Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2:13-23

I’ve been saying it for years, and it is still true, but I truly am a preaching nerd. I don’t think I’m particularly nerdy; alright I wear do glasses, and I’m far better skilled in reading a book than in kicking a footy. But I can kick a footy, and I can tell you how straight you have kicked a footy even if that footy has passed fifteen metres above my cap, and anyway I don’t think that you find me boring. Even so, I am nerdly fascinated by the choices the Lectionary makes for preachers, (ah, here we go), and today’s selection is a doozy. With regard to the Hebrew scriptures today we are pointed towards Isaiah 63:7-9. Seven to nine, that’s three verses; three verses are all we get! Why not the whole chapter, or why not another chapter altogether? If Isaiah 63 is such slim pickings that there are only three worthwhile verses, then why even go to Isaiah 63? Preaching nerds ask all the tough questions so that you don’t have to.

Well, the answer is that those three verses are actually pretty epic; those three verses are enough, and they are a good pick for today which is “The First Sunday After Christmas” in the Lectionary Calendar.

I will recount the gracious deeds of The LORD, the praiseworthy acts of The LORD, because of all that The LORD has done for us, and the great favour…that he has shown…according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. Rather good, huh. And that’s only Isaiah 63:7, there’s two more verses where that came from, verses that make it clear that it is The LORD who has called us God’s own people, and that it is The LORD who has saved us. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them, we read in Isaiah 63:9, a clear story in this week after Christmas that Emmanuel is the hero of history here. God with us, Godself with us, God is here in person with us, who are also here in person. God-with-us is with us in the place where we are, and in the rest of Isaiah 63, the bits that the Lectionary doesn’t want you to read, (so don’t read them, Lesen ist verboten) we discover that the place where we are, where God is with us, is the place of rebellion and rejection and arrogance and fifty shades of nasty. It is in the middle of this history of bloodshed and defiance that the prophet remembers the faithfulness of God, and that God arrives in person as saviour rather than sending a Moses or a David. God doesn’t send anyone into the maelstrom, God comes into the maelstrom. Great message, certainly worthy of its three verses and the ones around them, especially in Australia in December 2025. This is excellent activity by God, would recommend, five stars.

So, what happens when God is present, in person, in glory, and bloodshed breaks out, and God runs away…especially in Australia in December 2025. Eek.

In Matthew 2:13-23 and our reading from the Gospel Traditions today we get the story of the Escape to Egypt (by Jesus), and the Massacre of the Infants (except for Jesus), and the Return from Egypt (by Jesus, the only infant not massacred in the previous paragraph). When Herod sends assassins to kill the little baby Jesus, Yeshua, Emmanuel, “God’s Saviour” and “God with Us”, not only does God not save the other little babies who do get murdered after Jesus’ escape, but Jesus himself escapes! God-with-Us actually nicks off to Egypt after Jesus’ dad, and only Jesus’ dad, gets angelic intel about the approaching goons. Emmauel does a runner, an absolute runner, right when actual Jewish babies are being slaughtered through no fault of their own. Dubya-Tee-Eff! Where’s The Fairness in what God has just done here? In Isaiah 63 God comes in person into the middle of vicious blasphemy and does not send an angel, in Matthew 2 God sends an angel to the deeply dreamless sleepy little town of Bethlehem to get God-In-Person out of harm’s way, leaving everyone else to cop a sword. At this point I like the Hebrew God better than the Christian one, thoughts?

Hmm, weren’t expecting that, only three days after Christmas Day, eh? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, your God is a wimp and a coward.

Well okay, we know that can’t be true, and it is not true, but it cannot just be scoffed at as a poor take on scripture and ignored. Even so, just before we turn this ship around and get a happy outcome for the Bible-believing Christians amongst us, consider what we think of the cross. At Calvary, the innocent Jesus died to take away the sins of man. So why didn’t God just leave Jesus asleep on the hay in Bethlehem, and let Herod’s blokes slay the lamb of God, and leave every other child in Bethlehem unmolested. Think, cosmic justice would have been restored, the wrath of God satisfied, the holy one slain in place of the unrighteous: instead, we get cosmic justice utterly overturned with the massacre of innocents. Why preserve Jesus now only to have him crucified later, when what happens now comes at the cost of so many innocent wee lives? If Jesus only lived to die, then why wait thirty years for a cross at the additional cost of a cohort of Judean babies?

Off you go Evangelicals, answer that one! (Ah, preaching nerd; also good with the questions as well as the answers from scripture.)

Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. This is what we read in Hebrews 2:18, and that is some sort of answer to the big hanging question. God does not always intervene to prevent suffering, clearly God did not intervene for any child (except Jesus) in Bethlehem, and those children died. Even if Bethlehem were a small village (and it was), and even if the soldiers only killed the babies under two years old, which in a small village might be, say, only ten babies or toddlers rather than the thousands it would have been if Herod had attacked every child in Judea, it is still a catastrophic outcome for the mothers of those ten. Even if the prophecies are spot on and it is only Rachel alone crying in Ramah, poor Rachel! What we know about God from Hebrews 2, if not from our decades of discipleship, is that God was as desolated as Rachel. What I suspect about those who know God intimately is that Mary was probably also desolated, for the many Rachels. A great truth of the depth of the love of our God, (but Rachel is still without her babies), and God’s plan for the salvation of Creation was protected. Even Herod the King could not subvert the plans of God: hooray God wins and the little Lord Jesus was kept safe, and the boy Jesus grew into manhood where he lived to teach and love and demonstrate all sorts of other useful things as The Christ, before he also died and rose again. In the death of Jesus death itself was defeated; but thirty years earlier Rachel was left inconsolable by the disaster that overcame her, and two thousand years later our Jewish neighbours (and ourselves) continue to struggle with suffering.

It was necessary that Jesus escape Herod for God’s plan to be fulfilled. It was not necessary that Herod kill all the babies of Bethlehem, and that was not part of God’s plan. Okay it wasn’t necessary because Herod was trying to murder the actual Messiah and, well, what an idiot for even trying; but if you look at Matthew’s story Herod knew that the Magi had seen through his scheme, and that Jesus was gone. The Massacre of The Innocents was not an assassination attempt at all; it was the spiteful revenge upon the world of a mad king with serious emotional issues. Spite, anger, revenge, murder, blasphemy, rebellion, choose your own nouns here but whichever ones you produce you will probably find them listed in Isaiah 63. Where we have just heard that God came in person and not through an angel intermediary is exactly what Herod was up to: and the baby needed to be kept safe until the man could conquer death and hell when the time was right.

Sometimes it is difficult to be a Christian. Why the babies died and why God didn’t stop it happening when God did stop Jesus dying is not the only challenge to our faith in a good God. The world asks many questions like this, sometimes I wish that The Church would too. At the very least we need to acknowledge that the one we love, and trust does not always come through for us and for our unbelieving friends, which goes a long way to explaining why those friends are unbelieving. I do not believe that God is a wimp and a coward, our messages from Isaiah and Hebrews make it clear that God is always to be found in the midst of human terror and turmoil even if it appears that God has done nothing to prevent or minimise the damage. And there is nothing, nothing, wimpish or cowardly about Golgotha: let me be clear in saying that. But still, sometimes, even our brave and compassionate God, the one who died on a cross, the one who wept with Rachel, the one who raged at Herod but did not stop him, sometimes God confuses me and the Bible as a blank text, words on a page, does not make things any clearer.

So, happy new year and Merry fourth day of Christmas. May those calling birds sing you the loveliest tunes today as you prepare to bid welcome to 2026. But do, in the new year, take time to pause to wrestle with what you know about God, what you know from God, and then do not rely on what you think you know. God is bigger than our problems, God has the answer to all of our doubts, fears, and confusions; so please do not withhold them from God or hide your confusions, fears, doubts, and problems. As did Joseph so we should trust and obey, but you are also allowed, just as he did before the birth of his son (who wasn’t his) to ask for a discussion. It is not a lack of faith to asks a question, it is a sign of faith that you approach God expecting an answer. God welcomes your nerdery on the Bible and on preaching, so be curious.

Amen.