Holy Innocents, Dec. 28, 2003
Text: Matthew 2:13-18
From Victims to Holy Innocents
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today, just days after the joyous birth of our Lord, the church remembers Herod’s slaughter of Bethlehem’s children. Fearing a rival to His throne, Herod wants to eliminate the baby Jesus, the One born to save the world from their sins. There is no doubt that Satan is the real instigator of this murderous rage. The reason Jesus came into this world was to destroy Satan’s rule and kingdom. Before He was even born, no room could be found in the inn for His pregnant mother. After His birth henchmen are sent to kill Him. Our world has no place for Jesus. John put it this way: [Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. (John 1:10, 11) It is not merely wicked Herod, but all of Jerusalem with him, that is deeply troubled at the coming of the wise men from the East.
How did these wise men know about the birth of Jesus? First, these were men who studied the constellations and movements of the stars and planets, and from what they observed they concluded that someone special had been born in Israel. Secondly, they probably came from Babylon, where the Jews had spent many years in exile. There they had access to the Old Testament Scriptures, including the writings of Daniel who had served as a wise man himself at the royal court of Babylon and who wrote of the coming Christ.
Putting together these pieces of information the wise men prepared to make a royal visit. They arrived at the royal palace in Jerusalem with a question: Where is the One who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him. (Matthew 2:2) What probably puzzled the wise men most was that no one in the palace was aware that an important heir to the throne of David had been born. And what floored Herod and all the leading people in Jerusalem was that they had to learn of the birth of Christ from foreigners. They had been caught with their pants down! If there was any truth to this story, what a disgrace! They should have known. Could they have known?
We remember how the shepherds who saw Christ on that first Christmas night spread the good news to everyone. We remember how the prophetess Anna continued to speak of Christ in the temple to all who looked for the redemption of Jerusalem. Perhaps some prominent Jews did come to Bethlehem to check out the birth of Jesus. But upon discovering a little child living in poverty, cared for by a couple who came from the backwaters of Nazareth in Galilee they likely said to themselves: “Is this the promised One? God forbid! This must be a mistake! Let us leave this place and tell our people to pay no attention to the rumours we have heard!”
By the first year after Jesus’ birth, everyone seemed to have forgotten the news the angels announced on Christmas day. But then three wise men arrive at the gates of Jerusalem. These were not mere shepherds. These were scholars who worked in a royal court and who knew their stuff. And they came prepared for a royal audience. They came insisting that a new king had indeed been born.
Surprisingly no one in Jerusalem seemed to welcome the news of the birth of the Christ. No one even bothered to assist the wise men in their search for the Christ-child. The religious leaders probably did not take this news seriously because these wise men were, after all, Gentiles, pagans who were given to superstition and were not trustworthy.
Herod, however, did not take any chances and prepared his own sinister plans for welcoming Jesus into the world. But as the wise men do not return to the palace, Herod becomes nervous. What if the wise men had found the child? And what if they had sensed his real intentions? So Herod has all boys in Bethlehem under two years of age killed.
The boys of Bethlehem gave up their lives while the fullness of God hidden in Mary’s child slipped off in the night, escaping the sword of Herod. While those on earth mourned their loss, God prepared a place of honour for these children in His kingdom. And while we might be quick to accuse God of injustice, it is these children whom God spared a life of suffering while His own Son became a refugee and had to persist until the bitter end until He painfully suffocated on the cross.
These children who were murdered in cold blood are called by the church “the Holy Innocents.” We can understand that they were innocent, not deserving to be executed, but by what authority can we call them “holy?” Consider, for example, that these were the first people to give up their lives for the sake of Christ and for the Gospel. They praised God not by speaking, but by dying. Their lives were emptied of themselves and filled with Him. The evil Herod committed God reversed by receiving these children into His everlasting kingdom as His “Holy Innocents.” The justice of God is far more profound than we can imagine.
We can only begin to understand God’s justice in the light of the cross. There we see that God does not take the easy way out. God bleeds. God suffers. God dies. In Christ, God subjects Himself to some of the worst tortures devised by mankind. God does this so that we who suffer in this world of sin may rejoice as we look forward to the newness of life that God has prepared for those who love Him. For death is not the end! God who created the world out of nothing and who Himself rose from the dead, certainly has no difficulty in making all things right and new again.
[Jesus] came to that which was His own and His own did not receive Him. But to all who received Him, He gave the power to become the sons of God, even to those who believed in His name. The boys of Bethlehem were not abandoned. Their mothers found comfort in the wounds of Jesus who died for them. After a few years of grief on earth they were reunited with their sons, never to be separated again! The Apostle Paul put it this way: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)
There is much we can learn from today’s Gospel text. One thing we should learn is to entrust our lives entirely into God’s care. God Himself became vulnerable and endured mistreatment and suffered in order to be our Saviour. Knowing that we can trust God to care for us in all our troubles. If we can do that, then we will not feel threatened by others. We will not be insecure as king Herod was. As we behold Christ on the cross and the empty tomb beyond, our fears will melt away. Fear is replaced with love. Insecurity is replaced with compassion. And empty dreams are replaced with the joy of knowing God, our heavenly Father, who makes all things right.
God be praised! He does all things well. Amen.