learning. All of the apostles were disciples, they were among the many believers in Jesus, but only a small group of disciples were chosen as the Twelve Apostles as we read in Matthew 10:1–4 when Jesus sends them out in pairs to share the gospel news of Jesus and gives them power to even cast out demons, and in Acts 26:14–18 where Paul is telling King Agrippa about his call to go share the gospel news of Jesus. This included the original twelve disciples and Matthias after Judas betrayed Jesus, and then Paul. Paul receives his call a little differently on the Damascus Road, but he’s definitely chosen by Jesus and given the call to go make disciples. Later we discover others are also given the title apostle.

Paul goes on and reminds then that they are a holy people; people set apart by God as his. This is followed by a blessing, offering them grace and peace from God. A blessing is all about speaking God’s presence into someone’s life. Then comes something really special, Paul begins praising God and how he’s blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. At this point I’m going “WOW,” what a picture of God’s incredibly generous nature! This is no stingy God, but a God who pours out every spiritual blessing to us, his people; not because we deserve them, but because this is who God is!

What are these spiritual blessings? We’re chosen to be holy, to be set apart for God and made blameless, forgiven because we’re chosen in Jesus. God sees us through what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross where he took our sin on himself, where he died and was buried for our sin, and then was raised from the dead and now sits with God preparing to return and claim everything under himself again. We’re chosen to be children of God to bring him praise for his glorious grace. To think that our confession of faith in Jesus, that in how we live as his children leads to God being given all the praise is an amazing call for our lives!

It’s all about God and Jesus; our lives are always to point to them. If you know grammar, this intensifies the awesomeness of what Paul is saying here. All the verbs used by Paul here in the original Greek are in the past perfect tense. You might say so what, well this means that everything Paul is saying here about what God is doing is settled, completed, accomplished once and for all; there’s no turning back, no changing what God has done in these blessings given to us! God does it all, he will not turn his back on us, he will not un-choose us, he will never take back his gift of grace and faith, all we’re called to do is simply receive the blessings; hopefully with lots of thanksgiving and praise!

Why does Paul focus so strongly on these things? We look back to what the world was like then. For the most part, things looked mostly good. The economy wasn’t horrible, there was mostly peace in the empire. As long as you acknowledged Caesar as lord, you could believe whatever you liked, religion was mostly tolerated. Yet as you dig into the government, the philosophies, the faiths of the day, as you take a closer look at the empire, you begin to see that signs of corruption were creeping in, cracks were starting to form in society. With the world opening up because of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, the investment in infrastructure like roads, the world was coming to the Roamn Empire with all its diversity and different beliefs.

When people looked to all the various faiths and philosophies that were appearing and capturing people’s minds and hearts, they were mostly told that they needed to earn their ways into a better life or into paradise. Philosophers were teaching that the gods were created in our images, or if gods did exist, that they weren’t interested or engaged in this world except for their own pleasure, and that they could be manipulated but not trusted. No matter the faith or philosophy, they all mostly came down to telling the people that we need to work towards becoming perfect, it’s all up to us to save ourselves.

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus to show them that their lives have meaning by pointing them to God who has created them for a reason and gives them a purpose. Paul shows them a God who values and loves them, giving them a place where they belonged and were accepted, filling them with hope; things the other faiths and philosophies didn’t offer. Paul tells them that God loves us, honours us; sharing with us “the mystery of his will… to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ… in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the paise of his glory.” The greatest gift is that God does it all, he chooses us, saves us, and gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us into becoming more like Jesus. We’re reminded that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves, that God uses us to play a part in the grand plan of God for all creation to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ!

This fascinates me, that we’re part of God’s plan to accomplish this; God’s doing this through the Holy Spirit working through us when we put our hope in Jesus, when we commit our lives to be for the praise of his glory, showing the world who Jesus is and the difference he brings, sharing what he’s done for us by becoming one of us, living life with us. All it takes to belong is to believe the message of truth, the good news of our salvation. As a sign and mark of reassurance, we’re given the Holy Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance as children of God.

Biblical scholar N. T. Wright shares with us what the gift of the Holy Spirit looks like, “Those who follow Jesus, those who find themselves believing that he is the world’s true Lord, that he rose from the dead—these people are given the Spirit as a foretaste of what that new world will be like. If anyone is ‘in the Messiah,’ what they have and are is—new creation.… The Spirit is the strange, personal presence of the living God himself, leading, guiding, warning, rebuking, grieving over our failings and celebrating our small steps toward the true inheritance.” A time-honored Christian confession of faith, the sixteenth-century Heidelberg Catechism, declares the same truth: “By the Spirit’s power we make the goal of our lives not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand” (Q&A 49).

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul gets us thinking in big picture ways, thinking of eternity, of salvation, of thinking about more than me and more about we and the world. He offers a message of hope, a message anchored in the gift of the Holy Spirit as a seal on us of God’s promises, showing us that God claims us as his, not as slave, but as his children, princesses and princes in the kingdom of heaven. As we journey through life, we do life in Christ, looking to Jesus for our identity, for who we are called to be as his brothers and sisters, and how to carry out his work of sharing the gospel news that leads people to God. To do life in Jesus, he gives us the Holy Spirit so we can have the courage and joy that comes from being his. May you all experience every spiritual blessing in Christ as you go into the world this week.

Being Salt and Light - Matthew 5:13-16

  

The beginning of a new year is always a good time to think about who we are as Bethel Church, and who we want to become as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and opening our hearts and minds to Jesus’ plans for us. It's important that God is at the center of all our dreams and hopes; that we’re known as a church that honours God and follows Jesus; known for our faithfulness and grace. This is where the Sermon on the Mount comes in. Jesus’ sermon brings together how Jesus desires his followers to live with each other and with God. Jesus begins with a series of blessings, though not blessings as we normally understand blessings and they end with Jesus saying, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." It's in this context that Jesus calls us to be salt and light.

It's easy to follow Jesus when everything is going well, however Jesus is talking about following him in a deliberate way during times when we’re looked at and considered a fool, and worse, by many in the community because we follow Jesus. It takes trust and faith in Jesus to embrace who he is calling us to be when it's quite different from most others around us. The challenge is to be salt and light when what we believe is right and wrong is different from the world around us. This is the situation the early church found themselves in. It's in this kind of an environment that we can really be salt and light through the strengthening and development of a Christ-like character, always responding with grace.

Proverbs reminds us that “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bone.” We can turn away a lot of anger and fear by how we respond in difficult circumstances. Peter calls us to “in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Being salt and light is about being an agent of transformation, changing the environment around you. It's not about big stuff, it's about small consistent acts of grace based in your relationship with Jesus that creates significant differences around you and in the lives of others. Salt and light are not neutral elements, they make a difference, even if only a small difference. Jesus is telling us we’re change makers.

Miroslav Volk writes about how the West has changed over time. Augustine defined the supreme good that makes us truly happy as “a completely harmonious fellowship in the enjoyment of God, and each other in God.” Life was centered outwards to God and neighbour. Then humanism came along and rejected God, but the love of neighbour as being fundamental to human flourishing remained. However, in today’s culture, Volk sees human flourishing is becoming more defined as “experiential satisfaction,” which is centered on “concern for the self and the experience of satisfaction.” The idea of being salt that seasons a community or being light is slowly being lost today; this is why it’s so important for the church to show the way, walking in the way of Jesus. At the heart of being salt and light is in truly loving God with everything we are and loving our neighbours as ourselves, seeing everyone as precious because they’re created in the image of God.

Salt is used for many things, but most importantly it was used to season food and preserve food, especially meat which would otherwise rot. It's an important spice in hot climates, so important and useful that it’s even been used as currency or money at different times through history. It's a basic spice, nothing exotic or super special, and often cheap. It’s ordinary, it's easily overlooked until you don't have it. Salt seasons any food it's put into and a little goes a long way. It makes food taste better, enhances whatever you are cooking or baking. Without it, food is bland and not nearly as enjoyable.

How can you enhance the places God has put you, how can you make life better, more like God desires? It takes connecting with God and being open to the kind of person and church God is working to transform us into. It involves more listening to God than talking to God; it's about reading the Bible to discover who God is and how he works so we can become closer to God. It’s about asking God to help us see the people around us, and the life situations we're in ourselves, through his eyes and with his heart so that we can offer hope, encouragement, blessing, and even wise advice. Seasoning life around us is more about who we’re becoming as followers of Jesus than about specific actions and deeds.

Salt has been used as a preservative since ancient times. It works by absorbing water from foods, making the environment too dry to support harmful mold or bacteria. This allowed the people to keep their meat safe even though they had no refrigeration back then. Salt is used in healing, even today. Growing up, any time we cut or scraped ourselves badly, my mother would force us to soak the injured area in salt water in order to keep it from getting infected. Ancient Egyptians used salt water for treating wounds and stomach ailments while Greeks and Romans used it for treating scrapes, cuts, mouth sores, and skin irritations. Even today, modern medicine uses saline water, especially in surgery. It helps clean and sterilize wounds preventing infection.

What does it mean to be salt? Biblical writers compare salt to wisdom. Paul tells us in Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." An early biblical scholar writes, "Salt is the symbol of that wisdom which gives a relish for the sweetness of divine nourishment; preserves, by the teaching of the Gospel, from the corruption of sin, and prevents evil passions from growing in men's souls." Wisdom creates a desire in us to know Jesus better and drives us to study, prayer, reflection, and living as Jesus taught us to. It passes on the faith and wisdom of God by teaching the story of God's relationship with humanity, making sure the Bible is taught especially to our youth as we embrace learning as part of our journey in following Jesus. Wisdom prevents evil from growing in our hearts, just as salt keeps bacteria from growing in wounds, because it keeps us focused on Jesus.

This ties into the image of light Jesus uses here, "You are the light of the world." Light illuminates and pushes back against the darkness. It's an image of hope and guidance and brings life. While Jesus calls us the light of the world, our light comes from Jesus as it flows into us and through us into the world. As the light of the world, Jesus reveals what’s good and healthy, what’s blessed and beautiful in our culture, our relationships, and more. Jesus calls us to shine in the places he's put us in to reveal the good, the beautiful, and healthy, but also to reveal and push back against the dark and unhealthy; the places where there’s a lack of justice, grace, and health.

As light in the world, we’re called to be people of hope who create hope and show the difference following Jesus makes in our lives and shapes who we are. Jesus says, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Our lives need to point to God, helping others see who God is. It's not through extraordinary deeds or accomplishments, it's through the simple everyday acts that show we care and are willing to be there with others, remembering that what we do for others, we’re doing for Jesus. As Mother Teresa said “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Because we’re keeping our eyes on Jesus, we love our neighbours, wanting them to flourish. Augustine wrote, “God is the only source to be found of any good things, but especially of those which make a man good and those which make him happy.” We are called to share the good news of Jesus; this is why we are here!

You can be a mentor to someone, guiding them by being an example and helping them develop into deeper followers of Jesus. You can pray for others and let them know you're praying for them. You can encourage others, building them up, and it doesn't matter how old or young you are, you all can bless others; creating a church and community of people who are blessed and who bless others, making sure God is the one who gets the glory and honour. It's simple things like stopping and spending time with others listening and showing interest in who they are. For many people today, just knowing that you’re willing to be there can make an enormous difference to someone, showing that God is interested in them too. This is grace, this is love, this is God working through you and in you. May this be our goal for 2024, that all our other plans and dreams will flow from who God is shaping us to be.

A Nazarene - Matthew 2:13-23

                     

This is a story of God’s protection, but also God’s hiddenness; a story of salvation and of evil, a hard story that echoes back to Moses being saved from death while others weren’t saved; it’s a reminder that while many of us are safe and happy, there are many of God’s children today suffering. God can feel so close and powerful while at other times he can feel so far away. This is a story of the world, a story that reminds us that the world is not the way it’s supposed to be and still there’s hope because Jesus is saved so he can save us, and one day fully establish his kingdom of peace, safety, and hope where evil will no longer have any sway or presence. In the story of Jesus’ birth, Matthew refers to how Jesus’ birth and early years fulfill 3 different prophecies, 2, and perhaps even all 3 of them, in painful ways.

The Magi have come and gone after finding Jesus, worshipping him, and offering him tribute. All of this was more for Mary to treasure in her heart. We often focus on the three gifts of tribute, the frankincense, myrrh, and gold and we can assign different meanings to each of the gifts, in the end the important thing is that they allowed Joseph to keep his family safe. In the wonder of angel visits, the birth of Jesus, important and not-so-important visitors with amazing stories of heavenly guidance, the reality that there is still evil in the world intrudes into the lives of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.

An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells 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.” Herod is on the warpath against this threat to his power. So, Joseph takes Jesus and Mary and they flee to Egypt to keep them safe. While historically, Egypt may seem to us to be a strange place to flee to, Egypt had been a place of safety and refugee for Israel in the past, a place where in the time of Jacob and Joseph, they were able to come during a famine and settle down while still only a large family and over the years grow into a nation. Joseph and Mary settle in Egypt with Jesus since there was a large Jewish population in Egypt, mostly around the area of Alexandria.

This is the first Old Testament prophecy that’s fulfilled in Matthew’s account. This prophecy comes out of Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt have I called out my son.” Hosea’s writing about when God called out Israel out of Egypt at the Exodus. He’s referring to Israel when the nation was a young nation and learning how to be a nation because they’d been slaves for so long. The metaphorical language of the nation as God’s son, comes straight out of the story of the Exodus when Moses tells Pharaoh, “This is what the LORD says, Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go so he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son.” God punishes Egypt for killing so many of the sons of Israel.

Moses uses the history of his own birth to do a wordplay on the word son as Israel being God’s firstborn son; God’s now going to kill Pharoah’s firstborn son. Now in the time of Herod, another ruler is going to attempt to kill God’s firstborn son, Jesus. Moses was saved in order to lead God’s people into freedom, Matthew sees God saving Jesus as an echo to Moses as Jesus is saved in order to save his people from their sin. The echoes would have struck the ears and hearts of the Jews hearing Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth and seeing God’s hand at work in saving his children. The pain comes in knowing that not every child is saved.

Herod, in a fit of rage at finding out the Magi had deceived him, sends troops to Bethlehem to kill all the baby boys in the area. He targets Israel’s baby boys just as Pharoah did centuries earlier. This fulfills the second prophecy that Matthew connects to Jesus’ birth, “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” This prophecy comes from Jeremiah after Israel’s taken into exile. Babylon conquered Israel and many Israelites were killed in the conquest, men, but also women and children. It’s as if Jeremiah can hear the patriarch Jacob’s wife Rachel weeping for her lost children. I can still hear my mother weeping when my sister died in a car accident at 18. For a long time, I thought the tears would never end, and honestly, she went to her grave decades later still weeping. Jesus comes with great rejoicing and celebration, but his coming also brings great sorrow due to the presence and cruelty of evil in our world. For many still today, the lives of the children are not precious enough to prevent evil from sacrificing them for its own benefit and the cries of mothers mourning the loss of their children still ring out today in places like Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, Russia, and too many other places.

After Herod’s death, an angel again comes to Joseph to let him know it’s safe to go home. Joseph and Mary head back to Israel with Jesus, but they don’t trust Herod’s son Archelaus who’s as cruel as his father, so they head north to Galilee. They move away from the seats of power of both government and temple, putting the entire province of Samaria between them. Joseph and Mary settle in Nazareth with Jesus, close to family, a place of safety for Jesus, hopefully a place that has moved past Mary’s scandalous pregnancy. Matthew mentions that this fulfills a third prophecy that he “would be called a Nazarene.”

Being called a Nazarene was not a compliment. We see this in John 1 when Philip talked to Nathanael, “Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” When Matthew tells us that Jesus being called a Nazarene fulfills what was said through the prophets, we get a glimpse at how the Jewish people used their Scriptures and do theology because there is no prophet who actually mentions in those exact words that the Messiah will come from Nazareth. This is where the Jewish culture and how they do theology comes into play, especially with the Hebrew scriptures.

In Isaiah 11, the prophet talks about a shoot coming out of a stump, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” The word for shoot in the Hebrew is netzer, which is the same 3-letter root that the name Nazareth comes from. Netzer means “a small twig, a sprout, or sucker.” The tree of Jesse has been chopped down and now all that’s left is a sucker coming up out of that old dried-up stump; this is a picture of weakness; the proud strong tree is reduced to a fragile twig. Nazareth is never mentioned in the Old Testament; the great Jewish historian Josephus also never mentions this small insignificant town either. It’s a small village in the province of Galilee. Galileans were looked down on as being simple farmers rather than the leaders, rulers, or scholars of Israel you’d find in Judah and Jerusalem.

Matthew starts off by describing the Messiah Israel was expecting, a king that even foreigners bow down to and worship, and then Matthew shows us the Messiah that the Old Testament points to, the servant in Isaiah, the refugee raised outside of Israel in Hosea, the persecuted child in Jeremiah, the scorned and rejected Messiah of Isaiah who dies for his people in spite of how they receive him. Jesus is identified with helpless, the vulnerable of this world rather than the powerful.

Archelaus would never have thought to look for the Messiah in Nazareth. That’s the whole point here; Jesus is not the kind of Messiah that they or anyone else was expecting. Nelson Trout, the first African-American bishop in the American Lutheran Church used to say that “in Jesus Christ, God stoops down very low,” echoing the early church hymn in Philippians 2, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” But the story doesn’t end with a dead Messiah on a cross, the hymn goes on, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” bringing us back again to how Matthew first introduces us to Jesus as a king whom other kings will bow down to.

As one writer put it, “The Christmas story begins with the birth of a child. But it doesn’t end until this child has grown up, preached God’s mercy, been crucified and died and then raised again. Actually, it doesn’t end until Jesus draws all of us into that same story, raising us up to new life even amid the very real challenges that face each of us here and now.” Jesus, the Messiah who relates to everyone, invites you to trust in him as he leads you to the Father, as he draws you into his family to tell his good news story.