Christmas is not yet packed away and saved to our memories and here is some pastor spoiling our festive mood with talk of death. But the people of God have always lived with the threat of death. You may think it odd that now, just days after Christmas, you hear of the murder of the Holy Innocents instead of lilting prose and poetic glory of angels, shepherds, and a birth in a stable. But here we are – living as a people who live under the shadow of death. Trying to make our peace with it so long as it holds off as long as we want and does not come too painfully. But not God. From the echoes of the Christ Child’s first cry it is clear why all this has happened. The only One who has real life has come to surrender that life into death to redeem all who live under death’s curse.
You may think it starts in Bethlehem. Well, not really. This little town remembers when the sons of Jacob were down in Egypt, far from their home, standing in the court of one whom they did not know. Their brother Joseph, hidden from their recognition, seemed the evil one to demand that they must betray Rachel’s son Benjamin to get the grain to provide for their families. Yet they had no choice. They were facing death and death makes you do things you do not want to do. So Benjamin was traded for life; Jacob shed tears for the loss of another son along with his wife. Instead of grain alone to sustain this life, the trade brought forgiveness and life, reuniting a family, building a lineage for the One who is to come. This One born of Mary by the Spirit would build a future where death had created an end.
Herod insisted upon death. His threat led Joseph to gather the holy family and leave under the cover of darkness for safety in Egypt. What irony! In Herod’s rage, no heart or home in Bethlehem would be spared tears. All firstborn male children who had not reached their 3rd birthday were murdered to satisfy a tyrant’s fear. It was not God’s will that they should die but that the Christ should die. It was not God who set the stage for heartache. No, not anymore than it was God who caused Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of death. Death comes to all men. You cannot avoid it nor can I and even an innocent child is not immune from it. God is not to blame but He is the One who rescues us from death’s claim.
The baby boys of Bethlehem died – but not as sacrificial lambs. No, they died as martyrs – the first to die for the sake of Christ. The daughters of Rachel grieved for the Holy Innocents and they are not alone. Babies still die. Not just old people waiting for death. Death is not God’s will. Death is not God’s plan. It was always life. We chose death and this death shaped God’s plan. It was always for Christ to come, the first born of the Virgin Mary, to kill death and put an end to the reign of terror death and the devil have imposed upon God’s people.
Jesus came for the Holy Innocents and for all who die. He came not to offer His sympathies or commiserate with the grieving but to break death’s back. He came not to be a moral example to show us how to earn our salvation but to fulfill all righteousness and then to give it back to those who deserved none of it. He came for death and to die. That is Jesus’ care for children – not a pat on the head when they do something cute but His blood for theirs, His body for theirs, His death for their life, and baptismal water to wash the stench of death from them once for all. For the mothers whose tears seem never to end, Jesus offers not pious platitudes but life and the hope of reunion, to hold again the children they once held and to hold for the first time the babies they never held. Their justice is not revenge but a life where Herod is forgotten and death is no more but only life and joy and peace.
Guess what? This gift is not for the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem and those who mourned their death then. It is not simply the hope for mothers and fathers who bury the children who were supposed to bury them. It is your hope and mine. Those who die in Christ have an end to their suffering and pain. They weep no more nor do they cry out. They are at peace. In grief, we weep for them but really for ourselves who continue to live under the shadow of death waiting for the final consummation. We know that every tomorrow and new year will bring tears as we surrender loved ones and friends to death. And some of us will die. But we have comfort. This world is not the end and this world cannot steal from us the life that Christ came to give. We have a more powerful prayer than to hold death at bay until we are ready for it or to die without pain. Our prayer is for real hope, for a new and everlasting tomorrow, for a life strong enough to rescue us from death.
It is a pleasant lie to say that time heals everything. It does just the opposite. With every passing day new troubles and new trials and new tears come. But time has also been drafted into God’s purpose. Instead of the tomorrow of fear, we live in the tomorrow of hope. It is true. All things work together for good for those who love God. Even our sufferings and sorrows. You do not see how it can be and neither do I. This we hold onto not with minds convinced by reason but by faith in the only One who died and rose again. This we cling to not as a life raft but as the mighty ship to rescue us from the sea of death forever and sail us to everlasting life.
The baby born in Bethlehem whom Herod aimed to kill did not die in Bethlehem. He died at the moment appointed, when He was ready to fulfill His purpose in being born. When that ripe moment came for Him to surrender Himself to death for our sins, He killed death. He did not stay dead; He rose again as the creed confesses.
On the third day, Sunday, when the tomb was opened He was not there. He had passed through death to the life that could never be taken from Him. He lives now to bestow upon you and me, upon the mothers crying for their children, upon the fathers who have lost everyone, the life that cannot die. He beckons us back here into His holy house and to the table where we taste our future in this bread and wine. Here in His body and blood is the foretaste of the eternal feast. By this communion we are assured. We are not alone. He has not forgotten nor forsaken us. He is with us and He is for us. Here we are united with those who have loved His appearing and shed their mortal flesh to await the resurrection. This is our Christmas miracle – not of sentiment or myth but of a Savior who is wounded by death to give healing to those who live in the shadow of death.
You will bury those whom you love and they will bury you. But death’s impenetrable prison has been opened. Death cannot hold us anymore than it held Him. He has gone to prepare a place for us. He is coming again. He lives and all who plotted to murder Him with the beloved boys of Bethlehem and all who stole the martyrs lives in violence and all who sigh in their beds with their final breath – He is coming for them and coming for us. That is why we remember these events so long ago and honor them with a day so near the birthday of our Lord. It is to remind us when death is near and tears won’t stop, Christ came for you and will not surrender you to death. From your hardships and despair, He will call you from Egypt and your sojourn in this land of disappointment will be over. You will be raised to citizenship in a new land in which life is rich and free and full and endless. The baby boys of Bethlehem will be there. Rachel’s sons and Jacob’s offspring will be there. All those who died in Christ will be there. And we will be with them too. This is Christmas that points to Easter. Amen.
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