Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Matthew 2:16-19

The Magi came from the east, brought gifts to baby Jesus , departed for home. Having asked for help from Herod the Great to find the child, they agreed to tell him when they did so but were warned not to. Herod realized he had been duped and sent soldiers to kill all children two and under in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with Jesus. This is a horrible story, a heartbreaking story, a Bible story often omitted even while children are dying around the world in wars and from starvation. One of my favorite New Testament scholars, Richard Swanson, reads Matthew through this story. Jesus. Son of God. Promised Messiah. Matthew is the "Law and Order Gospel", " the outer darkness", the " gnashing of teeth" Gospel. When we read Matthew as story, as a cohesive narrative, we can recognize the potential for survivor's guilt in Jesus. Matthew doesn't start with Mary and Joseph in Nazareth but in Bethlehem. The murdered children and their murdered parents, grandparents, siblings who struggled with those soldiers--they were Mary and Joseph's friends and close family. Jesus must have wondered why he had no cousins, why his family lived so far from home. As survivor Jesus was rigid, a perfectionist--this emerges in his parables and continues till on the cross he screamed his despair. Perhaps his faith faltered in that moment, and he would have condemned himself for that lapse. Except something changed. Everything. Jesus alive again, alive, forgiving the disciples who had failed him and fled. Matthew 28 overflows with mercy and joy. Our creeds speak our belief that Jesus is both human and divine, yet too often we see him as God wearing skin but so far above us, not feeling our human fears and joys. When we read Matthew as that cohesive narrative we can see the humanness, the frailty of Jesus, and find hope for ourselves in all our humanness as Jesus promises to be with us always.