On Sunday, some of us heard the story of the flight to Egypt of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, and their return to Nazareth. The passage omitted the Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2:16-18), but that part of the Gospel story has been on my heart because of the violence last week in New Orleans and Las Vegas; and the sentencing yesterday of Eric Ridenour, the arsonist who burned down St. Stephen’s, Douglas and First Presbyterian, Douglas.
The slaughter of the baby boys under two years of age in Bethlehem is not recorded anywhere other than the Gospel of Matthew; that has led many scholars to say that it may not have actually happened. Perhaps Matthew made this story up because he wanted to connect the birth of Jesus and the birth of Moses when Pharaoh was having all the boy babies of Israelite children murdered.
Josephus, a historian at the time, mentions Herod’s murder of his own sons and many other despicable acts–but not this one in Bethlehem.
But other scholars today point out that the death of babies in Bethlehem might have been just one local story among many. Herod did so many bad things that the Bethlehem massacre was just a local story, not rising to the level of national historical record. It happened–and the wider world did not take the time to pause and mourn and remember.
There is something about that interpretation that feels familiar, honest, and truthful to me.
How much compassion can we have for every story? And something that is so major in one community’s life… goes unnoticed by the wider world and history. Someone telling the story of our nation and the last 15 years might mention a school shooting… but they couldn’t mention all of them. Will people a thousand years from now know about Columbine? Or Sandy Hook? Or the one that the storyteller was most connected to?
“Do this in memory of me.”
Christians are called to be the people of memory. The people who see, who witness, who remember, and who honor those we remember.
As we begin this new year, may it begin with a renewal of our commitment to this ministry of remembrance, for the sake of the innocents, and for the hope of the Gospel.
