We come now to a day that has understandably not remained in our public celebrations of Christmas, the day when we remember all the children who were killed at the command of Herod the Great. It is possibly the most painful day of the church year. As a father of young boys I almost can’t bear it. But Fleming Rutledge, one of my favourite Anglican theologians, rightly says that we cannot have the full power of Christmas without it. The world-changing gift of Jesus as King means nothing if Jesus did not enter a world filled with violence and brutality. And indeed, agonising though the story is, it’s clear that the church throughout history has seen much value in reflecting on this story. Art is filled with devastating pictures of it. Songs have been composed about it. Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, filled an unflinching chapter of his Walking Backwards to Christmas with a first person narrative as one of the children’s mother’s. But why? Why would we devote time to this story? Here are some reasons that I think are worth considering:
1. The Bible gives time to the story, so we should too. Anyone who feels that God is unaware of human pain – and this is often me – needs only to realise how much time the Bible devotes to honest depiction of our hardest experiences.
2. The story reveals the worst excesses of human power. Herod, inappropriately called “Great”, is so insecure that he orders the murder of a generation of children to protect his throne.
3. The story reveals the true powerlessness of evil to overcome God’s work. Herod’s actions are devastating in their impact, and the grief they cause is almost unbearable to think of, yet even then Herod’s evil does not triumph. Jesus lives to be a grown man; and in the ultimate irony his death, seemingly the triumph of evil, defeats the very evil that causes it.
4. The story makes space in our Christmas celebrations for the millions who experience devastating pain this Christmas. Jesus knows their pain and entered the world first to share it before overcoming it.
5. The story reminds us of the countless evils that remain in the world for us to fight against as we wait for Jesus’ return.
And for those who, like Rachel in Matthew’s account of the story, cannot be comforted, there is space in Jesus’ story for you, and space in Jesus’ arms.
The Consolations of Writing 