First Sunday after Christmas (A)
(The Feast of the Holy Innocents/Feast of
the Holy Family)December 29, 2013
Matthew 2:13-23
The Flight into Egypt, Coptic Orthodox icon (Image via Pravmir.Org)
Christmas is not the end of the Christmas
season. Just as Easter is not the end of the Lenten season, but the center and
the beginning of a new season, Christmas is the center of what is called the
Christmas Cycle and the beginning of a new season—the Christmas Season (or
Christmastide). In our Church, we have two great “cycles”—the Christmas Cycle
and the Easter Cycle. These two great feasts—Christmas and Easter—are preceded
by seasons of preparation—Advent and Lent, respectively. These preparatory
seasons climax in the two great feast days of the Church—Christmas and Easter—which
in turn are the beginning of seasons of celebration: the Twelve Days of
Christmas and the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Both celebratory seasons are
concluded by festival days: Epiphany is the end of the Christmas Cycle while
Pentecost is the end of the Easter Cycle.
Christmas is followed by three feast days: the Feast of St. Stephen the Protodeacon and Protomartyr (among the first seven deacons of the Church and also her first martyr—Acts 6:1-7 and 7:54-8:1) on December 26; the Feast of St. John the Theologian, Apostle and Evangelist (the writer of the Gospel of John, the First, Second, and Third Epistles of John, and Revelation) on December 28; and the Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28. The first Sunday after Christmas is also observed in the Roman Catholic Church as the Feast of the Holy Family; and this year being Year A in the liturgical calendar, we have a reading from the Gospel of Matthew—the only place in this Gospel that mentions the “Holy Family”: Matthew 2:13-23.
(In The United Methodist Church, at least
here in the Philippines, December is usually celebrated as “Family Month” and
one Sunday as “Family Sunday”, perhaps for sentimental reasons: “Christmas is
for family”. Might I suggest that “Family Sunday” be observed on the Feast of
the Holy Family, the Sunday after Christmas?)
Matthew 2:13-23 tells of the story of the
Massacre of the Innocents. King Herod the Great, in his murderous rage, ordered
the killing of all boys two years old and below in and around Bethlehem. Is
this an untimely message during this season of joy?
I. The Visit of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12).
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judah, Magi from the East arrived came to
Bethlehem to look for the newborn King. The liturgical calendar currently
celebrates the visit of the Magi on a separate date—January 6—to show that some
time had already passed since Jesus was born.
When Jesus was born, the Magi saw the Star over Bethlehem. It took some
time for them to travel from the East (most probably Persia, now modern-day
Iran) to Judea. By the time they arrived, Jesus was probably in Jerusalem, for
his presentation at the Temple, forty days after his birth (Luke 2:21-40), so
the Magi followed the Star there. After conferring with Herod and the chief
priests and the scribes regarding the prophecy of Micah the Prophet, the Holy
Family must have returned to Bethlehem. They saw the Star over Bethlehem which
led them “over where the Child was” (Matthew 2:9). After presenting him their
valuable gift of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, the Magi were warned in a dream
not to report back to Herod but instead returned to their country by another
way.
II. The
Flight into Egypt (vv. 13-15).
Just as the Magi were warned in a dream, so was Joseph warned by an
angel of the Lord of the impending danger: “Arise and take the young child, and
flee into Egypt, and continue there till I shall tell thee; for Herod will seek
the young child to destroy him” (v. 12). Egypt is the traditional place of
refuge for Israel: In I Kings 11:40,
Jeroboam, who would be king of the northern kingdom of Israel, fled to Egypt to
escape from King Solomon; while in Jeremiah 26:21, King Jehoiakim and his court
fled to Egypt to escape the invading Babylonian army.
The Church views Jesus’ flight into Egypt
as a means to reenact the Exodus from Egypt. St. Matthew quotes Hosea the
Prophet: “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). In the prophecy of
Hosea, it is Israel who was the “son” which God called out from Egypt. In the Gospel,
this prophecy was fulfilled when an angel of the Lord bade Joseph to bring
Jesus and his mother out of Egypt after the death of Herod.
III. The Massacre of the Innocents (vv. 16-18).
When Herod released that he had been “deluded”
by the Magi, he became exceedingly mad (both in the sense of ‘angry’ and ‘crazy’)
and ordered the killing of all male children in and around Bethlehem two years
old and younger. (Which leads us to
believe that the visit of the Magi and the massacre of the innocents occurred around
two years after the birth of Jesus.)
The massacre of the innocents is a fulfillment
of a prophecy of Jeremiah the Prophet (v. 18):
In Rama was there
a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for
her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
According to the Torah, Rachel the wife of
Jacob died giving birth to her second child, Benjamin, and she was buried in
Bethlehem (Genesis 35:16-20). In the book of Jeremiah the Prophet, Rachel is
depicted as weeping over her children, the Jewish people, as they passed
through Rama before going to exile in Babylon. Rama was five miles north of Jerusalem
while Bethlehem was five miles south. Thus the wailing of the mothers whose
sons were murdered by Herod ten miles away!
The tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem today. (Image via
RachelsTomb.Org)
IV.
The Return from Egypt (vv. 19-23).
“But when Herod was dead…” (v. 19). How did
Herod die? According to the Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in his War of the Jews (Book I, Chapter 33).
Herod had “intolerable itching over all the surface of his body, and continual
pains in the colon, and dropsical turnabouts turnout about his feet, and an
inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of his privy member, that
produced worms.” He died at the age of seventy and his kingdom was divided
among three of his sons (Archelaus in Judea, Samaria, and Idumea; Herod Antipas
in Galilee; and Philip in Transjordan; all mentioned in the New Testament).
Achelaus was said to be so cruel that in 6
AD he was banished him into Gaul (modern-day France) because the Jews protested
to Augustus Caesar. This explains why Joseph was “afraid to go dither” and
return to Bethlehem but instead went to back to Nazareth. “That it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene” (v.
23).
There is no prophecy in the Old Testament that contains those exact words. It could be a reference to a prophecy of Isaiah the Prophet that the Messiah would come as a “Branch” (Hebrew, נֵצֶר, netser) from the family of Jesse, father of King David (Isaiah 11:1). There may also be an allusion to the Nazirite (Hebrew, נָזִיר, nazir).
Conclusion
There are still “Holy Innocents” that are suffering and dying today. Consider the following statistics:
- In 2000, it was estimated that there were 470,000 induced abortions performed in the Philippines; meaning that one out of three woman are getting an abortion. In 2010, there were an estimated 560,000 abortions and about 90,000 women were hospitalized due to complications. (Rappler.com)
- In 2011, there are an estimated 5.492 million working children aged five to 17 years old. (National Statistics Office)
- UNICEF estimates that there are over 246,000 street children working or living in the Philippines in 2012. (Philippine Star)
- In 2010, 4,749 cases of child abuse were reported to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). One fourth of these are children below five years old. One half of these children have been neglected or abandoned. Furthermore, 27.3% have been sexually abused through rape, incest, prostitution, or cyber pornography. (National Statistical Coordination Board)
- UNICEF airlifted $ 1.3 million worth of relief goods like water purification tablets, soap, and medical kits to help an estimated four million children who were victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
The children die
for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of
martyrs…. They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use
their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.
Thus the Church regards the Holy Innocents
as martyrs of Christ.
John Wesley writes,
The preservation
of Jesus from this destruction may be considered as a figure of God's care over
his children in their greatest danger. God does not often, as he easily could,
cut off their persecutors at a stroke. But he provides a hiding place for his
people, and by methods not less effectual, though less pompous, preserves them
from being swept away, even when the enemy comes in like a flood. (Notes Upon the New Testament)
Rachel weeping for her children.
