Detours and diversions are common on highways when there are accidents or construction going on. Many times, they show up unexpectedly and they drag us through unfamiliar streets and neighborhoods that make me nervous. You never know what is going to be around the next corner. Detours make us worry about getting late and even getting lost. Then there are some interesting intersections called ‘Diverging Diamond.’ You are driving through your lane and all of a sudden find yourself in the opposite lane. That makes drivers nervous as if someone is going to come against and hit head on. But when we understand the reason and the design behind it, it makes sense to follow them, even though we get nervous. They are all made to make life better and more efficient. Studies say that those designs save several minutes of driving time.
The Gospel writer Matthew writes about a story of detours and diversion in the life of baby Jesus after Christmas. It strikes a new tone for the season by dramatically leading us away from the anticipation of Advent and the celebration of the holidays to the tenuous and dark days of detours and diversions to those who were involved. We might think it would have been better to close with the scene of Christmas with the exotic and adoring magi presenting the baby Jesus with gifts on bended knee. But Matthew tells a story that is grittier, more disturbing, and also ultimately more realistic. The birth of Jesus does not put an end to human tragedy, but it gives us the promise that through it all, there is a God who will be present with us. And perhaps that’s the main value of reading and meditating this story right after Christmas.
We would think that if God could remove some of the uncertainties in life, we would be much happier. That is not really true because life would become boring and less challenging or we will become more anxious about the things that are going to happen. Sometimes life is beautiful and wonderful and filled with goodness and grace and God is a part of that, giving blessing and celebrating with us and for us. Sometimes life is hard, gritty, disappointing, and filled with heartache and God is part of that as well, holding us closer, comforting us, blessing us with promise that God will stay with us through the good and the bad. Such hard times draw us ever more deeply into God’s loving embrace with promise that nothing, not even death will separate us from God.
From the very first, the road Mary and Joseph and others walked was marked with lots of detours and diversions. They must have been nervous and scared. They didn't know what to expect from one place to the next. But they trusted in a God who put those detours and diversions in place. They experienced the fulfillment of prophecies of a faithful God. Mary and Joseph did not plan on for having the baby to be born at Bethlehem. But God had a plan as the prophet had proclaimed.
Jesus was born as the fulfillment of God’s promise to us. He had to take on a journey to Egypt and then back to Judea and then to Nazareth. Then an angel appeared to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” For Matthew, this escape is not simply an expedient move or an accident of history. Instead, scripture foresaw this geographical detour on the way to Jesus' true hometown. God chose this path in the days of eternity. Egypt had been a house of bondage to Israel, and particularly cruel to the infants of Israel; yet it is to be a place of refuge to the holy Child Jesus. God, when He pleases, can make the worst of places serve the best of purposes. "After Herod died, an angel of the Lord 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 trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene. Thus God chose this path in the days of eternity.
The Wise Men who came from the East (Matthew 2) had experienced detours and difficulties in their search and journey to see the Baby in the Manger. “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star and have come to worship him.” The common picture we see of these men is that they dressed in flashing clothes and carrying gifts as if they came from a pleasure trip. In reality they trekked arduous ways and byways to reach the little town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born. At last their patience and their mission was accomplished. They were content and were ready to leave and spread the good tidings in their own lands. But an angel made them go another more arduous route, to foil the evil plans of the greedy Herod!It was a day of detours and diversions.
To many parents and families, their lives changed forever due to the mass killing of babies by the king. Once Herod realizes that the magi have failed to return and thwarted the conspiracy to eliminate this 'new king' of the Jews, he ordered all the babies of that age to be killed. All of Jesus' life along with all those who were involved in his life were prepared as a prophetic path. Those who walk in the journey of faith are guided by a prophetic path. "He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." (Eph 1:4). God has ordered the paths for everyone who is given a life here in this world. It is not a chance, but a promise and a prophecy that was determined in God’s divine plan. We need to trust in God's providence that emerges. We hold on to a faith that expects God to reign in a world of uncertainties. These passages are a ripe reminder that tragedy and disappointment are too often the orders of the day, even amidst the joy and celebrations. Sometimes, we wish it could have been otherwise, but gospel writer Matthew reminds us that it is a fulfilment of God’s divine plan and humans cannot change it. When we accept the fact that God is in control and He will see us through in the midst of detours and diversions. We will never get lost, but we are guided by Him until we reach the destination He has prepared. Remember the journey started as a gift from God, and the destination is also a gift of God.
This story matters because it is in the scripture, and also tells us the truth: the difficult truth of unjust rulers and violence and private grief and personal pain are part of this journey we have to take. But there is always the hopeful truth that God has not stood back at a distance, but in Jesus has joined Himself to our story. We know of people and many families, perhaps some even in our congregations, are facing with their own private sorrows and hardships. But God wants us to know that in Jesus, Emmanuel, God did indeed draw near to us, took on our lot and our life, and experienced and endured all that we did -- pain, sickness, disappointment, fear, violence, even death. All so that we would know that we are not alone -- that we do not suffer alone, fear alone, live and die alone. The Christmas story begins with the birth of a child. But it doesn’t end until this child has grown up, preached God’s mercy, been crucified and died and then raised again. Actually, it doesn’t end until Jesus draws all of us into that same story, raising us up from the dead to a new life with Him forever. Let us pray that God will give us the courage in our daily lives to share that hope with others.
The unpredictability of life is not always so thrilling. We devise and strategize. We make plans, projections, and proposals about what we would like to see happen in life, but often they are little more than our best guesses. We have no idea what a year, a month, a week, or even a day might bring. So we pray and trust in a God who knows fully and completely what we can never predict. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). There are countless things I can never know with certainty. What I can know, however, is that there is a God who knows all and loves me deeply. And by knowing Him, I can “be still”— and be at peace.
Blessings
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