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Matthew 2:1-12

King Herod Is Unfair To Jesus

January 7, 2018

Day of Epiphany

Lectionary Year B

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Christmas recently happened. Did you have a hard time falling asleep the night before opening presents?
Once you were able to open gifts, were you excited about the gifts that you had received?
Christmas can be pretty exciting, right?
You get presents, food, time off from school, get to see people and places you don't see every day.
But, even though this time of year can be fun, unfair things can happen, too.

Maybe your brother or sister got a gift that they won't share with you
Maybe you have to go to bed while other people get to stay up
Maybe a gift you received broke or didn't work the way you thought it should work

This reminds us, sadly, that even though Christmas can be an exciting and good time, it doesn't mean unfair things stop happening.

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

In today's story, we hear that baby Jesus and his parents have a similar Christmas-like time -- where things are both exciting but also unfair.
After Jesus is born, some people (called "wisemen") from another country want to celebrate Jesus' birth by giving presents to Jesus and his family.
They want to do this because they believe that Jesus will be a new type of leader for the Israelites.
But when they stop by to share this exciting news with King Herod, King Herod is not excited – instead, he’s scared.
King Herod is scared because he thought he was going to lose his job as "leader of the Israelites" to Jesus.
So instead of wanting to give gifts to Jesus, King Herod wanted to figure out how to stop Jesus from taking his job.
In other words, King Herod wanted to get RID of Jesus.
What do you think – is that very fair to Jesus and his family?

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

As we can see, even the first Christmas (so to speak) had unfair things in it and those unfair things were happening to Jesus and his family.
But, what we can also see is that God was there to help
We see that God helped the wisemen find Jesus to share their gifts with him and his family.
And, God told the wisemen to not return to King Herod or tell him where Jesus was.
Also, in the story directly after today's story, God helped Joseph know when to move his family to Egypt and when to move the family back to Israel.
The same way God helped those people in today's story is the same way God can help us.
When things feel unfair, when we are in the middle of unfair moments, we can invite God into that time.
We can ask God in prayer for help and guidance about what to do.
And, when we listen for a response, God will show us a way forward that is best for us and others.

That's the good news for today. Let’s pray…

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

When unfair things happen to us…

…help us to remember…

…to seek your help…

…so that we can see…

…your best way forward for us.

Thank you and amen.

Originally posted December 24, 2017

Updated on December 24, 2017
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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Related message(s): Baptism in Mark 1:4-11 <– actual 1/7/18 passage; Baptism in Luke