The Story of The Holy Innocents

Text:  Matthew 2:13-23

Theme:  "The Story of The Holy Innocents"

1st Sunday After Christmas

December 29, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”^[c]

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”^[d]

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Here we are on the fifth day of Christmas.  On the first day, as the famous song says, the "true love" gave a "partridge in pear tree."  Day two included "two turtle doves."  On day three the gift was "three French hens".  Day number four provided "four calling birds". 

 

If your true love had actually done this, you would now be in possession  of twenty birds.  You must an ornithologist or something.  With the dawn of day five, you can be forgiven for thinking that you hope the  gift will be a huge cage, a big bag of birdseed, and a whole lot of newspaper.  But that, unfortunately, is not the case.  On day five you get ten more birds and -- get ready for this! -- five golden rings.  Why the five golden rings?  That's OUT OF SYNC.  In the interest of consistency, wouldn't five parakeets or parrots or something like that be more apropos?  Anyway, with the price per ounce of gold these days, you could sell the five rings and use the proceeds to care for the birds -- at least for the foreseeable future.  We can only hope the rings are solid gold and not plated. 

 

Five golden rings.  That's out of sync.  You've got thirty birds already -- enough for your own Alfred Hitchcock movie!

 

It's not only the lyrics to an old, familiar, seasonal song that can get out of sync.  Life can get out of sync at times, and that can throw us for a loop and throw us into a bit of a tizzy.  How things go for you, when things are out of sync, when things aren't going according to your well thought out plan,  will depend, in no small part, in how well you can adjust and adapt to what is out of sync.

 

Today, quite frankly, the church year is out of sync.  We have before us the story of the Holy Innocents.  Traditionally, this Scripture was given a day all its own:  yesterday, December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  But, historically and chronologically, this story should come after January 6th.  January 6th is the feast of the Epiphany where the main Scripture is the story of the arrival of the Magi who followed the star that guided them to the baby Jesus.  Today, obviously, is not January 6.  So we have a text, a story, that is out of sync.  I have a hunch there is a reason for this, but I can't quite figure it out.  (I'll let you know if and when I do.)

 

On to the text before us:  the first verse in today's Gospel from Matthew says:  "When they had gone... ."  The "they" is the magi -- or, as some call them, the "wise men."  They found the newborn King of the Jews, and they worshipped Him with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They're out of the picture now.  Gone, too, are the Christmas shepherds.  All we are left with, at the start of this text,  are Joseph, Mary, and the newborn Jesus. 

 

You may have a manger scene -- or "creche" -- at your home that is part of your Christmas decoration.  While the day of Christmas itself is over, you might want to still keep the manger scene on the display.  You could, however, put away the shepherds and the wise men until, Lord willing,  next year and just leave Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.  You could even move them and put them in your windowsill -- as if they were looking out over the world, a world that made them refugees for a time, a world that is so often out of sync and even violently cruel.

 

That said, allow me to switch gears a bit.  I'm  thinking of an historical figure and, specifically, a governmental leader.  Today's modern conservative would love him.  When times were tough, he didn't raise taxes.  In fact, he lowered them.  Today's modern liberal would have nice things to say, too.  During one time of crisis, he even sold his dinnerware to buy food for the population. 

 

What is more, the land he governed was groomed and beautified during his time of service. He erected palaces and fortresses and temples and aqueducts.  His crowning achievement was the great new temple in Jerusalem.  It was he who created the magnificent seaport of Caesarea, on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean, which stimulated trade and commerce.  In short, it was good for the economy.  Were he a president of the United States, he might qualify to be enshrined by Gutzon-Borglun at Mt. Rushmore. 

 

But not everything about the man was in sync.  He actually had little support in the kingdom of Israel which was but a client of mighty Rome.   By blood, he was only half-Jewish, and, worse, he acted and governed more like a Roman.    Later on, the tax burden dangerously increased, and this didn't help matters.  He came to be hated as a tyrant -- even by members of his own family.  He was dangerously paranoid and was tormented by fears of assassination.  He even asked the Roman emperor for permission to execute one or two of his sons for treason.  Even Caesar Augustus, his boss, would remark:  "I'd rather be a pig than one of his sons." 

 

Later on, with advancing age and sickness taking its toll, he worried that no one would mourn him when he died.  So he issued orders from his deathbed that leaders from all parts of Judea were to be locked inside the great hippodrome in Jericho.  When he died, archers were to massacre these individuals in cold blood, so that there indeed would be universal mourning associated with his death.  In the end, both of these plans failed.  The prisoners in the hippodrome were released, and the baby Jesus was well on his way to Egypt. 

 

By now, you know who I am thinking about:  the King Herod mentioned in today's text.  Historian Paul L. Maier asks and answers the question quite well:  "Would Herod have scrupled at the lives of a few babies in little Bethlehem?  Hardly!"  His reasoning was cold, calculated, shrewd, paranoid, and demented.  When he realized that the magi had outwitted him, he ordered the slaughter of all boys in Bethlehem at the age of two years or younger.  Today, we would call this state-sponsored terrorism. 

 

And Rachel wept for her children and refused any comfort, for they were no more. 

 

Just as an aside, some of you have reported to me about some very lavish Christmas pageants put on by large churches in the Dallas area.  There were flying angels and live animals and a newborn infant to play baby Jesus and a full choir and orchestra. Thousands of people attended and raved about the productions, so I'm told.  But there was nothing about the holy innocents that Herod slaughtered.  Perhaps that's just too dark a part of the story and too discordant  to modern evangelical ears to be included in the season of warmth and light.  Ironically, a Christmas pageant in the middle ages -- in the 1300s -- did include the story of the holy innocents. Perhaps they were more careful then to put forth the "whole counsel" of God.   As a result, a Christmas carol -- the "Coventry Carol", to be exact -- was presented.  A portion of the lyrics go like this:

 

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child;

Bye bye, lully, lullay

Herod, the king, in his raging,

Charged he hath this day

His men of might, in his owne sight,

All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!

And ever mourn and sigh,

For thy parting neither say nor sing,

Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

 

One of the things that is unique to Matthew's Gospel is that it gives us the Joseph side of Christmas.  Joseph, you will recall, was the stepfather of our Lord.  In today's text alone, he experiences three dreams (which were actually more like nightmares). 

 

In dream number one, he learned that even in his stepson's infancy, the powers that be wanted to have him killed.   The angel (or messenger) in the dream told him to get up, get going, and to take the child and his mother to Egypt.  So off they went.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were refugees.  And all of this fulfilled an ancient prophecy:  "Out of Egypt have I called my son."

 

In dream or nightmare number two, the angel (or messenger) tells Joseph to return to Israel, for King Herod -- who wanted to kill Jesus -- was dead.

 

But then Joseph was afraid when he learned that one of Herod's son, Archelaus, had succeeded him.  In the midst of the fear came dream or nightmare number three.  As a result, Joseph, Mary, and our Lord Jesus went to live in Galilee in a town called Nazareth.  This, too, was to fulfill an ancient prophecy:  "He shall be called a Nazarene."

 

The refugee family had logged many a mile in a cruel, violent, terrorized, out of sync world.

 

There is no moral to the story of the Holy Innocents. I find that refreshing, actually.   It's not trying to get us to do something.  It's trying to tell us something.  That something, as best I can surmise, is this:  that God's purposes -- in a fallen, cruel, violent, terrorized, and out of sync world -- will be worked out.  In infancy, the life of baby Jesus was preserved so that the child could go on to do what we could not do for ourselves.  You see, the infant child would grow up to be our crucified and risen Lord. 

 

And at the very least, this means that in your life -- whether it's in sync or out of sync -- God's purposes will be worked out.  God rest ye merry, Gentlemen (and Gentlewomen); let nothing you dismay this day.  For all things work together for the good for those who are called according to God's purpose.

 

That's the Gospel for today -- the fifth day of Christmas, the day of the thirty birds and the five golden rings! This is the good news for every day.

 

Am