When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

Just two nights ago we celebrated the birth of the Christ child. In the soft glow of candles we sang “Come All Ye Faithful”, “Joy to the World”, and “Silent Night”. Now here we are two days later. Christmas is over. Reality is pouncing upon us. Jealous King Herod is anything put pleased. Remember back to the Christmas story when the wise men came and shared the news with Herod that they had seen a star heralding the birth of a new king, and Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. Why? Because Herod was a ruthless tyrant and he would stop at nothing to keep his throne even if it meant the shedding of blood and lots of it if necessary. It isn’t joy or reverent submission he is feeling. The only silence he is interested in is the news that this rival king, this babe of Bethlehem has been silenced by an assassin’s sword.

We often self-righteously shake our heads at King Herod. Oh, what a bad man he is. But how often are our hearts just as black? How often do we set aside, even “do away” with the Word of God if it gets in the way of our wants and desires. In our selfishness we knock over the manger and trample the baby underfoot to get what we think we want or feel we desire. We live in a time when we will even tolerate the slaughter of the unborn to maintain a lifestyle.

And Joseph, having been warned in a dream, takes the baby Jesus and His mother and must flee to Egypt. Egypt is a place where Israel had fled 1900 years earlier to escape from a famine. God used Joseph of “many colored coat fame” to prepare a place for his brothers and their families. When they went there the weren’t slaves but as the years passed and after the death of the Pharaoh they were made slaves. It is from that bondage that they needed to be set free.

God, the Father, sent His Son into Egypt, a land of slavery in order to protect Him from death at the hands of another King who would go so far as to kill innocent babies in Bethlehem. Jesus’ Egypt wasn’t just a geographical local. His journey into Egypt would see Him, as St Paul writes to the Galatians, born under the law. (Gal 4.5) In Chapter three of Galatians we hear Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law (“cursed” is everyone who is enslaved by sin and that is all mankind) Christ redeemed us from the curse of that sinful bondage by becoming the curse for us, (by taking our bondage upon Himself) for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Gal 3.13) He who was free took up a slave’s yoke of sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us. (2 Cor 5.21)

Where is our Egypt? Adam and Eve were once free in the Garden of Eden. Then the Devil came and deceived them. Because of that deception they fell into sin and took their offspring- all future generations- you and me- with them. What about us? We were born into this land of slavery to sin. Our Egypt is this fallen world. We are born with the yoke of original sin and in that bondage we continue to sin daily by thought, word, and deed. Where is your Egypt? Where is your bondage? Is it pride? Unhealthy desires? A sharp tongue? Covetousness? Selfishness? An addiction of some sort?

What is even more frightening is that Satan has deceived us. We’ve come to think that we are free when it comes to the things of God to choose right over wrong, to think that by our own doing we could please God. We wear the shackles of sin and death yet we deceive ourselves calling them bracelets, “sparklies”, and just part of life. We, too, are in bondage and need to be set free for if we are not we will languish eternally in the slavery of Hell.

God called the Israelites out of bondage out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And of the enemy that pursued them, they were drowned in the waters of the Red Sea. Yes, the Israelites were once slaves in Egypt but God set them free and made them rulers over the land He gave them.

Jesus didn’t stay in Egypt either. The Father called His Son out of Egypt, too. But while the Children of Israel lived as freed people, Jesus returned to fulfill the work as a slave. Jesus willingly became a slave under the yoke of sin. And as that slave it meant He would pay the ultimate price for all sin. He would go to the cross and die for all our sins. The yoke He labored under should have been ours that yoke would become His cross.

His enemy would pursue Him and hound Him, and through fallen human beings taunt Him: “If you are the Son of God come down from that cross and we will believe in You.” “He saved others let him save Himself.” What the Devil could not see was that Jesus’ death was really the Red Sea crashing in on Satan to drown him and deliver us.

The Father has called each of us out of our Egypt, our bondage. Through the suffering, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, we have been set free. All our selfish and hurtful sins, no matter how depraved, have been forgiven. When the waters of Holy Baptism washed over us, it was as though we passed through the Red Sea. You were led out of the slavery of sin and death into life, and our enemy was drowned. God lifted us out of slavery and brought us into His freedom. He broke the bonds, the shackles, the yoke that once imprisoned you, me, and all mankind.

“But, Pastor, what about the sins that we commit everyday? It is as though I find myself crawling back towards that which would enslave me again and again.” Satan does not give in easily. He comes back around in various ways with one end in mind - to deceive us and enslave us but that is why we gather here: to hear of the One, our Jesus, who freed us from sin by dying on a cross and rising again to life. It is the cross that tells us we are still free, still forgiven even on those days when we lose the skirmish with sin. The cross tells us the battle is won. The cross tells us we are free from the damning yoke of sin and death. The Words of Absolution spoken ring our ears- you who were once imprisoned by sin are set free and if the Son sets you free you are free indeed. In the Supper Jesus tells us to put out our hands and receive in them all that He places there: His real body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine – a meal of forgiveness, a meal to strengthen us for this time still in our Egypt.

Yesterday I talked with a pastor friend of mine. He shared an experience that illustrates this being set free. It seems his brother borrowed his car. He was coming home late at night and through a stretch of road notorious for speed traps. Having recently gotten a ticket he set the cruise control. Everything was going along fine and then he noticed a police car had pulled up behind him and with a sigh of relief the police car started to go around him. Then all of a sudden the police pulled back in behind him, put on his lights and pulled him over. The policeman had run the plates and it seems that there was a bench warrant out for my friend.

When his brother got home he told his brother he had trouble. The police are out looking for you. Well, my friend was beside himself. He had not done anything, no unpaid traffic or parking tickets. Yet, he was a hunted man. He was afraid to go out in car for fear he’d get arrested. He could only imagine sitting out all his Christmas services in jail.

Well, he called his friend and parishioner who happens to be a “higher up” in the police force and asked, “Can you help you me? I don’t know what I’ve done but there is a warrant out for me.”

My friend was worried and upset. How would or could he explain this to the congregation? What if someone stole his identity and did all manner of things. What if he did something- broke some law that he was not aware of… and yes, even pastors get anxious, we are human.

Well, the next day his friend called back. He called to say, “I bring news of great joy: Pastor, you are a free man.” That which would have imprisoned him had been taken care of. In his case it had been a mix up, this “higher up” friend had interceded for him. All my friend knew was that he was free; by no doing of his own he was free! I can just see my friend dancing around his kitchen: I’m a free man! That is grace. We are saved by grace through intercession of a “higher up” and not by works that no man may boast.

All around us are people like my friend with a warrant out for their arrested. But the warrant is real- they, like all of us, are wanted for a long list of sins. Each of those sins carries an eternal sentence of imprisonment in Hell. They need to know of the “higher up”-Jesus- who has interceded for them as he did for us and all the rest of mankind. They need to hear that He has redeemed us from our sentence by serving it for us. They need to hear of Jesus who sets us free. Amen.