The Festival of the Holy Innocents
Posted on December 24, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 2:13-18 (NKJV)
2:13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “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.”
14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, 15 and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
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.”
Devotion
Often missed because of our horror at Herod’s murderous paranoia is that his slaughter is in “Bethlehem and all its districts,” and not throughout all Judea. This doesn’t make it any less of an atrocity, but is probably why the historian Josephus demonstrates Herod’s evil, instead, by his attempt to kill all of the Jewish leaders gathered at Jericho. Though possibly fewer than 30 children were slaughtered, these were 1) children, 2) the children of his own people, 3) circumcised boys and, thus, recognized believers in the true God, and 4) collateral damage in an attempt to assassinate God Himself!
Animosity toward God is the case with all murder (cf. Gen. 9:6), yet it is so much more clearly the case in the attempted murder of the Messiah. Even with the corruption of the teaching of the prophecies by the time of Jesus’ birth, one clearly shouldn’t be trying to kill God’s Anointed! When the attempt to do so mimics the actions of Pharaoh when he tried to assure the continued slavery of the Children of Israel, it is a horror that demonstrates the true status of those who were supposed to be God’s own people. They were in slavery under sin (John 8:31-36), in bondage due to their inability to keep the Law and their attempts to subvert its commandments to make a mere feeling of peace (Gal. 4:23-31; Mark 7:9-13), and in desperate need of a Deliverer “like unto,” but greater than, Moses (Deut. 18:15-20)!
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 with Thee and the Holy Ghost, 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.
