From tears of grief to tears of joy.
Matthew 2:13-18
We’ve only just had Christmas and in our readings we are now, only three days later, in a real mess.
‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey’ are in Egypt having had to flee Herod, who wants to destroy Jesus.
We’ve only just had Christmas and in our readings we are now, only three days later, in a real mess.
‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey’ are in Egypt having had to flee Herod, who wants to destroy Jesus.
The audio of this talk can be found here
And there is overwhelming desolation in Bethlehem. Mothers weeping for their dead babies. Their children, their world has been torn apart
“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children because they are no more”.
It is a quote from Jeremiah 31.
Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob, the father of the Israelite nation. She was the mother of three of the tribes of Israel, and she died – incidentally in Bethlehem where she was buried - giving birth to Benjamin. Ramah, in the North of Israel, is one of the cities of Benjamin.
In Jeremiah 31 Rachel is said to weep because her children are taken into exile by the Babylonians. Her world has been torn apart.
I don’t begin to know what it is like to have to flee my country because someone is seeking the life of one of mine – although when I was a vicar in Islington our church did run a centre for asylum seekers and we did meet people who genuinely had fled for their lives.
And I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to have my child – a defenceless child who I had in my heart vowed to protect – seized and slaughtered in front of me.
The wailing that night in Bethlehem must have haunted all those who heard it for the rest of their lives.
What we do know is that Jesus was born into a world of evil.
It is a world where rulers, because they fear suspected plots, or because of their compulsion for self-aggrandisement, do terrible things.
King Herod has ordered the slaughter of all children in Bethlehem under the age of 2.
That implies that the wise men had first seen the star a good year or so before they turn up at Herod’s court asking about the baby who was born to be the King of Jews. It had taken them time to prepare and travel. Almost certainly they do not turn up at the stable when Jesus is first born. In fact we are told that they turn up at the house where Joseph and Mary are now staying. Clearly they have decided to stay in Bethlehem with the new born baby – probably a wise move given the rumours there would have been back home about who Jesus’ father really was.
And Herod was going to take no risks. Ordering the slaughter of some unknown babies was not going to give him a sleepless night. He had a track record. He had ordered the execution of his mother in law, his wife Mariamne, and three of his sons. His oldest son Antipater was executed four days before he died. And Josephus, the Jewish historian, records that to ensure that there was mourning when he died, he gathered the prominent men of Judea into the hippodrome in Jericho and ordered that they be killed the moment he died. That order was never carried out.
And we know this world of evil.
We see political systems where power is concentrated - whether through money or armies or autocratic systems - in the hands of a few. We see how power and violence twists and corrupts. We have watched terrible images of Sudanese fighters mowing down patients in hospital. And we see leaders—whether through fear, a distorted reading of history, or the absence of accountability—making decisions that devastate entire populations.
And before we point the finger too quickly, we need to ask what we would be like if we stood in their shoes. If we had their upbringing, their worldview, their fears and pressures and responsibilities.
The problem of evil is not that it is out there perpetrated by evil men and women. Solzhenitsyn wrote:
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
And maybe our decisions do not have an impact on the lives of hundreds of others for life and death, but we are all in a position where our decisions can crush others or allow them to flower. And if we are judged on that criterion, I’m not sure how good we would look.
Jesus was born into a world that knows evil and death.
Symbolic Rachel wept for her children when they were taken into exile
The mothers of Bethlehem wept for their children
The mothers of Israel wept for their children on 7 October 2023, just as the mothers of Gaza weep for theirs.
And perhaps there are times when we wail and lament and refuse to be consoled.
This is a passage that is very real, but which also is pregnant with hope
1. God brings people out of Egypt.
And there is overwhelming desolation in Bethlehem. Mothers weeping for their dead babies. Their children, their world has been torn apart
“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children because they are no more”.
It is a quote from Jeremiah 31.
 |
| The massacre of the innocents. The scroll reads (in slavonic) 'Rachel weeping for her children'. |
Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob, the father of the Israelite nation. She was the mother of three of the tribes of Israel, and she died – incidentally in Bethlehem where she was buried - giving birth to Benjamin. Ramah, in the North of Israel, is one of the cities of Benjamin.
In Jeremiah 31 Rachel is said to weep because her children are taken into exile by the Babylonians. Her world has been torn apart.
I don’t begin to know what it is like to have to flee my country because someone is seeking the life of one of mine – although when I was a vicar in Islington our church did run a centre for asylum seekers and we did meet people who genuinely had fled for their lives.
And I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to have my child – a defenceless child who I had in my heart vowed to protect – seized and slaughtered in front of me.
The wailing that night in Bethlehem must have haunted all those who heard it for the rest of their lives.
What we do know is that Jesus was born into a world of evil.
It is a world where rulers, because they fear suspected plots, or because of their compulsion for self-aggrandisement, do terrible things.
King Herod has ordered the slaughter of all children in Bethlehem under the age of 2.
That implies that the wise men had first seen the star a good year or so before they turn up at Herod’s court asking about the baby who was born to be the King of Jews. It had taken them time to prepare and travel. Almost certainly they do not turn up at the stable when Jesus is first born. In fact we are told that they turn up at the house where Joseph and Mary are now staying. Clearly they have decided to stay in Bethlehem with the new born baby – probably a wise move given the rumours there would have been back home about who Jesus’ father really was.
And Herod was going to take no risks. Ordering the slaughter of some unknown babies was not going to give him a sleepless night. He had a track record. He had ordered the execution of his mother in law, his wife Mariamne, and three of his sons. His oldest son Antipater was executed four days before he died. And Josephus, the Jewish historian, records that to ensure that there was mourning when he died, he gathered the prominent men of Judea into the hippodrome in Jericho and ordered that they be killed the moment he died. That order was never carried out.
And we know this world of evil.
We see political systems where power is concentrated - whether through money or armies or autocratic systems - in the hands of a few. We see how power and violence twists and corrupts. We have watched terrible images of Sudanese fighters mowing down patients in hospital. And we see leaders—whether through fear, a distorted reading of history, or the absence of accountability—making decisions that devastate entire populations.
And before we point the finger too quickly, we need to ask what we would be like if we stood in their shoes. If we had their upbringing, their worldview, their fears and pressures and responsibilities.
The problem of evil is not that it is out there perpetrated by evil men and women. Solzhenitsyn wrote:
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
And maybe our decisions do not have an impact on the lives of hundreds of others for life and death, but we are all in a position where our decisions can crush others or allow them to flower. And if we are judged on that criterion, I’m not sure how good we would look.
Jesus was born into a world that knows evil and death.
Symbolic Rachel wept for her children when they were taken into exile
The mothers of Bethlehem wept for their children
The mothers of Israel wept for their children on 7 October 2023, just as the mothers of Gaza weep for theirs.
And perhaps there are times when we wail and lament and refuse to be consoled.
This is a passage that is very real, but which also is pregnant with hope
1. God brings people out of Egypt.
Egypt, in the Bible, is often portrayed as a place of godlessness, in whom Israel was tempted to put her trust - but Egypt was also a place of temporary sanctuary.
God took Joseph into Egypt to prepare a place for his people so that they could be kept safe during a famine. It became a place of testing, great suffering and slavery. But it was also the place where the nation was formed, where they discovered their identity as children of God and where they saw God’s great act of deliverance when he brought them out of slavery into the promised land.
‘Out of Egypt’, says God through the prophet, ‘I brought my son’.
And Joseph and Mary flee Herod and go to Egypt.
On my recent visit to Egypt, I was struck by how important the visit of the Holy Family is in Egyptian Coptic Christian self- understanding. And it is claimed that the Holy Family spent time travelling around Egypt, spending time in many different places.
Whatever, Egypt had become for them a place of sanctuary and of formation.
And, having heard how God brought Israel out of Egypt all those years ago, we now wait for God to bring Jesus out of Egypt.
And maybe, in this world in which there is much evil, we find ourselves in symbolic ‘Egypt’ now. We are in that place of the wilderness, but maybe also of sanctuary and of transformation. And out hope is that God will call us out of Egypt.
2. The prophecy about Rachel is filled with hope
God took Joseph into Egypt to prepare a place for his people so that they could be kept safe during a famine. It became a place of testing, great suffering and slavery. But it was also the place where the nation was formed, where they discovered their identity as children of God and where they saw God’s great act of deliverance when he brought them out of slavery into the promised land.
‘Out of Egypt’, says God through the prophet, ‘I brought my son’.
And Joseph and Mary flee Herod and go to Egypt.
On my recent visit to Egypt, I was struck by how important the visit of the Holy Family is in Egyptian Coptic Christian self- understanding. And it is claimed that the Holy Family spent time travelling around Egypt, spending time in many different places.
Whatever, Egypt had become for them a place of sanctuary and of formation.
And, having heard how God brought Israel out of Egypt all those years ago, we now wait for God to bring Jesus out of Egypt.
And maybe, in this world in which there is much evil, we find ourselves in symbolic ‘Egypt’ now. We are in that place of the wilderness, but maybe also of sanctuary and of transformation. And out hope is that God will call us out of Egypt.
2. The prophecy about Rachel is filled with hope
In Jeremiah 31:16, God speaks through the prophet and tells her to refrain from her tears because, he says, ‘Your children will return’.
There are times when it seems that we are devastated, broken, when it is as if our heart is ripped out.
But there is the promise of redemption.
We live in a world of great evil, but it is not a world in which death and evil have the final word.
Maybe, as you hear this, you do weep for the loss of a child. I don’t know how God will restore that loss to you, but for those who trust him there is hope. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’.
Maybe you weep for the loss of your home or a place. I still find – in a small way - that I am grieving the loss of having to have had to leave Russia. But we hold on to the hope of a new home which will be more ‘home’ to us than all our old homes put together.
Maybe you weep for the evil that is in our world and, if we are honest, for the evil that is in us: for my hardened heart, for my fears, for my self-seeking and for the lives that I have crushed.
But there is hope.
Matthew points us to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is fundamentally about the terrifying judgement of God that is coming on his people for their rebellion, and the world for its crushing of his people.
But chapter 31 is one of the few that speaks of hope and a future.
The prophet speak not just of an exile, but of the return of an exiled people. He speaks of their transformation.
He speaks of how he will put a new Spirit in them, in us, and he will give us a new heart: a heart that is learning to see, and to grieve and to confess. And in our grief and in our confession, and in our opening of ourselves to him and his word, our heart begins to change and we will be transformed.
And one day, when Jesus the Messiah returns, evil and death will be defeated. This creation will be transformed.
There are times when it seems that we are devastated, broken, when it is as if our heart is ripped out.
But there is the promise of redemption.
We live in a world of great evil, but it is not a world in which death and evil have the final word.
Maybe, as you hear this, you do weep for the loss of a child. I don’t know how God will restore that loss to you, but for those who trust him there is hope. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’.
Maybe you weep for the loss of your home or a place. I still find – in a small way - that I am grieving the loss of having to have had to leave Russia. But we hold on to the hope of a new home which will be more ‘home’ to us than all our old homes put together.
Maybe you weep for the evil that is in our world and, if we are honest, for the evil that is in us: for my hardened heart, for my fears, for my self-seeking and for the lives that I have crushed.
But there is hope.
Matthew points us to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah is fundamentally about the terrifying judgement of God that is coming on his people for their rebellion, and the world for its crushing of his people.
But chapter 31 is one of the few that speaks of hope and a future.
The prophet speak not just of an exile, but of the return of an exiled people. He speaks of their transformation.
He speaks of how he will put a new Spirit in them, in us, and he will give us a new heart: a heart that is learning to see, and to grieve and to confess. And in our grief and in our confession, and in our opening of ourselves to him and his word, our heart begins to change and we will be transformed.
And one day, when Jesus the Messiah returns, evil and death will be defeated. This creation will be transformed.
And then Rachel will weep - with joy.
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