Second Sunday after Christmas

The gospel text for the Second Sunday after Christmas tells us of the murder of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem. Some call this the untold Christmas story. It is too terrible and gory to be included in the Christmas narrative. And yet, these events did take place. The wise men, looking for the newborn king had first gone to the palace in Jerusalem. Naturally, Herod the king was not thrilled about the birth of what he considered to be a rival. He instructed the wise men to report back once they had found Jesus, and they agreed. But later, being warned in a dream, they departed to their own country by another way.

When Herod realized that the wise men had disappeared without reporting back, he was filled with great wrath. He knew that the child king was in Bethlehem, but that’s all he knew. In order to secure his throne, he sent his soldiers and brutally murdered every male child in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, up to two years old. Of course, he did not kill Christ. An angel had warned Joseph to flee in the night with Jesus and his mother into Egypt. The innocent children that were slaughtered died for the sake of Christ, we might say, making them the first Christian martyrs—if not in will, that is, by choice, then in deed.

Herod was a violently wicked man. He later killed his own son to prevent him from aspiring to the throne. When his own death drew near, knowing that no one would mourn for him, he made plans to kill one member from every leading family in Israel at the moment of his death. This way, the whole nation would mourn at his passing. Herod truly was wicked, yet he was not acting alone. In fact, one could truly say that Herod was merely a puppet for someone far more wicked and cunning—the devil, that great serpent, the ancient foe of Christ and his church.

Herod didn’t know which woman in Bethlehem had given birth to the new king. He only knew of the prophecy that told of a king being born in Bethlehem. And so, he killed perhaps several dozen innocents in a failed attempt to destroy Jesus. But what did Satan know? The very first promise of the Gospel was spoken to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. God told the devil, “The seed of the woman will crush your head” (Gen 3:15). Satan knew that a woman would give birth to a child who would destroy his kingdom. He didn’t know what woman this would be, or when, or where. So, from the moment this promise was given, Satan has hated all childbirth. He didn’t know which child would be the Savior, so in great wrath he has tried all through history to destroy them all.

In the Old Testament, Pharaoh king of Egypt, ordered the slaughter of every newborn male. He was trying to protect his earthly kingdom, but Satan was truly the one at work, seeking to destroy the child who would dethrone him. In the New Testament we find the same script, only instead of Pharaoh, the king is Herod. Revelation, chapter 12, sums up all of the devil’s wicked designs in this way, “A great, fiery red dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The devil has come down to the earth, having great wrath, because he knows that his time is short” (Rev 12:4–5, 17, 12).

Before the birth of Christ, Satan, not knowing when or how Jesus would be born, acted out his murderous designs against all women with child. But his efforts were futile. Our Savior was born. He lived, was crucified, died and was raised, and is now caught up to God and His throne. Satan was utterly defeated, and yet, driven by rage, he continues his doomed war. Since he cannot destroy Jesus, he now makes war upon the Church, upon the rest of the offspring of the woman. Since he could not kill the one Child who crushed his head, his rage compels him to continue the slaughter of the innocents, just as he did through Pharaoh and Herod.

His time is short, and yet, consider how he uses it. In less than fifty years, Satan has engineered the barbaric murder of over 60,000,000 children in the United States alone. So great is his rage against the birth of Christ. Worse yet, it is not a wicked king that does the devil’s dirty work, but the children’s own mothers and fathers, along with a medical industry that profits from their deaths. 30,000,000 young women have been murdered in the name of “Reproductive Health Care for Women.” Perhaps you remember the bill that was passed by the New York State Senate two years ago, legalizing abortion up to the moment of birth. Never has the devil’s puppetry so clearly been on display than when Governor Cuomo signed the bill into law and the chamber erupted with cheering and applause. This level of cold barbarism makes Herod himself look like an amateur villain. May God have mercy on us.

And God has had mercy on us. While the devil’s power may seem to be growing, it is actually his death convulsions that we are witnessing. His head was crushed that day on Calvary by the Child he could not conquer, whose birth he could not prevent. Satan’s time is running out, and very soon our Lord’s return will forever end his cunning wiles. Just as the angel of the Lord worked to deliver the Son of God out of the trap that Satan had set for him, so will every one of the children of God be finally delivered from the snares of the devil.

And while we wait for this final deliverance, we can follow the example of Joseph, the step-father of Jesus. God used him to protect the Christ-child. He rose in the middle of the night to take Jesus and his mother to safety. So, we too, should be willing to work through the night to prevent the slaughter of children and protect their mothers. The Church should be at the forefront of the fight against abortion, even as we show compassion, love, and forgiveness to those who have been deceived by Satan’s lies. For Christ came to bring life to every one of God’s children, even to Herod, though he could never have believed it.

At this present time, we live in a world that is saturated with the devil’s wrath against the birth of the Child, but we need not fear him or his minions. The devil may be a great, fiery dragon, but his strength was defeated by the weakness of God incarnate upon his cross. All the plots and schemes of the devil came to nothing. Where is Herod’s power now? Where is Pharaoh’s mighty empire? Their kingdoms have long since perished from the earth, but our Lord Christ will reign forever and ever. The government shall be upon his shoulders, and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Isaiah 9:6–7). Amen.