Summary: As we begin a new year, there will be events that threaten our health, our livelihood, our relationships and even our lives - like the danger faced by the baby Jesus. But in difficult situations, what feels like an end can be used by God to accomplish his goals.
Christmas is a season of love, joy and new life. We celebrate the birth of Jesus and look forward to seeing what kind of a man he will become. But we sometimes forget that the Christmas story is not all goodness and light - that it also includes hatred, fear and the threat of death. Matthew reminds us that the beginning of Christ's life came very close to being the end of his life.
The magi were feeling great joy as they came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?"1 They wanted to celebrate the new life of a king, whose birth was marked by an unusual star. Their positive feelings, however, were not shared by King Herod. He was frightened, so he sent the magi to Bethlehem, saying that he wanted them to find the baby so that he could worship him.
In actuality, Herod wanted to end the life of Jesus. The magi followed the star and found the baby. They were "overwhelmed with joy,"2 and gave Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Then they headed home by another road, having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod.
An angel of the Lord gave a similar message to Joseph. "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." So, Joseph took Jesus and Mary to the safety of Egypt. After they left, Herod went on a killing spree, motivated by his hatred and fear, and massacred all the infants of Bethlehem. Fortunately, Jesus got away. The beginning of his life was not brought to a bloody end.
As we come to the end of 2025 and turn the corner into a new year, we need to remember that the Christian life is not all love and joy. Like Jesus himself, we are going to encounter hatred and fear and other threats to our well-being. The Christian writer Carolyn Custis James says, "Life has a way of crashing down on us without warning. Whether we like it or not, sooner or later all of us end up in the war zone, where life ceases to be tidy and the pain threshold goes off the charts."3
For all of us, life is full of twists and turns, setbacks and reversals, dead ends. We walk an uncertain path, and we don't always know if we are going in the right direction. Throughout our lives, we start new jobs, new relationships and new business ventures without a lot of clarity about what the future will hold. Today, as we are preparing to move into the year 2026, we may find ourselves facing some endings. Like Carolyn Custis James, we are going to need God's help, especially when life ceases to be tidy and the pain threshold goes off the charts.
The good news is that our most difficult experiences can be used for God's purposes. The word "end" can mean a final point, as in "the end of life." But it can also mean a goal or a result. Throughout the Bible, God is furthering his ends. The gospel of Matthew tells us that the escape of the Holy Family to Egypt "was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I have called my son.'" God entered the war zone and achieved his ends.
But exactly what was God trying to do here? In Matthew, Jesus comes on the scene as a second Moses, being called out of Egypt to give new laws and teachings to the world. Matthew always places Jesus in the story of God's saving work, which began in Genesis and continued through the triumphs and tragedies of the story of Israel. In this case, God used Jesus to fulfill the words of the Old Testament prophet Hosea, who said, "out of Egypt I called my son."4 The beginning of the life of Christ could have come to a violent end, just as the life of baby Moses could have ended quickly. But instead, God used the chaos of the times to achieve his goals.
One of God's ends is to bring order out of chaos and good out of evil. Have you ever heard of the Rosewood Massacre? It began on January 1, 1923, in the town of Rosewood, a quiet and mostly African American town in Florida. The violence began when a young white woman in a nearby town claimed that a black man had assaulted her. Her husband gathered a mob of white citizens, including five hundred members of the Ku Klux Klan, to hunt down the man.
The massacre of ancient Bethlehem came to life in Rosewood, with "wailing and loud lamentation."5 A group of whites tortured a blacksmith, shot him and hung him in a tree. White attackers burned down the churches of Rosewood and went after people in houses. Dozens died, both blacks and whites, and families were torn apart. Within a week, most of the town was burned to the ground and the fleeing black citizens never returned. The suspect was never found, and some survivors believe that the young woman's bruises were afflicted by a white lover.
But in the middle of the evil, God was working for good. The white owner of the general store allowed blacks to hide in his home during the massacre. Two wealthy white brothers heard about the violence and sent a train to rescue black women and children. And many brave black women and men risked their lives to protect their children.
When we hear wailing and lamentation today, we cannot cover our ears. Instead, we need to share God's goal of providing compassion and care. When Jesus grew up and saw vulnerable people around him, he "had compassion for them."6 So can we. When we see racism and discrimination and violence, we are challenged to take action to protect the innocent and vulnerable people around us. We can be like Pharaoh's daughter, who welcomed Moses into her home. We can be like Joseph, who took Jesus and Mary to safety in Egypt.7
Turning evil into good is one of the ends of God, and so is surprising us with a Savior. Matthew tells us that the Holy Family returned to Israel after the death of Herod, but then Joseph "heard that Archelaus was ruling Judea in place of his father Herod, [so] he was afraid to go there." After being warned in a dream, Joseph "went away to the district of Galilee," and there "he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, 'He will be called a Nazarene.'"
Once again, Jesus was fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy. But what a surprising turn of events. Galilee was not a purely Jewish place; in fact, it was known as "Galilee of the gentiles."8 And Nazareth was a town in the boondocks, looked down upon by many. When the disciples Philip and Nathanael first encounter Jesus, Philip says, "We have [found] Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael, feeling skeptical, asks, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"9
God surprises us with a Savior who is not just good but great: Jesus of Nazareth. He comes out of an obscure town in Galilee and saves us from our sins. He offers us healing and wholeness, forgiveness and new life. When we put our faith in him and accept him as Lord of our lives, we find that we can endure the difficulties that life throws at us. "Jesus gives purpose and meaning to everything," says Carolyn Custis James. "With our eyes fixed on him, we remember why we can trust God, for Jesus is the proof of God's unfailing love for us. He is the reason God will never abandon us, and he will be the first to welcome us when we cross the finish line."10
When we face what feels like the end of life, Jesus gives us a new beginning. He is the clearest sign that God intervenes in the most stressful of situations and makes a path for us. Perhaps you have heard of astronaut Jim Lovell, who was commander of Apollo 13. Early in his career, he was a pilot in the United States Navy, and while flying one night he faced a life-and-death situation as he attempted to land on an aircraft carrier.
Lovell's instruments had failed, and he could not see the USS Shangri-La. There were no lights on the carrier. He learned from the radio that he was approaching the stern of the ship, but he could not tell if he would crash into it or overshoot it. To survive, he would need to make a surgically precise landing, with zero visibility and no instruments.
But then, from the darkness of his cockpit, Lovell noticed a faint glow in the shimmering and darkening water beneath him. He recognized it as the light of planktonic algae that lived in the Pacific, stirred up by the carrier's giant propeller. Using the ribbon of light as his guide, he held his plane steady and brought it in for a safe landing.11 In the movie Apollo 13, made many years later, Lovell says that you never know what events "transpire to get you home."12
The same is true for us. We never know what events are going to transpire to get us home, as we put our trust in God and follow our Savior Jesus Christ. As we enter a new year, there will be events that threaten our health, our livelihood, our relationships and even our lives. But in difficult situations, what feels like an end can be used by God to accomplish his goals.