Matthew 2:13-23
Merry Christmas! It may be December 29, but the Christmas season continues for another week!
While today’s gospel reading is a Christmas reading, it is not one of my favorites; the reason is simple; it does not tell about the happy events of Christmas. Traditionally it is known as the story of the slaughter of the innocents. The church has set aside December 28 to commemorate “Holy Innocents, Martyrs” and so to remember the lives of those children lost to King Herod’s anger, actually lost to King Herod’s fear of there being a threat to his throne.
Because of where our reading begins, we miss the part of the story about when the wisemen told King Herod that they were looking for the newborn king. We also miss the part of the story that tells us that the wisemen were warned in a dream not to go back and tell Herod where they found the child, Jesus. Again, we miss the part of the story of the wisemen taking heed to the angels warning and going home by another route, and so they did not tell Herod the where-abouts of the child king. We do not know, how long Herod waited for the wisemen to return to him, but we know that Herod was not a happy camper. When our Gospel reading begins, an angel of the Lord appears again to Joseph in a dream and the angel commands Joseph to get up and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. By now Joseph has gotten pretty good at just doing what the angels tell him to do (without question) and so off to Egypt they went. Thankfully the gifts that were given to them by the wisemen made their escape and their new life in their new land, in Egypt, a lot easier. Joseph and Mary surely were able to set up a household and Joseph was able to establish his carpenter’s shop, enabling them to stay for as long as they needed. Actually, we know little to nothing about their time in Egypt, only that it lasted until King Herod died.
Just so, you do not get too confused, there were a few King Herods, there was this one, who was around at the time of Jesus’ birth, and there was another King Herod who was around at Jesus’ death, and to really confuse things there were a couple of other Herods not connected to the life of Jesus. (It brings to mind the boxer, George Forman, who named all his sons George and of course they all had the same last name “Forman”. He would introduce them, this is George and this is my other son George, and so on.)
Back to Mary, Joseph and Jesus: It is assumed that this exile did not last too many years, and not hearing of any problems, it was probably a safe and comfortable couple years allowing them to adjust to their new life as a family. But while they were safe in their exile, King Herod, knowing that the birth would take place in and around Bethlehem sent his troops to that region to do his damage. The wisemen, Herod knew, had been traveling for a couple of years; Herod figured that the child, this newborn king must be 2 years of age or younger and so Herod ordered the murder of all the children, in and around Bethlehem, who were 2 years of age or younger, both boys and girls. These children had done nothing wrong; their parents had done nothing wrong; these children simply had the misfortune of being born around the same time as was Jesus. Like most Bible stories the author reminds us of the former prophecies; in this instance the prophecy mentioned was spoken by Jeremiah; it told of how in Ramah (an ancient city) there would be wailing and lamentation at the loss of their children. The author of Matthew saw in Herod’s heartless killing of the innocents, the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
To us, it makes no sense that there would have to have been such an unnecessary act of violence and killing, but it is not for us to always understand and such vile acts happen even in today’s world; it seems that evil regularly makes its appearance when and wherever God does a good thing and Jesus’ birth was a very good thing, so we see that it was accompanied by a very evil act. We within the church continue to remember this day as a way of recognizing the great sacrifice made by the parents and children of Bethlehem and the surrounding area, that took place near the time of Jesus’ birth. These children and parents should not be forgotten. They deserve to be honored for the very difficult part they played in the story of Jesus’ life; I sincerely believe that they are honored by God and by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as well. Sadly, the suffering of innocent victims is a common thing in our world. We cannot save them all, but we can certainly pray for them and their families; I’m sure God will give them his peace.
An important thing that we should learn from this story is the real danger that our Lord Jesus was in, from the time of his birth and all throughout his life. And we all know, how his life ended. Jesus’ sacrifice and struggle all throughout his life was for real as was the danger he lived with. And the events of the slaughter of the innocents should also remind us that bad things do happen to good people. The bad things that happened to those children and their families were definitely not deserved. The theology of their time would have said that they must have sinned greatly for such events to have taken place in their lives. But we don’t believe that; we are very much aware that bad things happen even to the best of people. We know that Satan is at work creating sorrow and all kinds of evil. And in the battle taking place between God and Satan, even in our time, Satan does not care, he may even take pleasure knowing that innocent people suffer in the process. It may actually be a part of Satan’s plan. We need to be aware that evil is as much a part of our world as God’s love in Jesus Christ. We serve Jesus and our world best by caring for those who suffer, who get caught in the middle, who are innocent victims and by sharing Jesus’ love by word and deed with the world around us.