Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

We have had a joyous, happy holiday. These past few days we have been celebrating the “good news of great joy,” that to us is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. With the angels who give glory to God in the highest, with the shepherds who return glorifying and praising God, with the wise men who rejoice exceedingly with great joy, we too join in the joy of Christmas. We cannot totally get rid of all the negative, unpleasant things that go on in our lives, but at least for a few days, can’t we just block them out?

Now, on the Sunday after Christmas, the Church Year calendar gives us the account of what’s called “The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents.” Now if there is any other event in the Bible that could be more of an antithesis to an upbeat, cheerful holiday mood, I don’t know what it is. Herod’s murder of defenseless children of Bethlehem is a singularly horrifying and tragic story. Yet it comes hard on the heels of Christmas, and is right there in Matthew chapter 2. What saves the story for us, though, is what can really be called “The One That Got Away.”

King Herod heard of a newly born king of the Jews from the wise men, the Magi who suddenly had paid him a visit. This is not the news that a desperate despot wants to hear. “Another king of the Jews? What about me? Where would that leave me? I’m the only king around here. I’m not going to have some little upstart challenging me for my throne.” But Herod is a sly fellow. He’s not going to come right out and tell the wise men all this. That would scare them off. No, Herod wants the wise men to lead him right to the little king. His advisors find out from the prophecies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but he wants to know the exact location and the exact child. So he sends them to Bethlehem on the pretense that he wants them to report back to him so he too can go and worship.

Of course it’s a lie. Herod doesn’t want to worship the newborn king, he wants to wipe him out! But the wise men are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. So Herod gets stood up by the wise men; they don’t come back. He still doesn’t know which of the baby boys in Bethlehem is the one to eliminate. So just to make sure he gets the right one, Herod orders the death of all of them–all the baby boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, up to two years old.

Herod the Great was a brutal, murderous ruler, insanely jealous and protective of his power, suspicious to the point of paranoia. Ancient history records other occasions when he had potential rivals to his throne, whether real or imagined, ruthlessly killed. He even murdered members of his own family when he thought it served his own interests. So for Herod to order the deaths of maybe up to 20 baby boys in a small town–if he thought that doing so would be a sure way to get rid of a new “king of the Jews”–this was nothing out of character for him.

The soldiers are dispatched. The dirty deed is done.

This is a crime so unspeakable and heinous, the details are hard to contemplate, much less to describe. What kind of a monster could do such a thing? What is as senseless and tragic as the violent death of innocent children? What grief as profound as that of parents mourning the death of their little ones? Try to imagine the sorrow of those mothers in Bethlehem: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Is there any comfort for these mothers of Bethlehem? There is, and it’s all because of “the One that got away,” the one baby Boy who escaped the slaughter of the innocents. Joseph is warned in a dream to take Mary and baby Jesus and flee the country. The little, innocent Messiah is safely on his way to Egypt. God is not going to have the infant Savior cut down before he can get started.

You know, God had done this sort of thing once before, saving an infant savior. Many centuries earlier there was another evil ruler who wanted to kill a bunch of Israelite baby boys. But the Lord had a little baby deliverer that he wanted to keep alive. Moses was his name. So that time the one that got away was baby Moses. This time it’s Jesus. That time the baby was already living in Egypt. This time the baby goes to Egypt, in order to escape. Moses had a great mission in front of him: to lead the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Jesus had an even greater mission in front of him: to lead people of all nations out of bondage to sin and death and the power of the devil. That’s why baby Jesus needed to flee from Herod and escape to Egypt.

It was necessary for baby Jesus to live, in order for him to grow up and fulfill his saving mission. Jesus had to live so he could later die, at the right time and in the right place. Some thirty years later, Jesus would stand before another Herod–Herod the Great’s son, Herod Antipas–and before a governor named Pontius Pilate, and at that time and in that place, Jesus would suffer and he would die. His death at the hands of evil men would redeem us from the power of death and deliver us from all evil. So the Christ of Christmas had to live, in order that the Christ of Calvary could die, for your sake and mine.

That’s the crucial connection between the joy of Christmas and the somber tragedy of the Holy Innocents. Any celebration of Christmas that can function only on a surface level of sweet, syrupy sentimentality, a Christmas that cannot come to grips with the harsh reality of death and suffering and evil in the world–that kind of a Christmas is not worthy of the name. But the true Christmas, the real Christian Christmas, does speak a word of lasting comfort to those who are suffering, to those who are struggling with the unanswered, and unanswerable, questions of life—and death. Maybe you are one of those today who can benefit from this comfort found hidden in the story.

Is there any comfort for people suffering from tragedy and loss? Is there any comfort for young mothers who lose their children? Is there comfort for you, when you lose a loved one or are losing one to advancing age or debilitation? For you, when you come face to face with your own mortality? Yes, there is comfort for them and for you! It is all because of the One, the Savior that got away! Christ Jesus, by winning forgiveness for all our sins has taken the sting out of death. It still is going to hurt, you will continue to miss that person or still endure physical suffering yourself. But the big hurt, the big death–death under the wrath of God–that has been accomplished. Jesus took that death for us and so took the sting out of death.

Christ’s absolutely “holy, precious blood” and his totally “innocent suffering and death” mean that now we who are connected to Christ are accepted by God as true “holy innocents,” holy before God and innocent of all the guilt that the Law says we had deserved. Those who belong to Christ will “live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.” So the question then becomes: How do we get connected to Christ? The baby boys of Bethlehem–they were connected, for they were sons of the house of Israel. They had received in their bodies the sign of the covenant which God had given to Israel, namely, circumcision. And so they shared in the hope of Israel, the promised Messiah, who would deliver God’s people from sin and death.

How about us? How do we get connected to Christ? We are connected to him in Holy Baptism. In baptism, we participate in the death of Christ. Paul says in Romans 6 that “all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death.” So the big death for each of us has already occurred. The death we deserve for our sins, Christ has already suffered. And we participate in that death by way of baptism. Now the only death left for us is the one that leads to life–everlasting life with our Lord and Savior, where there will be no more pain, no more suffering or sorrow, no more tears and weeping.

There is the source of comfort–and even joy–for all who are surrounded and set upon by the sorrows of this life, this vale of tears. There is the comfort for the mothers of Bethlehem and the mourners worshiping on Avenue E. All who are connected to Christ have already died and now are joined to the life of Jesus. His is life that is truly holy and innocent, life with God, life forever. Now that life is yours. Here in this place.

And so Christmas, which is still going, by the way, is not a time for artificially trying to block out unpleasant thoughts and put on a fake, happy face. No, Christmas is to be celebrated especially in view of all the tragedy and suffering we experience in life. Because Christmas is when Christ came into the world, and that makes all the difference. For the Christ of Christmas is also the Christ of Calvary. That’s why Jesus had to be “the One that got away”—so that he could go to the cross for you. And connected to him, we have a comfort and a hope and a joy that all the Herods of this world cannot destroy.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Is. 63:7–14 You lead your people to make Yourself a glorious name.
Psalm 111 The works of LORD are great
Gal. 4:4–7 when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son
Matt. 2:13–23 take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt