Sunday, December 28, 2025
First Sunday after Christmas (Christmas 1A)
Text: Matthew 2:13-23
Sermon Audio
As we gather… We live in a world whose Christmas joy has begun to subside. While the world is over the Christmas joy, we continue to rejoice as those who know the true joy that Christmas brought into the world. Christ our Savior was born to bring to us salvation. Our Gospel reading today shows us some of the wickedness that was going on after our Savior’s birth. Despite King Herod’s evil against the young boys in Bethlehem, God made sure that His only begotten Son would live on. He preserved Jesus so that He could die at the proper time. Even when tragedy strikes us in this fallen world, we can be assured that when our infant King came into this world He brought to us a kingdom that would put an end to our sorrow. We certainly weep when evil befalls us or our loved ones, but we weep as those who have hope. We have hope that the child that was born in the city of David was born to bring us salvation. We are assured that His death and resurrection brought us eternal life in His kingdom where we shall weep no more.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Merry fourth day of Christmas! The church has for a long time celebrated the feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28th. This year, it just so happens that our ordinary Gospel reading for the First Sunday after Christmas is the reading about the Holy Innocents and falls on the 28th. At first glance it seems a little strange that we would slow down and look at the slaughter of innocent children in this festive Christmas season. Yet, this is what happened in the wake of the birth of Jesus. The world and its rulers will stop at nothing to hold on to their power, however temporary it may be. Herod should have rejoiced that God’s anointed King has come, but he was filled with hatred. He might lose his throne. He was absolutely irate that the wise men didn’t return and hand over the coordinates of the infant King. The only logical solution: kill all boys 2 years old and younger that live anywhere in and around Bethlehem. Evil men in this world would rather commit heinous crimes than bend their knee in submission to the Creator and Ruler of the world. While we rejoice that the Christ has come, the devil, the ruler of this world, and the wicked will stop at nothing to silence faithful people and stop Jesus’ mission of salvation. Try as they might, they can’t stop the love of God through Christ for all people. Even through tragedy, Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, is preserved and brings salvation.
First, the hard question, why? Why did these young boys die? Herod wanted Jesus dead. If Jesus would have died before He was even 2 years old, He certainly wouldn’t have made it to the cross to be the atoning death for the salvation of the world. Jesus was going to have to die, but not yet. Hence, the angel told Joseph in a dream, “Rise, 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.” The infant Christ had to be protected. But, Herod was out for blood. He had to be convinced that he got Jesus in his bloodlust. If there were no young boys to be killed in the region of Bethlehem he likely wouldn’t have stopped until all of Judea was saturated with the blood of innocent children. Herod had to know that he killed this infant King. These boys died as the first martyrs of the incarnate Christ. Their death served to convince Herod that he accomplished his goal and protected the Word of God so that Jesus could die at the proper time; after He had fulfilled all things. These martyrs had an important role to play in the story of salvation. They made sure that the Word of God was preserved, just like the faithful prophets who died in service to God in the Old Testament. While the world should have been rejoicing that the Messiah has come, it received a stark reminder that evil still surrounds them.
St Matthew tells us this about the Holy Innocents, “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’” Even though we can see that God worked even this tragedy out for good, it doesn’t mean that we don’t lament with Rachel. The loss of innocent life is never easy. Any woman who has lost a child understands this weeping and inability to be comforted better than anyone. Her child may not have been martyred at the hands of evil men for the faith, but a death from tragedy or as the result of disease in a fallen world doesn’t soften the sting. The tears from Ramah still resound. No one wants to outlive their child. Yet we don’t weep as those without hope.
Our introit for the day on your green sheet contains the rest of the passage from Jeremiah that Matthew quoted. Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.” Jeremiah wrote this as words of comfort for the children of Rachel’s weeping who were about to be taken captive to Babylon with the fall of Judah. There was hope for their future. The LORD guaranteed to return them to the Promised Land. There was also hope for the Holy Innocents and there is hope for all who have died in the faith, young or old, martyred or not. The infant King returned to the land of Israel at the proper time. He came to secure this future for all mankind.
“And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.” Joseph returned Jesus to the Promised Land so He could continue His redemptive life. God’s only son was returned from the land of an enemy, out of Egypt, back to Israel. The preservation of the line of the Christ throughout the Old Testament up to the Holy Innocents was to make sure that all could be assured of a future hope in a country that is beyond any earthly comparison. Now Jesus, even as a young boy, was redeeming the world to Himself. He was obeying His parents. He was learning from them. He was growing in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man. When the time was right He was baptized to fulfill all things. Our baptism unites us to His baptism; to His life.
This is why Jesus couldn’t have died as a baby for our sins. It wasn’t just that the perfect God/man had to die, he also had to live. Jesus had to actively obey His Father in heaven and perfectly live the life that no man after the fall could. He had to be tempted by the devil and remain sinless. He had to heal the sick. He had to teach the truth about Scriptures pointing to Himself. He had to correct false doctrine. He had to place Himself under earthly authority, even unto His own death. He had to fulfill the Law. The Son of God had to unconditionally do the will of His Father in heaven that we never could. He had to have perfect obedience because our Father demands it. We can only achieve this by being united to His perfectly obedient Son.
His life of obedience to both his earthly parents and His Father in heaven led Him to the cross so that He could bring all who believe and are baptized into Him into the eternal Promised Land where there will be no more weeping. His resurrection gave reason for all of God’s faithful people to proclaim, “O death where is your victory, O death where is your sting?!” The Holy Innocents might have died an earthly death before, but they were met with open arms by the Son of Man in His kingdom. This is the comfort and truth that awaits all who have been given faith in Jesus. This is the truth that is an eternal reality because our Savior returned to the land of Israel as a child to redeem mankind to Himself.
Countless people have lost their lives because of their faith throughout history. Martyrs from Abel to the Holy innocents, from Stephen to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, all gaze into heaven and see the same thing that Stephen saw. The Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Jesus receives all people who die in the faith into His waiting arms. This isn’t just true of martyrs. This is true of each person given faith in Jesus: The baby who died in the arms of her mother at just a few hours old; the son who died of cancer when he was yet a young boy; the teenager who died in the car accident; the young man who died serving in the armed forces; or the older woman who died in the arms of her husband. All who died in faith have been received into the arms of our Savior who was preserved to be the salvation of mankind. They may have been taken from us in this world too soon, but in Christ’s new creation we will never be apart again. We are eternally united in Christ and will bask in His light always.
Christmas is one of the hardest times of the year for those who weep for loved ones gone. It is compounded by living in a world that wants to take the hope that Christmas ushers into the world, our heavenly King, from us. Yet the Gospel of Christ is preserved and prevails through His faithful people. Our weeping may never completely end on this earth, but we don’t weep as those without hope. We know that even in our weeping we can find joy in the eternal Promised Land that is ours through our Savior whose birth we still celebrate. The Savior who wept at the loss of His friend is compassionate and merciful. He knows your pain first hand and will call you to Him in the new heaven and the new earth. There He will dry every tear from your eye and there will be no more weeping. Until that time, we embrace Him now and feast with our loved ones in the marriage feast of the Lamb which will have no end until we are united again. Your weeping is but for a moment. The promise of eternal Christmas joy in our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ is eternal. Thanks be to God!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.