Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

“To the elect exiles of the dispersion... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood:

 

May grace and peace be multiplied to you” (1 Peter 1:1-2).

 

 

We celebrate the death of the infants, but not the death of the tyrant. That sounds a little backwards doesn’t it? But I assure you that I got that right. The holy Christian Church has a Feast Day appointed to commemorate the death of the Holy Innocents, the baby boys in Bethlehem who were murdered in King Herod’s attempt to get rid of “He who has been born king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2), but we have no Feast or Festival Day to commemorate the other death mentioned in today’s Gospel reading, the death of the tyrant who ordered the murder of those infants, King Herod, known as Herod the Great.

 

Shouldn’t we instead rejoice at the death of the tyrant and mourn the deaths of the baby boys? That is the way that the world would do it, and we saw it so reported on the news near the end of the year. There was much upset and emotion over the death of children and other innocents caught up in the war between Israel and the terrorist group, Hamas. The news reports fuelled protests from supporters of both sides when they aired footage of the bombing of hospitals and schools and neighbourhoods. But when Israel was able to assassinate the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, there was great celebration not only in Israel, but also in many countries around the world, with celebratory messages on the news by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Joe Biden, and other world leaders. The world mourned the death of the innocents and celebrated the death of the tyrant.

 

But the Church does it backwards. Not that we support tyrants and seek to take innocent lives, but we do it backwards to the world in our reaction to the reports. We have a Feast Day for the Holy Innocents on December 28, and no celebration for the death of Herod the Great.

 

While we do not know even one of the names of the infant boys murdered in Bethlehem, King Herod’s name is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible. In fact, he serves as an important historical marker to the life of Jesus. We can figure out when Jesus was born and date other Biblical events based on connections to King Herod and his sons among whom the kingdom was divided and ruled after his death.

 

Herod the Great was born in 73 BC and died within a few years of Jesus’ birth. He is well-known in history for building fortresses, palaces, ports, aqueducts, and also the temple in Jerusalem in use at the time of Jesus. While politically savvy in his rise to power and wise in his rule as a Roman-appointed governor, he became increasingly jealous, paranoid, and mentally unstable in his later years. The account of his murder of the baby boys in Bethlehem parallels his murderous acts against his own family members. He murdered one of his wives, her two sons, her brother, her grandfather, and her mother. But he had eight other wives and 12 other children to spare. He later also killed his firstborn son.

 

Historians tell us that Herod the Great’s death was brought on by a kidney infection and an excruciating and gruesome flesh-eating disease, which caused him to attempt to commit suicide. He was prevented by his cousin. But when his death was immanent Herod ordered that some of the Jewish leaders should be killed so that there would be mourning at the time of his funeral. Because the tyrant was dead, that command was not carried out.

 

I won’t say that Christians or perhaps anybody mourns the death of King Herod, but we don’t celebrate it either. We see it as an occasion for sober reflection in light of St. Peter’s comments in our Epistle reading today. He gives us a solemn warning: “Let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler” (1 Peter 4:15). He says this in contrast to a kind of suffering that we don’t need to avoid at all costs, but rather to accept and embrace: “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name” (v. 16).

 

Further, Peter tells us that we can rejoice in such suffering: “rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of the glory and of God rests upon you” (13-14).

 

This is why we find reason to rejoice, in such that we commemorate and sing and give thanks to God, for the death of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem. We do not rejoice that they were murdered, but that their deaths bring glory to God because they suffered for the sake of Jesus. Herod was out to kill the baby born of Mary. Joseph took them to Egypt at a warning from the angel (Matthew 2:13). Not knowing how to identify which child was born to be king of the Jews, Herod had all of the boys in Bethlehem, aged two and younger, slaughtered (16). They died for the name of the Christ, the Messiah in whom they and their families and their forefathers had placed their hope.

 

This means that they died so that Christ might live, or rather, that He might give His life on the cross at the time appointed and so die for the sins of the whole world, even the sins of these babies who preceded Him in death. They have a special union to Jesus Christ, not just in that they were all born in Bethlehem and about the same age, not that they would have gone to the same school and played in the same sports league, but in that they shared in His death, dying themselves and their mourning families suffering for the sake of Christ, because their faith was in the promise of this Saviour.

 

You also have a special union to Jesus Christ. You suffer for His name, too. It sometimes comes quite directly when someone sees the cross around your neck or a bumper sticker on your car, or when they know that you go to church and believe all of this Bible stuff; but also, when you suffer indirectly, as Christians and Christianity are ridiculed and mocked in the world. Every time a church is vandalized or the name of Jesus is used as a swear word, you suffer as a Christian, one who has been given that name to wear in the world.

 

When this happens, St. Peter tells us we have reason to rejoice. The world sees such persecutions as things to get mad about and to take vengeance, but we are told that we should rejoice. These are the things that remind you that you have an intimate connection with Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. He says that because of suffering for the name of Christ you can be sure that the Holy Spirit rests upon you and that the name of God is glorified in you.

 

The Holy Spirit and the name of God were put upon you at your Baptism. So suffering for the name of Christ reminds you that you are baptized and that you have all of the promises that God has attached to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism for you. Through your baptism you are united to both the death and resurrection of Christ. You are united to His sufferings which were for your sins and your salvation, and you are united to His resurrection and ascension into heaven which gives glory to the name of God for conquering sin, death, devil and the wicked in the world so that you might live with Him forever, sharing in His eternal life, His holiness, and His never-fading glory.

 

None of this is attached to the suffering of tyrants and evildoers. That is why we are solemnly warned not to get involved in those things like murder, thievery, and meddling. Those are sins which bring judgment and punishment, and eternal suffering added to the suffering that they bring about in this life. God’s judgment is sure and certain and evildoers will not escape God’s wrath even if they are able to dodge the kind of sufferings that befall most people in this life.

 

Salvation is difficult enough for those who do good. Their good works are even tainted with evil motives and mixed with a sinfulness that is so infectious to our nature that we cannot get it out. Like the gruesome infection that King Herod suffered leading to his death, this infection of sin leads to death and eternal torment in hell. But the Saviour, Jesus Christ, was born to rescue us from our sins, even the sins that lie hidden beneath our good deeds. We are saved only through Him and His suffering and death for the sins of the world.

 

If it is that difficult for us who believe in Jesus and His atoning sacrifice to be saved, then how will any evildoer escape the judgment of God. It is impossible. So, in the holy Christian Church there is no rejoicing at the death even of a tyrant like King Herod. There is sober reflection and a call to flee from any such gross and immoral sins. Those are the kind of sins that separate us from Christ, that cause His Holy Spirit to leave us, and so our faith to fizzle and fade to black.

 

But in the deaths of the babes of Bethlehem, we have the joy, a sober and reflective joy, of salvation in our union to Christ Jesus. They were united to Him through their faithful sufferings and deaths for the sake of the promised Messiah. We are united to Him through our faithful sufferings in the name of Christ. We have the gift of Holy Baptism as a sure source of this grace of God. We rejoice that those who have died in this faith have been rescued from this world of wickedness and sorrow and now rest safely in the arms of Jesus. We have a feast today to commemorate this on the Second Sunday of Christmas.

 

We receive our salvation with joy, even knowing that it means we suffer for His name. For we know that we too will be rescued out of this great tribulation and be forever clothed in robes made white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13).

 

 

“Peace to all of you who are in Christ” (1 Peter 5:14).