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God is with us

December 28, 2024

Jeremiah 31:15-17 |Revelation 21:1-7 |Matthew 2:13-18 |Psalm 124

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under… Matthew 2:16

All the Earth did not rejoice at the Savior’s birth. Herod’s slaughter of the Innocents, which we remember on this fourth day of Christmas, makes that clear. Interrupting this season of celebration, this memory reminds us that God’s grace comes with a cost, and that sometimes that cost is borne by the least among us.

No pain can compare to that experienced by a mother who has lost a child. Today’s reading from Mathew’s gospel quotes Jeremiah in stating that Rachel refuses to be comforted, that her children are no more. This passage points us away from sugar-coated, “gentle Jesus meek and mild” happy talk. It portrays the reality of deep pain experienced by many in an unjust world, where daily we witness the deeds of Herod’s latter-day successors. In them we hear the taunts of the Evil One: “God said He gave the Earth to you. But it is really mine. Look at what my servants can do, and remember who is really in charge here.”

What is our response?

Perhaps this: Don’t believe the Evil One. God is with you. God lost His own Son on Good Friday, showing God’s heartfelt grief in ripping the Temple veil in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). God not only knows your pain but feels your pain. God was with every parent of the Innocents then; God is present with the parents of innocents today. Every tear has not been wiped from their eyes, but God dwells with them, and God cries too. God does promise a future where mourning, crying, and pain will be no more; but, more importantly, God is also present with you now.

Today we remember the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem and ask God to receive all innocent victims into God’s arms, frustrate the designs of evil tyrants, and establish God’s rule of justice, love, and peace. May it be so—and may we, acting as God’s agents, contribute to bringing it into being now.

Steve Capps