The Massacre of the Innocents-- Suffering at Christ's Birth

I am hopeful that everyone has had a blessed Christmas and that the New Year brings hope anew to all.  I am sure that most of us have not experienced a tragedy in the holiday season, but unfortunately the Season of Joy does not have immunity from loss.  In the medical profession, we see the passing of family members at this time of year as at all times of the year, and are acutely aware of the future association of such a painful loss with a time of celebration.  In the past several weeks alone a nearby pastor lost his wife and my cousin lost her husband, each to cancer.  And of course, the news provides us with even more sensational accounts.

The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed an event worth celebrating each year as we are reminded of the salvation that is ours because of God's gift.  Yet the birth of Christ was also associated with tragedy soon after, as we see in Matthew Chapter Two.  We do not know of the exact time the wise men visited Him, but it was after Mary, Joseph, and Jesus had moved into a house, probably when Jesus was around two.  Before they visited Jesus though, they visited Herod, and by inquiring of the location of the King of the Jews, alerted him to His birth.  He had to call his priests and scribes to explain to him what had happened, and then he tried to deceive the wise men into locating Christ for him, "...that I may come and worship Him also."

Herod the Great was a truly wicked man.  It is thought that he murdered forty-five members of the Sanhedrin.  He married Mariamne, but killed first her brother Aristobulus, then Hyrcanus her grandfather, followed by her mother Alexandra.  He had both of his sons by her strangled in prison when they became popular with the people, and had another of his sons, Antipater (his son by Doris), executed as well.  So when the wise men were warned in a dream and left without disclosing the location of Jesus, the evil Herod knew just what to do next.  For our sake, and for that of the Messiah and His family, an angel warned them to flee to Egypt.

In verse 16, the horror of Herod is realized.  He orders the slaughter of all the male children less than two years of age in Bethlehem and its surroundings, "according to the time which he had determined from the wise men."  Imagine the terror as Herod's men marched into town, breaking down doors, and ruthlessly ripping the young boys from their mother's arms, only to butcher them.  Herod's act is truly an act of depravity, knowing that he was to kill the one chosen by God to be our Messiah. In fact, Herod was near the end of his life; he would be long gone before a two year-old would be grown enough to be a threat to him.

This event, the Massacre of the Innocents, yielded the first martyrs, young boys whose only misfortune was to be alive at the time when Herod became aware of the birth of Christ. (A moving painting by Paul Rubens in the early 1600's depicts the desperation of the families trying to save their sons, as seen below.)  Surely these families did not know that their children were dying as the result of the birth of the Messiah, and it is doubtful that they could even relate it to the birth of Jesus, whom they likely knew in the small town of Bethlehem.  It may have been only years later, when Jesus was revealed as the Christ, that they would associate their loss with His birth.

All of us have suffered at some point, and if any of you experience grief during this season of celebration and joy, I pray that you will know that you are not alone.  Those who believe in Him are welcomed into His arms at this time of year, as at any time, and some Christmases from now we will be joyfully reunited with them.

Massacre of the Innocents, Rubens 1611-12