Sermonette: Dec. 16, 2019

I have been considering five dreams in Matthew this Advent season. The third dream is another one of Joseph’s dreams: “Now after [the magi] had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, 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” (Matthew 2:13).

And so an arduous 200-mile journey, fleeing in the middle of the night, filled with danger at every turn, begins with a dream. It seems that there is a contest happening between Herod and God. Herod had his spies and informers and armies, but Joseph had only dreams from God, and Scripture to confirm them. Yet this dream wasn’t a happy one; it was more like a nightmare.

It seems that the evangelist we call Matthew includes the story of the escape to Egypt to portray Jesus as the new Moses, only far better. And there is a similarity between the stories of baby Moses and baby Jesus. Moses as a baby barely escapes death at the hands of an evil king (pharaoh); so does baby Jesus. Moses would lead God’s people out of Egypt, saving them from slavery and giving them the Law on Mt. Sinai. And Jesus comes out of Egypt to save his people from the slavery of sin and give them the Sermon on the Mount. Moses took the people to the edge of the Promised Land of Canaan. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, brings his people to the Promised Land of life in the age to come.

So, yes, there is a similarity between Moses and Jesus, but there is also a huge difference. Moses comes out of Egypt but doesn’t save us. Jesus comes out of Egypt and does. I think that is why Matthew tells us about Jesus’ trip to Egypt. It is part of God’s saving plan.

In Jesus, all of us escape death as we flee with him to Egypt. In Jesus, all of us are rescued from slavery to sin as we come out of Egypt with him. In Jesus, all of us are delivered from the law that condemns us through the cross of Christ that saves us. Salvation is what this story is all about. As we hear and believe the story of Jesus’ birth and his suffering, first as a child and then as a man, God saves us.

I’m mindful that if there were no story, if there were no birth of Christ, no suffering of the infant Savior, no flight to Egypt, no return to Israel and no death of Jesus on the cross, we would be lost in our sins. We would die without hope. But these things did happen. And because of them, we are saved.

In response we could proclaim that the Son of God was born as a real human being just like us. And in our place, even in his childhood, threatened by Herod and fleeing in the night, he began a life of suffering that would be completed only when he died on the cross to save us from our sins.

Joseph’s visions in the night were not visions of “sugar plums” dancing in his head. Thank God they weren’t. They were dreams of warning that he heeded, so that you and I would have a Savior. Glory be to God!