The scripture we read this morning is quite a grim text isn’t it,
but in the eastern orthodox church they use this same scripture to celebrate the end of the Christmas story.
In that church, they have set aside the 29th of December as a holy day.
A holy day where they commemorate the lives of the son of Bethlehem whom were slaughtered by Herod as he was hunting for the Christ child.
To the eastern Church the sons of Bethlehem are martyrs
people who died for the faith,
young children whose lives were given as a sacrifice.
So for this reason they use this story as part of the Christmas story,
they use it as the final chapter.
In looking at this story this morning
we too will consider it as the final chapter of the Christmas story
And in doing so we too will bid a fond farewell to the Christmas story.
When you actually read this story in its proper context it seems that Matthew had the same intention
the intention of closing the Christmas story too.
But Matthew doesn’t want to just close the story down
He doesn’t want to end it like we would a bed time story to a child,
you might say that the way Matthew closes it is to give us a wake up call,
not to send us to sleep.
The way Matthew has timed this story makes me also feel that Matthew put it here as a way to end the Joy that the Christmas story has brought.
Its almost seems like Matthew wanted to use this story to take a great big demolition ball and smash it through all the Joy
and peace
and happiness
that the Christmas story has brought us.
Just look at how it is situated.
A few verses earlier
Matthew is telling us about how the Magi had finally completed there quest to find the true King of Israel,
the Christ child.
And in telling the story this way he draws us in,
so that we to become a part of the story.
Matthew invites us to join the Magi on a journey,
a journey of hope.
So that we too join the Magi in worshipping the Christ
child, and so that when the Magi present there treasures before him,
we are also drawn to present the treasures we have before the Christ child.
I don’t know about you but my heart warms to this When I hear about them worshiping the Christ child I just can’t help but want to join in,
Its almost like we are whisked away from our present
reality
to another world for just a few moments of pure Joy
Joy as we meet the Christ and worship him.
Its like we are given a foretaste of the Heavenly realms
and there is nothing we would like better than to stay there and worship the Christ child.
A slice of heaven where we experience the light and love of God,
As I said its only a few moments of Joy,
because before we know it we are brought back down to reality with a thump,
This other world soon fades away
and we are back in the real world.
No sooner have we worshiped the Christ Child,
no sooner have we placed our offerings before him then he is taken away from us.
His life is in danger
and so he and his family must flee to Egypt,
all that is left is the aroma of worship in our nostril
and the memory of how we worshiped the Christ child.
For that small moment we joined the Magi
for one small moment we too worshiped the King of Kings
but know we are just as quickly we have been drawn back to a grim dark reality,
a reality that makes the Christ child a political refugee,
a reality that sacrifices the lives of children for power and sovereignty,
and the reality of a frightened King who fears that a child may take his throne.
But apart from the sudden foreclosure on the Christmas story
there is something else about this text,
something else that doesn’t seem quite right.
Not only does it seem like Matthew wants to bring a sudden end to our Christmas celebrations
but it seems like he wants to make us uncomfortable
too He wants to make us so uncomfortable that we start to ask questions,
awkward questions.
Questions that under normal circumstances we wouldn’t really want to ask,
question that may damage our faith,
but questions that we feel drawn to any way. Questions like
"where is God in this?
And how could a God of love allow this to happen?".
There is something in this story that demands us to ask these questions.
I think that exactly what Matthew intended.
Despite how dangerous these questions may seem.
Because if he didn’t want us to ask them
then why didn’t he do the magic rug trick with the whole incident.
You know the trick
where we take something and sweep it under a rug in the hope that we can avoid it.
I don’t know about you
but when it comes to my Faith I often use the magic rug trick,
it makes me squirm when someone says those words
"how could a God of love allow this to happen?",
I’ve had nightmares over the difficult questions
and I have since come to the realization that the magic rug trick doesn’t really work.
You see when we perform this trick we have to jump up and down for hours on the questions
in the hope of quashing it.
Either that or we try and change the subject
from the why and how questions
to the isn’t the weather nice statements,
or the did you see the news last night conversation changer.
All in the hope that people will not notice the lump under the carpet.
Matthew though is a man of integrity would rather tell it like it is,
and face up to the awkward questions.
Of course the awkward question still remains
"how could a God of love allow these innocent children to be killed?".
The answer to this question is not an easy one,
of course its not an easy one
and that’s why we often try to sweep it under the carpet.
But the reason that it is not an easy question to answer
is not for the reason that we may think.
The main reason we often try to avoid answering the how and why questions is
because we think it might knock our faith.
We think that maybe the tragedy of these Boys was down to God.
Maybe God was responsible.
To be quite honest though that is absolute nonsense, its nonsense to try and shift the blame on to God.
Its nonsense to simply throw all responsibility for a tragedy on to God’s shoulders.
In fact shifting the responsibility on to God is just another way of doing the magic rug trick.
When we say why did God allow those innocent children to die we are blaming God
and all the while the real villain is running free,
The real cause of the tragedy is left to continue the evil work.
It’s the same today when people blame God for drunk drivers
These tragedies like the death of the children of Bethlehem are not a part of God’s plan or God’s will.
The responsibility for these deaths
must come upon the shoulders of the person who performed the act.
In the case of the Bethlehem massacre,
Herod,
the ruler who used the sword to secure his thrown.
This is the thing that Matthew wants us to grasp hold of in this text,
This is what Matthew wants us to takeaway with us.
The sinful nature of Herod,
and our sinful nature too.
Matthew wants us to ask the hard Question
he wants us to toss and turn at night
as we search for the answer.
He wants us to see that the answer lies with us not with God.
Matthew wants us to realize that we are responsible and because we are responsible
the joy and peace of Christmas must come to an end.
You see it may have felt good to worship the Christ child in the stable,
but that is only a part of the story.
In closing the Christmas story in this way Matthew is
seeking to remind us of the reason for it happening in the first place.
The reason being
because we are sinners in need of salvation.
Matthew does bring us back down to reality with a thump when we read of the Baby slaughter,
but he does it with good reason.
Because the Christmas story must go beyond the worship of the Christ child in the stable,
it must go beyond the warm fuzzy feeling that we get when we join the Magi in worship.
It must go outside of the stable
because there is still a world to put right,
there is still a sinful race to redeem.
It must lead to the road outside of the stable.
The road that leads form the joy of the stable,
to the victory of an empty cross.
This morning
Matthew has shown us why we need to take a step outside the warmth and security of the stable
in Bethlehem, He is asking us to put away the things of Christmas, To close the pages of the Christmas story and to step out into the cold reality of the world as it is.
A world where power and greed come at the price of innocent lives.
He is asking us to take the light and the love that we felt in the stable out into the cold dark world.
Because that light is the light of hope
and that love is God’s love for all humanity,
and without them the world is going to perish.
You see there are just to many Herods in the world, and there is to much of what drove Herod in us,
each of us.
It took the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem to remind us of why we need a saviour,
and that is why the eastern orthodox Church calls them martyrs.
The sacrifice they made was to remind us that we are all sinners,
each and everyone of us.
The invitation to us this morning is having joined the Magi in their Journey to find the Christ child,
are we prepared to go on another Journey
a journey that leads to a cross.
Having enjoyed all the wonder and majesty that we felt in worshiping the Christ child,
will we know leave it behind
and experience the wonder and majesty of the cross.
Having experienced the light and joy of the stable will we close the door as we leave
and join Christ as he shines his light in a world of darkness.
