Second Sunday after Christmas
1 Peter 4.12–19 + Matthew 2.13–23
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
On this twelfth and final day of Christmas, the Holy Spirit reminds us again that danger and suffering follow the child whose birth we celebrate. Not only Him, but danger, suffering, and even death pursue those who are close to Him. Our gospel takes place after tomorrow’s gospel. Tomorrow is the Epiphany of our Lord, the day in which the gentile Magi from the east visit Christ and worship Him. They follow the star to Bethlehem, meet with Herod, and Herod sends them to Bethlehem with the request that they bring word back to Herod, so that he might allegedly go and worship the child. The Magi are warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and as they head back to their eastern countries, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and says to him, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” God, who knows all things and sees all things from eternity, warns Joseph of Herod’s plot even before Herod has given the command. Joseph believes God’s word, and that night takes Mary and the child, fleeing to Egypt, another Roman province where Herod has no jurisdiction. This is how God protects the holy family from Herod’s rage on account of Christ.
He does not, however, protect the children in Bethlehem and its surrounding area. When Herod realizes the Magi are not coming back to him with the child’s location, he becomes exceedingly angry. Herod did not want to worship the one “born king of the Jews” (Matt 2:2) but kill Him. Herod was known for such a thing. He had three of his sons executed on suspicion of treason, so that Caesar Augustus allegedly said, “It’s better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that before Herod died, he ordered all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation come to him, be captured in the hippodrome, and murdered at the moment of his death so that there would be “memorable mourning” at his funeral. Thankfully, his sister and brother-in-law did not comply. Herod, paranoid for this throne at the news that the “king of the Jews” has been born, and enraged at the Magi, orders the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, two years old and under, to be killed.
These children, whom the church has honored with the title of Holy Innocents, were close to Christ and died for it. Joseph and Mary were united with Christ in one of the closest ways humanly possible, mother and guardian. It makes sense that if the Child were persecuted, His earthly father and mother would suffer. Simeon told Mary that in last week’s gospel when he told her, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.” She will suffer on account of being the mother of God. In one sense, the male children, two years and under, have no relation to Christ. They just happen to be in close physically proximity to him when He is born. But these children are closer to Christ than that. As male descendants of Abraham, they would have been circumcised on the eighth day of their lives. Their circumcision brought them into God’s covenant so that they were His people—His children—and were righteous in God’s sight by faith, since circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith. By circumcision they had faith. As believing infants, each one entered eternal glory in the moment when Herod’s wrath fell upon them. Those male children are the first martyrs to die on account of Christ.
Where Jesus is, there is danger for those who are close to Him. Not only for those who are close to Him by blood, His earthly family, during the days of His earthly ministry, but also for those who believe in Him. He says in Luke 8:21, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” As sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, you are His family. Where Jesus is, there is danger for those who are righteous by faith in Him as the Holy Innocents were close to Him, not by circumcision but baptism. St. Paul calls baptism “the circumcision made without hands” in Colossians 2:11. Instead of cutting off the foreskin of the flesh, baptism is the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. Baptism both buries us with Christ and raises us with Christ. Like circumcision in the old covenant, baptism makes you a child of God, one of His people, and heir of all the blessings of Christ. You, and all who believe and are baptized—from the smallest infant to the most aged man—are Christ’s brothers and sisters.
Which means there is danger for you because you are so close to Christ. St. Peter writes to you in today’s epistle, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you;but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” As ones who partake in Christ’s blessings—the forgiveness of all of your sins, the Holy Spirit, and the promise of an eternal inheritance—you will also partake in Christ’s sufferings. Peter especially has in mind being reproached, criticized, or mocked for the name of Christ, that is, for being a Christian, confessing Christ, believing, and living His doctrine. If you suffer these things at your job, with your family, amongst your friends, or even from the authorities, St. Peter would have you rejoice. You should rejoice because you are partaking, to whatever extend the Lord allows, in Christ’s suffering. Peter also bids you, when you suffer according to the will of God, to commit your souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. Whatever danger you face on account of Christ, regardless of what it is, rejoice and commit yourself to God, who has made you His beloved child in the circumcision made without hands, a beloved child whom He promises never to leave and never to forsake, but to protects you from all danger and delivers you from all evil.
Today’s gospel also teaches us the ways God protects us from all danger and delivers us from all evil. Sometimes he stops the danger from ever reaching us. This is the protection David sings of in Psalm 91:10 when he says, “No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.” At other times, He allows us to fall into danger so that He may redeem us and show us what He promises in His word. In Genesis 48:16 Jacob calls God, “The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil.” This is what happens to the Holy Family in today’s gospel. Herod was about to call for the murder of the Bethlehem children for Christ’s sake when the angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. The Lord removed Joseph, Mary, and Christ from the danger so that it could not touch them. Foreseeing Herod’s wrath, He redeemed the holy family from Herod by directing them to the safety of Egypt. God allows danger and evil to come up on us to exercise our faith in His word, and so that He can prove His word to us when He delivers us from the evil.
This can even be said of the holy innocents. God allowed them to partake in Christ’s sufferings by being unjustly persecuted and killed for the sake of Christ. The world looks at the holy innocents and scoff at God, saying, “Why didn’t He rescue them?” But faith sees their deaths at the hand of the tyrant as their recuse from all evil as well. The eyes of faith see God’s providential work of taking these circumcised infants out of this veil of tears, out from this sinful, broken, world, into everlasting bliss where there is no evil, no tears, and no suffering. With this, God would teach us to view the death of believers—whether martyred or not—as His removing them from this sinful world to a far better one, while we remain in a world in which we must still persevere in faith unto the end. God knew Herod’s paranoid, sinful rage and brought good out of the evil He intended and the evil He accomplished. God used it to fulfill prophesy. He used it to bring the holy innocents to a life far better than this one. He used it to teach you to rejoice when you suffer for the sake of His only begotten Son. It is dangerous to be close to Christ, but God defends us from all danger and redeems us from all evil, so that in every suffering, we may rejoice and say with the apostle, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” This makes every evil and every danger for Christ’s sake is a testament to God’s great love and care for us. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
