December 28, 2024

Today's Reading: Matthew 2:13-18

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 52:13-54:10; Matthew 2:13-23

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

Where was God when Herod’s soldiers went house to house slaughtering toddlers? Why does He seem so far away? It seems deep down like we spend more time defending God than He spends defending us. It seems like tragedy is where we need to protect the idea of God, not where we actually expect Him to protect us. Here’s a fortune cookie slogan about God’s plan that makes it not sound so horrible. Here’s something besides His word to make us seem content when we aren’t. Some poem about footprints and sand. Some parable about blind folks and an elephant. All of them attempt to answer the issue behind any religion that claims its god is loving. Why is there evil?

Rachel weeps for her children and refuses to be comforted because they are no more. This is not the time for the footprints poem that isn’t actually in the Bible. I don’t have any good excuses here. Not because God doesn’t explain it. Because we don’t like the answers He gives. We want a God that gives us free will. Freedom from suffering. It was everything Herod sought. He prayed to the god of security and made rite sacrifices. He wanted to be in control, not face hardship or hurt. So, if I’m being honest, I can relate more to Herod than to Christ, who left the glory and security of heaven to be born in a manger, smuggled across borders only to die on a cross.  

We’d rather a Herod than a Christ, as long as he’s on our team. We want security from God every bit as much as we want security from God. We can recoil at the price Herod was willing to pay for it, but we all play the same game on a smaller scale. You might not sacrifice thousands of lives, but statistically, more women enter planned parenthood for an abortion identifying as Christian than not. And men, spared from having to sacrifice this way to the god of choice, still find plenty of other ways to chase the same securities. All we’re doing is quibbling over the price we’re willing to pay for them. So He acts.  

Jesus didn’t stop Herod from massacring children. He worked salvation in the middle of it. He entered to face it and carve a path through death to resurrection. It makes the object of our salvation closer to us when things fall apart. That’s where God puts Himself for you. When we have no good answer, God gives you His cross, not a trite explanation or a poem about footprints. God isn't with us to be strong when we are weak. But to be weak too, for us. It gives us hope for those lost. And it gives us forgiveness for those sins we dare not speak out loud. Even your abortion is forgiven. Because explanations are resigned to how things are now, but the cross looks forward to an empty tomb.  

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

What makes a church "good?" Come join the fictional family as they test out eight different churches in their brand-new town and answer this question along the way. Will the Real Church Please Stand Up? by Matthew Richard, now available from Concordia Publishing House.