In and Out of Egypt with the Lamb of God

Do not suppose that death has got the upper hand, nor that death will have the last word.  For out of Egypt God has called His Son — the same Son, Jesus Christ, who has come in the Flesh to bear your sins and be your Savior.  He has shed His Blood and died for you, and God has raised Him from the dead.  Therefore, death has no power over Him, and neither does it have any power over you, since you are baptized into Christ Jesus and belong to Him now and forever.

And yet, despite all that, it sure still looks and feels as though death were winning.  Examples abound on all sides, and you can hardly read or listen to the news without adding more on a daily basis.  Explosions, shootings, accidents, and illness.  And it strikes even closer to home too often.

“In the very midst of life, death has us surrounded.”  And the fear of death, under its many guises, enslaves and tyrannizes you, driving you to sin.  It is at the heart of all your selfishness and greed, your covetousness and idolatry, your deception and manipulation, and both your lazy negligence and your works-righteous legalism.  For death has come into the world on account of sin, and sin increases all the more in the fear of death.  It is a vicious cycle which erupts here and there, within and without, sometimes with cold calculation, and then again with aimless outbursts of violence.

Sometimes, like King Herod, you get angry and lose your temper, and you fight back and defend yourself with force — as though you were a god, with the power and authority of life and death.

At other times, like Rachel, you despair of any help or consolation — you weep and moan, refusing to be consoled or comforted — as though there were no God, no Savior, and no hope to be found.

Such fear of death, such anger, and such inconsolable grief are all sinful and unrighteous, because they are contrary to faith and to the love of God.

I tell you, then, repent of your misplaced fear, of your violent temper, and of your hopeless despair.

Wait quietly and patiently upon the Lord, and rise up at His Word to do what He calls you to do.  No matter how daunting, difficult, or discouraging the task at hand may be, get up and go in the hope of His grace, mercy, and peace.  Live and work as St. Joseph of Nazareth has done in caring for his wife and for her Son, as he flees with them to Egypt and waits upon the Word of the Lord.

So, then, about that story set before us on this day: Once again it would seem that death has got the upper hand, and that everything is out of God’s control.  After all, the little Lord Jesus has to be rushed away to safety in the middle of the night, while the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem are slaughtered in His wake.  Where is the justice or the hope in such events as these?

To point out that everything actually unfolds according to the Scriptures seems, on the surface, only to make matters worse.  For why on earth would God permit such atrocities to happen?

Why, indeed, does God permit you to suffer?

And why does the Lord your God permit you to hurt and harm your neighbor?

Truth be told, God does respond to and deal with evil, with sin and death, with fear and anger and despair.  But He does not respond as you would do, nor does He act like either Herod or Rachel.  He does not react with force, nor retaliate with the raw unbridled power of a temper tantrum.  He has no need to get “defensive,” as though He were backed into a corner and desperate for some way out.  Nor does He panic and throw up His hands in frustration.  He does not give up the fight.

True enough, there is a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, when God vindicates His people and punishes the sons of disobedience.  He does get glory over against Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt who are drowned in the depths of the Red Sea.  Herod also dies and is judged by the Lord.

But the Lord God demonstrates His almighty power over sin, death, the devil, and hell, chiefly by showing mercy to sinners, and having compassion upon them, and forgiving them all their sins.  He is patient and long-suffering, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  He establishes His righteousness in the midst of the nations, not by punishment to start with, but by redemption.  Else we should all be lost, completely and forever, and then there really would be no hope at all.

As it is, the Lord our God is faithful in His mercy, and He is righteous in His forgiveness of sins.  So it is that Herod’s treachery does not triumph, because death does not get the last word.  Herod’s slaughter of the innocents is no less sinful and wicked on that account, but neither does it win.

God does not fail or neglect the children of Bethlehem, but He calls them to Himself and rescues them from every evil, unto the Life everlasting in body and soul.  Their little bodies are cruelly butchered and put to death, but God gives them rest, and He shall raise them in glory at the last.

Meanwhile, Christ Jesus does not “run away” in fear from danger and from death, but He proceeds in faith to the Sacrifice of His Cross, which shall be at the time appointed by His Father in heaven.  No one takes His life from Him, but He lays it down willingly when that Day and that Hour come.

It is toward that purpose that He grows up — from infancy, through childhood, into adulthood — in order to redeem the whole of human life.  He lives in faith and love, from the first to the last, on His Way to the Cross.  And as true Man, He learns to refuse the evil and choose the good.  That is to say, He learns experientially to live by faith in the Word of God in the midst of sin and death.  He goes to the Cross, not as a helpless babe in His Mother’s arms, but as the Perfect Man of God.

In all of this, He does not escape the trials and tribulations of this life — which the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem are spared, though their mothers and fathers are not.  But He submits Himself to every bit of the Great Tribulation — for you and your salvation, and for the sake of all people.

He enters into Egypt in order to rescue and redeem His Israel from Egypt, in the certainty that His God and Father will call Him forth by the new and greater Exodus of His Cross and Passion.

It is not at Herod’s whim, but in fulfillment of God’s holy will, that Christ Jesus lays down His life in the hope of the Resurrection, trusting the Scriptures of the Prophets, the promise of His Father.

He thus becomes the Lamb who is given in place of beloved Isaac, sacrificed in place of the sons of Israel, put to death in place of all the children of men.  He is pierced for your transgressions, wounded for your iniquities, crucified, put to death, and buried; and by His stripes you are healed.

And now, behold, He is risen from the dead and lives forever in His own glorified Body!  For He is raised by God to life again, which is your justification, your righteousness and holiness before God in heaven.  Thus does the Son return to His own territory, to the Right Hand of His Father.

Beloved of the Lord, you now follow this Lamb, Jesus, wherever He goes, so that you are with Him where He is.  So it is by your Baptism into His death, and so too by the eating and drinking of His true Passover Feast, which is His Body given and His Blood poured out for you.

And so it is that you shall be with Him forever, alive with His Spirit in both body and soul, holy and righteous in the presence of His Father, residing in peace on the heavenly Mount Zion.

This is your future, and in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus it is your sure and certain hope.  Amen, Amen, so shall it be!  And that was likewise the case for the believing baby boys of Bethlehem when Herod put them to death, for he could not rob them of their life, which is in Christ Jesus.

To be sure, your time now under the Cross is not easy — in this wilderness to and from Egypt — as you must care for your neighbors in hardship and adversity, and as you mourn for those who die.  It was not easy for St. Joseph and the Holy Family, either, nor for the grieving fathers and mothers of Bethlehem.  And let us not make light of the Cross that is thus borne in this poor life of labor.

But the truth remains, that Christ has died, and Christ is risen from the dead.  And He has written His Name — the Name of His Father — with the sign and seal of His Cross upon your forehead.

Therefore, God calls you also out of Egypt in His Son.  Indeed, you are His beloved son in Christ!

Have no fear of death, for it has been undone.  Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for all your sins are forgiven.  The devil who sought your life is defeated; he cannot harm you anymore forever.  You are ransomed and redeemed by the Lord your God, and you are taught the New Song of the Lamb who has purchased and won you with His own Blood.

Even now you sing His Song in the strength of His Resurrection, which is the surety of your own resurrection from the dead; for He has become your Salvation, now and forever and ever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Lord Is for You and for Your Children

The promise is for you and for your children.  There is hope for your future.  Your work will be rewarded.  For out of Egypt God has called His Son; and so shall all of His children return from the land of the enemy to His own territory, to His good land, in His incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

But here before us is another story — and another big question — for those who wonder and ask why God allows such evil in the world.  If there is a good and all-powerful God, why doesn’t He simply prevent sin and put a stop to all the wickedness?

Why must His Son flee to Egypt in the first place?  And why on earth is Herod permitted to slaughter all those innocent baby boys?  They were just little children, infants and toddlers!  Did they really have to be sacrificed as some kind of object lesson, or to make some dramatic point?

Be sure of this, God is not the author of evil.  But neither did any of these events happen outside of His providential care and permissive will.  Nor does He suffer lightly the death of any creature.

The Lord Jesus goes into Egypt because He has come to save His people from their sins.  He escapes the tyrant’s sword because no one takes His life from Him, but He will lay it down willingly, in faith and love, when His Hour has fully come.  And then He will take it up again.

As His God and Father calls Him out of Egypt when the tyrant has died, so will His Father likewise raise this same Son Jesus from the dead when that last great enemy has been defeated.  For death itself will be defeated by the Lord’s own sacrificial death in human flesh and blood like your own.

So do the little lambs of Bethlehem follow this Lamb of God through death into life, because He is their Salvation, His Cross is their Passover, and His Resurrection is their Exodus into Life.

As before in the history of God’s people, another Joseph now brings his Father’s family into Egypt, lest they perish, in order to preserve the world from death.  But as this story is unfolding, in the middle of the night, St. Joseph has no way of knowing what the outcome of these events will be.  He has nothing to guide him or go by except the Word of the Lord, His warnings and His promises.  With that, he goes in faith, and everything ensues and is fulfilled according to the Scriptures.

Which is really to say that his situation then was not so very different from your own.  As you go about living your life where God has placed you in this world — caring for the neighbors He has entrusted to your love; working the job He has given you to do; and suffering the Cross that He lays upon your body and soul within your vocations — your eyes cannot see, your heart cannot feel, and your mind cannot imagine where things are going or what you will face on any given day.  Yet, you do know where your life story is written, with its happily-ever-after in Christ Jesus.

Both His Cross and His Resurrection are yours.  So you also follow this Lamb wherever He goes.

That can be downright scary, can’t it?  Only do not allow your fears to master you, neither with the violent anger of Herod nor with the inconsolable weeping of Rachel for her children.  Both hatred and despair flow out of fear — not the fear of the Lord, which is true wisdom and bears both faith and love — but, no, hatred and despair flow from the fear of death, which is the fruit of idolatry.

To lose your temper, to rage and storm at your neighbor, to lash out in violence at others, that is to make a false god of yourself, and yet, it also demonstrates your weakness, fear, and insecurity.  The almighty power of the one true God is not found in such uncontrolled anger, but is chiefly manifested in His tender pity, mercy, and compassion for all of us poor and sinful mortals.

In light of such grace, mercy, and peace from your God and Father in Christ Jesus, to throw up your hands in hopeless despair, or to give yourself over to wailing grief and mourning, refusing to be comforted, is to reject the Lord who loves you in favor of atheism.  To act as though there were no hope or any reason to go on, is to live as though there were no God or Savior at all.

That is the false belief, despair, and fear that reside in your sinful heart and in your mortal flesh.  It is especially for this reason that God the Lord lays the Cross of Christ upon you.  Not to atone for your sins, which Christ has already accomplished by His sacrificial death in your place, but in order to crucify and kill the idols that reign as tyrants in your heart, and to work repentance in your heart and mind, your body and soul, unto faith and life in the Lord’s forgiveness of all your sins.

In other words, the Lord your God puts you to death with all your sinful unbelief, ungodly fear, violent rage, and desperate sorrow, in order to call you out of Egypt as His own dear son.

He does not do all of this at your expense, but at great cost to Himself for your benefit and profit.  Nor does He suffer your children to die for the sake of punishing you.  It may be, however, that in love He allows your children to suffer and die under the Cross, for the sake of breaking your idolatry and calling you to repentance — even as He calls your children from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.  For He is their true God and Father, who loves them more than you do, who cares for them far better, and who is Himself their everlasting Life and eternal Salvation in Christ.

So it was, for example, that God the Lord put Father Abraham to the test, when He commanded him to sacrifice his long-awaited son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved.  But so did God spare Isaac and sacrifice His own dearly-beloved only-begotten Son, Christ Jesus.  It is in such love, with His own Self-sacrifice and Self-giving, that God the Father deals with you and with your children.

The truth is that it is far too easy for you to make false gods out of your children, or a false god of yourself as their father or mother; or a false god of your spouse and marriage, of your job, your house and home, or your family and friends.  All of these are the good gifts and blessings of God, but they are to be received in faith, in the fear, love, and trust of the one true God above all else.

You are to love and care for your children, therefore, as the Lord your God has commanded, putting their needs ahead of your own comfort and preferences (and ahead of their own desires).  Just as St. Joseph cared for the Christ Child and His Blessed Mother, St. Mary, and just as pastors are likewise given to care for the Lord’s Church and His children of all ages and stages of life.  For the Lord’s providential care of His people is exercised through His creatures, by earthly ways and means of grace, and so also through those who are His messengers and servants in faith and love.

So it is that He gives you to serve your neighbor, and He gives your neighbor to serve you.

Proceed in that calling of faith and love, in the confidence of Christ Jesus.  In accordance with the Holy Scriptures, God has called Him out of Egypt, the Father has raised His beloved Son from the dead.  That is now your future and your hope.  That is the great reward which you also receive for His good work of Redemption.  It is His sure and certain promise to you, and to your children.

It is His Peace to calm your anger, His security to calm your fears, and His comfort in all your grief and sadness.  The new and greater Exodus of Christ Jesus — through death into life by His Cross and Resurrection — is your forgiveness and your righteousness, your innocence and your holiness, your eternal bliss and blessedness.  He thereby wipes away every tear from your eyes, so that even now, by His grace, through faith in His Gospel, you behold the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, and the Lamb who was slain upon His throne, alive forevermore, reigning in love.

He is no tyrant, but a most gracious and benevolent King above all kings and Lord above all lords.  He cleanses you and your children, and your children’s children, with His own holy and precious Blood, shed for you upon His Cross and poured out for you here at His Altar for the forgiveness of all your sins.  He likewise adorns you with the pure white robes of His perfect righteousness.  And He feeds you from His own tender hand, with His own holy Body.

Though you are very little, weak, and small, do not be afraid.  Rest here from your labors in the Peace of Christ, under the shadow of His wings and the shelter of His Altar, until He shall call you from this vale of tears to the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of His Paradise.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Of Fathers and Kings

There are basically two kinds of King.

There are those who provide daily bread for their people; who give life and protect it; who use their strength, their power and authority, to serve and to care for their people.

And then there are those kings who take life from the people and seize it for themselves.  Kings who feed themselves at the expense of their subjects.  Kings who exercise their strength against the weak and the helpless, in order to consolidate and shore up their power.

So, what sort of king are you?

A king is called to be a father to his people, just as a father is a king in his own castle, called by God to be the head of his own household and family.  What, then, should that mean, and what should it look like?  How is a father to care for his family?  How is he to love and serve his wife?  And how shall he provide for and protect those little ones whom God places under his authority?

A father is called to feed his family in body and soul, not only with ordinary bread and water, but with the Word of God.  He is to guard and protect his family, and to use whatever strength and skill the Lord has given to strengthen his wife and children.  He teaches them by what he says and what he does.  He disciplines his children in love, being slow to anger and quick to forgive.  And when he sins against his family, he repents and makes amends.  That is how a father is supposed to be.

Within your own kingdom and castle, however big or small it may be, what sort of father are you?  What sort of king?  How do you treat those under your care?  Do you give life or take it?  And how do you exercise your strength?  Is it like St. Joseph, the son of David?  Or more like King Herod?

Consider the example that God has given you in St. Joseph of Nazareth, who quietly and quickly served his family, caring for St. Mary and her Son at the Word of the Lord.  He did not argue or debate.  He simply obeyed.  Sure, he was probably frightened; he was probably frustrated; he was probably tired.  But he still got up and immediately did what the Lord instructed him to do.  That is the sort of father he was by God’s grace.  He walked in the footsteps of his father, King David.

By contrast, there is Herod.  He was neither quiet nor obedient, but angry and violent.  He used his position, his power and authority, to murder and rob, in order to protect himself and his position.

In the case at hand, we are told that Herod was enraged; he was greatly angered.  But it was envy and jealousy that fueled his anger — the idolatry of covetous lust.  And behind all of that, it was fear that really drove him to such violent rage.  He did not fear God, but he was deathly afraid.

Real power is able to serve.  It is not afraid for itself, because it is not threatened.  It does not have to crush and destroy — it is rather able to give — because it is content and complete and secure.

But if you do not fear the Lord your God, then you will be driven by the fear of man, as Herod was.  And you will be driven by the fear of death, from which you cannot and will not escape.  When you worship the perishing idols of this fallen and perishing world, you are inevitably consumed with fear, because your gods are always dying, all the time, and you are dying along with them.

And if you imagine that life is something to be taken and held within your hands, to be seized and kept by your own power, then your life will be a contest, a competition, even all-out-war, and everyone else will be your enemy.  But no matter how you fight or play the game, no matter how ruthless or cunning you may be, death will still outsmart you, outmaneuver you, and beat you.

Sometimes you are Herod, giving your ferocious but ultimately futile orders.  And sometimes you are Rachel, inconsolably weeping for your children.  And sometimes you are the infant snatched out of her arms and put to the sword.  Sometimes the tough soldier, sometimes the little child.

But even Herod dies in the end.  All men die, because all men sin.  Learn, then, how to grieve rightly, that you may learn to hope in the Lord.  Do not mourn as those who have no hope.  And do not let your grief drive you to anger or despair.  But fear the Lord, and love and trust in Him.

If you are angry, do not let anger be your god, but fear the Lord and repent.  Sadly, the children of men have allowed their anger to get the better of them from the fall into sin to the present day.  Brothers against brothers.  Sisters against sisters.  A rock to the back of the head, a club, a sword, a gun, or biting words and cunning schemes.  But do not let your anger master you.  Do not stoke the anger in your head and your heart, and do not let it break out into violent words or actions.

Your Lord has taught you how to deal with your brother when he has sinned against you.  If you are rightly angered by his fault, do not sin, but approach him and admonish him in love, and pray for his repentance and the renewal of his faith in Christ.  In any case, do not hold on to your anger, but fear the Lord with whom there is forgiveness, and forgive your brother his sins against you.

Are you exasperated?  At the end of your rope?  Impatient?  Will no one listen to you?  Is your life so hard and painful?  Fear, love, and trust in God.  Call upon His Name and confess His Word.

If you must bear the reproach and the hostility of man, so be it.  That will then be the Egypt where you sojourn as a stranger for a time, where the Lord will still bless you and keep you by His grace, until He shall call you out of Egypt to Himself in due season.  Your Father will take care of you.

It is not the first time that Joseph must go down to Egypt to survive the violence of jealous anger.  That is where he flees, and that is where the Lord preserves his life and his family — even though Egypt is no friend of Israel, and Egypt is not the land that God has promised.  Egypt is not home.

And when a king arises who knows not Joseph, he seeks to destroy you by one means or another, you and your children, and no place feels safe; nowhere feels like home.

And when your children are no more — whether because they have died, or they have grown up and moved away, or they are estranged, or they have departed from the faith — whatever the case, it may be that you refuse even to be consoled or comforted.  You become angry and lash out, or you drown yourself in sorrow and despair.  Maybe even Christmas brings more grief than joy.

But now, repent of such faithless unbelief, and trust that Christ has not forsaken or forgotten you.

When everything is taken from you — when you are driven on the run, and nowhere is safe, and nowhere is home — when you are the little one, the helpless child who is snatched from your mother’s breast and arms, and you are put to the sword, and stabbed through the belly or stabbed through the heart, and even your soul is pierced with grief and pain — even then, do not despair.

Even now, says the Lord, restrain your voice from weeping and dry your eyes from tears.  There is hope for your future.  There is safety, peace, and rest.  There is a place for you.  There is a home where you belong.  There is yet life, that you may not die anymore forever.

The Lord has called you His Son.  He has written His Name on your forehead and your heart.  It is true that He has also signed you with the Cross and put you to death for many a day, but only for the sake of raising you up to a brand new life in Christ Jesus.  So will He also call you out of Egypt at the last.  That is a sure and certain promise, as sure and certain as the Lord your God.

He will call you out of Egypt — through the Red Sea and the Jordan — through the Cross and Resurrection — through your Baptism — out of death and the grave into the life everlasting.

He has not forgotten you in Egypt.  Nor is He out to destroy you.  He is a different sort of King than that, and a different sort of Father than you have known on earth — though every father on earth, including every pastor, is called to be like the Lord your God in caring for His children.  There are good examples — like St. Joseph! — but they all point to the One who is King, to the One who is Father, who deals with you kindly and gently, who strengthens you and gives you life.

That is the sort of King He is, the sort of Father He is, even when it does not seem like it at all.  Even when the ruthless reign on earth, and innocent children are murdered.  Even when the royal ways and wisdom of your God and Father are beyond you and hidden from your sight; and you cannot comprehend His purposes, but you have only His Word to you that says, “Go” or “Stay.”

Hear and heed His Word in the confidence of faith, and go or stay as He commands.  Only take the Child with His Mother with you, and keep the Child with His Mother close at hand wherever you may roam.  For that little One is your Peace, and for His sake you shall live.  He is the King who gives life, who feeds His people with good things, and who strengthens you at His own expense.

In this beloved Son, God the Father has taught you how to pray.  As He is now your own God and Father in Christ Jesus, and you are His dear child, He has invited you to come to Him for all that you need.  For every ache in your heart.  For the hunger in your belly.  For the fears that surround you.  For life in the midst of death.  For all of this and more, He answers your prayers in peace.  He has mercy on your weakness, and kindness, and love.  And He forgives you all of your sins.

Whatever evil the world has inflicted upon you in its animosity, hostility, and violence, the Lord your God has permitted only to the extent that He, in His mercy, should work it for your good.

And whatever evil you have wrought; whatever fear and terror have threatened the very heart of you; whatever covetous lust has enticed your soul; whatever anger and violence, grief and sorrow, despair and shame have gotten their hooks into you — all of this He crucifies and puts to death in you, in order to remove it from you.  All of this He slays, in order to give you life.  All of this He covers with the shedding of His Blood.  And with that same holy and precious Blood, He cleanses you and clothes you in His righteousness.  He ransoms and redeems you from death and the grave.  And even in the wilderness He quenches your thirst; He feeds you on the journey to and fro.

For Judah has made Himself the Surety for Rachel’s children.  Not Joseph or Benjamin, not Ephraim or Manasseh, but the Lion of Judah, the Son of David, He is the King of Peace.  He uses His strength to save His people at His own expense.  He sacrifices Himself to spare them.  So He is the One who goes down into the well, into bondage, into the prison house of sin and death, into the very depths of Sheol.  But none of it can hold Him.  He comes up and out again forevermore.

As He has thus become an acceptable Sacrifice to His God and Father, and ascended to the right hand of the Father — where He ever lives as your High Priest, and makes intercession for you, and shelters the holy martyrs under His wings, and preserves them in safety and peace under His Altar — so it is for you and all who believe and are baptized into Him.  Your life also is an acceptable sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.  And you ascend to stand before the Throne day and night, to serve your God without fear, in peace, in joy, in happiness, even when all around you there is death.  In Christ you are presented to the Father, not for death, but for life as God’s own child.

For everywhere that Lamb has gone, His Mother and her children follow after, that you also may be with Him where He is.  His God and Father is your God and Father.  And if St. Joseph kept and cared for the Holy Family on their pilgrimage, much more does your Holy Father care for His Church on earth and keep her safe and sound in Christ Jesus from the rising of the sun to the place of its going down.  Whether you dwell in Israel or Egypt, in Bethlehem or Nazareth, in Michigan or Indiana, your feet are surely standing on Mount Zion in the midst of the heavenly Jerusalem.  And so shall you abide in the Lord’s own Land, and dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Promise of the Cross and the Hope of the Resurrection for You and for Your Children

This particular story, this series of events, boggles our finite human understanding.  You cannot fathom such events as these, except by the Word and Spirit of God.

You cannot understand the purposes of God at work in the slaughter of innocent children, unless you have been given comprehension of the Cross and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is true that God the Father here spared His own Son, gave Him an escape to the safety of Egypt.  In your weaker moments you may be tempted to ask, “How is it that God spares His Son, but not the sons of those mothers and fathers in Bethlehem?”  This all seems terribly backwards.  Why is it that Jesus is saved and children are murdered in His stead?  Has He not come to save His people from their sins, from death, and from the power of the devil?

But God the Father spares His Son in this case.  Even this He does not do in the way that you or I might do it.  He does not exercise His irrefutable omnipotent authority and power, but rather speaks His Word and entrusts the task to a mortal man, a fallen sinful man like you or me.  It is given to Joseph to rescue the Holy Family, to stir them from sleep in the middle of the night, to take them away to Egypt.  It all seems rather precarious, and yet, this is how God works.

He rescues His Son now, in weakness and under duress, by the agency of Joseph, His faithful servant.  But this safety, this rescue, that is not forever.  God is biding His time.  The Savior’s time will come, when He voluntarily lays down His life for the sins of the world; when He sheds His blood to cleanse you and clothe you in righteousness.

What is perhaps both most shocking and most scandalous is that God does not spare the innocents.  He does not intervene to rescue the baby boys of Bethlehem.  Is there any question that He could have?  King Herod is not greater than God.  King Herod is not wiser than God.  And God is not caught by surprise by any of these events.  He has known from before the foundation of the world what would occur.  He has spoken concerning this very event by the mouth of His Holy Prophet.  All has transpired, not outside of His permissive will and providential care, but in accordance with His Holy Word.  And we wonder how this can be.

What father stands by and allows his sons to be slaughtered?  What father does not intervene at his own expense to save the helpless, the little ones who belong to him?  And yet, the Lord does not prevent the slaughter of the innocents.  He allows it to happen.  Not that He condones or authors evil, but He uses these wicked events according to His own divine purpose and holy will

Now, make no mistake.  Do not be so proud in your own sinful heart as to suppose that God has overlooked the little boys of Bethlehem or regarded their bodies and their lives of no account.  Not a sparrow falls from the sky apart from His knowledge and His tender loving care.  And those holy innocents are far more precious to Him than many sparrows.  Therefore, He does deliver them in His mercy.  But He does so, not for this world, but from this world.  He saves their life for eternity with Himself in the Resurrection, and not for the trials and tribulations of this vale of tears.

It is fine and good for those little boys.  They live and abide with the Lamb in His Kingdom and worship at His Throne.  They serve Him day and night in His Temple without fear.  Even better, they are served forever by Him, who shall raise their bodies from the dead in glory at the last.

But it was not so lovely on this occasion for their mommies and daddies.  When the soldiers came and ripped those infants and toddlers from the arms of their parents, and put them to the sword, and dashed them against the rock, that was not so easy to live with.

The Lord uses the suffering of this present age to call His people to repentance.  He allows you also to suffer affliction and hardship and loss, that you would be called to repent.  Not only for your active sins and for the evil that you do, but for your lack of faith, for your unbelief, and for your false belief and worship of this body and life on earth.  He would have you learn to view your life, not here, but in the crucified and risen Body of Christ Jesus; not only for now, but for ever.

King Herod gets so angry.  He is trembling with rage.  He acts in violence.  All because he is so desperately clinging to his power and position in this world.  And for all his anger and might, he is afraid.  He’s scared to death of a little Baby.  He’s afraid that he’ll lose his place in the world.  And so he thrashes about, caring not who gets hurt, caring only for himself and his earthly power.

What is it that makes you angry?  What is it that makes you afraid?  What are you grasping for yourself and clinging to for dear life in this world, as though this body and life were all there is?

Rachel weeps for her children.  She is inconsolable.  She can’t stop crying.  She weeps, even though the Lord has spoken, “Cease your weeping, and stop your crying.”  She weeps because she clings to her children and their life in this world.  She thinks she wants what is best for them, but she does not know what is best for them.  She is selfish.  She wants her children for herself.  She does not want to give them up to the Lord.  She does not understand anything other than this life.

What is it that makes you weep?  What is it that brings tears to your eyes which will not cease?  What is it that makes you inconsolable, even when the Lord has spoken His Word of  consolation?

You must be catechized by the Word and Spirit of God to see not only this life and this world, but to fix your hope on Christ, to fix your hope on His Resurrection from the dead and on His Life.

Do not be so angry.  Do not be so afraid.  Do not be so sad.  The Lord has delivered you.  He has rescued you.  He has had mercy upon you.  He has brought you out of sin and death into life.  All of this He has done by His Exodus.  Not simply His infant return from Egypt, though this, too, is part of His fulfillment of all thing.  But by His greater Exodus, His innocent suffering and death, His Sacrifice upon the Cross as the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  By His passage through death and the grave into the Life everlasting, that is how He has delivered you from sin, death, and hell.  By the shedding of His holy and precious blood, He has saved you.

He has not been rescued from Herod that He should be spared sorrow.  He has been rescued now to carry the sorrows of the world in His own flesh; to bear the weight of the world upon His own aching bones and aching back; to suffer and die for all the children of men; and thus, by His Blood, to cover you, to shelter you, and to protect you from every evil of body and soul.

This promise is for you, and it is for your children, even your little children.  So do not withhold that Word of God from them.  And do not deprive yourself of that Word and promise.

Repent of your idolatrous love for this world.  Do not make gods out of that which does not last.  Do not bow down and worship in your heart or with your life that which perishes like the grass.

Repent of your anger and fear.  Repent of your inconsolable sorrow.  Repent also for your failure to care for your children in accordance with the Word of God.  Repent of your failure to provide for both their body and their soul, for the catechesis of the Word as well as their heath and safety.

Having brought your sons and daughters to Holy Baptism, take seriously the significance of that Holy Sacrament, both for them and for yourself.  Understand that by that washing of water with the Word, by that cleansing blood of the Lamb, you and your children have already died to this body and life.  You have been put to death with Christ, and your life is hidden with Him in God.

Live, therefore, not as though this world were your only hope and help and consolation.  Live, rather, as citizens of another Kingdom, as citizens of a City made without hands, as sons and daughters within the Household and Family of God — by faith in the flesh and blood of Christ.

Do not try to flee this world.  Do not take your own life.  Do not despair of that which God has given you to do here and now.  And do not bemoan how much or little He has entrusted to your care and keeping.  Receive and use what He gives in confident hope.  Bear the Cross patiently.

Rejoice, give thanks, and sing for the food and clothing which the Lord provides, for your house and home, for your wife or husband, for your children, and for all that you have.  And do not use any of it selfishly.  Use it rather to help and serve your neighbor, beginning with your own family.

Do not ask why God allows others to suffer, when you yourself do not help those who suffer.  Do not ask why God allows little children to be put to death, when you do not do all that you can to help protect those who cannot help or protect themselves.

Use what you have to provide for your neighbor’s needs, as the Magi did for the Holy Family by giving them gold and frankincense and myrrh, so that poor Joseph had the means to take his family into Egypt and to care for them while waiting on the Word of the Lord.

Do not try to flee this life.  But hold on to it loosely, and keep your feet firmly planted upon the Rock that is Christ, knowing that your life is in the Resurrection of His Body.  Knowing that, find your life here in His Body on earth, in the Church and Ministry of His Word and Sacraments.

Bring yourself and your children to and from the Altar of the Passover Lamb.  Eat His flesh in the faith that God will bring you in the Exodus out of Egypt into Life.  Take your shelter under His Blood, knowing that the Angel of Death must sheath his sword when you are covered by Christ.

Bring your children to and from this Altar by the catechesis of the Word of Christ.  Do that which God instructed His people of old.  It is no less important for you.  When you get up, and when you go to bed, and as you go about your day, have His Word always on your lips, on your forehead, on your heart, on the walls of your home, and on your gateposts.  Let your whole life be permeated with the Word of the Lord, that you and your children may be preserved in that which is forever.

Rest assured, the little boys of Bethlehem were not abandoned.  For the Lord their God gave them fathers and mothers to teach them His Word, to bring them to circumcision, to place them within the congregation of His people.  And by His catechesis, and by His Sacrament of Circumcision, they were brought into the Kingdom of God, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.

You also have been brought into the Kingdom of God by the Circumcision made without hands, by the washing of Holy Baptism, and by the precious Word of the Gospel that is spoken to you.  For all things have been fulfilled in Christ, and He has done it all for you, so that you may live.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

These Are the Ones Who Follow the Lamb

The Feast of the Holy Innocents is a rather shocking celebration.  It is painful and hard even to think about such a brutal crime as the slaughter of those little boys of Bethlehem.  But, why, oh why, for God’s sake, must we celebrate that sad memory on this Fourth Day of Christmas?

And yet, here it stands, precisely for God’s sake, for the proclamation of His Glory, and for the sake of our salvation.  In fulfillment of several Old Testament Prophecies, under the good and gracious will of God, and at His Word, the Slaughter of the Holy Innocents is part and parcel of the Christmas story — no less so than the Shepherds of St. Luke’s Gospel, or the Magi who have just departed for their own country by another way.

We observe this day — indeed, we celebrate this Feast — not out of any morbid fascination with the gruesome details of Herod’s wickedness.  This is not Herod’s story, in any case; nor was he the one calling the shots, after all, his evil machinations notwithstanding.  No, it is in the humility of repentant faith, under the Cross of Christ our Lord, that, on this day also, we confess His Cross and Passion — His holy and precious blood, and His innocent suffering and death — to be the real heights of His divine glory and the living fountain of peace on earth and good will toward men.

This is what Christmas was and is about: the birth of the one Child who was born to die for us all.

The Feast of the Holy Innocents, like every other Christian Feast, is a celebration of His Cross, which these young martyrs of Bethlehem were given to share in advance by a Baptism of blood.

As throughout the Holy Gospel, you are given to find yourself in this story, and to hear this Word of God in Christ addressed to you and to your circumstances (under His Cross).  Not as a checklist of rules and regulations with which to work your way into heaven, but as a Word of the Gospel of the Cross, whereby you are washed in the blood of the Lamb.  Thus are you called by this Gospel, not to work, but to be crucified, dead, and buried with Christ Jesus, in order to be raised with Him, as well, and to live with Him in His Kingdom in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness forever.

You are here called by God the Father Almighty to be His own dear child: to be united with His only-begotten Son, in His crucifixion, death, and burial, unto the Resurrection of His Body and yours, to the life everlasting of body and soul.  You are called out of Egypt, covered by the blood of this Lamb, through the waters of the Red Sea; fed by the living Bread from heaven in the desert; and led through the waters of the Jordan into the Promised Land.  For this is the true Exodus, fulfilled in the Christ-Child, Jesus, ultimately by His own innocent death and holy blood-shed.

He gathers up into Himself (and He fulfills) the entire history of Israel, that He might then become and accomplish the salvation of the true “Israel,” that is, of all those who are the children of Abraham by faith (who are the sons of God in Christ).

He is Isaac, who was spared a sacrificial death at the hand of his father, that the Child of Promise might become the blessed Seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the world are blessed.  And He is Joseph, the son of Israel and Rachel, who was spared a murderous death at the hand of his kin, that He might prosper in Egypt and accomplish the Lord’s great salvation of all people.

And He is Moses, who was spared from the slaughter of the innocents at the hand of a tyrant Pharaoh, that He might be raised up by the mighty, outstretched arm of the Lord — in order to lead His people Israel out of slavery and death, into the freedom of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Yet, this same Child who is spared on this occasion, who is called out of Egypt as the very Son of God, He shall be the Firstborn Son who is sacrificed and slaughtered in the place of all the others.  For He is the Lamb whom the Lord Himself provides for the requisite sacrifice.  Indeed, He is the true Passover, whose blood covers His people — including you — from the angel of death, and whose flesh is Meat indeed, your meal of salvation.

What Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, and all the others sons of Israel could not do (and could never have done or accomplished for themselves), He — the Son of God and Mary’s Son — has done and accomplished for them all, and for you and me and all mankind.  He has done so, ironically, by the way of His own voluntary suffering and death upon the Cross.

Yes, it is by His death that He has conquered death and sheathed its sword.  It is by His stripes that you are healed.  It is by His blood that you are cleansed and forgiven, your iniquities pardoned.

Of course, the irony is, that the victory of the Cross appears to be anything but a victory in the eyes of the world.  It is so contrary to the wisdom of the world and to anything that man would ever hope or expect.  So, also, when you are given the Cross to bear, it feels like crushing defeat, and it can surely seem as though the Lord has abandoned you to the punishment, suffering, and death that you deserve for your sins.  Then come the tears of mourning, and loud lamentations, when you stubbornly refuse to be comforted, as though your life and every hope were done for.

Truth be told, your old Adam is — and must be — crucified, dead and buried with Christ Jesus.  And yet, again, it is precisely by and through His Cross that you are rescued from sin, death, and hell. Your death is life indeed: in Him!  This is, to be sure, the great paradox (and divine mystery) of the Christian faith and life, beginning with your Holy Baptism: It is by dying with Christ and sharing His Cross that you also share His Resurrection and live with Him in His eternal salvation.

It is this divine paradox of the Cross and Resurrection — and therefore, also, the mystery of Holy Baptism — that we are given to perceive and celebrate in the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  The wickedness of sin, death, and the power of the devil, is unable to prevail or to thwart the great salvation of the Lord, because He has taken even the last and most fearsome enemy, death, and He has bent this terrible opponent to His own will, to serve His own good and gracious purposes for Life, for you and for all people.  So it is, that even the wicked death of innocent children must bow before Almighty God and serve to the praise and glory of His holy Name, for Jesus’ sake.

In the death of the Holy Innocents, you are given a picture of your own death with Christ in Holy Baptism, wherein you become a newborn child of God and enter His Kingdom with childlike faith.  In each case, death is swallowed up in victory by the death of Christ Himself, the incarnate Son of God, upon the Cross.  The blood of the infant martyrs of Bethlehem, like the blood of all the righteous martyrs from Abel to the end of the world, proclaims and gives witness to the precious blood of Christ Jesus, which cleanses you from sin.  Thus are the tears of mourning sanctified, like the waters of Holy Baptism, to become a gracious and life-giving flood of salvation.

Out of Egypt the God and Father of our dear Lord Jesus Christ calls you to be His own dear child.  He calls you through the waters of Holy Baptism into the Resurrection and the life everlasting.  He opens your mouth to show forth His praise, in both life and death, by placing on your tongue and on your lips the “new song” of the Cross.  For you are called to follow the Lamb wherever He goes; and so do you follow Him through suffering and death into the Promised Land of heaven.

There before the throne of God and of the Lamb — gathered together with the Holy Innocents and with all the dear children of our Father in heaven (whose angels do always behold His face) — there you feast upon the Lamb of God, who is your Life and your Salvation, now and forever.

Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears.  In the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil.  For even in the land of the enemy, the Lord is with you.  Here in the desert, between the Exodus and the verge of Jordan, you are fed by the hand of God with the very Bread of Life, and your thirst is quenched with the spiritual drink that flows from the side of Christ, your Savior.

“There is hope for your future,” declares the Lord, who speaks the Truth and does not lie.  It is the sure and certain hope of His own Cross and Resurrection.  This promise is for you, and for your children, and for your children’s children.  It is for all who believe and are baptized in His Name.  So it is that you shall rise to see the Lord in His own territory, and abide in the land of the living.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Called unto God by the Cross of Christ

Despite its familiarity, the story of the Holy Innocents still has the power to shock and even scandalize. It assaults your sensibilities, your convictions of right and wrong, your knowledge of good and evil. It can certainly threaten your safety and security, and scare you, with the sort of things that give a parent nightmares.

Some things are sacred, surely, and ought to be left that way. Taking candy from a baby is the proverbial dirty trick, easy enough, but taking the baby from his mother is wicked. Even the world recoils at such horror, despite its own daily slaughter of the innocents. The whole country reeled at the news out of Penn State last month — horrible indeed — and today our own local paper describes the murder of a little girl who had been left in the care of a trusted family friend.

Such things are shocking and scary. They wake you up from your reverie, not only to righteous anger, but to repentance for your own sins, to cry out for mercy, forgiveness, deliverance and peace, from your God and Father. For you are His own dear child, and He is your only refuge.

But that is the very point at which the story of the Holy Innocents is most difficult and unsettling. Because it seems so backwards, and so wrong. As awful as King Herod and his actions are, you’re accustomed to the depravity of such tyrants. The Holy Scriptures and the history of the world are full of this kind of thing. What isn’t so normal or customary is the way the Lord responds and deals with the tyrant and his treachery in this case.

It is pivotal to the whole story of salvation, the very heart of the Gospel, that God gives His own dear Son to suffer and die in the place of fallen Adam and all the children of men. The Woman’s Seed is born to crush the serpent’s head. The Lamb of God is given as the Sacrifice, so that Abraham’s beloved Isaac is spared. The Passover is given so that the sons of Israel are not killed by the angel of death. The Son of David dies for His father’s sins. The little Lord Jesus is born to give His life as a Ransom for the many, in order to redeem the world.

Only, not this time. In this story, the little children are cruelly put to death, while Jesus gets away. It’s not just that people die — people die all the time. Pharaoh had how many babies killed before Moses grew up and came back to lead Israel out of Egypt? Christian martyrs still suffer and die, to this day, for the One who for their sake died and was raised. But the baby boys of Bethlehem get slaughtered so that Mary’s little Lamb can escape.

So, what has become of the Gospel? What is the point? Could the Lord not have dealt with this situation in some other way? Either without all the bloodshed, or by the shedding of the Christ Child’s Blood: the very purpose for which He is born!

Such thoughts and questions are almost inescapable in dealing with the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Just as the mothers and fathers of Bethlehem could hardly help but wonder what was going on. Where was their God, while their babies were being murdered? Where was their Savior? Running away to Egypt? Seriously? Where is the future and the hope in that? Why should Rachel not weep and mourn for her children, who are no more?

Of course, you know the rest of the story, and, yes, it all makes sense in retrospect. With 20/20 hindsight you recognize that God surely has not spared His beloved Son, but has given Him up for us all. And we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, not to make light of their death, but to honor their martyrdom and to give thanks for their life and salvation. For Christ Jesus is their Savior and Redeemer, as He is also your Savior and Redeemer, and your children’s.

In the meantime, though, you are in the midst of living your own story, and you don’t yet know the rest of it. You know and confess the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, but you don’t know what will happen between now and then. You don’t know what tomorrow will hold, nor even what the middle of this very night may bring. Sometimes it all feels solid and sure, and then again, just like that, it can all be shaken to the core and leave you reeling.

Who are the soldiers that come crashing into your home in the dead of the night? The shrill ringing of the phone at an hour when you know it can’t be good. The urgent warning of your smoke alarms. The shattering of glass in your child’s room, or some other crash or cry in the dark. The blare of sirens racing past your home. Or maybe just the racing of your own heart.

What is it that snatches your babies from your arms? A miscarriage or stillbirth? A childhood illness or accident? Or maybe they don’t die, but they simply grow up and grow away from you. They have thoughts and ideas, hopes and dreams, interests and passions of their own — different from yours — and so you begin to recognize and feel the distance between yourself and your children. They make friends, they fall in love, they get married and have their own families. Or they go off to college and get jobs, and you’ve lost the babies they once were, no matter how desperately you try to cling to those bygone days and memories.

If you are still a little child, yourself, or still in the process of growing up, what is it that threatens you? What is it that tugs and pulls you away from your parents? What takes them away from you? Are you worried about your Mom and Dad, because they aren’t getting along so well, and you wonder if they’re going to get a divorce? Are you scared because they always seem to be so stressed about money, and it sounds like things might get pretty hard? But you’re too young, or too small, and there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do to help. What kinds of monsters are there in your closet, or under your bed?

You never know when Herod is going to get angry and strike. And then what? Where will you turn, and what will you do? If he takes and destroys what is most precious to you, how shall you go on? Or will you refuse to be comforted and succumb to despair? Will you abandon all hope? Will you harden your heart and become bitter, resentful, and angry, yourself?

Herod was enraged because he was afraid. He lashed out, not with true strength or power, but with violence born of desperation. To hurt and destroy those who are small and weak — to threaten or bully the helpless — that is not courageous, but cowardly. Herod was paranoid and terrified; he got so very angry, because he was so very afraid of losing his place and his position in the world. He murdered his neighbor in order to protect himself, in order to keep what he thought was his.

Do not allow your own fear to control you in that way. Rather, fear the Lord, and repent of both your hot temper and your inconsolable grief. You will not be able to protect or save yourself, in any case; but you do have a Savior who will save you. You are not in control, but neither is Herod. None of the tyrants of this world will have the last word. Their violence and destruction are wicked and devastating, but all of that will come to nothing in the end. For the Lord has set His true King upon His holy hill of Zion, and He shall reign forever and ever.

His almighty power has been perfected in His own voluntary weakness, and it is demonstrated chiefly in His compassion for you, in His tender mercy and loving-kindness. He has and shows true strength in His Self-sacrifice, in His Self-giving, in His love for those at enmity with Him, in His forgiveness of those who sin against Him.

The Father, in love, has handed over His Son — even unto death upon the Cross. He is rescued from Herod’s wrath, because no one takes His life from Him, but He will lay it down willingly when the Hour has come. For the Son submits Himself entirely to His Father’s will, in perfect faith and holy love. He makes Himself small and weak, not only becoming a little creature of flesh and blood, but subjecting Himself to the frailties and mortality of fallen man. Already as a newborn Infant at His Mother’s breast, He lives by faith, as you are also called to live.

At all times, and in all places, He commends Himself, His body and soul, into the hands of His Father in heaven. But that also means entrusting Himself to the hands of His father on earth.

It falls upon dear St. Joseph to care and provide for the Christ Child and His Mother Mary. And Joseph sets a good example of faith and love for his wife and her Son, by hearing and heeding the Word of the Lord in quiet obedience.

As Dr. Luther admonishes in his preaching on the Christmas story, we should not romanticize any of these things, nor suppose that Mary and Joseph were made of stone. They were people like you, called by God to faith in His Word, forgiven by His grace through the Gospel, and set upon a path of love, bearing the Cross in the hope of the Resurrection.

Thus are you catechized in faith and love by their godly example.

Fleeing to a foreign country in the middle of the night, with Herod’s hot anger roaring behind you, is hardly a fun family vacation. Living and providing for a wife and child in a strange land is no picnic either. It is Joseph in Egypt all over again. But the Lord was with His Joseph in both cases, and He is with you, too.

You also are a stranger in a strange land, and the Lord would catechize you to live as such. That is to live by faith in Him, to fix your hope on Him, to lift up your heart unto Him, in peace.

So, what does that mean, and what will that look like?

It means that you are never finally “at home” in this world, in this life on earth, and yet you are able to make yourself “at home” wherever the Lord may call you to live and abide for a time. You receive and accept and rely upon His gracious providence, whether it be a stable when there is no room in the inn, or the gifts of strangers from the East when your own ruler is out to kill you and your family, or a safe haven in the land of pagan Pharaohs. Behind each of these masks, you behold the hand of your God and Father. Just as St. Mary and the Baby Jesus saw the hand of God in the care provided by St. Joseph. So do you live by the means that God provides for you.

Yet, while you gladly and gratefully receive His providential care, your hope and trust remain in Him alone, and these do not shift to the good gifts of His creation. You trust and honor and love the Lord in your parents and your spouse; and you trust and honor and love Him still, when you are bereft, orphaned or widowed. You receive all things with thanksgiving, and you sanctify them to yourself, to use and enjoy them, by the Word of God and prayer. But so do you remain content in all circumstances, even when everything is taken away from you. As God remains, and His Christ, though He died, ever lives, so do you live and abide in Him, both now and forever.

That is why you neither despair nor become defensive and angry when your life on earth and all your worldly possessions are threatened.

Not that you have learned this on your own, nor taken any of this to heart by your own cleverness, wisdom, or resolve. You are catechized by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, by His preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins. You are catechized by His Cross, as you are also baptized into His Cross.

Only by the Cross do you follow the Lamb wherever He goes — in and out of Egypt, through death and the grave, into the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Only by the Cross do you learn the new song — the song of God and the Lamb — the never-ending song of heaven — which is the song of the Gospel, and of faith in the Gospel. For only by the Cross of Christ are you purchased from the earth and presented to God, blameless before Him. You are bought by the Blood of the Lamb, and bathed in His Blood. How, then, shall your life on earth not be bloody?

You are being crucified and put to death in the world, not only because the world and the devil hate you, but because your God and Father loves you. He does not gladly cause you pain, nor does He rejoice in your death, but He permits such heartache and loss, suffering and death, that you might be His own and live forever in Him. Thereby all falsehood is put to death in you, and all covetousness is put to death in you; all false hope, all anger and despair, all greed and selfishness, and all idolatry is put to death in you. Thus does the Lord work repentance in you by the Cross.

Ironically, one of the most difficult and painful places at which the Cross must work repentance in you, is precisely in those most precious and holy relationships to which the Lord has called you in this life. There is a constant tension between loving your parents and your spouse, as you are given to do, and the temptation to idolize them in the place that belongs only to the Lord your God. To be orphaned or widowed is an exquisite loss, because it brings that tension to a crisis point. Of course you rightly mourn the loss, but you are also called and brought to repentance, lest you despair of all hope and refuse the comfort of Christ Jesus.

In some ways, the challenge is all the greater in the case of your children. Your parents and your spouse are each, in their own way, masks of God for you, in whom you behold your Father in heaven and your heavenly Bridegroom. But if you are a father or mother, yourself, then God has given you His own place for your children. In this you are tempted, not only to make idols of your sons and daughters, but to make a false god of yourself. Thus, when they are lost to you, in one way or the other, it is you who are crucified and put to death by the Cross. You are put to death, that the true God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ may raise you from the dead in Him. Thus does He call you to repentance, to fear, love and trust in Him, through His forgiveness of sins.

What, then, am I saying? That the Lord sacrifices your children in order to spare you and save you? That He slaughtered the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem in order to rescue their parents?

No, that is not quite right. Did the Lord not stay the hand of father Abraham from slaying Isaac? Did He not give Seth in place of Abel? And did He not raise the widow’s son and the daughter of Jairus? He does not willingly grieve the sons of men. Nor is He the Author of death, but life.

Nevertheless, He does bring good out of evil, and He raises life from out of death. He permits the curse and consequences of sin — and by His Law, He increases and exacerbates these things — for the sake of discipline, correction and reproof, catechesis and repentance. He allows the devil his little day, and despots on earth their little reign of terror, that He might strengthen faith, and sanctify His people by the Cross, and finally prove His own faithfulness by raising up His saints.

None of this at your expense, but at the cost of God’s own Son. He has not fled the Cross, but He has fully borne and suffered it for you and for all, for your children, and your children’s children. Even with the flight into Egypt, the Lord Jesus was not spared the Cross. He was taking it upon Himself and bearing it for all the people. All the sins of Adam and Eve and all their children, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of all the sons of Israel, He took upon Himself, in order to atone for everything and to redeem everyone. He gathered up into His own Body and Life, into His own flesh and blood, the whole history of man (from the beginning to the end of the world), in order to obtain a future and a hope for all mankind in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.

That is where the Creed crescendoes: with the Resurrection of the crucified Christ, and with the Resurrection of the body unto the life everlasting for all who believe and are baptized into Him.

That is your future and your hope. That is the country to which your children also are called, to which they are gathered in Christ Jesus. They were created for such life with God in the first place.

The tyranny of sinful men and women is inexcusable, but the Lord does not permit it to thwart His good and gracious will for the salvation of all whom He calls and gathers to Himself in love.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His holy ones, who are blameless and innocent by the blood of the Lamb. He has not abandoned any one them, but He has brought them into Sabbath Rest, into endless joy and felicity, into eternal Peace.

He does not abandon you, either, who still live and work under the Cross. The life of faith and love is not easier than martyrdom, but neither is undertaken apart from Christ, who loves you. Whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s, and your life remains in and with Him forever and ever. When you mourn, He mourns with you, and just as surely will He turn your mourning into gladness and rejoicing. While you work and suffer, He works and suffers with you, and so shall your work be rewarded in His Resurrection from the dead. For if you are crucified with Him, so do you also rise with Him and live with Him.

You are a stranger in a strange land, on a pilgrimage in a foreign country. But you are not alone. You have not been forgotten, nor shall you be forsaken. Here, now, is Food for your journey. Open your mouth, and be fed. The Lord indeed is with you. And out of Egypt, at the last, He will surely call you, unto the true God who is your own dear Father in Him.

All glory, honor, thanks and praise be unto Him, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God, now and forever. Amen.