28 December 2019 - the big picture

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi,
he became furious.
He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.

Even acts of violence as apparently meaningless as the slaughter of the Holy Innocents can still be incorporated into the deeper plans of God and given meaning. It was certainly a tragedy for all of these children to be slaughtered. But God did not leave it as only that. He made it a prophetic witness to birth of Jesus.

He stayed there until the death of Herod,
that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled,
Out of Egypt I called my son.

Just as Moses narrowly escaped the decree of Pharaoh that male Israelite babies should be killed so too did Jesus. These children who were killed earned the crown of martyrs through sheer grave and divine sovereignty. It was no strength of their own that made them witnesses. In all of these ways we can learn from the Holy Innocents. We learn that even the most meaningless and senseless of acts can still can still have a hidden meaning brought from them by God. We learn that no matter how weak we ourselves are we are not too weak or too small to be the LORD's true witnesses.

The slaughter of the Holy Innocents was a tragedy. But the tragic part of their story was temporal and came to an end. Their story of glory continues forever in eternity.

We want to join into the same fellowship of light with God that the Holy Innocents now share. But unlike them we do have sin. Like them, though, we don't need to rely on our own strength. We need to avail ourselves of the blood of Jesus. His blood can make us as innocent as the babes of today's feast.

But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.

For the Holy Innocents and for us our help is in the name of the LORD who made heaven and earth. The true fowler who sets his snare on us is death. But the LORD breaks the snare and sets us free.