Sunday
12/28/14 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Jesus was a Jew”
Old Testament Lesson:
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
New Testament
Scripture Lesson: Galatians 4:4-7
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 2:22-40
Welcome again my
brothers and sisters, friends, on this First Sunday after Christmas. In this
First Sunday of Christmas we find ourselves in this Christmas Season of “Twelve-Days,”
or as it sometimes called, the “Twelve-Days of Christmas.” This Christmas
Season ends Monday January 5th, 2015. On Tuesday January 6th,
2015 is the holiday of the Epiphany of the Lord.
In most churches in Western World, the Epiphany of the Lord,
is a holiday to celebrate the visitation of the three wise-men or magi to see
the Christ-Child. Since we generally don’t have a church service on a Tuesday
though, we will, like many churches, celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord Holiday
next Sunday, January 4th.
This Sunday however, we now have the born baby Jesus, alive
and well. Mary and Joseph are taking good care of their new son, the Messiah,
in all of the traditional Jewish ways. In Luke 2:21 for example, Mary and
Joseph get Jesus circumcised, as this was and still is the Jewish tradition. In
fact, this is what Luke 2:21 says, “After eight
days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus,
the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
Now we are not told where this circumcision occurred. Some
might say, does this even matter? Well, in the Gospel of Matthew 2:13-15 it
says that Joseph was visited by an angel of the Lord shortly after Jesus’
birth, telling him take Mary and Jesus and flee to safety in Egypt.
Specifically, this scripture says, first speaking of the departure of the Three
Wise Men or Magi:
“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.”
Now after me reading that, you might be thinking, well what
does Joseph taking Mary and Jesus to safety in Egypt have to do with Jesus
being a Jew, as the sermon title says for this morning? Well the prophet that the gospel of Mathew cites in the
statement “Out of Egypt I have called my son,” is the prophet Hosea. In fact,
in the Book of Hosea 11:1 it says these word, “When Israel was
a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
So what I am doing first this morning then, is first taking a
little detour, to attempt to piece together the story of the first month to
month and a half of life of Jesus Christ, who was very much a Jew. The only
gospel accounts of his birth are once again found only in the gospel of Matthew
and Luke, so these are the sources we generally have to work with.
Well beyond Joseph taking Mary and Jesus and fleeing to Egypt
then, the gospel according to Luke reading from this morning, says that Joseph
and Mary, with Jesus, came to the temple, which was in Jerusalem, for the
Jewish religious laws and rites required of them.
Yet how could they do this, if according to the gospel of
Matthew they had fled to Egypt? Well there a couple of historical facts that we
need to face up to as a church here today. The first fact is this that King
Herod the great, the father of King Herod Antipas, who was the one who would question
Jesus before his crucifixion, died in 4 B.C. So, if you remember when I said on
Christmas Eve, that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th,
but we don’t really know his real birthday, the reality is, that Jesus was
likely born four-years earlier than our calendar reflects.
You see the traditional Christian calendar has a line of demarcation
in it when Christ is born. These years in the Christian calendar then become
known as A.D., which is abbreviated for the Latin term “Amino Domini.” “Amino Domini,”
translates roughly to “In the year of the Lord.” Have you ever looked at old
wills, or deeds, or official papers, and the document says something like “In
the year of our Lord 1875?” Well this is why.
So this detour then, is to set up first this historical facts
and assertions. These assertions are that Mary gave birth to Jesus, and then
shortly after, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled to Egypt, so that Christ wouldn’t
be killed by King Herod the Great. They also fled to Egypt to fulfill the
prophecy of Hosea, that “Out of Egypt I have
called my son,” speaking of Jesus. By the way, historically
then, this would have to mean as I said then, that Jesus was born in 4 B.C., or
4 B.C.E. if you use the more modern term. This also means that King Herod the Great
must have died while Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled to Egypt.
I make this assertion because this Jewish family of Joseph,
Mary, and Jesus, then enters Jerusalem 40-50-days after Christ is born. Now
this is indeed certainly a tight time frame, and I will leave to you try to
poke the holes in this, but this is the assertion. The assertion that Christ
was born in 4 B.C., the family fled to Egypt shortly after his birth, and then they
came back into Jerusalem 40-50 days later. Now here is the other real kicker,
most scholars believe that Herod the Great died not only in 4 B.C., but in late
March or Early April of 4 B.C. Due to this, this is why some scholars think that
Jesus might have been born in March, or around then. Lastly, I’m not even going
to get into the visit of the three-wise men or magi yet either, as that’s next
week.
So, I will leave you to figure all that theology out, I just
thought it good to flesh all of that out, to better make sense of it all first.
With all of this said though, Jesus was a Jew. Jesus’ parents
were Jews. Accordingly they lived there lives according to the Law of Moses, or
what it says in the Old Testament.
In fact circumcising a baby boy on his eighth day of life, is
something that must happen to all Jewish boys, in accordance with the Law of
Moses in the Old Testament.
Further, after the circumcision of the boy, Jewish law then
says that the mother, in this case Mary, had to then remain home for a further
33-days after the first seven and circumcision, and then on the fourteenth day
after the 33-days, a purification sacrifice had to be made, as it is stated in
Leviticus 12:1-8. We would then have to assume then that Jesus’ circumcision occurred
in Egypt or near Egypt, as they were fleeing to Egypt.
In the gospel of Luke reading from this morning, Joseph,
Mary, and Jesus then entered Jerusalem for ritual cleansing. In Jewish law,
this cleansing involves the sacrifice of animals. In this specific case, two
turtle doves or maybe two pigeons are sacrificed, to ritually cleanse Mary from
being seen as unclean, as a result of the birth of Jesus. Part of this uncleanliness
has to do with touching blood and other things in the birth process.
So in reality, Mary and Joseph did not need to bring baby
Jesus in Jerusalem, but they did, so that according to Luke 2:23, (It’s written
on the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord.”
Once again Jewish families had to have an animal sacrifice
after a child birth, and this had to happen, and had to happen in the temple in
the Jerusalem, or as scripture often calls it, Zion. You might be asking then,
well why don’t we have animal sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem anymore
today? The answer to this is simple, the temple was destroyed by the Romans in and
around 70 AD, and since that time, all that remains is the Western Wall, or the
Wailing Wall. Should that temple ever be rebuilt though, animal sacrifices
would likely commence once again.
So everything that is happening just before and in our gospel
reading for this morning, are all Jewish religious laws and rituals. Except
going to Egypt, that was all God.
In constantly referencing Old Testament prophecies and
scripture then, to connect them with Christ, we have this morning a reading
from the prophet Isaiah 61:10-6:23. In looking at 63:2-3 it says, “Nations will
see your righteousness, all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name,
which the LORD’s own mouth will determine.” This is correlated and connected
then with Jesus being the light and righteousness of all of the nation, and in
the angel of the Lord telling Mary and Joseph to name this child Jesus.
When we look at the Epistle or letter that the former Jewish
Pharisee or priest named Paul of Tarsus or the Apostle Paul writes to the
Galatians for this morning, he says, in 4:4:
“But when the fulfillment of the time came,
God sent his Son, born through a woman, and born under the Law. This was so he
could redeem those under the Law so that we could be adopted.”
Christ, the Jew, comes not just for the Jews then, not just
for Israel then, but for all people.
When we read the Apostle Paul’s Epistles or letters in
general, we find often that he cites Old Testament scriptures to links them to
Jesus in the New Testament. Paul could do this so easily, because he was a
former Jewish priest or Rabbi and scholar. He knew the Old Testament or the
Hebrew Bible inside and out.
In looking again at the gospel of Luke reading for this
morning, we have Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem to offer an
animal sacrifice of two-turtledoves or pigeons to perform the cleansing ritual
found in the Book of Leviticus. While Mary and Joseph didn’t have to bring
Jesus to perform this cleansing ritual, they brought him to present him to the
priests and God in the temple.
When they were there a “righteous and devout” man named
Simeon, who was awaiting Israel’s deliverance, took Jesus in his arms and sang
Luke 2:29-32 to the baby Jesus. Mary and Joseph were amazed at Simeon, and then
Simeon blessed Mary and Joseph and said to them in Luke 2:34-35:
“This
boy is assigned to be the cause of the falling and rising of many in Israel and
to be a sign that generates opposition so that the inner thoughts of many will
be revealed. And a sword will pierce your innermost being too.”
Then after this, an eighty-four year old widow woman named
Anna, came and praised God for Jesus. Anna spoke about the coming redemption of
Israel.
Lastly, the gospel of Luke reading for this morning says that
when Mary and Joseph finished completing all of the religious law and rites
required of them, “they returned to their hometown, Nazareth in Galilee.” We
are then left with Luke 2:40 speaking of Christ that says, “The child grew up
and became strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’ favor was on him.” Since
Jesus grew up in Nazareth then, we sometimes call him Jesus of Nazareth, or a
Nazarene. We also have college in Rochester called Nazareth College.
As we wrestle with a lot of scripture and ideas today, I want
to tell you this story called “The Journey to Eternal life,” with the archeological
information taken from the
Discovering Archaeology website. Here is what the story says: “The
pyramids of Egypt are some of the most famous structures in the world. Most of
us probably know that they served as burial chambers for the Pharaohs. But
archaeologists report that preparation for death was important right across
Egyptian society, not just for Pharaohs.”
“For
the Egyptians the path to eternal life was fraught with dangers, demons, and
false trails. One must be well prepared. The Book of the Dead provided
instructions, tips, and incantations for the soul on their journey to the
underworld. The book was often excerpted on coffins and tombs, or the complete
scrolls might be placed in the tomb.”
“The last ordeal on the path to
eternity was the weighing of the deceased’s heart. This would determine their
fitness for joining the land of the gods. Applicants who passed were welcomed
by Osiris; a too-heavy heart laden with evil was devoured by a monster and the
spirit banished into darkness.”
“Christian
faith of course sees death very differently. The path to eternal life is not
fraught with danger, but has been made simple and open by Christ. And while our
hearts may be weighed, it is not the degree of evil found within them that will
matter but the presence of faith in Christ, who forgives all our sin and welcomes
us into his presence.
Source.”
Source.”
So as we continue to wrestle with
knowing Jesus more, understanding him on earth as a Jew more, and wrestling
with the gospels more, at the end of the day, Christ is the Messiah. He is the
one who saves us from our sins. While we likely will debate the details of
scripture until Christ returns, his empty tomb is what means we are redeemed
and saved. For our risen savior was a Jew. Amen.
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