Holy Innocents

 The wise men have left. The holy family has departed, safely, by night into exile.

The story does not end there. Herod the Great waits in vain for the magi to report back to him. So he takes extraordinary expedient measures. 

From a scene of innocence and glory, from a moment of wise perception and quiet celebration, we pass into a scene of power and overweening pride.

Herod takes out a ghastly form of insurance. Knowing that the child was to be born a king, and born at Bethlehem, he tries to wipe out the threat of goodness by killing all children under two.

No child is safe until all children are safe.

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. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ‘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.’ (Matthew 2:16-18)

The story does not end there either! As the prophet Jeremiah went on to say, after that lamentation:

Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: they shall come back from the land of the enemy; there is hope for your future, says the Lord: your children shall come back to their own country. (Jeremiah 31:16-17)

And so --

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean." (Matthew 2:19-23)

There is hope; there is a way forward. The young family return to Israel; but not to be under the eye of Herod’s son enthroned in his place they divert their steps to a small hill-town in Galilee. 

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Today of course if you go there you might see a small stream, and imagine Mary getting water there. You might see a little dwelling, discovered under the surface of a morning street, and remember the humble beginnings of the carpenter’s son. You might see Roman pavement in front of a street door, imagine steps of shodden foot passing close by the home of a little child.

And you might imagine the child growing in wisdom and in strength. That day will come.

For now the parents, and the shepherd and the angels and the wise men, carry the secret.

And then it will be carried forward, by evangelists, disciples men and women and children.

By us.