Following God into a New Year: A Meditation on Matthew 2 for New Year's Day

And when they were departed, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying,

Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt,

and be thou there until I bring thee word:

for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night,

and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod:

that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Out of Egypt have I called my son.

 

Our Gospel text for today records a dramatic series of events in the lives of the Holy Family, but events through which God safely shepherded them.  In just a few short verses we learn that in addition to the struggle of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem where Jesus was born in the overflow lodging of a stable, they would next have to flee into Egypt to avoid the murderous intentions of the brutal King Herod.  Eventually they would return after Herod’s death, but the intervening years would be spent working and making their living through labor in a strange land among foreign gods.  Yet it was God who brought them through all these travels, hazards, and labors, eventually returning them to the land of Israel, though it was Nazareth in the region of Galilee.  Neither Mary nor Joseph knew all the details of their journey when they began it, but they did know the God who made them, sustained them, and guided them into their future.  For as pious as they were, only God knew their hearts, what they could bear to know in each moment of their lives, and what He was planning to accomplish through them.

 

Truth be told, many of the years we experience look very different at the end than we envisioned in the beginning.  In the closing days of 2021, who could have honestly predicted all the ups and downs, triumphs and defeats, joys and sorrows and transitions which would be unveiled even in our own lives, much less within our families, communities, and the world at large?  At the beginning of 2022 God said to the world what He has been saying from the beginning—hear Me… trust Me—even as He alone knew the paths which would unfold for us all.  He did not disclose all the details of the journey which laid before us, but He did provide the principles upon which all could safely navigate that journey while traveling with Him.  Like the wise men who likely spent over a month in caravan traveling to worship Jesus from roughly 600 miles away, only to add both courting and evading the mad King Herod before getting home again; or Joseph taking Mary to be his wife before realizing he would have to ply his trade to support his family in Egypt for some number of years; or Mary who rejoiced to be the handmaid of the Lord, well before she knew the path it would lead her down to Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth, and Calvary.  Like us, the great saints did not know all the details of the times which lay ahead of them, but they knew the God who promised to walk with them through everything yet to come.

 

2023 sits similarly before us as did the prior year.  We have changed a bit, perhaps, in the previous years, gaining some relative combination of gratitude, knowledge, and regret.  If we are honest with ourselves, we did not use all the days of 2022 the way we should have, nor did we live every precious moment of life we were given last year to the fullest.  We said things we wish we hadn’t, thought things we wish we didn’t, and did things we hoped we wouldn’t.  We missed opportunities to do good to those who needed it, and most especially to those who persecuted and troubled us.  We failed to speak words of grace and mercy and truth to souls who needed to hear them, when words of malice, scorn, and deception flowed far easier from our lips and keyboards.  We didn’t know all the details of the path which laid before us in the prior year, but can any of us think we would have done better with the time we were given, if we had?  We lived in fear when we should have lived in courage, were unbelieving when we should have had faith.  We applauded corruption when we should have rejoiced in virtue, and preferred justice more readily when it benefited us than when it might have benefited our neighbor.  2023 opens before us the way 2022 previously did, and though we don’t know the details of all that will emerge in the future, we know what we will need at the end of 2023 is what we need even now:  Grace.

 

And of course, this is what God knows we need, too, which is the whole reason He sent His Son to dwell among us, to die for us, and to rise again for us.  God knew what we really need to traverse every year of our lives is the grace which flows from Him alone, and which He makes present to us by His Word.  That Word, like the dream which called Joseph into and out of Egypt some many centuries ago, is the Word of Promise which creates the faith necessary to receive it unto eternal life.  Joseph didn’t ask God what to do with his new bride and stepson—God spoke to Joseph, and called him into a life of faith and fellowship and service in Him.  There is no way for us to predict what crazy politicians we’ll have to avoid in the coming year, anymore than we can know all the places we’ll go, the people we’ll meet, or the work we’ll do as the days and months flow by.  What we do know is that God has spoken to us, given to us His Law and Gospel, that we might know how we should live in any place, at any time, and in any circumstance.  We know the commands of love to God first and then our neighbors, and we know the saving grace of His love for us poured out through His Only Begotten Son.  We know that His Word is sure, His promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation immutable, and His presence with us inescapable.  We know that we are baptized into Jesus Christ, forgiven and free, endowed with His authority to forgive sins and witness to His saving Gospel before all people.  We cannot know all that God will bring about, we do know God, and we know that He is faithful and true.

 

As we press into this next year, we know that the days ahead will be tumultuous, because the days of every year have been before us, and the days of every year will be ahead of us.  But we also know that God is With Us, that He is neither surprised nor thwarted by the events of the future anymore than He was by the events of the past, and that He has gathered His people to Himself by grace through faith in Christ alone, so that they might not fear any time they are given or into which they are sent.  We need not fear king or pauper, land or sea, night or day, for the Maker of them all is for us, and His Word is both our guide and our sure hope.  Be of good courage, therefore, no matter where your feet are set to roam in this coming year, for the grace which envelopes you at the close of 2022 shall be there to hold you in 2023, and unto ages of ages to come.  Amen.