Psalm 148:1-6

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.

Matthew 2:13-23

Now after they had left, 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, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. Then what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,  “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”  Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel.  But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.  There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazarene.

Reading Matthew This New Year

The purpose of reading the Bible is to bring us into a direct experience of God. And this experience is beyond language. But we start with the Bible, and there are different ways of reading the Bible. We read intellectually, with an eye toward studying and learning. And then we also read devotionally, that is, we allow the Bible to speak to our hearts. And then, we let all of this percolate so that we can come into a direct experience of God beyond language.

This week we begin the New Year, and for this new year, 2026, following the lectionary of readings, we will focus on Matthew’s Gospel. So today, I’ll begin with some general background on Matthew and then talk about today’s reading: Matthew 2:13-23. But at the end of the year, I hope you’ll have a good grasp of Matthew with some new information about Matthew. And then you can just put it all down, and go sit on a park bench somewhere and enjoy God’s presence, which is really the whole point.

As we get into this Gospel text, think of this as a year-long ongoing conversation. And in the course of our conversation about Matthew, there are some questions I want to bring up that will help us frame the discussion, for example, “What is scripture and what do we mean when we call a piece of writing “scripture.” “What is a Gospel? Why are there four Gospels in the New Testament? Why was Matthew’s Gospel written and who was it written for?” So, over the course of the next few months, I want to ask questions like this and help us to formulate some answers that will help us to understand these readings in a new and interesting way.

Anno Domini

So, let’s jump in here with some background. The books of the New Testament were all written in a relatively short time span, from about 50 to 100AD. Now, just a word about dates. I’m sure you know, AD stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for “Year of the Lord” and the designation AD begins at the birth of Jesus. There is no zero year, so that first year that Jesus was born is the year 1AD while the years before Jesus was born are designated BC meaning before Christ. It’s good to remember, too, that the BC years run in the opposite direction, that is, they go backwards.

Common Era

Now in the last 25 years or so, there has been a new designation, “Common Era” or “CE” meant to be a more neutral designation and to replace the religious reference to Jesus. So you might see this, too, when you’re reading history: BCE, Before the Common Era, instead of BC, Before Christ, and CE, Common Era, instead of AD, Anno Domini. (But either way, the reference point is still the year of Jesus’ birth, so go figure.) For our purposes, I will use the traditional designations, BC and AD.

Circulating Single Parchments

So, unlike the books of the Old Testament which were written over a span of about a thousand years, the books of the New Testament were all written in a 50-year period, from about 50 to 100AD. They were all handwritten and circulated in single manuscripts, that is, each on single scroll of parchment. So each book was a single scroll. There were no collections, no combined texts. A single scroll, for example, a scroll of Mark’s Gospel, the first Gospel to be written down, would circulate to churches throughout the Mediterranean region. It wasn’t until the middle ages, with the invention of the printing press, that the entire New Testament was bound together in a single volume.

Century Designations

The Gospels began as spoken stories, stories about Jesus, told in the oral tradition by his first followers. Later, the Gospels began circulating as written texts in the mid second century. So, now here’s another reminder about dates and calendars. And I’m saying this because I always have to remind myself about this stuff, so I’m guessing it might be helpful for you, too. When we talk about the “second century” that means all the years that are in the 100’s. It seems like it might be the 200’s, you know, “second century” but it’s the 100’s. So just subtract one from the first digit, that is from the 100’s digit. For example, the tenth century refers to the years in the 900’s, the 12^th century refers to the years in the 1100’s, and so on. Just subtract one. The 16^th century refers to the years in the 15’s, the 1500’s.

(Now, I know this is all a review of things you already know, but it’s good to review, and it’s going to help you with the historical timeline as we go along. It will also help you with the pop quiz coming up in a few weeks.)

Here I’m talking about the origins of scripture. So, at first, the Gospels circulated as stories written about Jesus. It wasn’t until the end of the second century that they began to be considered “scripture” and were read aloud along with ancient Jewish scripture in the early churches.

Obscure Origins

Now, the Gospels have obscure origins. We don’t know exactly who wrote them. (I’ll talk more about the names later.) We don’t know exactly where they were written. We don’t have any original manuscripts. Mark was probably the first written Gospel, written around 65AD, and scholars think that Matthew was the second. Matthew was a rewrite of Mark.

Matthew is the Favorite

Mark is the shortest Gospel, but Matthew is the most popular. That is probably why Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. Even in the second century, Matthew was read more often than Mark, and this is probably because Matthew is more interesting. Matthew contains many more interesting stories about Jesus, the stories that we are all familiar with, and even that the non-Christian world is familiar with, for example, the Christmas narrative, the wise men from the East, the Sermon on the Mount, and the story we have today about Herod and the Massacre of the Infants. These are stories not found in Mark’s Gospel. The author of Matthew elaborates on Mark. It’s obvious that he has read Mark, but he adds more, he fills in much more detail, adding stories and teachings that are not found in Mark. And so, Matthew has become the favorite Gospel.

{This might be a subject you could debate during coffee hour. What is your favorite Gospel and why. Maybe you like Luke better than Matthew. Or John. So, there is something you can talk about. But the general consensus, as far as I can tell, is that Matthew is the favorite of the four.}

Today’s Reading

Our reading this morning focuses on Mary’s husband, Joseph. Joseph is only mentioned three times in Matthew. Three times, an angel appears to him and gives him instructions. We never hear Joseph speak, but he follows the angel’s instructions. We see in Joseph the silent protector of Mary and baby Jesus. We see in Joseph an example of faith and devotion and duty. We see, too, a parallel with another Joseph and another much earlier journey to Egypt, described in Genesis 46. But this time, Joseph and Mary escape with Jesus to Egypt, and Egypt is the place of safety for them, until Herod dies and his threat is gone. Joseph then takes his family back to Israel, this time to Nazareth in Galilee. And so Jesus will grow up in Nazareth and be called a “Nazorean.”

The story about Herod’s Massacre of the Infants shows Herod’s ruthless tyranny and at the same time sets up Jesus as a kind of second Moses in a parallel story. Remember the story of Moses, escaping Pharoah’s order to kill all newborn Hebrew boys. Moses’ mother placed him in a papyrus basket a set it adrift on the Nile River, where it was found by Pharoah’s daughter. Moses grows up in the Pharoah’s palace and eventually becomes the leader who delivers the Israelites from slavery.

So we begin this New Year with Matthew’s Gospel, and I look forward to exploring it in depth with you. Next week we will talk more about what a Gospel is and what makes Matthew unique among the four Gospels. Happy New Year to you all. Amen? Amen.