The Feast of the Holy Innocents
‘Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears.’
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Seminary is in theory a time when those who are being called into the Apostolic Ministry of Christ’s Church study theology and the Scriptures, learn to pray, learn to liturgize, and practice piety. However, the primary pass-time of those attending the Seminary is arguing.
Among the many pointless arguments that I was once drawn into, one had to do with the parsing of Isaiah 9:6: ‘For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’
It is a widely known and often read reading for the Feast of Christmas. Many non-Christians even know the passage by heart through its prominent place in Handel’s Messiah. And, in fact, it was about Handel’s Messiah that we were arguing.
Most of us know the passage as listing the many titles of Christ. We can probably all recite at least the first of these titles: wonderful counselor.
But there’s the rub! In Handel’s Messiah, you may remember, it is not wonderful counselor, but, Wonderful, comma, Counselor, comma; two separate titles! And this reflects the translation that Handel used at the time, the old King James.
Even now, I am not sure what difference it makes, or why so many young men argued about it so violently. Jesus is certainly wonderful. He is certainly our counselor. I am sure He is wonderful at being a counselor as well. So why fight over it? Our Lord has taken on flesh and been born among us during this Christmas season. Him Who is our God has become our brother, that we may all rejoice in the Advent of our King and Savior.
It is for this very reason that we celebrate Christmas with such frivolity and joy, or at least try to; and most of us succeed at enjoying our Christmastide most years.
Yet I have always noticed that the days after Christmas always seem a bit of a letdown. After seeing all the family visit, opening the lovely presents, and eating a wonderful meal, the family that visits starts to become the family that won’t leave; the presents we received became just something someone gave us once upon a time, and our wonderful meal becomes leftovers.
If the time after our Christmas celebration can seem a bit of a letdown, a bit of a change in mood, the time after the first Christmas was only more so.
It is written:
‘An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”’
‘When Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.’
No sooner had the angel choirs seemed to have finished singing the first Gloria, than sinful men sought to murder the Lord of Glory.
Often times when we think of Christ’s dying, we immediately, and rightly, think of the Crucifixion, when Sadducees and Pharisees, Herodians and Romans, Jews and Gentiles all conspired to put to death the wandering Messiah.
Yet what we often miss is that there was never a time when the Lord was not being pursued, when men were not trying to kill him.
When Jesus was once teaching in the Synagogue, the Jews, being scandalized by His teaching, tried to throw Him off a cliff, and at the Temple, they tried to stone Him. At the Feast of Dedication, that is Hanukkah, they try to murder him again for claiming to be God. We are told that after He had raised Lazarus, the Pharisees and Sadducees plotted again and again on how to dispose of the Lord.
Now, but a little time after being born, Herod the King shall seek to destroy him, and all the children under two with him.
This, dear Christians, is the life of our Lord, that He who has become mankind, shall be murdered by mankind, being made in the likeness of Abel. His persecutors will know no rest until they find Him torn and lifeless in a grave. Will you then be surprised if this, too, is the life of the Baptized? Those who have been baptized into His death?
Perhaps in a place such as Mississippi, where being Christian is not actively frowned upon, much less persecuted, it may seem relatively easy to be a Christian, and perhaps it is, compared to Iran or North Korea or Nigeria. But we would be lying if we thought so, for we would be saying that somehow the devil rests, at least in good old Dixieland.
This could not be farther from the truth, for the devil, our adversary, never rests; and in every way he will rise up against the Lord’s elect. If he cannot destroy you through political power and governments and tyrants, with terrorists and mobs, he will merely find a more insidious method.
If our enemy cannot cause the masses to grow hot with wrath against Christ’s Church, he will cause your faith to grow cold with apathy, with boredom, and with the cares of the world, that always and ever feel much more important in the moment.
It is notable that in the Parable of the Sower, it is only in one case that we lose the Word through the threat of violence. In the other cases, the devil creates doubt in our souls, like a bird plucking away a seed, in the other, the simple desires of our worldly life distract us from the divine life implanted in us, until it withers and fails.
For this reason, Christ steels us all against the suffering to come upon all those who cling to Him, saying, ‘Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’
Indeed, in many and various ways, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden, the devil will assault the Christian, for, just as in the days of Herod, He seeks not to destroy you, but to destroy Christ, and all the children with Him.
Today is the Feast of the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents: a strange day to commemorate with a feast, much less with the first feast of the Church Year after Christmas Day. Yet we do not commemorate merely a tragedy wherein many young and guileless children were needlessly murdered. We do not celebrate death.
Rather we celebrate the revelation of the form of the life of the Church, and of the life of Christ, that the Church will suffer, that it will be persecuted, that its children will be reviled and persecuted for Christ’s sake.
We celebrate it, that we might rejoice and be glad, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Indeed, we have great reason to rejoice, and so this Feast belongs in the season of Christmas, which is so filled with joy. For what we are being told by the voices of these crying children is simple: that if even they were not spared from being joined to a death like His, neither will we; and if we too will be joined to a death like His, we will be joined to a resurrection like His. This, your reward that will be great in heaven.
Learn then, from the cries of these children, dear Church. Learn that, unless a seed be sown into the ground and die, it remains alone; but if it die, it produces a great harvest.
A Child is born among us, even as these children die around Him, a freewill offering that they will sacrifice to the Lord; these first martyrs, who are now your fathers in the faith. But even as they died for the sake of Christ, Christ will die for their sake, for nails, spear shall pierce him through.
And He shall rise for their justification.
Be not afraid that you will not stand the test, that in the moment of trial, the devil will rob you of your faith, for ‘when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’ For He is our advocate, our defense, our counselor, even a wonderful one.
Therefore:
‘Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the Lord,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your future,
declares the Lord,
and your children shall come back to their own country.’
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Written by Pastor Fields, delivered by the elders
Sermon Texts: Jeremiah 31:15-17; Revelation 14:1-5; Matthew 2:13-18.