2025-12-28 The Holy Innocents

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Today is kind of a sombre day in the midst of our Christmas joy. Today, as has been mentioned, is the minor church festival of the Holy Innocents. It’s always commemorated on the 28th of December which this year happens to line up with a Sunday. Who are the Holy Innocents? These are the little Israelite boys, 2 years and under, who evil King Herod in his demonic rage had murdered for what they might represent: a challenge to his throne and his political authority. It follows on the heels of the visit of the Magi, those wise men from the East who came to worship He who was “born king of the Jews” (MT 2:2)

Now, as we learned at the Advent Bash trivia game, every nativity scene and every Christmas movie ever has the Wisemen there, right alongside the shepherds and the sheep and everything else, on the night of our Lord’s birth. However, St. Matthew records a key detail to the contrary: “10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh” (MT 2:10-11). That key detail is the house. Not the stable. Not the cattle shed. Not the cave. The house where the child and His mother were. So this leads us to conclude the Magi’s visit was indeed sometime later.

But right after their visit, we see that Joseph receives a divine warning in a dream: “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” (MT 2:13). Already, Satan, the old dragon, is trying to kill the Messiah. He uses King Herod to try and accomplish this truly Satanic work. But as we know, the fullness of time for our Lord to die will not be as an infant but years later on the old rugged cross. Just the same, Joseph and Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt under the cover of darkness. We don’t know exactly how long they lived there, but it was long enough to ensure that evil Herod was dead and that the threat had past. And, it was long enough to fulfill some Old Testament prophecies like Hosea 11:1 which says “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

St. Matthew also tells us: “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way” (2:12). Herod quickly figures out that he’s been duped. “Then 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” (MT 2:16).

Can you imagine this? Slaughtering all these poor, innocent baby boys?! It’s a horrific event. The soldiers are given their orders and house to house they go, “just following orders.” What kind of a monster could do such a thing? How senseless. How tragic. How violent. And then the grief of the poor mothers and fathers of those innocent babies, helpless to resist the evil and corrupt government, massacring their children. This is the fulfillment of another prophecy, this time from Jeremiah “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (31:15).

But it’s not the first time something like this happened. Think back, way back to Exodus. God had likewise protected His servant. You might remember him. His name was Moses. When evil Pharoah gave the order to kill all the Hebrew baby boys, Moses’ mother put him in the basket and pushed him down the river, only to be delivered by Pharoah’s daughter of all people. Moses was already in Egypt. Jesus our Lord travels to Egypt. Moses would be chosen to lead the people of Israel out from slavery in Egypt and bring them to the promised land. Jesus would likewise be anointed to be the ultimate Saviour and deliverer of the entire world, leading all nations out of bondage to the slavery of sin, and deliverance from death and the devil. He like Joshua would lead His people into the eternal promised land, a Kingdom without end.

But until that day, we continue to make our pilgrimage through a very evil world. The bottomless rot of sinful people cannot be overstated. This is why repentance is so key for us as God’s people. We recognize and confess that we ourselves have sinned against God in thought, word and deed. None of us are immune to this condition. We are all capable of any kind of evil, for we all share the same nature. So by faith we heed our Lord’s call to confess and turn from it every way we can. We actively work against evil inside ourselves through prayer and repentance. We remember our baptism that makes us a new creation, saved and sanctified by the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. We don’t strive for power and authority like evil King Herod. We strive for humility and service like our humble King Jesus.

In jealousy and rage, Herod came after Jesus and the Holy Innocents, believing that a baby had come to take his throne. Countless psychotic tyrants have come since then, various anti-christs, persecuting the church in various ways. But that’s the uncanny thing that Satan and the tyrants just do not understand. You cannot thwart the Christian church. The more you attack it, the more you persecute it and oppress it, the more you ban the Bible and silence the preachers, the more the church grows. In fact, Tertullian, an early Christian author and apologist from North Africa said “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” It means that persecution paradoxically causes Christianity to grow, as the courage and defiance of those killed inspires conversions. In this way, the Holy Innocents were like seeds being scattered for the Gospel.

In this same way, the Holy Innocents remind us of the sacrifice the martyrs for Christ make. The words of St. James ever encourage us “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (1:12). And again in Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer…Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Persecution, suffering and death do not steal the crown of life. They coronate us. This is why we do not fear the devil or his earthly tyrants. With boldness we quote Psalm 56:11 “in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Our Christmas joy will always be tempered with the stark reality of evil in the world. Even the shepherds that gathered around the light of our Lord’s manger eventually had to go back out into the darkness to watch over and keep their sheep safe from predators. Be ever watchful for the threat of evil, for the old dragon still rears his ugly head. He still comes for the innocents today, which is why we boldly proclaim the pro-life message of the Gospel in the face of abortion and MAiD and every other diabolical scheme of “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. [Jesus] came that [we] may have life and have it abundantly” (JN 10:10). This is precisely why our King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in Bethlehem. This is why He grew up and willingly died on the cross. This is how He gives us the crown of life by faith, now and forever more. Amen!