Massacre of the Innocents

It was just over a week ago that a madman with a gun entered Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT. Most of us watched in shocked disbelief as details of the tragedy were revealed. There is a lot about this tragedy that remains unclear. What is clear is that twenty precious 6 and 7 year old were murdered that day. What is also clear is that six brave women died trying to protect those children. It is also clear that the police responded so quickly that many other children were spared. We will likely never know the real reason the killer targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School. And if we ever do know motive, it wouldn’t make any sense— you can’t make sense of the senseless!

The ultimate reason for the tragedy is that we live in an evil, fallen, and broken world. It’s a world so evil that people think they need to stockpile guns in order to protect themselves. It’s is world so fallen that those guns are sometimes used against their owners or other innocent people. It is a world so broken that too often the mentally ill cannot get the help they desperately need. We are hearing calls for outlawing the type of assault weapon used by this killer, for armed guards in our schools that could have stopped this killer, and more ways to address the mental illness that drove this killer. Let’s try everything, but let’s know one thing-- evil and darkness will never be totally prevented because we live in a dark and evil world.

Several have suggested that this shooting just feels worse than some of the other tragedies—like Columbine, Aurora and even 9-11. It was worse because it was innocent little children. It was worse because it was right before Christmas. Josh Graves wrote a great blog right after the shooting—

 Now, we come to the end of words. And we wait-- in Silence and Anger and Total Confusion. The end of words, the worst place to be—but the most honest. The only choice is really no choice at all. There are no words.

This would have been a horrific tragedy at any time, but its timing right before Christmas seems to have made it worse. One of the children huddled in a tiny bathroom with his teacher and his whole class and listening to the gunshots said, “I don't want to die; I want to have Christmas.” There are twenty families that have stockings hung and trees trimmed, but who won’t have Christmas this year; they feel like they will never have it again. We live in a broken world, but how could there be such a slaughter of innocents right before Christmas.

But sadly, that’s in the original Christmas story, isn’t it? When the Magi followed their star to find the newborn “King of the Jews,” it made sense that they would stop in Jerusalem to ask Herod, who was the current “King of the Jews.” OK, these supposed “wise guys” were from out of town, so they didn’t know Herod or his methods. Herod was “King of the Jews” because he successfully eliminated all of his rivals. He had executed his first wife (without the messiness of a trial) and had executed two of his sons 2-3 years before the Magi’s visit. Herod was very interested about this newborn king, but not out of a desire to worship him (Matt 2:7-8).

The Magi do worship the child, but they don’t report back to Herod. It is right here that our the story of the “first Christmas” starts to sound recent headlines and our present Christmas (Matt 2:13-16). Herod can’t find the child, so he decides in his madness to kill all the male under two years old. Bethlehem was a small village, so how many families would have had baby boys of that age? Ten? Twenty? Can we imagine twenty families losing their child to a murderous madman? OK, we can imagine. Matthew captures Bethlehem’s anguish with a quote from Jeremiah (Matt 2:17-18). Jeremiah’s laments is originally over the Babylonian captivity; Matthew sees a dual-fulfillment lament over the dead children of Bethlehem. Maybe we can as well; maybe we can see in these words the laments of families in Newtown grieving over their dead children.

The world into which Jesus was born was a world of darkness and evil… and it still is. And both the light of promise and the darkness of death are seen in the story of the birth of Jesus

• Light: Angelic announcement of angles and bright shining star to the Magi 
• Darkness: It was also announced in the slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem. 

It shouldn't surprise that darkness is part of Christmas. Darkness was why Jesus came! The Babe of Bethlehem was born to be the Christ of the cross. He came to face our evil. It should not surprise us that this evil rose up and tried to kill Him as a baby. And when it missed Him, it killed many other innocent babies. And evil is still killing innocent babies.

Peace on earth and good will toward men? That has become the “true meaning of Christmas” for many of us.  We are more joyous, jovial and jolly this time of the year.  We are more giving and forgiving.  Peace on earth is supposed to be that Christmas is about, right?  Well, Jesus did come to give us peace (see John 14:27, Phil 4:6-7), but this is a peace with God that leads to a peace within. But Jesus never promised to make the world a safe place for us where we all just get along. In fact, we can take in on authority that Jesus never promised to bring peace on earth, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt 10:34). In this world, there will always be wars and rumors of war (Matt 24:6). And sometimes not only will we suffer despite our faith; we will suffer because of our faith (1 Pet. 4:12). The peace we have is a peace that comes from God despite the conflict, suffering and evil that we experience in our broken world. Jesus promises peace, but he also promises trouble, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

The true meaning of Christmas is not that evil will never happen but that it will never reign. Immanuel. God with us. Through Him, we can have peace despite the darkness of our world. That darkness was seen in the massacre of the innocents after the birth of Jesus.  That darkness was seen a week ago Friday in another massacre of the innocents.  All we can do is repeat Jeremiah's lament as we look to the God who reigns despite the darkness.  Max Lucado offered this Christmas prayer a few days after the shooting.

The world seems a bit darker this Christmas, but then you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. It was dark. Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won't you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We are looking for a star. We are kneeling at a manger. This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

What Difference Does It Make?

Think about this question, “What if there was no Christmas?” I'm not trying to be the Grinch or Ebenezar Scrooge, although "Bah, humbug" has flashed through my mind a couple of times recently.  What I mean by that is, “What would we really miss if there was no Christmas holiday season?” Would people really stop visiting family? Would we really never give gifts to one another? Would places like Wal-Mart and Target really close down? Would school last all year round without any breaks? What would we really miss without Christmas?

• We'd miss eggnog and fruit cake 
• We'd miss risking life-and-limb on Black Friday
• We'd miss untangling strands of holiday lights
• We'd miss watching It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story for the umpteenth time 

So maybe we really wouldn't miss all that much without all the holiday hoopla we call Christmas. OK, I would miss eggnog… or at least the eggnog shakes McDonald’s has only during this time of the year.

But what about the story behind the holiday?  What about the so called “true meaning of Christmas?” OK, I know that Jesus wasn't really born in December 25.  I know that the  Bible never mentions a special festival of Christ's birth. But what if Jesus had never been born? What if the angels, the magi, the manger and the virgin birth never happened at all?  Wouldn't they still make a good story even if they never happened historically?  Like George Washington cutting down the cherry tree? Like most of the stuff that gets reposted on Facebook?

For example, there were these philosopher-teachers in the church beginning at the end of the first century who were stressing Christ as spiritual reality, but they denied that He ever came to earth in the flesh. There were really trying to honor Christ with this doctrine-- Christ is too great, majestic and holy to dirty his hands with flesh and blood hands.  What difference did it make? John seemed to think in makes a very big difference (2 John 7-8, NCV)

7 Many false teachers are in the world now who do not confess that Jesus Christ came to earth as a human. Anyone who does not confess this is a false teacher and an enemy of Christ. 8 Be careful yourselves that you do not lose everything you have worked for, but that you receive your full reward. 

John thinks that without the story of the Jesus coming in the flesh, you don't just lose part of the trappings of the gospel story—you lose everything. He thought that believing that Jesus actually and literally came in the flesh as a human being was the absolute essence of the gospel. That why be began his gospel with a dramatic declaration of the incarnation (John 1:14). That why he begins his first epistle with a different but just as  dramatic testimony to Christ’s coming (1 John 1:1-2). That why he sees faith in the incarnation as the basic test of one's orthodoxy (1 Jonn 4:1-3).

What difference does Christmas make? Well it doesn't really make any difference how you choose to celebrate or not celebrate the holiday we call Christmas. But believing the basic story of God coming in the flesh in the person of Jesus? Well, that makes all the difference in the world…  and between heaven and hell!

Don't Be a Wise Guy!

When Jesus was born, the three wise men came to the stable bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Well, except we don’t know there were three wise men; there could have been a dozen Magi who all went in together to buy a gold-frankincense-and-myrrh gift pack at Sam’s. And we absolutely know that the Magi never made it to the stable; by the time the Magi arrived, Jesus and his family were already in a house (Luke 2:20). So you should dismiss any nativity scene that depicts the Magi (or Santa for that matter) kneeling before the manger. But the Magi did come bearing gifts to the baby Jesus, and that is the only part of the Christmas story that we seem to care about. So the sounds that sum up the Christmas season is not jingle bells or silver bells or the pa-rum-pum-pum-pum of the little drummer boy—it’s the cha-ching of the cash register.

According to National Retail Federation predictions, retail sales during the 2012 holiday shopping season sales will total $586 billion. And that figure would have been a lot higher had not Hurricane Sandy had the bad manners to show up much later and in more high-dollar real estate than better mannered hurricanes, dropping the holiday shopping season receipts by about 1.1% (according to consultant firm Strategic Resource Group). The average American will spend according to projections about $854 for Christmas gifts this season, up a whopping 32% from last year. Is that because the economy is 32% more solid or that people have socked about 32% more in savings? No, it’s likely because many of us are 32% stupider than we were one year ago!

This time of year we talk about “the True Meaning of Christmas.” OK, I know that Christmas isn’t mentioned in the Bible; Jesus nowhere tells us to observe His birthday. But the fact that Jesus was born into this world to live among us as one of us is indeed at the very center of the gospel. It was “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4). We must believe that Jesus was born as a real flesh and blood baby in order to accept that He gave His body and shed His blood on the cross (1 John 1:1-2). Jesus became flesh and blood like us in order to redeem us (Heb 2:14). Jesus was Immanuel, “God with us.” (Matt 1:23). Because we connect this time of the year to the story of the birth of Jesus, there really is a “True Meaning of Christmas.”

And I suggest to you that “The True Meaning of Christ” is not spending money that we don’t have to buy things we don’t need to give to people who already have everything! But we act like we think that is precisely the reason for the season. People go into debt to buy gifts that are already old and unappreciated by the time the credit card bill comes due in January. We know that, and yet every year we buy more and more stuff that few of us need because of this tradition of the wise men who brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to honor the baby Jesus. Well, don’t be a wise guy! Reign in the spending. Focus on giving to people not only who don’t give you a gift, but can’t give you a gift (Luke 14:13-14). Find a good Christian charity (like hhi.org) and make a donation to them in the name of the person on your Christmas list. Rather than giving people gifts, invite them over for a dinner and fellowship… along with some people that, well, just need a dinner!

It does us little good to complain about the over-commercialization of the holiday season if we are right there in the middle of the mob elbowing others away from our Christmas deals. We don’t have to buy into the need to buy into the holidays. We don’t have to be a wise guy!