The wicked only seem to prosper

Sermon for Holy Innocents’ Day

Revelation 14:1-5  +  Matthew 2:13-18

In today’s Gospel, we’re confronted with terrible pain and suffering, with the horrific massacre of the little boys of Bethlehem—the Holy Innocents, as they’re sometimes called—slaughtered by that monster, King Herod. That slaughter itself is nothing to celebrate, but if we pay attention, we can see God’s wondrous purpose being accomplished through it as we witness His hand guiding the events in this story, exposing the wickedness of man while at the same time protecting the Christ-Child and keeping Him safe from harm—for now—so that the Child could grow up and die a “proper” death, on a cross, for the sins of the world.

We’re confronted here with the stark reality of who God is and how He governs the affairs of man. He is not the God who prevents Herod from carrying out his massacre. He is not the God who always steps in and spares the innocent from suffering. Sometimes He does. But not always. He is the God who sometimes allows wicked men to prosper, and who, in most cases, does not tell us the reason why.

What do we know about this event as it’s laid out in today’s Gospel?

First, we know that God foresaw it, even as He foresees all that happens in our universe, every event, every decision, every act by every man. We’re told specifically that the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah: Rachel weeping for her children, because they are no more. They’re called “Rachel’s children” because Rachel, Jacob’s wife, died in childbirth right there in Bethlehem some 1900 years earlier. So God knew ahead of time what Herod would do.

Second, we know that, although God knew what King Herod would do, He was not the cause of it. What did God do when His beloved Son was born into the world, after all? He sent His angels to the shepherds to announce His peace and goodwill toward men. No, the ones responsible for the wicked slaughter of Bethlehem’s children were the devil and King Herod, who was already a child of the devil. The devil and Herod brought it about, by their own wicked will, together with the complicit soldiers who shamefully carried out Herod’s wicked orders.

Third, we know that God had already received those little boys into His Church and into His family through the Law of Moses and the sign of circumcision. We call them Holy Innocents, not because they were sinless, but for two reasons: because they committed no crime before men, especially one deserving death; and because, through His Word and signs, God had sanctified them for Himself and brought them to an infant faith by which He made them acceptable to Him and heirs of eternal life, no matter how short their earthly life was.

And fourth, we know that God not only foresaw, not only allowed, but also caused to happen the holy family’s flight to Egypt and the preservation of His Son there. God did intervene in history to protect His Son. He sent His angel to Joseph three times to warn Joseph and to guide him, to see to it that he would protect Jesus, and He used Joseph’s godliness and obedient heart to carry it out. Not only that, but, as we’ll hear next week in our Epiphany service, God saw to it that the star of Bethlehem would guide the wise men to where Jesus was, so that Jesus might receive the gifts of the wise men which would pay for the expenses of their flight to Egypt. And, incidentally, God also saw to it that King Herod would die an excruciating death not too long after the holy family fled to Egypt, ensuring that Israel would again be a safe place for God’s Son to live.

Those are the facts of the story.

Now, some people would say that, since God is omnipotent and the sovereign Ruler over all things, He could have intervened to stop Herod from slaughtering those little children, and therefore, God is ultimately to blame for Herod’s massacre, that God is at fault, because He could have prevented the pain.

Well, it’s very easy to blame God for everything that goes wrong in this world, isn’t it? Because He could step in and prevent it from happening, right? If the wicked prosper, then it’s only because God allows them to prosper!

And why do the wicked prosper? Couldn’t God give us a world without wickedness in it, and a fountain of youth, and a cure for every disease? Of course He could. In fact, He did. It was called the Garden of Eden, where the Tree of Life grew long ago. But He took that garden and that tree away from our race when our parents, Adam and Eve, sinned, just as He warned them ahead of time He would do. But they sinned anyway. So God’s reason for allowing pain in childbirth, or death by old age, is the same reason for which He allows all the pain and suffering that men endure, including allowing wicked men to prosper in their schemes to bring harm to others, even to God’s believing children: mankind is under a curse.

Do we deserve our curse? Yes, we do. Even little children? Yes, they do. They bear, right now, the same sinful nature that you still bear, a sinful nature that’s full of evil desires and that’s hostile to God. Couldn’t God remove the curse from mankind? Well, yes, He could. But there’s only one way in which He could do it. By sending His Son into this world and making Him a curse for us. As St. Paul writes to the Galatians, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The blessing of Abraham, when God said to him: in your Seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, isn’t it?, and at the circumcision of Christ, and also in the flight of the holy family to Egypt: the unfolding of God’s plan to send His Son into the world to remove our curse from us and to bring the blessing of salvation to us through His death on the cross. That was His wondrous purpose.

Christ suffered for our sins and has removed the curse of God’s wrath from all who believe in Him. He hasn’t yet removed us from this world with its curse or freed us from the outward effects of that curse. But He has forgiven us our sins and given us eternal life in Christ, so that, no matter what bad things happen to us in this world, they are temporary hardships and crosses for us to bear, but they are not permanent, and they are not punishments from an angry God. At the end of this life’s suffering, whether long or short, is eternal life and joy in His presence, as the little children of Bethlehem have experienced ever since Herod’s sword took them away from the suffering of this world.

And soon God will completely and permanently remove the curse of sin and death and suffering from all who believe in Christ. Even now, He reigns over human history. He preserves and protects, directs and defends us, and sometimes He intervenes, not always allowing wicked men to get away with their schemes. Sometimes He intervenes with punishment for the wicked and with miraculous deliverance for the godly. We have the assurance from Holy Scripture that all things must work together for our good, and that the sovereign God will not allow anything or anyone to harm us beyond the limits set by His wisdom and by His fatherly will, as He demonstrated in the deliverance of the Christ-Child from Herod’s wicked hand.

The truth is, the wicked only seem to prosper. In reality, the will of our Father is being done, His children are being saved, and the wicked are being prepared for judgment. As we heard tonight in our Psalm, Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass…For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. Amen.