So soon after the joy of our Lord’s Nativity we read of the sorrow of the mothers of the young lads of Bethlehem – Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.  So soon after the angels sang Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men, the wrath and hatred of the devil spew forth like a flood to engulf the holy Child of Bethlehem.  So soon after the Magi bring their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus, Herod the King dispatches His soldiers to murder Him.

A mere three days ago, we celebrated Christmas, and see how quickly the sentimentality is stripped away.  Plainly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ is a serious business.  It’s not something intended to make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Our Lord’s birth stirs up all the wrath of hell; in response, God marshals the hosts of heaven to rally and defend the infant Son of God.  Innocent blood flows because of the Incarnation of our Lord.  Baby boys are snatched from their mother’s arms and put to the sword as Satan seeks to track Jesus down and get Him out of the way.

These boys of Bethlehem were the first to martyred for the Name of Jesus.  They were the first to give up their lives for the Son of God.  They were associated with Him by being born in the same village that He was, and that association was enough for Herod and the devil.  They were marked for destruction because of the Son of God, and gave their lives so He could live.

But our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to die for the sins of the world, surely shed His blood also for these little ones who were murdered by Herod.   He was the sacrifice for their sins too so they could have a home in heaven.   Little children are precious to our Savior who once was a little Child Himself.  As an adult, Jesus gathered little children to Himself; He laid His hands on them, and blessed them.  He told His apostles to go into all nations, making disciples by baptizing in the Name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching their converts to observe all things which He has commanded. Surely children are included among “all nations” – included among those who are to inherit His salvation. 

Even today, Jesus still gathers little children to Himself in Holy Baptism, by which He washes away their sins and claims them as the redeemed possession of the Triune God.  That’s why we bring out children to Baptism and diligently raise them up in the holy Christian Faith.  Jesus shed His blood for the infant boys of Bethlehem.  He shed His blood for your children too.

God preserved His Son from the wrath and enmity of Herod and the devil.  Yes, Jesus, would die one day, but not now, not in Bethlehem.  He would die in Jerusalem, the holy City.  He would die on the Cross as the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away all the sin of the world.  He would die for you and me, and our children and grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren too. 

Jesus would die to restore our innocence which Adam lost in the Fall, so that in our heavenly Father’s eyes, for Jesus’ sake, we are counted free of sin. He would die to redeem our fallen human race from its bondage to sin, death and hell so that we could be reconciled to God through faith in His Name.  To be in bondage to Satan means eternal death, even though you may live long and well in this world.  But to be redeemed by the holy and precious blood of Jesus Christ means eternal life, even though your days in this world come to a swift and brutal end, as was the case with the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem.

And none of us has a guarantee how long our time in this valley of sorrow will be, do we?  None of us knows whether we will be around when the sun goes down this evening.  None of us knows what life has in store for us, sickness or health, pleasure or pain, riches or financial catastrophe.

But as Christians we are confident of this – The Triune God will never forsake us.  God has bound our human race to Himself in sending His Son to take upon Himself our human nature in the Incarnation.  God became Man not for a lark, not because He wanted to go slumming to see how the lower class lived.  God became Man so He would have a Body to offer up on the Cross for your sin, so you could be forgiven.  God became Man so He could have a body that could be baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, thereby sanctifying the water of your Baptism, making it a life-giving water, rich in grace.  God became Man so He could give you to eat and drink of His Body and Blood in the Sacrament for the forgiveness of all your sins.

God became Man, so He could suffer as you and I suffer, and thereby sanctify our sufferings.  Because of the Incarnation, you and I are not alone in our sufferings, for as Peter writes in today’s epistle, as Christians we participate in the sufferings of Christ.  Jesus our Savior, the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, stands by us.  He’s with us to comfort us.  He’s with us to strengthen us.  He’s with us to enable us to endure in the Faith, until that day He gives us final deliverance from all our sufferings, from the sting of sin and the curse of mortality.  And then He will receive us into heaven.  And we will be with Him in paradise forever.

As believers in Christ living in a culture that has largely cast aside its Christian heritage, we may one day have to suffer for our Faith.  The martyrdom of the Holy Innocents reminds us of this.  We must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of God, the apostles of our Lord preached.  All who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, St. Paul wrote to Timothy.  Our Lord pronounces blessed those who are insulted, and persecuted, and falsely accused of all kinds of evil for His sake.  They are blessed because of their union with Jesus, in whom they have complete forgiveness of all their sin, an eternal salvation that the devil himself cannot snatch away, and the certain promise of resurrection on the Last Day.

So should God permit such suffering and persecution to come, take comfort in the fact that you will not be alone.  Christ suffered and was persecuted for you.  Stephen, Paul, Peter and the other apostles of our Lord, and the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem suffered and were martyred too.  They died in union with the One who died for them to transform death into a gateway opening into life eternal.  They died, leaving behind this world of sorrow, trouble, and woe, and entered into the joys and glories of heaven.

That’s the goal of our Faith as well.  There are some who would belittle us for believing in Christ.  There are some who would tell us all gods are the same and it doesn’t matter what god you believe in as long as you believe in something.  There are some who would counsel us to forget heaven and live for this world only. 

But we look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us in order to redeem us and make us His own.  And so we live out our lives in this world, receiving absolution of all our sins by the Gospel, nourished in our faith by the Means of Grace.  We serve God by serving our neighbor.  And in all of life’s circumstances, we commit ourselves confidently into His hands, waiting patiently for the day we receive our final redemption.

For Jesus’ sake the slaughtered infant boys of Bethlehem were received into heaven.  They were set free of the sorrows and pains that they would otherwise have known had they lived out their days in full.  We have the sure and certain hope of heaven too, because of Jesus.  Only because of Him. 

So when we come to the end of our earthly days, we can die in peace, trusting in Him who suffered and died for our forgiveness, and was raised again for our justification.  We can die in confidence of God’s lovingkindness and mercy, confident we have a home in heaven with all the saints, confident of the resurrection at the end of the age.  We can die trusting in Jesus who died for us and was raised again to give us eternal life.

In Nomine Patris. . .