Matthew 2:13-23 Jesus Is Not a Threat
1. Matthew speaks of a voice in Ramah, slaughter of the innocence Massacre of the innocence
• Raman was a city in ancient Israel.
• There is A voice of weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more (2:18).
• This is the impact of violence, especially on vulnerable children and adults. Happened in Moses day and here in Matthew
2. Violence was present in the early days of Jesus
• Right after the wise men left Bethlehem, 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.
• The Angel said, “Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him” (v. 13).
• King Herod was feeling threatened by the birth of this baby who had been identified as the king of the Jews.
• Herod felt frightened and angry, Herod ordered a search and destroy mission to be carried out in Bethlehem.
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3. Herod could have seen things much different than he did
• Herod could have welcomed baby Jesus
• Herod could have accepted the Jewish Messiah
• He could have realized this baby is not a threat and was a gift from God.
• But what he did was send his troops “to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (v. 16). He resorted to violence because he did not see Jesus as a gift from God. Instead, he saw him as a threat.
4. Jesus is a Gift, Not a Threat
• Pastor John Pavlovitz says, “As followers of Jesus, we are challenged to see our neighbors as gifts, not threats. “When you meet another person,” you are coming face-to-face with a once-in-history, never-to-be-repeated reflection of the image of God. … each [is] made of God stuff. … Every single day you encounter thousands of breathing, animated thumbnails of the Divine.”
• Every person you meet is God stuff. It doesn’t matter where they were born, whether they’re old or young, red or blue; your neighbors are “thumbnails of the Divine.” They are gifts, not threats. Worthy of respect, not hostility.
5. Sometimes we look at Jesus as a threat and not a gift
• Jesus is a threat If I become a follower=this might threaten my life style
• I may have to give up my time, my pleasures, my life
• We may have to become vulnerable to love neighbor as our self
• We may have to yield ourselves as vessels to suffer with others
• Jesus was not a threat but He was the Gift His Gifts were Compassion
• When Jesus grew up and saw vulnerable people around him, he “had compassion on them” (14:14). The word compassion comes from the Latin words passio and com, which literally mean “suffer” and “with.” To have compassion is to “suffer with” people, to take their pain seriously and do whatever we can to alleviate it.
• When we hear “weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children” (v. 18), our challenge is to respond with compassion and care. We cannot cover our eyes and ears, ignoring
• The Nazarene had love, peace, compassion on the those without hope
