I love Matthew the gospel writer for two reasons.
First, Matthew wanted everyone who read his gospel to know he was a tax collector when Jesus found him. He worked for occupying Rome, hired to take taxes from his community, and possibly stole some for himself too. He was hated by his neighbours. Matthew always remembered who he was when Christ first loved him. I like that.
Second, Matthew loves more than any other gospel writer to reference the Old Testament, writings that were around years and years before Jesus was born. Matthew was looking for Christ and his promises in the Old Testament and he wanted us to also see and know Jesus through what was written long ago. I really like that.
In Matthew 2:1-18 alone, as horrible and historic events unfold, we are told 4 times that what happens is to fulfill what a prophet has said or written. And I think it’s good to ask, why does it matter what was written so long ago in the face of such scary stuff right now?
These 4 prophecies inserted into Matthew 2 are like someone on the side of the road, waving us down: Hey! Take this road. Turn here and stop a minute. You’ll see something great.
What will we see? We know Herod’s afraid of being supplanted. He suspects this child might be the King who was promised and he has to know, where in the Hebrew scriptures does it say the Messiah will be born? And his scholars tell him: Actually, not too far from here. It is written the ruler who will shepherd Israel will come from Bethlehem (vs 5,6).
It is written, Herod’s academics say. It is written in the Old Testament by a prophet named Micah who lived long before Jesus’ parents were born (Mic. 5:2). The God who has seen and known all things, from the beginning of time and into eternity, wrote about them before they even happened.
The events we read about in Matthew 2 are chaotic and scary but the it is written parts assure us that God is completely in control and has always planned to reclaim disordered, scary things and make them good.
There’s a song in the middle of the bible called Psalm 139 and there it is written: Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.
Just as God knew what would happen in Matthew 2 and wrote about it in the prophecy of Micah, he also has another book, where he has written your days, the events of your life, the good things, and the sorrows too, long before you ever knew them.
You have kept count of my wanderings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? (Ps. 56:8)
It is written.
Does it comfort you that God sees, remembers and writes the suffering of your life? Does it comfort you to know that Jesus was as susceptible to grief as you are and his years on this earth, from the earliest day to the very bitter end, is written and filled with suffering too?
What else is written?
In verse 7, Herod secretly summons the wise men and asks them when the star first appeared. Herod commands them to do the math, search carefully for the child, and report back to him. But the wise men, after worshipping Jesus, are warned by God to go straight home and when Herod finds out he flies into a blind rage, ordering all boys, two and under, who live in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, be massacred.
It is written, we’re told. Long long ago, before Herod would give his wicked command and his soldiers would murder baby boys, it was written:
A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be comforted, because they are no more (Jer. 31:15).
It is written in the prophecy of Jeremiah that even the blood and screams of these babies in the gospel of Matthew would not happen beyond God’s watch, or out of earshot. It is written that God refuses to forget the sound of a parent’s weeping.
And if we listen carefully, with our hearts, so many years later, we will also hear Rachel from long ago, weeping for her little ones and refusing to be comforted. It is written, this atrocity in Matthew 2, these little ones, will be mourned for continuous lifetimes as well. By God, yes, and by all of us, whenever we read this story.
The story here is one of the God who entered a world that was as violent, scary, and filled with suffering as ours. A world with people in power who would kill innocents, a world with refugees in crisis, a world with homelessness, helplessness, and very dark things. A world where tears and grief do not end when we want. A world that weeps and refuses to be comforted because the loss is just too great.
Jesus entered as vulnerable to all the pain and suffering in this world as we did and not only was he vulnerable to it, he experienced it and he wept.
God sees suffering and unspeakable evil and he has written of them in his book. Are you afraid he does not see? Are you afraid your suffering and the suffering of this world does not matter to him?
Even before the tragic events of Matthew 2 unfold God knew them, he saw them, and told us about them in the book of Jeremiah. Are you afraid he turned his back? Or passively watched while they actually happened? While the little ones were slaughtered? What is written promises he did not.
And see here, in verse 18, how he tenderly reminds us of the terrible, unrelenting grief of parents who so long ago lost their little ones. Would he bother to remind us of Rachel’s tears if he did not wipe every one?
We ignore suffering. We are unjust. We forget. God reminds us. God sees and knows and remembers our suffering and the suffering of our world better than we do and with more compassion and grief than we could ever muster. He sees and knows the suffering of all humanity and we are promised, through what is written, that he is healing and comforting the world, even as she weeps. Do not be afraid. He sees. He knows. He has written.
