Christmas 1
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
... 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...."
-- Matthew 2:13
Joseph was warned in a dream to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. God communicated to an earlier Joseph through dreams (Genesis 37:5-11), and that Joseph was led into Egypt so that when starvation threatened the very existence of Israel, Egypt would be the place of their salvation (Genesis 37 and 39-45). Now again, when Jesus' life was threatened, it was by means of Joseph in Egypt that his life was preserved. Both Israel (Exodus 4:22) and Jesus are God's firstborn. Both are preserved by God in Egypt. Herod immediately ordered the killing of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years old or under. This is paralleled in Exodus 1:15--2:10 where the pharaoh was threatened by the growth in number of Israelites and ordered all male children killed at birth. The horrible events of the massacre, not God, fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15. Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob but was barren, while her sister, Leah, and a couple of maids were very fertile (Genesis 29:31--30:21). Finally Rachel gave birth to Joseph and became pregnant a second time. The second birth was too strenuous for her, and as she was dying, she named her second son Benoni, or son of my sorrows. Rachel was buried at Rama, and the tradition grew that the spirit of Rachel, the ancestress of Israel, continued to mourn and protest the fate of chosen Israel whose sorrowful experience seemed to contradict the very promise of God. For Matthew, Jeremiah's promise of a new creation (Jeremiah 31:22) found fulfillment in the birth of Jesus that took place in the midst of the fratricidal tendencies of humanity. The world's violence needs to be protested by the Rachel in us that refuses to be consoled in the face of evil. But for Matthew, such violence did not end in protest. God was seen in Jesus reaching into that world of violence and giving birth to a new hope.
-- Matthew 2:13
Joseph was warned in a dream to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. God communicated to an earlier Joseph through dreams (Genesis 37:5-11), and that Joseph was led into Egypt so that when starvation threatened the very existence of Israel, Egypt would be the place of their salvation (Genesis 37 and 39-45). Now again, when Jesus' life was threatened, it was by means of Joseph in Egypt that his life was preserved. Both Israel (Exodus 4:22) and Jesus are God's firstborn. Both are preserved by God in Egypt. Herod immediately ordered the killing of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years old or under. This is paralleled in Exodus 1:15--2:10 where the pharaoh was threatened by the growth in number of Israelites and ordered all male children killed at birth. The horrible events of the massacre, not God, fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15. Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob but was barren, while her sister, Leah, and a couple of maids were very fertile (Genesis 29:31--30:21). Finally Rachel gave birth to Joseph and became pregnant a second time. The second birth was too strenuous for her, and as she was dying, she named her second son Benoni, or son of my sorrows. Rachel was buried at Rama, and the tradition grew that the spirit of Rachel, the ancestress of Israel, continued to mourn and protest the fate of chosen Israel whose sorrowful experience seemed to contradict the very promise of God. For Matthew, Jeremiah's promise of a new creation (Jeremiah 31:22) found fulfillment in the birth of Jesus that took place in the midst of the fratricidal tendencies of humanity. The world's violence needs to be protested by the Rachel in us that refuses to be consoled in the face of evil. But for Matthew, such violence did not end in protest. God was seen in Jesus reaching into that world of violence and giving birth to a new hope.
