Festival of the Holy Innocents
Posted on December 28, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 2:18-24 (NKJV)
2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
19 Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” 21 Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. 23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Devotion
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who was ever born innocent of all sin. He took on flesh in Mary, but He did not inherit the sins of Adam. As true God and true man He was perfect and holy. On the other hand, every baby that was ever born—other than Him—has been born into the guilt and sin of Adam and Eve. False teachers will say that babies are born without sin and guilt because they don’t like the idea that babies are sinful, but if we say any of us are without sin, the truth of God is not in us (see Ps. 51:5; 1 John 1:8).
The Holy Innocents we remember today were innocent of any crime or wrong against the king who had them murdered. The baby boys in the area around Bethlehem were martyrs, killed because satanic men hated God and His Word. Our Lord Jesus would also be killed by satanic men, but His time to die was not to be in those early years. Later He would lay down His life and submit to the wrongful condemnation from evil, prideful sinners. Those who die for the sake of the Gospel are made to serve a holy and innocent purpose: they confess that Christ’s death on the cross is more important than any man’s earthly life. On account of God’s gracious work for mankind, we remember and give thanks for the witness and sacrifice of the martyrs, and we pray God makes our lives and deaths also serve His Gospel!
Collect: O God, whose praise the martyred Innocents confessed, not by speaking, but by dying: destroy in us all wickedness, that our life may proclaim the faith in word and deed, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the new Birth of Thine Only-Begotten Son in the flesh may set us free who are held in the old bondage under the yoke of sin; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
