“Don’t Let Evil Destroy Your Christmas Joy”
Text: Matthew 2:13-18
12-28-2025
In the name of our newborn King, dear friends in Christ. You know, it’s just doesn’t seem right. Here we were, enjoying the warmth and beauty that Christmas brings to our hearts and then today’s lessons hit us like a cold, wintry blast in the face. Ever since Wednesday night, we’ve been gently cradling the soft, newborn Christ Child in our minds. We’ve been singing Christmas Carols about hope, joy, and peace on earth. And now, we step into church 4 days later only to hear about the horrible, senseless murders of the innocent little babies of Bethlehem. It’s a stark reminder of the stinkin’, cruel, sinful world we live in. We’d like to forget about it and enjoy the peacefulness of the Christmas story a little longer. But this is a reality check because this is the world we have to face for the next 51 weeks of the year.
Now, if you let it, that stark reality can totally drain all the precious Christmas joy that you’ve been cherishing the last few days. But it doesn’t have to. Not if you stop to realize that this is the same cruel, sinful world that Jesus was born into. And it was this world that He came to change and to save. If we can stay focused on the victorious salvation mission that Jesus embarked on when He was born, then we can retain our Christmas peace and joy even in the midst of a cruel, sinful world.
This King Herod that we hear about in the Gospel was the personification of just how evil and cruel our world can be. He was a horribly paranoid madman, and as a result, he was very dangerous. History tells us that he killed one of his wives and several of his own children because he was afraid they might try to usurp his power. But why should he get so upset when the Magi came to ask where the newborn King of the Jews was? I mean, this was just a little baby. It would be years before this kid would be old enough to cause him any concern. Ah, but now you’re trying to use sane logic to understand an insane man. Baby Jesus was a threat to Herod no matter how old He was. We might also ask why Herod ordered a widespread killing of all the baby boys younger than 2 years. Why didn’t he just target the one troublesome child and murder Him? Verse 16 gives us the answer. It says that “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious.” That word in the Greek means more than just angry. It’s used to describe an explosive fit of rage. And people who are easily unhinged like that don’t think too clearly while they’re in such a rage. His murderous, cruel streak was unleashed when he was in that state of mind.
What added insult to these murders was that it was a Jewish king who ordered them. The fact that Herod wasn’t a full-blooded Jew doesn’t matter. And even worse, it was Jewish, not Roman, soldiers that carried out the orders. These were their Jewish neighbors. Those soldiers had somehow numbed their minds to the screams of the mothers whose arms they ripped those babies from.
Boy, it’s a good thing that an evil dictator can’t get away with that today, huh? Think again. Have you forgotten what Adolf Hitler did? Or Pol Pot? How about Saddam Hussein? In fact, there are scary similarities between him and King Herod. In his paranoia, Saddam killed anyone who threatened his power including his own family. One report said his government was responsible for up to a million murders. And some of the victims were less than a year old when they were shot dead. And just like 2,000 years ago, this atrocity was done at the hands of their own countrymen. Horrific!
But you know, before we get too cocky wagging our heads and pointing a finger at these evil men, maybe we’d better look closer to home. As sick as it may sound to have your own military come in and kill little children what would you call it when a parent actually pays someone to murder their innocent little child in the womb? Ah, that’s right, we call it a “woman’s choice” or a “constitutional right.” But we don’t call it what it really is: cold-blooded murder. Those Jewish soldiers probably committed atrocities when they killed those Bethlehem babies and we cringe to hear that. But that’s tame compared to the barbaric way that we allow so-called doctors to terminate babies in the womb. Worse than that, now a woman can order medication to cause the death of her child in the comfort of her home. At least the killing of innocent babies in Bethlehem came to an end after this episode. Our legal murder spree has been going on for over 50 years, and it’s our own citizens who are doing it. Whether you like to admit it or not, you and I are accomplices to these millions of murders because many refuse to say or do anything about it. For that, we need to hang our heads in shame and repent.
But abortion is not the only sin that we engage in that makes this world the cruel place that it is. We hurt and kill others in many different ways. With our words, we say mean and hateful things that can destroy a little child and cause pain to adults. Like a madman, we chase after the things we want, and God help anyone who gets in our way. Our greed makes us paranoid that someone might take away the things we possess. So, we ruthlessly climb over each other in an effort to get ahead in life. Selfish pride is behind it all. And it makes this world an evil, cruel place to live. The good news is that Jesus came into this cruel, sinful world in order to save us from it.
But there’s still something that’s unsettling about the whole story of the murder of these little children of Bethlehem. The baby Jesus was the one that King Herod was after, not all these other baby boys. To put it bluntly, they died... because of Jesus. Their families suffered, while Jesus and His family escaped to the safety of Egypt. It almost sounds heretical to ask, but was that fair? Well, seriously think about this. Even though we call this the slaughter of the “Holy Innocents” that title is misleading. Were those babies truly “innocent”? In a way, we can say Yes, because they did nothing to provoke their attackers. But the Bible tells us that in terms of their sinfulness, they were not “innocent.” Like all the rest of us, they were born into this world as sinners. I know that sounds harsh. But to be honest, we all deserve the same kind of horrible death, and worse, for our sinfulness, because none of us—regardless of our age—are innocent of sin.
There was only one, truly innocent child when that slaughter took place. It was Jesus Christ. And He escaped from being murdered. But He didn’t escape death completely. The death of that Holy Innocent Child was merely postponed. Read through the Gospels and you’ll find that numerous times the religious leaders of Israel got so upset with Jesus that they tried to kill Him. But just like at the beginning of His life, it was not yet His time. So, Christ was protected from the sinful, murderous plots of evil men, from infancy all way up until Good Friday.
And that’s where an amazing twist took place. It was a reversal of what happened here in Bethlehem with the slaughter of these little infants. In a way, those innocent children died so that the Christ Child could escape death. But on Good Friday, the opposite happened. The Holy Innocent Child of God, Jesus Christ, was beaten, spit upon, and then murdered by nailing Him to the cross. He was truly innocent of any wrongdoing and any sin. And yet, the innocent Son of God was murdered so that you and I could escape death. Not physical death, but eternal death in hell for our sins. Jesus Christ died on the cross to protect you and me. Not from the evil intentions of a madman, but to protect us from a punishment we deserved. He offered up His holy innocent life so that you and I could be declared “holy” and “innocent” in God’s eyes. As we witnessed with Genevieve this morning, the innocent blood of Jesus is now poured out over the soul of every believer in the precious waters of Baptism and His holy innocence then becomes ours.
You know, when you think about it, it must have been a horrible thing for the fathers and mothers of those little babies of Bethlehem to live through. But the sorrow of those parents is a picture of what God the Father endured when He gave up His Son to be killed on the cross. And don’t think for a minute that it was an easy thing for God to do. He loves His Son, even more deeply than a human parent can love their child. And yet, God endured the pain of watching His Son be murdered because He could see the greater good that would come out of that suffering. But God knew this was not the end. He would be reunited with His Son after this horrible torture and death. And not only that, but God would also be reunited with us, His children that He loves, who have been rescued by the holy innocent death of Jesus.
As awful and horrible as the death of those babies in Bethlehem must have been, God held out to those families a promise of consolation. Even though they had lost their child in a cruel way, God would reunite them in heaven someday if they continued to believe and trust in Him. Those little babies and their families had suffered for the sake of Christ, whether they realized it or not. And our reading from 1 Peter 4 reminds us that this does not go without notice from God. Verse 13 says, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.” We can only hope and pray that none of us will ever have to endure the pain that those parents did in Bethlehem. And yet, we face all kinds of other cruel and evil things in this sinful world. As we do, we can still rejoice because we know the One who came into this cruel world to change it. And we know that if we continue to have faith in the holy innocent Christ Child, we can look forward to the day when we will be united with Him in heaven. So don’t let the cruelty of this evil world destroy your Christmas joy. Your Savior has come and He has rescued you from the eternal death of sin. And He will someday take you out of this world of pain and sorrow to Himself in heaven. So, rejoice! Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!