14
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:
Matthew 2:14
Two Stories of Christmas
Ngu Peter M. Buss, Sr.
There are two stories of Christmas. We usually blend them into one chronological account, but they are very distinct. One appears in the Gospel of Matthew, 1:18-25, 2:1-23, and the other in Luke 2: 6-20.
Matthew tells the story from Joseph’s point of view. The angel appears to him, telling him not to fear to take Mary as his wife, even though she is expecting a Child. He names the child. The wise men appear, and then Joseph is warned to flee to Egypt, and told to return when Herod died.
Luke is Mary’s story - in fact, she alone could have recounted these things to Luke. The story of Zacharias and Elisabeth; Mary’s visit to Elisabeth; the birth of John; the angel appearing to Mary, the birth of Jesus, and the tale of the shepherds all speak of Mary’s part in this event.
There are remarkably consistent differences in the accounts. In the Matthew story the angel always appears in a dream, and he gives commands. “Do not be afraid to take to yourself Mary your wife.” “Call His name Jesus.” “Do not return to Herod” was the command to the wise men. “Arise, take the young child and Mary his mother, and flee into Egypt.” “Return, for they are dead who sought the young Child’s life.” Specific commands, which Joseph and the wise men obeyed.
In the Luke story the angel is actually seen, and carries on conversations with both Zacharias and Mary. An angel choir appears to the shepherds. What is surprising is that no actual commands are given. Zacharias is told that his prayer will be answered, and he will have a son. Mary is told she will be with child of the Holy Spirit, and she willingly accepts it. The shepherds are told the tidings of great joy, but it is they who say, one to another, “Let us now go, even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Another amazing difference is the presence of Herod and his people in Matthew. He is shown in his wickedness and deceit, pretending to wish to worship Jesus while plotting to kill Him. He uses his counselors, none of whom are interested in the actual birth of the Christ, though they now know that a star has heralded His birth. Then there is the terrible story of Herod’s murder of the little ones around Bethlehem.
None of this appears in Luke. There is just a glancing reference: “There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea......” What a different tone, therefore, appears in Luke. It is one of peace and rejoicing, of wonder and gratitude, spoken from the heart by Zacharias, by Mary, and by Simeon. By contrast, Matthew tells of Joseph’s sadness and thought of putting Mary away privately, of Herod’s treachery and the sin of infanticide. And Matthew tells also how futile were Herod’s efforts, for the angel of the Lord provided that Joseph brought the infant Lord safely out of his reach.
So what are these two stories telling us about our lives, here, today? They speak of how the Lord is born in our minds and hearts. Let us leave Zacharias and Elisabeth and John out of this sermon. John represents repentance, and his birth precedes the birth of Jesus. But after we have repented of our sins, then the Lord Himself comes to be born in us. That birth is the implanting within us of charity - the ability to love others unselfishly. It is this birth which makes us into angels, which puts the stamp of eternal love in our hearts, which causes us to be “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
When charity begins to become felt in us we respond in two distinct ways. Matthew tells how our understanding reacts to His coming. Luke speaks of how His birth receives a response in the new will which the Lord is creating in us.
Joseph seems to represent the good of truth. He was a carpenter, working with tools of iron on wood to shape it, and his very act pictures the efforts of the human understanding, taking the truths of revelation and working to apply them to a life of goodness.
Joseph at first feared that Mary had been unfaithful to him, and that the child was conceived of a man. When we have done the deeds of repentance, and the Lord begins to create this wonderful, heavenly love inside of us, we too will doubt. How can I, a person who has been selfish up to date, how can I feel these tender, loving thoughts towards others? How can I be moved to do kind deeds with no thought of reward? I must be deceiving myself. This is just human-born selfishness under another guise.
But an angel of the Lord told Joseph that this birth was unique in all of history. The angel represents an insight from within, the presence of the Lord within the truths that we have learned, which gives us assurance that indeed unselfish love can be ours. The Word has promised that it will be so. Don’t doubt it. You can be a truly loving, unselfish, caring person. And when you feel this love inside of you, call it by its proper name. Call it “Jesus,” which means, “Jehovah is the Savior.” Realize that this is salvation come into your heart.
Joseph obeyed the angel. We need to believe that charity can be ours, and unite ourselves to the innocent love for the truth (which is what Mary represents).
Then, when this beautiful charity blossoms in our hearts, new truths come to herald that birth. The wise men had studied the Word, knew that a star would appear when the Christ was born, and took a long journey to find Him. The truths they represent, learned because we are moved to study and reflect on His Word, are the ones that tell us how to live the life of love. They are conscious truths, and they spur us to action.
The wise men gave three gifts to Jesus, and for two thousand years they were the last people on earth to know why these gifts, and no others, were suitable. For there are only three things we can give to the Lord, only three things we can withhold. Myrrh represents obedience; frankincense, love to others; and gold, love to the Lord Himself. We can withhold these from the Lord and He cannot make us give them to Him. When moved by charity, we plan to offer Him the only gifts which we can possibly give - the offerings of a grateful heart to obey, to love His children, and to love Him.
But the Matthew story contains Herod also. Within each of us there is a powerful love of self, and all sorts of false and horrible thoughts are tied to it. Through this love the hells seek to kill our unselfish instincts. They use deceit, they even use the truths of the Word (as Herod did when seeking to know where Christ should be born). For much of our lives we have given a fairly free rein to our selfish impulses. They don’t relinquish their kingship over us without a struggle. The story of Herod speaks of the plots of the hells to destroy our love for others, and of how the Lord protects us. When we obey the commands of His Word our love grows, quietly and secretly, in a safe place where Herod cannot find it.
So we come to the gospel of Luke. Why is Herod not mentioned there? It is in the Lord’s amazing mercy that there are times when selfishness seems to be a distant memory. We know it’s there - “In the days of Herod the King,” Luke says. We know that battles lie ahead, but there are moments when we see the joy of life, and these feelings give us an inner reason to fight for heaven. When you first fall in love, you feel only unselfish love for that person. At times you read the Word, and feel in its pages the certainty of the Lord’s love, and its promise of a heaven, a life of charity, just for you!
Selfishness seems far off. You know it will come back, but right now you know that there is a life beyond selfishness. There truly is a greater love that leaves self behind, and at times, at oh-so-precious times, you are allowed to feel it. The Lord touches our hearts, and the best image of that is Christmas night in the stable in Bethlehem.
In our peaceful states there is Mary, the innocent affection for truth. We often call it idealism. It is a deep-seated conviction about the highest ideals in life. We see deeply into the Word, see the values it teaches, we want a value system that will last for all time. We want the Lord to be our God, the God of our hearts and minds. In our innocent times we just don’t question these things, we long for them. Mary, betrothed, and longing for marriage, represents this innocent love, longing to experience the full heavenly marriage of good and truth, to make ideals work.
Mary went to Bethlehem, for that little town represents new truth, the truth of the internal sense of the Word. To go from Galilee to Bethlehem is to go upward, into the deeper regions of our minds, and experience that love which is the birth of the Lord in us. It is to feel, in the living waters of the Word, that we do love others, and this love is “God with us.”
Yet the inn at Bethlehem had no room for the infant Jesus. Many spiritual truths in our minds have languished, and lost their meaning. Other needs have crowded them out, even falsified them. There are many places in our minds where we know the truth, but that knowledge is full of earthly concerns which take the joy, the wonder out of it.
In His mercy the Lord prepares other places in our minds. The spiritual manger stands for lower truths, simple ideals long held precious. For example, you have truths in your minds about how to care for infants and how to teach little children about the Word and how to care for the needs of the elderly or those who are hurting. You understand these truths. A manger, where horses feed, represents such an understanding.
And you have simple, innocent ideas in your minds also which are, as it were, wrapped around charity. These truths tell you that certain things hurt others, that certain things, said with gentleness, touch their hearts. These truths tell you when to deal gently with others, and when to be firm but loving at the same time. They are simple ideas from the Word, first truths, which keep charity warm in your heart. “....and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger.”
How beautiful is the story of the shepherds. They too represent interior truths, long held, which through the night of our selfish lives have kept us turning towards good values. They kept watch over our spiritual flock, our valuable feelings, even though we have often been selfish and uncaring. These values are called forth, and respond with joy when love is born in our hearts.
The story of Luke is one of a free response to the Lord and His creation of heaven in our minds. It is full of joy. Zacharias prophesied, with a heart full of gratitude. Mary’s soul magnified the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. Simeon gave thanks because he had seen the Lord’s salvation, prepared for all people. The shepherds returned, praising God for all that they had seen.
When you feel heartfelt gratitude in your lives because of a special love the Lord has granted you, - why then, stop, stand still, lift up your heart and rejoice in that moment. And know this: that if you persist in following Him, that special love will become your heaven. It will be a love born of no human father. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you, and that holy love growing in you is indeed born of God.
Two stories of Christmas. Both so beautiful. The Lord gave each to us that we may see with our understandings, and feel in our hearts the wonder of this holy birth. They are secret stories, scarce felt because of the noisy pressures of worldly life, but revealed in all their wonder for the New Church. The spiritual Joseph and wise men are conscious, understood truths which are obeyed, and bring deep joy to the human mind. The spiritual Mary and Bethlehem and the manger and the swaddling cloths and the shepherds represent affections for deep ideals, and for practical ideas. These find inner happiness and peace when He comes to us.
For the greatest event in human history was the birth on earth of God Himself. And the greatest event in anyone’s life is when there is born to you the love from God that will never die. This is truly the spirit of Christmas.
(Izinkomba: Apocalypse Explained 706; Matthew 2)
Psalms 78
1
Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2
I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4
We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
5
For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
6
That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
7
That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
8
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9
The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10
They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11
And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
12
Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13
He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
14
In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15
He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17
And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18
And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
19
Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20
Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21
Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;
22
Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
23
Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25
Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
26
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27
He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29
So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
30
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31
The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32
For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
33
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34
When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God.
35
And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
36
Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37
For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38
But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
39
For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40
How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41
Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
43
How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
44
And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
45
He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
46
He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
47
He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.
48
He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51
And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:
52
But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53
And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54
And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55
He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56
Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:
57
But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58
For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59
When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;
61
And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
62
He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.
63
The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
65
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66
And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67
Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
68
But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.
69
And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.
70
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71
From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72
So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
