The Worst Story in the Bible

Immediately after the festivities of Christmas comes the worst story in the Bible known as “the slaughter of the innocents.” Set as the lectionary text a mere three days after the Nativity of our Lord, Matthew 2:13-23 sours the yuletide mood by turning our celebration of “the infant child, meek and mild” to the mass murder of children. This historical account, also a fulfillment of a prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15, purposes to jar readers of the Gospel that idyllic images of the Madonna with child are fleeting and there’s a cold reality to the Incarnation. The holy family is already on the run, fleeing to Egypt to escape the murder of Jesus.

It’s a tough text to read, let alone contemplate as prophetic fruition. Did God orchestrate such a monstrosity? Not exactly. The Lord does no evil and cannot sin. Instead, given the sinful disposition of fallen humanity, particularly a paranoid egomaniac like Herod who actually put his own sons to death to preserve his grip on the throne, divine foreknowledge reveals such an event as an inevitability. A man did this to mankind, not God. Rome’s proclaimed “King of the Jews,” Herod the Great, did this to his Jewish citizens. But why? What’s the effect or, at least, should be the effect of preserving the historical record of this appalling event?

Rome’s proclaimed “King of the Jews,” Herod the Great, did this to his Jewish citizens

One effect is that it brings both sobriety and tension: Yes, Christmas brings joy, but no less danger. It will be risky, even deadly business to confess allegiance this newborn king. Matthew 2:13-23 doesn’t allow us to be duped by romanticized Victorian depictions of baby Jesus. The birth of Christ brings an announcement by angelic hosts of “peace goodwill toward men,” and at the same time an enemy order to destroy him, an order that results in “all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old and under” massacred by Herod’s goons. It’s sobering. Gone from our minds should be a toothless tale about cabbage-patch Jesus and his barnyard friends. The advent of our King is a gospel that comes with teeth that bite. And that’s the tension: We are right to feel delight at the coming of our Savior but also a jolt when the Son of God redefines our existence by becoming one of us to save us as well from ourselves and, indeed, our own self-governing. Such redemption and renewal isn’t going to happen without a fight, without bloodshed. This story, then, foreshadows the crucifixion.

Yes, Christmas brings joy, but no less danger

Today’s sentimentalism and nostalgia bound up with Santa Claus and Bing Crosby is entirely misplaced as a stultifying distraction from the enduring religious geopolitical conflict initiated with the arrival of the one called “Immanuel.” Jesus poses a grave threat to Caesar and all subsequent governmental powers, evidenced through the centuries by the militancy against the Church by Islamism, Nazism, Communism and Secularism. He upsets their power-plays. Jesus threats such powers because he offers liberation from the bondage of any and all things that would lord over us and, at the same time he demands allegiance to him and his kingdom above all things. The threat of baby Jesus is for many—and the Bible doesn’t sugar coat it with the surreal hues of a Thomas Kincaid painting—such a threat that the most wonderful story in the New Testament is tethered to the worst story in the Bible to underscore the implications.

Today’s sentimentalism and nostalgia bound up with Santa Claus and Bing Crosby is entirely misplaced as a stultifying distraction from the enduring religious geopolitical conflict initiated with the arrival of the one called “Immanuel"

Jesus’ birth divides humanity into two distinct and impassioned camps: those who in wonder and awe celebrate it, and those who reject it either violently or with cerebral vitriol or, worse still, indifference. With him, cliché “a baby threatens no one” doesn’t hold true. This baby is so significant that, if you aren’t worshiping him as the Lord God Almighty come to conqueror his enemies, regain his usurped kingdom, and slay the dragons that plague us, then he’ll define your life and afterlife with judgment not salvation. That, too, has always been the message of prophets like Jeremiah. God was coming to visit His creation, both to vindicate his name and people, and right the wrongs of the world by powerful judgment; a judgment that would also be upon the governments of the world, manifest by baptized legions who have transferred their dependence and trust in rulers to the one who truly is the Prince of Peace.

This baby is so significant that, if you aren’t worshiping him as the Lord God Almighty come to conqueror his enemies, regain his usurped kingdom, and slay the dragons that plague us, then he’ll define your life and afterlife with judgment not salvation

This child, like it or not, tears down strongholds and will ultimately redefine reality on the throne of his cross and by the rule of his ascension. He is the Lord and that fact alone threatens because it destabilizes those lords to whom we are so willfully given by beguilement, including our present-day political parties and cause célèbre. We would do well, then, to adopt the posture and disposition of both the shepherds in the field and the Magi: worship Him with reverence and awe, with fear commingled with love, for this child is King and Creator.

The redemption Jesus brings explodes all schemes of exploitation, and he does so by truly “winning hearts and minds,” such that have been sanctified by his Spirit. That’s a dangerous prospect for power-brokers of all times and places. Baptized persons have their mind, will, and emotions supervened by the Spirit of Christ, fostering a fortified allegiance in love, a love that spills over into willful obedience. This is the power of the gospel. The kingdoms of this world only have the power of the law and even then it’s usually bent and abused, just like in this episode when mothers are left wailing. In part, this accounts for why Jesus suffered the like fate of those who unveil truth, expose corruption, and manipulate through gaslighting and propaganda — death, even death on the cross. But that, too, turns out to be the place where he gains his victory and neutralizes all that threaten us. Consequently, the death of the innocents and Good Friday are the other “silent nights” along with the “holy night” of Jesus’s birth.

In fact, the shadow of the cross falls over the entire story of Jesus’ life from this moment forward. Jesus is born with a price on His head. The Virgin Mary herself takes on the complexion of Rachel and the mothers of Ramah when she is told that her holy innocent, Jesus, will be “a sword will pierce through your won soul” (Luke 2:35), because “this child is appointed for the fall and rising and falling of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed … so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35). Celebrating biblical Christmas, then, should be a subversive act of allegiance, an overture of non-conformity to the world of godless governing.

For North Americans, the birth of Jesus is rarely seen as a threat because we’re told that this is just religious stuff, and religion concerns the interior life of morality and private spirituality — personal sentiments about whatever the idea of “Jesus” means to you. That fabricated “Jesus” is a threat to nobody. And such “Christians” engage in nothing risky. After all, we’re told, we must separate church and state, religion and reality. Matthew, however, knows no distinction between public-political life and private religious-life. Jesus is born into time, threatening the time of Herod and Caesar, and it happens as he’s born into a home, a family. The gospel tells a story of a prophetic figure who suffers the worst that the empires can do to him. But His resurrection and subsequent coming in power expose the limits of Roman power and indeed human power. The gospel discloses an alternative world of government by God’s righteous King, Jesus, such that denies that the final word on who or what defines humanity will be man’s self-governance and determination. The Creator-King is in control and he defines male and female, who is liberated or not, those that are justified or not. Christ Jesus creates an alternative community—the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church—and shapes an anti-imperial, anti-demographically divided, anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-classism reality.

For North Americans, the birth of Jesus is rarely seen as a threat because we’re told that this is just religious stuff, and religion concerns the interior life of morality and private spirituality

This is why Jesus’ first public words to us are “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). The kingdom is not some inner sanctuary, silently tucked away in your heart. The kingdom of God is an alternate yet concrete reality, populated with liberated people, governed by a politic of grace and Spirit-inspired obedience, where Jesus is himself both the King and the kingdom, turning the world upside down through a reign of grace.

The kingdom is not some inner sanctuary, silently tucked away in your heart

Do you see it? See how the Exodus story is being retold here – first with Matthew’s quotation of the prophet Hosea in verse 15: “Out of Egypt I have called my son”? He is, as it were, Israel-in-person, succeeding at last in obedience where Israel had failed. Therefore, uniquely, only He is worthy to be called by God “my son” – the One with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him,” the Father says, “listen to Him” instead of anyone else. His obedience, along with his propitiatory blood atonement, will lay the foundation for our justification.

This constitutes what’s really on offer this yuletide season. Real comfort and joy, not the kind we get from Nutcracker displays with sugar-plum fairies, but the kind of worldview-changing good news about God overwhelming things like depression, loneliness, alcohol or drug addiction and abuse; things like divorce, child custody battles, inflationary financial ruin, deteriorating health, crippling guilt, shame, regret and flat-out bad governing. Christmas lets people in bondage to such merciless taskmasters know that in fact a global exodus has been accomplished; that all exiles are over, that there is a new covenant in Christ’s blood so that we needn’t fear the powerbrokers of this world. Christ has overcome the world. Open your mouth and share such tidings of comfort and joy with those who have ears to hear: Our bondage is over; the new exodus has begun; walk with me through the Red Sea baptismal waters to enter into the Promise Land of good governing. But be warned, there will be not only comfort and joy, but also risk and danger.

May the Lord comfort the souls of the holy innocents.