Fight, Flight, or Follow | A Message Based on Matthew 2:13-18

Introduction
Thank you for coming to worship.  There are many other things you could be doing today, but you chose to be here despite the rain and nasty weather outside.  The Sunday after Christmas is typically the lowest attended Sunday of the year.  Many families travel, and the holiday exhaustion often leads to lower turnout the Sunday after Christmas.  Plus today, we have the wet weather.  My wife got called into work at the hospital today, so even she couldn’t be here.  But you are.  So, perhaps God has a special Word for you today.  I hope you hear Him.

The small crowd today is a big contrast to last Sunday for our wonderful Christmas cantata when so many people were here and also to the glory of the Christmas Eve service Tuesday, with a sanctuary full of beautiful candlelit faces.  But perhaps it is fitting today, because today we are reminded how the Christmas story took a dark turn.  Lest we naively think of Christ’s birth as only a sweet sentimental moment, the story today reminds us that Jesus’ family dealt with real life--poverty, misfortune, and the threat of death in ways we can only hope we never experience.  Let us turn then to their story from Matther 2:13-18.

Matthew 2:13-18
¹³ After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, ¹⁵ and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”

¹⁶ Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. ¹⁷ Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

¹⁸ “A cry was heard in Ramah—
    weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
    refusing to be comforted,
    for they are dead.”

Reponses to Danger
In this story we see two responses to a threat.  One is fight; the other is flight.  First, Herod felt threatened by the birth of the Messiah.  He responded by fighting to protect his throne.  In a murderous plot, he killed all the babies in Bethlehem.  The second response is modeled by Jesus’ family.  When the Angel of the Lord warned Jesus’ family of the plot, the responded to danger by fleeing to Egypt.  What a horrible and tragic story!  The birth of Christ is no fairytale.

The instinct common to most animals and humans when danger arises is fight or flight.  In an instant, a creature will choose—unconsciously—to either fight with vicious intensity or flee for safety as fast as it can.

But as I ponder this fight or flight mechanism, I realize there are a couple other options in the animal kingdom as well.  Some animals will simply freeze.  I’ve notice this in rabbits in my yard or when walking in the woods.  I have walked up on rabbits that were frozen so still, I hardly noticed them until I was within just a few feet.  Even deer, sometimes, when they see the bright headlights of an approaching car, will freeze unable to move—giving us the expression for people so surprised or frightened they cannot move or even think; they are “like a deer in headlights”.

Other animals will “play possum” like the opossum who may play dead when faced with a dangerous predator.  The “play dead” response tries to ward off danger by making the animal look so dead and unappealing the predator will leave them alone.  These instinctual responses can guide us as we think about our walk with Christ.

Fight: Standing up to the Enemy
Let’s look at the instinctual option to fight when faced danger.  In some instances, our first instinct to confront challenges head-on and stand up to the enemy.  We want to fight! I think of the strong-willed disciple Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane.  In John 18:10-11, when soldier came to arrest Jesus, Peters first instinct was to draw his sword and strike, slashing off the right ear of the high priest’s slave.  His fight reflex makes sense to many of us.  When faced with an enemy trying to take Jesus away, Peter wanted to fight.  But Jesus called for peace.  He said, “Put your sword back into its sheath.  Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?”

Jesus also had the option to fight.  He could have called down 10,000 angels to defend Him, but Jesus knew God’s plan was for Him to be arrested and die to save the whole world.  Peter responded with unthinking instinct.  Jesus responded with reason and purpose and compassion.  Jesus followed God’s plan—even when it called for suffering.

Fighting is sometimes the right response.  But fighting in our own power is often futile.  And fighting for the wrong reasons (or for no reason at all) can be dangerous and destructive.  For those inclined to fight, you must recognize you are soldier in God’s army.  And a good soldier follows orders—knowing when to fight and when “put your sword back into its sheath.”  The key for good fighting soldiers is following the Lord’s orders.

For the fighters among us, is Jesus telling you to fight or “put your sword back in it’s sheath”?

Flight: Knowing When to Move
Sometimes, fleeing is the wise choice to preserve life or sanity.  The Angel of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt.  It makes sense.  What kind of fight could Joseph and Mary put up against Herod’s soldiers?  So, they fled.  But they didn’t just flee out of fear; they fled in obedience to God’s command.  So even though they were “fleeing”, they were also following the Lord’s command.

There are times God calls us to step away from toxic environments, harmful relationships, or dangerous situations.  For people with the natural inclination to flee, that’s welcome guidance from God.  They will gladly run away from a fight.  But it may be hard for those who are inclined to stay and fight.  But the choice to fight or flee is the Lord’s to make.  Our job as disciples of Christ is to follow the Lord’s commands. 

Are you listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice? 
Is He telling you to stay and fight or is He saying flee to Egypt?

Freeze: The Temptation to Do Nothing
Of course, we cannot forget the lessons from nature.  There are still two other possibilities besides fight or flight.  We may freeze up and do nothing.  Freezing can stem from fear or being overwhelmed.  I think about the story of Lot’s wife from Genesis 19:26. When God destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He sent an angel to evacuate Lot’s family.  But as the family fled, Lot’s wife hesitated and looked back. 
How could she leave behind her home and the life she’d built?  Her hesitation to follow the Lord wholeheartedly and be saved froze her into a pillar of salt.

Fear can paralyze us; so can our hesitation to leave behind the sins of the past and follow God.  Even our reluctance to forgive others can leave us frozen and unable to heal.  Fear and hesitation keep us from moving forward in faith.  Are you stuck in place, afraid to step out in obedience and follow the Lord?

Play Dead: Avoiding Responsibility or Action
Or maybe you’re more like a nasty possum.  You just want to “play dead,” avoiding confrontation, avoiding responsibility, or avoiding the call of God.
If that’s you, you’re like the prophet Jonah who tried to escape God’s call by running in the opposite direction.  God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, he didn’t want to go.  Why should he preach repentance to the Ninevites?  Why should they have a chance to repent.  Jonah wanted them to be burned up by God’s wrath.  He wouldn’t preach to them.  And you probably know how that story ended.  Jonah ended up in the belly of a big stinky fish.

Ignoring God’s direction doesn’t make His call disappear.  And if we can learn anything from Jonah’s story, it’s that God will have His way, one way or another.  Are you pretending not to hear God’s voice? 
You better watch out.  There might be a big fish coming to swallow you!

Follow: The Way of Christ
All the instincts of the animal kingdom reside in our animal bodies.  But we were created to be more than animals.  We are called to be God’s royal priest.  We are to follow the Lord.  Let us then follow the Mary and Joseph’s example.  They fled because God told them to flee.  They followed God’s guidance, trusting that He would provide and protect. 

The same Spirit that told Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt lives inside you if Jesus is your Lord.  God’s Holy Spirit dwells within you, guiding your steps, assuring you that God is with you.  In moments of danger, uncertainty, or fear, the best response is to listen and follow where God leads.

How Do We Listen to God’s Guidance?
You need to practice listening to God’s voice.  I hope you will take this seriously in 2025.  Train yourself to hear God’s guidance through the Holy Spirit.

• Stay Tuned to the Spirit: Through prayer, Scripture, and worship.
• Surround Yourself with Godly Counsel: Seek wise advice from trusted believers.
• Be Willing to Move or Surrender: Trust that God’s way is higher than our own.
• Act in Faith, Not Fear: Even if the path ahead is unclear, take the next step.

As we close today, I want to pray the Wesley Covenant Prayer together.  This is a traditional prayer that goes all the way back to the 1700s and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who often led his congregations to pray this prayer on New Year’s Eve as an act of spiritual reflection and recommitment, allowing individuals to renew their covenant with God, surrendering their lives fully to His will.

As we pray this together today, I encourage you to pray with a sincere willingness to surrender your instinct to fight, flee, freeze, or play dead—and instead, commit yourself to follow Christ completely, wherever He leads.

The Wesley Covenant Prayer
Leader: I am no longer my own, but Yours.
People: Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will.

Leader: Let me be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low for You.
People: Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

Leader: I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.
People: And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine, and I am Yours. So be it.

All Together: And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

All You Ever Need

Introduction
I heard a funny joke the other day.  It went something like this.  A smug Princeton professor was flying from to Kansas to visit his parents.  The man seated next to him said hello and extended a friendly calloused hand.  “My name's George.  It’s my first time flying!  What’s your name?”  

“You can call me Doctor Edwards,” was his annoyed reply.  “So you’re a doctor?  Have you ever saved a life?”  

“Not that kind of doctor.  I have a PhD in physics.”  

“Oh!  I didn't know physics needed doctors! Wow!  You must be pretty smart!  I never went to college.  I’m a pig farmer.”  

The professor rolled his eyes and hoped the man wouldn’t keep talking the whole way to Kansas, but the man continued, “Say.  How’s about we play a game.  You ask me a question about physics and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll give you $5.  Then I’ll asks you a question and if you can’t answer, since you're so much smarter, you give me $50. ”  

Well, the pay out was a bit lopsided, but the professor was really smart and figured he could easily win this contest of wits. “Alright,” he said. “As light from a star spreads out and weakens, do gaps form between the photons?”  

“Shucks!  That’s a good one.  I don’t rightly know.  Well, you got me!  Here’s five bucks.”  He handed over the money and the professor thought this was going to be too easy, but then the pig farmer asked his question.  “What’s the name of the bacteria in a pigs gut that helps it digest it’s dinner?”  

Now the professors was a little concerned.  He hesitated a moment and then said, “I don’t know.  Here’s $50.”  

“Thanks!”  The farmer said.  

Then the professor asked, “So what is the name of the bacteria inside a pigs gut that helps it digest it’s dinner?”  

The farmer grinned, “Man you’re good!  I don’t know.  Here’s five more bucks.”  

And that my friends is the difference between wisdom and knowledge!

Wisdom is often gained through experience. The world has its own kind of wisdom, gained through life experience.  Jesus has another kind of wisdom--the wisdom of the ages gained through eternity.  For Jesus is the Word of God. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God." The world had its own wisdom, but God's wisdom is infinitely better. 

The Most Important Thing is to Have Roof Over Your Head…
One bit of worldly wisdom says: "The most important thing is to have a roof over your head and food on your table." That's pretty practical. On the one had, it reminds us about two of our most basic needs--food and shelter. It would be incredibly foolish to spend all you money on fancy clothes and the newest smart phone if you don't have any food to eat or place to live.  I have know a few fools who actually lived that way and you just want to shake them and say, "Come on man! The most important thing is to have a roof over your head and food on your table!" 

This tidbit of worldly wisdom can also serve as an admonition to live a simple life.  In other words, you don’t need a bunch of material things—computers, cars, gadgets, etc.  All you need is a roof over your head and food on your table and you will be fine.  That’s a good reminder, especially for those of us who live in an opulent age that says we always have to have more bigger and better things.

What did Jesus Say?
I’m always more interested in what Jesus said than what the world says.  I am a Christian, after all, and I follow Jesus.  Jesus calls all Christians the same way he called his first disciples in the New Testament.  He comes to us and says, “Come, follow me.” (Matthew 4:19).  So, what did Jesus say?

Matthew 4:4
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Matthew 8:20
But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

We Have Deep Spiritual Need
If humans were merely animals (as some evolutionists in our modern times believe), the world’s wisdom would be enough.  All animals need to survive is their basic biological needs fulfilled.  But humans are more than animals.  We were created by God for a relationship with Him.  By the Word of God, humanity was created.  His words breathed life into our bodies.  And so, even after our basic needs for food and shelter are met, we yearn for something more.  It is precisely this deep yearning inside that often drives people to neglect tending their basic need to “have a roof over our head and food on our table” and foolishly chase after luxuries like fancy cars or clothes or gadgets and nick-nacks.  So many people—perhaps you—are addicted to buying things or even pursuing relationship because they feel a deep emptiness inside and hope that next new thing or that next new relationship will fill a void somewhere inside. 

Humans obviously have needs that go beyond food and shelter.  Yet, even friendships and romantic relationships don’t completely fulfill us.  For even people who have all there material needs met, many good friends, and a happy marriage still feel something is missing.  What is this deep need we have, deep in our soul?

Jesus said, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  You might think that was easy for Jesus to say, but what if he were starving because he got laid of from work and didn’t have money to put food on his table?  Well, actually, Jesus lived in a time and place where most people struggled just to survive and ut food on the table.  Jesus said these words after fasting for 40 days.  Have you ever gone without eating for 40 days?  Jesus did and at the end of it, he affirmed this eternal truth:  People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Humans were made for a personal relationship with God so close we hear His words.  And that relationship comes through Jesus, whom John 1:1 says is the Word of God.

Following Jesus Changes Everything
One would think then, if we have a roof over our head and food on our table and we have a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, we would be all set.  But then Jesus calls us to follow Him and when we come after Jesus he says in Matthew 8:20, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.” What’s that all about?

From the moment Jesus began his public mission to save the world, he’s been calling people to follow him.  As we follow him, we find the Word of God which is the Bread of Life—that thing that finally satisfies the deep longing in our souls.  Yet the three years of His earthly ministry, Jesus didn’t have a home.  He literally didn’t have a roof over his head (unless he stayed under the roof of a friends house).  Jesus was homeless.  Foxes had dens, and birds had nest, be Jesus didn’t.  And if you followed Jesus in the New Testament, it meant you weren’t going to have a place to lay your head either.  

That was 2,000 years ago.  What about now?  Are Christians called to be homeless now?  Of course not; most Christians are not homeless.  There may be some who are called to special ministries that require them to give up their homes to do the Lord’s work.  However, the vast majority of Christians who faithfully follow Jesus don’t have to abandon the “roof over their head.”  

Still, choosing to follow Jesus as your Lord requires a shift in your world-view and your priorities.  Your worldview changes when you realize your “roof” is not really your roof.  It’s the Lord’s roof.  He’s not coming to stay at your house.  You now realize, you are living in His house.  Let that sink in…

Furthermore, when you follow Jesus as your Lord, your priorities change.  Before Jesus was your Lord, the most important thing was to have a “roof over your head and food on your table.”  But now, the most important thing is to follow the Lord.  And if you are faithful to Your Lord, you will follow Him anywhere—even at the expense of the roof over your head.  This change in attitude and priorities goes against the world’s prevailing wisdom.  But as the Word of God says in 1 Corinthians 1:25, “This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.”

Closing
The world has been through some crazy times over the last year.  The COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how vulnerable we are.  People have lost jobs.  Businesses have closed.  Supply chains were broken. Doctors and experts were baffled by a virus that gives one person the sniffles and the next one ends up on a ventilator in an ICU and then dies. 

It’s scary to think of your own vulnerability as you find out you can't count on the thing you always thought were sure.  I hope the events of this last year help you turn to something greater than what the world offers.  I hope you turn to God through Jesus Christ.  Because in Jesus, you will find God will take care of you no matter what comes your way.  Even if you find yourself without a roof over your head or food on your table, God will take care of you.  Even if you find yourself in an ICU dying (we will all die of something someday), God will take care of you.  Through Jesus, you have the hope of eternal life forever with the Word of God—your truest need.  Jesus is calling, but will you decide to follow him today?