God Redeems the Innocent – Christmas 1

God Redeems the Innocent

Matthew 2 T Christmas 1

INI

         Scripture certainly doesn’t shy away from telling us difficult things. Especially when evil rears its ugly head against the most vulnerable and weak among us. Time and time again, where God works to bring His salvation into the world, the unbelieving world responds with fear, turns inward, becomes obsessed with self-preservation, and almost always lends itself to violence.

         Today’s text presents to us yet another iteration of evil rearing its ugly head against the kingdom of God. Today, we remember the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. All children 2 years old and under were ordered to be slaughtered, because King Herod felt threatened by Jesus. There’s not much worse than killing an innocent child. Yet, evil expressed itself in such an evil way long ago too.

Moses survived the murder of the newborns in Egypt. The Pharoah had feared that the Israelite people were outpopulating the Egyptians too much, so to stave off the population growth, he ordered the execution of the newly born. Why did he do this? He was worried. Worried about his own power, his reputation as a great King. He thought he might be overthrown by a people outgrowing the natives. So, his solution? Bloodshed. Murder. Disrespect to the image of God that those newborns have.

Yet, by God’s grace, a remnant was spared… Moses.

Evil people have no respect to life. No respect to justice, or fairness. They simply see what they want and take. They operate with no biblical principle. They disregard the fact that man was made in the image of God, because they care little about God. Because for them, God is not truly valued. Thus, man is not truly valued.

And here in the New Testament, we see a similar fear expressed by King Herod. He asked the Magi to find out where exactly the Christ child was, this supposed new “King of the Jews” and report back to him. But it wasn’t because he was like the Magi – interested in beholding the God made flesh. It was because he was like Pharoah – he was worried. Worried that he might be overthrown by this prophesied “King of the Jews”. Herod couldn’t have ever bowed in submission to this King of the Jews, which is God’s plan of redemption set forth in Jesus. He attempted to overthrow it! His solution? Kill all males two years old and under.

And yet, through God’s grace, a remnant was spared…. Jesus. In fact, through Herod’s evil, God caused multiple prophecies to be fulfilled. For where evil comes, God triumphs. Having been told in a dream that King Herod was going to do this, the angel told the holy family to flee to Egypt, fulfilling the prophecy from Hosea – “Out of Egypt, I have called my Son.”

Then, when Herod’s bloodthirst for children was satisfied, and he killed all the children two years old and under, another prophecy was fulfilled – “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.” In Jeremiah 31, Rachel is depicted as the matriarch of Israel, mourning the loss of her children to Babylon, since God’s people were unfaithful and disobeyed His Word. And here, it’s fulfilled by the fact that as a mother mourns for her children, so does God mourn the loss of these innocent children.

And finally, when Jesus returns from Egypt after the reign of Herod, it wasn’t safe for them to live in the southern territory of Judah. They had to retreat to the northern territory of Galilee – where the ‘second-rate’ Jews were. But by this, yet another prophecy was fulfilled. For they went to the town called Nazareth, which fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus was to be called a Nazarene.

God always mourns when the innocent are treated with such injustice. Especially children. For our Lord loves children. In a time and culture where children were hardly treated as fully human, Jesus said “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” and “Whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

It’s hard not to see modern equivalents. It’s unfortunate to hear folks in modern culture to talk about children in terms of finance and convenience rather than as gifts from God. I’m sure you’ve heard it – children are expensive. Children are an inconvenience to your career or what you want to accomplish in life.

Unfortunately, some choose abortion rather than life for similar reasons. Which to be honest, isn’t all that different from Pharoah and King Herod’s reasons. Something threatened their comfortable way of life. So, they took out the threat with bloodshed. They disregarded this gift of God, and the image of God that all human life shares. And instead served themselves.

Evil always moves us away from love. It turns us inward, making us more concerned with preserving our own comforts, plans, and priorities rather than receiving with love and care those God has placed in our lives. Even the most loving parent or caregiver can fall trap to the sinful flesh, even without realizing it. We can begin to arrange our lives around what’s easiest and most convenient, rather than around the gifts that God has entrusted to us. Other times, we may try to give our kids everything they want, and unintentionally neglect the thing they need most – Jesus. A life rooted in the Word and formed within the Church, where His forgiveness, life, and salvation shape and mold us towards a life of love.

We’re all sinners. We fail. We fall short of God’s standard. We’d rather serve ourselves rather than God and others – that’s precisely what happens when we break any of the commandments.

Thanks be to God who’s given His Son Jesus as the greatest gift we could ever have. For we are invited to come to Him with our shortcomings and failures as parents, children, aunts, and uncles, grandma’s and grandpa’s – to acknowledge our wrongdoings and out of a sincerely contrite heart, seek to do better, and receive the forgiveness of our sins.

And we can trust that the evil that we do, or the evil that happens upon us, God uses it for good. This is what Paul promises – “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” ALL THINGS. That means God works the evil of man for the good of His children. And you have been called according to His purpose. He calls you by His Word to repent and trust in the work of His Son Jesus. For Jesus Himself suffered the worst of things to fulfill God’s purpose for all mankind. He was innocently accused of blasphemy. He was innocently accused of rebellious overthrow of the Roman government. He was innocently whipped with 39 lashes. He was innocently nailed to a cursed tree. He was innocently mocked and spit upon by His accusers. He innocently died a sinner’s death.

And yet through His innocent suffering and death, all mankind finds redemption. Christ alone bears sin, endures judgment, and pays the price for the guilt of the world. The Holy Innocents are not redeemed by their deaths, but by His—the Lamb of God who was spared in order to be sacrificed for all. Even as evil raged and children suffered unjustly, God was not absent or defeated. He preserved His Son, not because the deaths of others were required, but because His purpose to save couldn’t be undone. And in the years that followed, that preserved Child grew, preached, suffered, died, and rose again—so that both the innocent and the guilty might be gathered back to God through Him.

God works all things for the good of those who love Him – and that includes you too.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston