“Happy New Year” symbolizes a fresh start, a chance to start over with the possibility of leaving the past behind. But what happens when the new year brings fresh trouble, fresh pain, or carries with it the things of last year that will not go away?
Upheaval
Joseph and Mary had traveled a hundred miles south from their home in Nazareth to Joseph’s ancestral roots in Bethlehem. They had come under edict of the law, knowing the census would register Joseph for possible conscription into the army, and a fresh levy of taxation. Their firstborn baby was born surrounded by animals, and placed in a food trough. A little over a month later they had traveled to Jerusalem for Mary’s purification rite, and all they could afford to offer up to God were two pigeons, a sacrifice so cheap they were worth virtually nothing. Their poverty could not be hidden.
Shepherds who had been tending flocks raised for temple sacrifice had come to marvel over their little son carrying tales of angels filling the sky with light and resounding proclamation. Magi had come, led by their study of the stars, bearing gifts of rare incense and gold. A priest had prophesied over their son in the middle of the temple courts, and a prophet had spread the word of his birth, the one who would bring redemption.
But if all this upheaval had seemed unusual, much more was in store for this young family.
Terror and Dread
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him …
Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. 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.
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, 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 magi.
Matthew 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-14, 16 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
The story of Christmas honors people who are grieving loss, and people who feel guilty they still live when a loved one has died
Mari Hagemeyer
Matthew spoke of a fulfillment of prophecy when Jesus was whisked away in the dead of night by his panicked parents. “Out of Egypt I have called my son” is a phrase from the prophet Hosea work as he remembered the history of the tribes of Israel (Hosea 11:1). But Matthew saw a deeper significance as Jesus’s life would parallel the lives of his people. Jesus, Matthew was saying, is a true Israelite.
But there is much more awful, more appalling prophecy that Matthew also remembered.
Massacre of the Innocents
Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.
Jeremiah 31:15 (NRSVUE)
Another mother wept over the death sentence place upon herself and her child, long before there was an Israel … Hagar, cast away with her son Ishmael into the wilderness with a single skin of water and only as much bread as she could carry. Just as Herod did not want a contender for his throne, so Sarah did not want a contender for her son Jacob’s inheritance. God intended Hagar should find sanctuary in the wilderness, for the destiny God had in mind for her and for son was great and far-reaching. But, Abraham handled very badly what the Lord instructed him to.
The Birth of Isaac
Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.
Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
Genesis 21:2-3, 8-10, 14-16 (NRSVUE, emphases added)
Gutted by Horror
Loss of our beloved weighs heavily within you and me, and grief has a way of unexpectedly catching our breath. Most of us cannot imagine what it was like for those mothers and fathers to be thrust aside as Herod’s soldiers carried out their king’s ghastly command, nor how those hollowed-out people were able to emerge from their shattered homes and their shattered lives. The whole countryside must have come in frightened outrage to mourn with these village folk over the loss of their children. How do we survive rapacious death?
From Mari:
“Despite their escape from Herod, the knowledge of this massacre must have weighed heavily on Joseph and Mary. Although Herod was well known as a bloody king, the slaughter of these children was undeniably due to the magi’s attempt to protect Jesus. Bethlehem was a small town, and many of its inhabitants would have been Joseph’s relatives.
“This kind of event undoubtedly destroyed relationships within Joseph’s extended family, and possibly even severed relationships between Joseph and his extended family.”
[Image: Herod orders the Massacre of the Innocents; the Flight of Elizabeth; the martyrdom of Zachariah in the Paris Gregory, a 9th century Byzantine manuscript. According to the Gospel of Matthew (2:16–18), Herod the Great ordered the massacre of all infants in the Kingdom of Judaea. According to the Gospel of James, Zachariah the father of John the Baptist is sought out and killed by soldiers of Herod the Great in the Temple of Jerusalem (23–24), while Elizabeth and the infant prophet John are hidden in the mountains (22:3). Detail from a Greek manuscript dated 879–883 AD and containing the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, now in the National Library of France. (BnF MS Gr510 folio 440 recto – detail) \ By Bibliothèque nationale de France – Illustrated painted parchment Greek manuscript (879-883 AD) of the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. (BnF MS grec 510) , Public Domain]
The effect of Herod’s massacre could very well have had far reaching effects within Joseph’s family. Good point, Mari.
I’ll pass this along to Mari, thanks for taking time to encourage her. She’s pretty special!
Mari, Natasha, and I will be collaborating on a new Advent devotional with this Blue Christmas theme, to come out next fall.
Yes, Mari is special. You might want to edit this line: “Just as Herod did not want a contender for his throne, so Sarah did not want a contender for her son Jacob’s inheritance.”
Herod and Sarah are separated by thousands of years, and of course, entirely different life situations and character. God also supported Sarah’s decision, but we can be confident God did not approve Herod’s decision in any way. You’re right, the comparison is very narrow.
Abraham was really reluctant to send Hagar and Ishmael away. He argued with God, hoping Ishmael (whom Abraham loved) could be his heir, rather than Isaac.
That’s why it is so puzzling that Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness alone, with only a skin of water and a satchel of bread. It’s as though Abraham though God (and Sarah) intended for Hagar and Ishmael to literally die, and Abraham was trying to soften the death sentence.
It isn’t -at all- what God had in mind, and we want to believe what Sarah had in mind either, but we can’t know what Sarah’s intent was, at that point. She wanted Ishmael and Hagar permanently gone, whatever that means.
When we write the book form of this devotional, we’ll keep your suggestion in mind, so there isn’t the possibility of a tacit comparison between Herod and Sarah, but just a focus on Hagar’s grief and despair over being cast out after she had been purposely used to produce an heir.