Advent Message (2): Rachel Weeping, Matthew 2:16-18

Rachel Weeping

Matthew 2:16-18
The Second Message of the Advent Series


By Pastor Brian
Fort Bend Community Church
2012.12.09 ENCOUNTER


Introduction

1. The Arena Chapel, is a church in Padua, Veneto, Italy. It contains a fresco cycle by Giotto, completed about 1305, one of the most important masterpieces of Western art. There are 24 paintings of the life of Christ.

#1 The Nativity of Jesus
#2 Adoration of the Magi
#3 Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
#4 The Flight to Egypt
#5 The Massacre of the Innocents: Herod's soldiers search for the Christ Child, slaying as they go. Their grisly work lies at the bottom of the page--a naked jumble of little bodies.

"What are those from, Mommy?"A three-year old boy discovered that there is a dark side to Christmas, when his mother was reading him a book illustrated with Giotto's paintings of the birth of Christ.

We all know the story. King Herod ordered his soldiers to kill "all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under" (Matt. 2:16). And Matthew said, "Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." (Matt. 2:17-18)

Do you hear Rachel weeping?

We like the bright side of Christmas, the tidings of comfort and joy. If you go to the malls today, you hear the music of comfort and joy. You don't hear the weeping of Rachel.Yet in biblical account of the Christmas story and in the choruses of the angelic joyful songs, "Peace on earth and good will among men," there is this dark side of Christmas, mothers weeping for their lost sons. The angel voices, the shepherds' joy, and the magi's visit do not tell the whole story.  In a world where peace on earth is more hope than reality, there is this dark side of Christmas.


I. Christmas Grief

1. Remember Rachel? Wife of Jacob, one of the mothers of the Jewish people. (Gen. 35:16-20), one of the most beautiful women in the Bible, the love of her husband, Jacob. At the prime of her life, she died after giving birth to her second child Benjamin. She was buried on the roadside to the City of Bethlehem. A sad story indeed

2. A thousand years later Jeremiah watched Rachel's offspring trudging into exile down that same road. After a siege in which many had starved and an assault when many more fell to the sword, the victorious Babylonian army now dragged Jews off to Ramah, a holding camp where they were chained for the long march north to Babylon. What a grim place that must have been. The prophet wrote, "A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping inconsolably for her lost children." (Jer. 31:16 )

3. Christian author Wendy Zoba writes, "A mother weeping for her lost children is as bad as it gets in this life. It is God's metaphor for the apogee of anguish." (Christianity Today, December 8, 1997)

• I think of the mother of her only son who committed suicide. The pains and the weeping... (Chris Tam and his mother Grace Tam)
• I think of the mother who wept uncontrollably at the death-bed of her grown cancer-stricken daughter, "Daughter, I am sorry that I couldn't help you much." (Mrs. Chu and Julia Chu)
• I think of the mother who held the dead body of her newborn son in arms and wept. The son died in surgery of a heart deflect a day after he was born. (Mei Wong and Michael Wong's story)
• I think of the mother who wandered dangerous streets looking for her wayward son (Angela and Christopher Yuan's story, Out of a Far Country, Moody Press, 2012)
• Think of the mothers of the babies who were burned to death in a home childcare in Houston not long ago when the babysitter left the children alone and went shopping.

Can you hear Rachel weeping?

This is a Russian Christmas Oratorio depicting Rachel weeping sung by a soprano. The piece is by Hilarion Alfeyev (born 24 July 1966) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church.

A mother named Vickilynn Haycraft wrote a prayer after her 3-year old son died suddenly on a playground from a genetic disorder.

How can I say
all that's in my heart?
Did you turn away?
You let my boy die,
You could have healed.
I never said good-bye.

She speaks of all the Rachels of this world.

4. My own experience: Derek was very sick one day when he was 3 or 4. He went into seizure and turned his eyes and his face turned black. We rushed him to the hospital. The doctor put him on the table and stick a long needle at his spine. He was crying loudly and said, "Daddy, Daddy, don't go. I am sorry", when the doctor ordered me out of the room.


5. Christmas grief is real. More grief than joy! More sorrow than gladness! More tears than laughter! More sadness than peace!

II. God Enters Our Grief

1. 700 years after Jeremiah invoked Rachel as the quintessential mourner, Herod gave another generation reason to mourn. This paranoid king has already killed wives, sons, and others he feared as potential threats. So when the Magi came with news of a newborn King, he killed a bunch more.

History never recorded his Massacre. There is no extra-biblical documentation of Herod's heinous act. But Bethlehem was truly a "little town" with a population of between 300 to 1,000. So it is very possible that there were the deaths of a only few children ("perhaps a dozen or so, according to D. A. Carson).

But Matthew sees this as prophecy fulfilled.

2. Matthew read the OT very differently. Everything in Israel's story is now seen in light of the Jesus story. Not only are there explicit predictions of Messiah, there are foreshadowings of Messiah. Repeatedly in Matthew's Christmas story, Matthew writes, "This happened to fulfill what the Scriptures had said."

Here in Matthew 2:18, Bethlehem's grief echoes the weeping of Jeremiah's generation. in the region of Bethlehem and Ramah, Rachel was weeping again.

3. Has anyone ever wondered why, if God could send an angel to warn Mary and Joseph to flee, why didn't He send angels to the other parents of Bethlehem? Jesus was the only baby who escaped. If Jesus escaped, why did all those other babies have to die?

If God ever intervenes to deliver, why doesn't he deliver my loved ones?

• Example 1
• Example 2

4. It is worth noting that in Matthew, God really did not spare His Son. Jesus was rescued from Herod only to be crucified under Pontius Pilate. In Bethlehem, God's only Son escaped from Herod so that on Golgotha He could die so that the rest of us might escape. No angel came that afternoon, God turned His back. And Jesus was NOT delivered from evil. His mother wept.

And in that there is the comfort for Rachel.



III. Christ Comforts Those Who Grieve

1. Go back to Jeremiah. His message is not just a message of grief. His message is a message of hope. Jeremiah says, God hears Rachel's cry. He cares about her grief. And God intends to do something about it.

God will come to the rescue of His people. "Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears."I am the sovereign One. I will make things right."

2. Word study on "comfort": it is a compound word. para + kaleo; parallel or walk alongside + call to. The word has two meanings: 1) appeal, plead, invite; 2) comfort, in the sense of coming alongside to provide aids.

Paul said in 2 Cor. 7:6 that God has sent Titus to him to comfort him. And in Col. 4:7, Paul sent Tychicus to them to comfort them. And the word often associates with hope (1 Thess. 2:16; 1 Cor. 1:7).

This is exactly the meaning of Christmas. God has sent His only Begotten Son to us on that first Christmas Day to walk alongside with us to provide aids and comfort us. One day the Christmas Child would return. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Rev. 21:4)

3. Matthew knows that the time foretold by Jeremiah has come. It is not only Christmas but there is Good Friday and Easter, too. In the babe of Bethlehem, God is working for the salvation of all the babies of Bethlehem--and for everyone else. This is good news, the only good news, that can comfort the Rachels of the world.

The only boy to escape Herod is the only one can comfort Rachel.

Jesus lived through that brutal night to be brutalized on the cross. There he suffered the worst the world can do to us, redeeming suffering, assuring us that even in the darkest moment God is working for our good. There he suffered the Father's wrath against us, suffering what we should have suffered. By escaping the evil of Herod, he dealt decisively with evil. He began an age-long reversal of the curse, undoing sin and death. He is going to wept away all our tears and stopping Rachel's weeping forever.

Grief is real, but it is not ultimate. Rachel will be comforted. Loss is keen, but it will not have the last word. Weeping will turn to joy. Matthew is honest about the dark side of Christmas but the dark side is not the whole story or the most important part of the story. It is the turning point of our world.

Jeremiah prophecies that when the Messiah comes, the children will be returned. Rachel will be comforted. We who are in grief will be comforted.



4. God comforts us in our grief.

• The story of Pamela: The Rachel Foundation for Family Reintegration

There was a time many years ago when Pamela was struggling to keep her children. They had been severely alienated, and she was in the midst of a prolonged court battle. These were the times when reunifications were clumsy and professionals deemed reintegration all but impossible.

The day came when a psychologist advised Pamela that her situation was hopeless and that she would be better off by far to just put the whole matter behind her and get on with her life.

Pamela was devastated. She tried to imagine life without her children, but couldn't. Surely, she felt, God has abandoned me. Before giving up completely, though, she reached for her Bible to check in with God one last time.

Quite by accident, the Bible fell open to the passage from Jeremiah that says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because her children are no more."

Pamela threw the Bible aside and fell to the floor weeping. But a tiny inner voice spoke softly, urging her to read on. "Not likely," she said. "Enough! I've had it!"

Once again the voice spoke, a little more insistently, "Read on." This time Pamela had the perfect excuse. "I've closed the Bible," she said. "I have no idea where I read those words. I could never find them again!"

Nevertheless, Pamela picked herself up from the floor, retrieved the Bible and reluctantly let it fall open again. Incredibly, it opened to the very same page and Pamela read on, transfixed.

"Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears," she read, "for the Lord is pleased with the work you will do. 'They will return from the land of the enemy, so there is hope for your future,' declares the Lord. Your children will return to their own land."

Says Pamela, "As I read those words, my life and my future were transformed. At that moment I claimed those words as God's promise to me. A new energy born of hope filled my heart, and I resolved never, ever to give up on loving my children."

From that beginning, Pamela started a journey that continues to this day. She finished her court battles, winning a landmark decision and successfully reintegrating with her children. She started working with others who contacted her, having learned of her story through the media. She founded a self-help group and started to envision and develop solutions, practical, workable, affordable reintegration solutions based on her own and others experiences.

Pamela and Bob registered the rachelfoundation.org domain name on September 12, 2000. Incorporation followed on October 6, 2000. And every day since has been the experience of bringing Rachel's promise, Rachel?s message of hope, to families torn apart by abduction and alienation.

（http://www.rachelfoundation.org/home.html）


Conclusion

Maybe God knows someone here needs to hear Jeremiah's words. Maybe many of us need the reminder that on this side of heaven, there is always a dark side to Christmas. But the only boy to escape Herod is the only one who can comfort Rachel.

The lighting of the second candle of the Advent candles is to remind us of the hope of Christmas. Where you are, whatever you do, remind the hope that comes with the Christmas Child. Don't lose hope. You will be comforted.

"I heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a song based on the poem, "Christmas Day" by Henry Longfellow, a poet in 1863. He wrote the poem when he received the news that his son was killed in battle during the civil war and his wife was killed in a fire. It was Christmas time. He heard the bells of Christmas ringing, the sounds of peace on earth and good-will to men. Yet not all was well. He was in grief.

The music is set by Casting Crown. When we hear this Christmas carol, let us be reminded that God has entered into our world to bring us hope even in the midst of tears.