Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
What part of the Christmas story is your favorite? The incredible faith of Mary, that young Jewish girl who accepts her assignment to give birth as a virgin to the Messiah is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas story. Her role in life was anything but easy, but scripture says she was blessed among women.
Or you could choose the story of the angels appearing to the shepherds. What a sight that must have been! I keep imagining how frightened those shepherds must have been at first. And we know that after they saw the Baby Jesus, they told everyone all about it. I wonder if their friends and family believed them? I wonder if it just seemed like a foolish tale to those who heard it?
But have you ever thought about the mothers of the baby boys who were slaughtered by Herod because of his paranoia? When he heard from the wise men that a king of the Jews was born, he wanted to make sure that no one would ever threaten his reign as King of Judea, and so he insanely ordered all baby boys under two years old in the Bethlehem region to be slaughtered.
What about the mother who gets a loud knock on her door—or her door busted down—as Roman soldiers come in and snatch her baby boy from her? Maybe he was just beginning to walk; maybe it was her first child; maybe she had been barren for a long time and finally this baby was born to her. And now, she watches helplessly as he is ruthlessly taken from her and slaughtered. Why? Because there was some remote chance he might be that king Herod heard about.
Was she given any explanation? I doubt it. Had she even heard that the Christ-child had been born in Bethlehem? Probably not. What reason was there to kill her baby because of this unknown king baby? All she is left with is questions and grief and empty arms. The prophet Jeremiah predicted it:
“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more” (Matthew 2:18).
It was a high price paid by many mothers that first Christmas. Yet the Baby Jesus was born to die and his mother watched him die about 34 years later, perishing on a cross, paying the debt for your sins and mine. Think anew this Christmas 2020 about all that took place that first Christmas, so that you and I could have forgiveness and peace through the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.