King Herod hates Christmas 2
See Part I: King Herod hates Christmas
King Herod was thinking… “What if… a child is born, a prince of peace who destroys my nation?”
God was thinking… “What if… a child is born, a prince of peace, who unites many nations?”
See King Herod thinking. See God thinking.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
—Matthew 2: 16
King Herod decides, I’m just going to kill every single male child under the age of 2. So that this child will not be born.
God was thinking, I will tell Mary and Joseph to go on the run, so that their child will be born.
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.”
—Matthew 2: 13
As Herod was slaughtering children—
“A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more.”
—Matthew 2: 18
Meanwhile—
Shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night. behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…, the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for … I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
—Luke 2: 8-14
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
On Christmas night, there was fear on one side… And faith on the other side…
Both asking “What if….?”
“What if… (oh, no!)?”
“What if… (Oh yes!)?” A child is born…
You are that child
The same exact thing happened when you were born.
What if… all these bad things end up happening to you?
What if… all these good things end up happening to you?
Just like Jesus, both things happened to you. Good things happened to the child that was born. Bad things happened to the child that was born. But one thing is irrevocable— the child was born. You were born.
You don’t not be born just because of what the world does… when you are born.
Part of the world is going to respond to you being born— with fear. “What if… you are gay? trans? have a disability? a dis-ease? turn into a serial killer?”
The other part of the world is going to respond to you being born— with faith. “Hey-hey-hey… What if… you are perfect as you are?”
And I want to know that God is on the side of those who have FAITH IN YOU, the child that was born. He knows there are others who will be in fear, just because you were born— and he sees them, he knows they’re gonna kill you—
He told Joseph, “let’s get out of here.”
And then when they ran out into the night there were magical Christmas angels, heavenly hosts swirling in the skies above the manger, and a star sparkling and hovering over them. God knows that there are people in fear who you need to flee from. But he’s going to make it fun for you to flee.
The journey towards faith will always be worth it.
You can look back behind you and say, “This guy is trying to kill me.”
Or you can look forward in front of you and say, “This star is guiding me.”
They’re both TRUE.
Fear is true. That guy is trying to kill you.
Faith is also true. That star is guiding you.
But when you are faced in life… with two truths, which are both true— which truth is the one you choose?
