MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2021)
THE CRIES OF CHRISTMAS or DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?
TEXT: Matthew 2:13 18 PP #194BW
A. This month has been filled with the sounds of Christmas - bells ringing, choirs singing, & music filling the air. But in the midst of all the joyous sounds of our "jolly, holly holiday" there have been other sounds, too sounds of anguish & grief.
Now, to illustrate that I could have turned on any TV news station this morning, or glanced at the news in our Sunday newspapers.
B. But instead, let’s go back over 2,000 years to that very first Christmas in Bethlehem, & hear some sounds there sounds of a busy inn, of animals feeding in a stable, of angels singing on high, of excited shepherds coming to see the baby in the manger, & probably, Mary's voice in a soft lullaby.
But some time later those sounds were replaced by the shouts of soldiers, the cries of children, & the wailing of anguished mothers.
To understand what I am talking about, please realize that several months or even a year had passed by since the birth of Jesus. Joseph & Mary & Jesus were not in the stable. Now they were living in a small house in Bethlehem. And it was there that the Magi, the Wise Men as we call them, came to worship Him.
Well, you know that story. So turn with me to Matthew 2:13 18, & listen as I read what happened after the Magi left Bethlehem to return to their own homeland.
“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,' he said, ‘take the child & His mother & escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill Him.'
“So he got up, took the child & His mother during the night & left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’
“When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, & he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old & under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
“Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping & great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children & refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.'"
C. This passage of scripture reveals an insecure & nearly insane old king who felt his rule threatened when he heard that another king had been born. And when he couldn't find that child, he ordered all the little boys in Bethlehem, 2 years old & younger, to be executed.
PROP. So when we talk about the sounds of Christmas, maybe we need to remember also the shouts of soldiers, the cries of children, & the wailing of their mothers, for these were part of the Christmas sounds, too.
They are part of what God seeks to communicate at this season of the year.
I. THERE IS SUFFERING, & GOD CAME TO BEAR IT WITH US
If that is so, then what is God saying? First of all, He is saying, "I know that there is suffering in this world, & I've come to bear it with you."
A. The Bible is always honest. So when it tells the story of Christmas, it not only tells about angels & shepherds & wise men who come with gifts of gold & frankincense & myrrh, but it also tells about King Herod, about soldiers, & about the murder of little children.
It would be virtually impossible for us to imagine what it was like to be a parent in Bethlehem at that time. To have a little boy, maybe 18 months old, who has captured your heart, & the sparkle in his eyes brightens up your day.
Then to have soldiers burst into your home, searching through every room until they find your son, carrying him outside to take his life from him. Oh, the anguish! Yet that is part of the Christmas story, too.
B. Anguish is still part of the Christmas scene even today. There are many who are suffering, many who are lonely, & many who are grieving. And for that reason they find little joy in the Christmas celebrations.
SUM. But Christmas comes to a suffering world. And it tells us that God doesn't guarantee to take away our suffering, only to bear it with us.
ILL. Eli Weisel, a Jewish author, who wrote the book entitled, "Night," was a slave laborer in a WW2 German concentration camp. He writes about the Holocaust & the things that happened to him during the war.
One evening they returned after a day of slave labor to discover that 3 gallows had been erected in the center of the camp. Three prisoners were to be executed, & the guards had orders to force all the prisoners to stand & watch the executions.
Two of the victims were men, but to the horror of the prisoners they saw that the third was only a small boy. Nooses were put around their necks, & all 3 were made to stand on chairs. Then the chairs were kicked out from underneath them.
The 2 men died instantly as the weight of their bodies broke their necks. But the little boy was so light that his neck did not break. There he hung, gasping for breath, dangling at the end of the rope. And the prisoners were forced to stand there & watch him for more than 30 minutes, until finally he died.
In the terribleness of that time, one of the men behind Weisel cried out, "You say that there is a God? Then where is He? Where is He now?" Weisel said, "I turned back & looked at him & said, "There He is. He is hanging at the end of a rope."
SUM. Well, I'm not sure I understand everything that Weisel was trying to say, but I’m convinced that is also a part of the message of Christmas.
Our God is not beyond the stars, far away in the heavens. Our God came to be with us, suffering with us, hurting with us, bleeding with us. That's a message of Christmas.
II. THERE IS UNCERTAINTY, & GOD CAME TO LEAD US THROUGH IT
A second message of Christmas is this, "There is uncertainty in our world, but God came to help us through it, to lead us through the uncertainty."
A. Think of the uncertainty in the lives of Mary & Joseph as they hurriedly packed up their meager belongings to leave Bethlehem & head for Egypt.
ILL. I've traveled to a few foreign countries, & perhaps some of you have too. Every time I've gone with someone who knew where to go & what to see, where we were going to spend the night, & where we would eat our meals during the day.
But Mary & Joseph fled to Egypt, not knowing where they would stay. They didn't know what the future held for them. All they knew was that God was leading them.
They had been told by an angel that Jesus was to be the Savior, that He would save His people from their sins. But what was their responsibility? How were they to raise the Son of God? And what did the future hold for them? There was so much uncertainty in it all.
B. Our lives are uncertain, too. Teenagers wonder if they will ever graduate from High school. And if they do, will they be accepted into the college of their choice? And if they are, will they be able to pass their courses?
Those who are older wonder if they’ll still have a job next year - if they’ll ever get their house paid for, if their children will ever amount to anything. And the pain that has been bothering them recently - Is it something serious?
C. You see, life is uncertain. But Mary & Joseph had one great advantage. They knew that God was leading the way, & that He would take care of them.
This Jesus whose little body was jostled around on His journey to Egypt would one day tell the multitudes how God cared for the birds of the air & the lilies of the field.
"And if God feeds the birds of the air & clothes the lilies of the field," He will say, "then you mustn't be concerned about what you're going to eat, or what you're going to wear, because God cares even more for you."
And as Christians, we have the advantage of knowing that while we do not know what tomorrow holds, we do know Him who holds our tomorrows in His hands, & He wants us to let Him lead the way.
SUM. There is uncertainty, but there is a God who will lead us through that uncertainty, & that is a message of Christmas, too.
III. THERE IS DEATH, BUT GOD CAME TO OVERCOME IT
Then finally, a 3rd message of Christmas is this, "There is death in our world, but God came to overcome it." There was brutal death long ago in Bethlehem as the cries of children pierced the air innocent children, victims of a king’s insanity & selfishness.
But one child was saved, carried off to Egypt. Yet that child one day became a victim himself, but His death would be different. He died on a cross, not for His own sins, but for the sins of others.
And because Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins, death was defeated. Yes, there is death in our world, but God so loved the world that He sent His Son to overcome it.
Death is real, & it will always be here, just as suffering is here, & uncertainty is here. But this is a message of Christmas, "Through Jesus, God has taken away the sting of death, & has given us victory over it." It’s true! This world is not our home, & the grave is not our goal.
ILL. The story is told of a family who lost a 7 year old son. They experienced all the dynamics of grief as they dealt with the different stages, listening to the counselors & the experts, trying to do everything exactly as it is supposed to be done.
And they felt that they were dealing with their grief in a fairly success-ful way, until Christmas came & it was time to put up the Christmas tree.
As the family gathered to put up the tree & start hanging the ornaments, the mother remembered that some of them had been made by their son who was now gone.
So as she was putting up those ornaments her tears began to flow. Their older son, Jim, all of 10 years old, came to her & put his arm around her & said, "Mom, you miss Dougie, don't you?" She answered, "Oh yes, I miss him more than you'll ever know."
He said, "Well, mom, Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, isn't it?" She answered, "Yes, that's right, Jim. It is." "And Dougie has gone to be with Jesus, hasn't he?" "Yes, that's right," she said. "He's gone to be with Jesus."
"Then that must mean," he said, "that Dougie is having more fun than we are." Mom said, "I guess that's right. He's having more fun than we are."
SUM. You see, that's what Christmas means. It means that even though death is real, God came to give us victory over it.
ILL. A preacher's family had started putting up a nativity scene in their front yard. All of them were carrying out the little figures to put in the nativity scene.
Finally everything was in place Mary & Joseph & the manger & the baby, & angels & shepherds & all the barnyard animals.
Then little Scott came out carrying one of his favorite toys, a figure of the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of the dinosaurs. It was one of those plastic figures that you inflate, & in comparison to the other figures it was an enormous thing, towering over them all, & certainly not something to have in a nativity scene.
His Dad said, "I tried to tell him, ‘Scott, you have to take that back because it doesn't belong there. Dinosaurs existed thousands of years before the baby Jesus, & it just doesn't belong in a nativity scene.’"
But little Scott insisted, so they finally put it behind all the other figures a fierce dinosaur hovering over the manger & everything else.
Then he said, "As we stood back & looked at it, it dawned upon us that maybe that dinosaur was saying more than we realized - that over each of us there is this menacing character that threatens to rob us of all our joy & peace & cheer."
"But then Christmas comes & reminds us that the baby in the manger is stronger than all the dinosaurs in your life or mine. And God has given us the victory through the gift of His Son."
CONCL. God, through Jesus Christ, has come to help us in times of suffer¬ing, to lead us in times of uncertainty, & to give us victory over death. And once again, today He offers Himself to us, & He waits for us to respond to His invitation.
We pray that you will come as we stand & as we sing.
INVITATION HYMN
