“His Own Received Him Not”

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

He came unto His own and His own received Him not. It is not merely wicked Herod, but all of Jerusalem with him, that is deeply troubled at the coming of the wise men from the East. The wise men want to know where the King of kings, that Prince of Peace, is to be born. These wise men are wise by virtue of Daniel who prophesied in their country. And yet, they have more of the Scriptures, more of God’s wisdom, than merely Daniel. By God’s Grace they also have Moses. From Moses they have Balaam’s promised sign of a star. They have seen it fulfilled and with faith, with trust that the God of Moses has fulfilled these things and provided a Savior, they come to worship the One thereby announced.

But they do not have everything.

For Those Who Were Not

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

On this day, the earth rings once again. But whereas only a few short days ago, the earth was ringing with the exultant cries of the angels in the Judean sky and the joyous songs of all creation at the birth of our Savior, now the earth rings with the blood-curdling wailing of the mothers of Bethlehem mourning for their sons who are now no more – slaughtered at the command of lunatic Herod. Instead of “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth!” is now heard “weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

The Magi – wise men from the East – had passed through the courts of Herod in Jerusalem. That great pretender, the usurper to the throne of David, feared for his ill-gotten position, and so he plotted how he might rid the land of this newborn King of the Jews. When the Lord thwarted his plans by sending the Magi home another way, Herod determined to spend his murderous wrath on the whole land. So he gave the decree to have all male children in the region of Bethlehem two years old and younger slaughtered, according to the time he had ascertained from the wise men.

All this took place while our Lord was spirited away to Egypt, his guardian Joseph having been warned in a dream to flee with the Child and His mother. So the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem shed their blood in order that the Christ Child might not spill His yet.

"They Shall Come Back"

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

“Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.” Thus took place the slaughter of the boy children of Bethlehem, known to the Church throughout the ages as the Holy Innocents. These otherwise innocent children had committed no extraordinary sin, except that they had been born the same gender as our Lord.

Herod had been tricked, and he became furious. And then he sent an order and had all the male children under two in the region of Bethlehem killed. It is unclear the extent to which those two facts were connected. Given Herod's violent history, it is entirely possible that he may have had the Innocents slaughtered regardless of the word sent back by the Magi.