Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 2 verses 13 through 18:
13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, 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.’ 14Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.17Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’
Today in the Church is the Day of Holy Innocents, the day we remember Bethlehem’s children who were killed by wicked Herod. We remember also victims of violence in other times and other places. As the Collect for today asks in its plea for them to God: “Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims . . .”
Only the Bible remembers the slaughter of the innocents at Bethlehem. On the cruel and brutal edges of the first century Roman Empire, violence was a way of life. It was the way the world’s problems were solved. It was the way powerful people retained their power. There was so much blood shed by Herod, in fact, when the historians didn’t even write down what happened to the children of Bethlehem. It was lost to the history books.
But it was not lost to the Bible. Nor were the children lost to God. For God remembers. God remembers every single innocent victim lost to the cruelty of violence. As Jesus said, “in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father”. Jesus was saying that his Father is their Father also; and the Heavenly Father never forgets.
That cruel world of the first century Roman Empire is not altogether unlike our own. Violence is still with us — domestic, gang, gun-related, and political. Rachel still weeps today, refusing to be consoled.
May Rachel’s consolation come in the knowledge that Jesus’ Father has received her children the arms of His tender mercy where there is no more violence or fear.
And may we commit ourselves to doing what Joseph — whatever it takes to protect and watch over the children entrusted to our own tender care.
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