Matthew 2:1-23

Holy Innocents (Observed)/Life Sunday

January 15, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church T Nampa, ID

The magi come wanting to know where the King of the Jews may be found. They probably were wise by virtue of Daniel, knowing of the prophecy of Balaam about the promised sign of a star.  Now, they have seen it fulfilled. By faith, they come to worship the One announced so long ago.  Gentiles, foreigners, yet those to whom God has revealed His will. But the star, for the time being, only led them to Jerusalem, and they do not know where the Messiah is.

But it was not a mystery for the priests who were well trained in the Scripture. They were quick to respond, “In Bethlehem of Judea.” They knew the Scripture and yet none followed the Magi to the town.  Instead, they were troubled with Herod, indeed with all Jerusalem. They did not rejoice. Upon hearing that he had been tricked by the Magi, Herod proceeded with murderous fury. The boys of Bethlehem, two years old and younger, murdered, their mothers and families bearing the brunt of such evil. The slaughter of the holy innocents.

The lives of the boys were taken away while the fullness of God hidden in the flesh of the son of Mary slipped off in the night. What kind of God is this, who would let babies die? What kind of God is this who would let the suffering of mothers outliving their children continue? What kind of God is this who does not act, but who runs away?

Are these not questions we still ask today, especially in light of over a generation now of the legalized murder of innocents through the satanic evil of abortion. What has God to say? What has God to do? Why does the suffering continue and death toll rise? Why does miscarriage and still birth continue as the mothers echo the words from Jeremiah, “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

The answer is not very satisfying to our minds: the ways of God are not our ways, His thoughts not our thoughts. If we could fully understand God then we have created an idol that we can grasp and we need to repent. God’s ways and His thoughts are above our understanding and we cannot judge Him.

But the answer is satisfying to faith. God's thoughts and ways are better, even when they hurt.We submit in faith and wait for His goodness to revealed, even when our patience fails us and our understanding limited.  We have His Word, His revelation to us, His epiphany to the world. He tells us by the horror of Herod, the prophecy from Hosea is fulfilled “Out of Egypt I called My son (Hosea 11:1). That was the purpose. The boys died, the mothers mourned and refused comfort, and the holy family traveled to Egypt and back as Jesus acts as God’s people reduced to one. Those boys died that day so that Jesus might escape and return to die for them.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who would be led to slaughter without complaint or resistance. He submitted to their violence, of His own will, in His own time, and on His own terms. Upon the cross the blood of the only begotten Son of God was spilled. Blood that covers the sins of the world. Blood that covers all your sin.

Evil abounds in our world devastated by sin. 2016 wasn’t a bad year, it was simply a year full of sin and death, just like this one will be. But innocent blood continues to be shed. Governments sanction the murder of the lowliest among us through the damnable sins of abortion and euthanasia. In the face of such a sad slaughter, the blood spilled throughout the centuries and still today, we find comfort in the promise of Jeremiah, “Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country.”

Herod and the magi are long dead. The mothers of those infants lay in their own graves.  The boys of Bethlehem were not abandoned, for they now rest in the arms of Christ. Their mothers found comfort in the wounds of Christ, who died for them. Now, they have been reunited with their sons. They enjoy eternal bliss won by Jesus as part of the Church triumphant and await that final and complete epiphany of Christ upon the last day, the day of resurrection and life eternal for all who receive Him in faith. This is our comfort as we mourn with the hope of the resurrection. This is our future. In the end, we are the ones called out of Egypt, led by God, freed from the slavery of sin and death, of mourning and loss, of tyrants and deception. For our faith was begun in Baptism, strengthened through the never too frequent reception of the Sacrament of the Altar, secured unto death to life everlasting. For as St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

* Portions of this sermon were adapted from a sermon on the Holy Innocents by Rev. David Petersen, God With Us, pp 96-99.