Thoughts for the Day

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 fulfil 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.’

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Today is the Festival of the Innocents, the death of those small babies killed by King Herod in his attempt to wipe out Jesus. It's a horrible and very strange story. King Herod towards the end of his life was suffering from a number of illnesses, not least becoming paranoid. He had been a very successful client King - a King supported by the Romans. He had built the city of Caesarea with its deep-water port among other things, but equally he was a tyrant. At one point he planned to kill all the Jewish leaders in a stadium, for instance. But why did he want to kill Jesus? Well he believed that he might be the Messiah, for instance, a special star had supposedly appeared at his birth. So when the Wise Men appear he sees this new baby as a threat to his kingdom. He cannot have another king around!

We need to put the awful story of the killing of the children in Bethlehem in context, however. Historians have worked out that there were only about 1,500 people living in this village so there might have been only around 24 children of the right age, and half of these would have been female, add to that the rate of infant mortality and we get only a very few children killed by Herod's troops. It was still terrible, but not the hundreds of children of the traditional story. However, for the Roman Catholic church these children are the first martyrs of Christianity.

Lord Jesus,
who called the children to come to You,
we remember today these small souls
who gave their lives for You
and allowed You to flee to Egypt.
We remember all children
who will die this day,
knowing that You will
welcome them with love.
Amen.