"Christmas Tears" (Jeremiah 31:15-22; Matthew 2:16-18) Pastor Peter Yi December 25th, 2011 NIV Jeremiah 31:15-22 15 This is what the LORD says: A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, 16 This is what the LORD says: Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded, They will return from the land of the enemy. 17 So there is hope for your descendants, Your children will return to their own land. 18 I have surely heard Ephraim s moaning: You disciplined me like an unruly calf, and I have been disciplined. Restore me, and I will return, because you are the LORD my God. 19 After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth. 20 Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him, 21 Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, Virgin Israel, return to your towns. 22 How long will you wander, unfaithful Daughter Israel? The LORD will create a new thing on earth the woman will return to the man. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 1 of 5 Copyright 2011 Young Nak
Matthew 2:16-18 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, A very odd title, wouldn t you say? Christmas Tears. For such a joyous holiday it might be hard to understand such an idea. But it might not be as far fetched as we might imagine. Holidays can be and often are very lonely times for people. Whenever we think of a holiday like Christmas, we think of gatherings filled with our favorite foods and our favorite people, yet for many it s anything but that. Some wish that the season would end quickly so they could get on with their lives. And others, well they just put on a happy face, while underneath they may be hiding some dark and lonely feelings. Christmas is not a reason to sweep problems and pains under the rug. If anything, it s a time to face them with courage and with the strength and wisdom of God. We have no one to blame for this shallow perception of Christmas but our culture. Somewhere in the past Christmas became commercial. It came to be more about lights and trees and wreaths and Santas and snowflakes and sleighs and Swiss Chalet festive specials, and presents and parties, more than about its real meaning. I suppose we ve been taught from an early age that since Christmas is a birthday, we ought to have a party. All these things, more than enhancing the meaning and purpose of Christmas, have become distractions and the watering down of the true meaning of Christmas. The first Christmas was indeed filled with celebration cosmic, heavenly celebration, including both earthly and angelic beings. There was the giving of gifts. There were holy pilgrimages. But it was also marred with great tragedy. The special child that was to be born was born in a stable and placed in a manger, not in a sanitary hospital. The child was born in a small obscure town, not in a city of great acclaim and significance. The birth was accompanied by secrecy, mystery, death threats, deceit, great escapes and returns. It was filled with a bright light as a Savior was born, but it was also accompanied by infanticide as many children were murdered in an attempt to kill the chosen child. It surely wasn t a normal birth. The event following the birth of Christ was so tragic that the Gospel author Matthew references the inconsolable weeping of one of the matriarchs of the Jewish people, Rachel. Rachel was Jacob s second wife after Leah, but his first love. It was to Rachel that was born Joseph and Benjamin. And Rachel died while giving birth to Jacob s last, and her second son, Benjamin. And not far away from the city of Jerusalem, near the town of Ramah, just about 10km north of Jerusalem, Rachel was buried, as God s newly found people were travelling toward Bethel. The actual quote that Matthew includes is from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, writing hundreds of years after the death of Rachel. At the time of the prophet s writing, the northern tribe of Israel had already been deported into exile already a hundred years. Several generations of God s people had now lived in a foreign land, not knowing when or if they would return home. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 2 of 5 Copyright 2011 Young Nak
And Jeremiah, here imagines the spirit of Rachel in Ramah lamenting over the tragedy which is their exile. A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Her weeping is inconsolable because the loss is so great. They had suffered a terrible defeat in war. Their city and their holy temple were ransacked. The people were being displaced and relocated. They were forced from their homes and land, from all that was familiar. The children, the descendants of Rachel were suffering greatly and so she weeps, inconsolably. In the story of the birth of Jesus, King Herod, after realizing he had been tricked by the Magi, orders that all the children in Bethlehem under the age of two should be killed, in the hopes that one of those children will be the baby Jesus. Since they spoke of Jesus as a king, Herod felt threatening and ordered the death of any competitors to his throne. So Matthew quotes Jeremiah. 18 A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Mothers in Bethlehem, in Ramah are weeping over the loss of their innocent children. I ve only witnessed a couple times the inconsolable weeping of a mother at the death of her child. The closest experience was when my mother died. And when her mother, my grandmother found out, she was inconsolable. They say the worst grief is to outlive your child. I don t dare to disagree. Before the funeral we were at my parent s home and grandma was there and everything in the home reminded her of her daughter.the plants she raised the chair she sat on it was almost more sad seeing my grandma s reaction than the death itself. And that was for the death of a 57 year old woman. Imagine the grief over a 2 year old child. Tragedies don t go on break for the holidays. They happen when they happen. It s always like a sucker punch to the gut, knocking you to your knees. You too might be going through a difficult time right now. It may not be the death of a loved one, but it s no less real, and no less painful. It may be the feeling of emptiness. It may be a sense of lostness. It may be the strain of a close relationship. It may be the insecurity of an unknown future. It may be the burden of guilt. Sometimes the difficulties we are the result of great injustices. And sometimes they are self-inflicted. It s because of our poor choices, and our mistakes, and our unguarded words, because of our sins. Often times we bring this pain upon ourselves. And then even though we look for someone else to blame, we realize we can only blame ourselves. And that can be even more painful. But that might not describe you at all. You may have lived a life that has been for the most part pain and trouble free. But we all know that can t really last. Christians especially know that, because Jesus himself tells us that the Christian life is a life of suffering. So what do we do with 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 3 of 5 Copyright 2011 Young Nak
our tears? Many of you might be thinking. What with this sermon, so depressing for the happiest day of the year? Well we re getting there. Friends, Christmas is the answer, meaning Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer to our tears, to our sorrow and suffering. Jesus himself, was a man that was very familiar with grief and sorrow. There are several accounts in the gospels. First, Jesus teaches us about sorrow in the beatitudes, 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. There is a season for tears and there is a reason for tears. The season. The season for tears is now. Even Ecclesiastes says very poetically, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, The reason. The reason for our tears is sin and brokenness. When we look at our sinful and broken world with tears, we will be comforted. And when we look at our sinful and broken lives and hearts, we too will be comforted. Then we see Jesus weep over cities, meaning he weeps over people who are hardened in their hearts, refusing to allow God to be God in their lives and instead choosing to live in rebellion against him. He weeps over those hearts and he weeps over the judgment they will receive. And then we see him weeps over death. I believe the shortest verse in the bible is the verse that says, Jesus wept in John 11. This verse is found in a story about the death of a dear friend named Lazarus. But the strange thing about these tears is that they re shed over a person who will be brought back to life in just a few hours. So scholars have wondered why Jesus would have cried? Well he cried because death is real and death is painful. Christians know and receive great comfort from the fact that death is not the end. We know there will be a resurrection and a reunion. Yet we still grieve the loss of a loved one because the resurrection doesn t make death any less real. Scholars also say that he wept because the ultimate goal of sin is death. The bible says that the wages of sin is death. And our physical death is merely a facsimile of a much more terrible and eternal death. So Jesus weeps over death as the enemy that destroys that which is most precious to him people. Jesus sheds those tears, so we don t have to shed any. Sure we will shed plenty of tears in this lifetime, but there will come a day when tears will be no more. And the last ones to fall will be wiped away by God himself. Revelation 21:4 says this. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 4 of 5 Copyright 2011 Young Nak
Even in the Jeremiah passage, right after the description of Rachel weeping, the Lord says to withhold your weeping, and your eyes from tears. Why? Well, God will reward the weeping of Rachel. He will not allow his people to be judged forever. They will soon return to their land. In v21 God says, Return Virgin (daughter) Israel. What s strange about that? It s strange in that Israel is a man. But the nation of Israel was always considered as the wife or bride of God. And he addresses Israel as a virgin daughter. What does that imply? Purity. Cleanness, undefiled. Chastity. But they have been anything but that. God will make them clean. God will purify them. God will make the nation that has lost her virginity into a virgin once again. How will he do that, once and for all? It will be through Christmas. In Christmas, meaning in Jesus, he desires to make us whole and clean and pure once again. He wants to erase and wipe away the tears of sin and bring to us the joy and peace of his forgiveness. All he asks of us is to return. Come back to God, with tears tears of repentance. When we look at the Matthew story again, we see innocent children being slaughtered so that one child might live, so that that the child that survived would later be slaughtered, so that all might live. The baby Jesus who escaped slaughter, when he became an adult was himself slaughtered, so that you and I could live. If there is anyone who understands loss and pain and tears, it s God. He endured and suffered the greatest loss, the loss of his only Son, Jesus Christ. It was so terrible and tragic and his Son hung on the cross than God had to turn away and abandon his Son to death. This is the story of Christmas. True joy, true happiness comes only at a price. And the price was paid by Jesus. It s only through Him that our sorrows, our Chrismas tears will become tears of joy. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 5 of 5 Copyright 2011 Young Nak