Holy Innocents

Fasts and Feasts

Today we honor the Holy Innocents.
Transcript
Welcome to Fasts and Feasts, a guided tour of the church year.
I'm your host, Jared Henderson, and today I'll be teaching you about the Holy Innocents.
Keen listeners will notice that this episode is coming out in the afternoon of December 28, while episodes usually come out early in the mornings. Allow me to make a minor confession: I fell a bit behind. After all, we have had four feasts in a row — that is a lot of episodes!
But today is the last feast in this series. Today, we are celebrating the Holy Innocents.
Who are the Holy Innocents? We get one mention of them in the Gospel of Matthew:Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 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.”The Holy Innocents are martyrs -- but they are martyrs in deed rather than will as an old saying goes. They are children who were slaughtered as Herod, an earthly king, attempted to prevent the coming of King Jesus. Of course, it doesn't work.
There are strong historical and theological parallels here with the story of Moses. In the Reformation Study Bible, which is a study Bible I quite like, the commenters say of this passage in Matthew that Matthew’s use of this prophecy appears to portray Jesus as a new Moses (the one who led Joseph’s descendants out of Egypt) who fulfills the prophecy of a second exodus. Like Moses, Jesus escapes slaughter as an infant. Like Moses, He is sent to rescue God’s chosen ones.
This is a great example of how God can use evil for good. God is not the author of evil, but nothing in this world can resist being used for the glory of God — this is one of my deepest theological convictions. Herod, desperate to cling to power, orders the slaughter of precious children — and God uses this to further reveal Jesus' role as a new Moses, leading God's exiled children out of Egypt and into the promised land.
Every feast is, ultimately, about God. Even those where we honor saints like John the Apostle or martyrs like the Holy Innocents, we are ultiamtely honoring and celebrating the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Innocents is no exception. God shows us his glory even in tragedy.
Alright friend -- as always, let's close with a collect from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:O ALMIGHTY God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths: Mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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