The Pharisees and religious leaders prided themselves on keeping the law of Moses. Except they didn’t. Oh, they may have kept it according to how they had made it – fences around the law and all, but Jesus reminds them that by keeping the law so strictly that they’re breaking a higher law, the law
“The Dark Side of Christmas” as one commentator put it, is an odd text to base a sermon around, yet Matthew has included it whereas other gospel writers didn’t, and indeed intentionally written the things about it that he has for his readers’ benefit. What does the massacre of the innocents on the heel’s of
Jesus is born, and this text shows the reactions of three different people – Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, Herod, and earthly king, and the wise men, who come to worship Jesus. How did their expectations affect how they saw and understood Jesus’ birth? How do ours affect when and how we see King Jesus today?
