Matthew 2
continues the theme of a God who is, ultimately, in control. Still, for the people
“on the ground,” those living the story, it sure seems like God is nowhere to
be seen. I mean, the Magi make their trip (at God’s prompting—He puts the star
in the sky, after all), and they end up in the wrong place. Joseph does everything
God tells him to and ends up fleeing for his life and the life of his family to
Egypt of all places. And the mothers of Bethlehem—what did they do to deserve
such pain? No wonder they’re weeping and refusing to be comforted! Where’s God
in all that?
Well, the
star reappears and it reappears so specifically that the Magi find not just the
right town but the right house. Joseph and the holy family do escape, because
God warns him in a dream.
The
slaughter of the boys of Bethlehem is harder to understand, until you look at
the whole chapter of Jeremiah
31, which is one of the few chapters in Jeremiah filled with messages of
hope, speaking of how God would bring the people of Israel back from their
exile, how he has loved them with an everlasting love. In hard times that is an
important message to have in our ears and in our hearts: “The Lord appeared to
us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved
you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will
build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will
take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful’” (Jeremiah 31:3-4).
Or consider
Isaiah 61:1-3. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has
anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness
for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of
vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who
grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of
joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of
despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for
the display of his splendor.”
The Gospel
of Luke quotes just this passage about Jesus. It seems that part of the message
of Matthew 2 is this: don’t lose sight of what’s going on here. Yes, Herod
perpetuates a horrific slaughter, but the target of that slaughter is Jesus,
and Jesus escapes because He is fated to die a different way, on a cross, for
the forgiveness and healing of the whole world. And just as Jesus came through suffering
and death to new life, so God will somehow bring His people and ultimately the
world through suffering and death to new life, too. That doesn’t give the
mothers of Bethlehem a free pass; it doesn’t wipe away their grief and pain.
But it does, at least, give the confidence: God will bring something good—some time
and in some way—out of our grief.
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