December 28, 2015

“Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, 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.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” 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 2:13 – 18

“The slaughter by Herod of all the children of Bethlehem and the region was a piece of sheer barbarism, but doubt not that Herod would find a plausible defense so that people would regard it, not as tyranny, but as necessary severity. The world is a master of this art, when it goes against the Christians. There are abundant examples in Scripture, and let no one doubt that Herod could devise a good case…

The mothers of Bethlehem that evening fed porridge to their children, rocked the cradles, and went to sleep themselves without a care. The next morning the was not a household in Bethlehem in which there was not one child dead, or two or three. The children were taken straight to heaven as blessed martyrs, but what about the parents who would not be comforted? They did not understand….” (A Christian sermon translated by Roland H. Bainton, Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), “For All The Saints” volume III, p. 152 – 153)

When we talk about the slaughter of the innocents, the tendency is to focus on the killing of the children. But this overlooks an important factor in this story. Herod’s paranoia led him to make the decision to kill those children in and around Bethlehem. But Herod the coward, did not carry the act out himself. Matthew notes that Herod “sent and killed” those children. Those who were sent by Herod to carry out these acts are not only silenced in the text, they are not even identified. These nameless, voiceless individuals, who are often depicted in works of art, are absent from the story. Who were these people sent by Herod to kill the innocent children of Bethlehem? Most likely, they were soldiers. Herod did have Roman soldiers under his command earlier in his career. By the time of Jesus’ birth, he may have only had soldiers who were from Judea, with perhaps a small number of foreign soldiers at his disposal. These soldiers, locals now mind you, made their way to Bethlehem with clear orders: kill every male child two years of age and younger. Can we imagine walking that journey — walking alongside those soldiers, knowing what we had to do, and what might happen to us, and perhaps our family, if we failed to carry out the order?

I read about a study, a famous experiment, carried out many years ago. The experiment called for people to give short “electric shocks” to subjects who they could not see, but who were supposed to answer a series of questions. If they answered the question incorrectly, they received a shock. The people administering the shocks could not see the subjects, but they could hear their responses, including their shrieks and cries in response to the shocks. As the study went along, the shocks would become more intense. (In reality, the people who they could not see were not actually receiving shocks, just acting like they were). When the person who was administering the shocks wanted to stop because the recipient was in pain, the person running the experiment told them that they must go on – even if the person receiving the shock screamed to stop, or actually stopped responding. As I recall, almost 75% of people administering the shocks continued, even as the subjects begged them to stop. Why did they continue? Because the person running the experiment told them to continue. They were not forced to continue, they were not threatened to continue, they simply told them “You must continue” – and, to the dismay of the adminstrators, they did continue.

What does this study tell us? It tells us that people often will do inhumane things to others simply because someone who they perceive to be an authority figure tells them to continue. It reminds us that we may be able to judge others and say “How could they have done such and such?” – but until we are faced with the same circumstances, we may not know how we will act or react. But if we discern our role as “workers for the kingdom”, we may be able to keep our perspective and be people of mercy and grace.

Pastor Dave