On the fourth day
of Christmas, God’s true love gave to me…
…a grieving heart, moved to seek justice.
Herod the King, in
his raging charged he hath this day
his men of might,
in his own sight, all young children to slay.
Into the joy and good news of Christmas comes an unthinkable,
violent event of tragic proportions – the slaughter of innocent young children at
the hands of an amoral, paranoid megalomaniac. King Herod, fearing what the
birth of another “King of the Jews” might mean for him and his position,
attempts to do away with the threat. And since he was tricked by the magi (with
the help of God’s angel), who might have identified a particular child, he doesn’t
know which of any number of children this baby boy king might be. So he orders
his soldiers to kill all of the young ones in Judea (Matthew 2:13ff).
Such slaughter should
be unthinkable; yet we have seen it, and continue to see it, over and over and
over. Whether in an intentional act by a deranged killer in a single situation
and locale, or as collateral damage in an ongoing military conflict or an urban
gang war, the deaths of innocent children confronts us every day. Rachel
continues to weep for her children, and will not be comforted, because they are
not: in the Crusades, the concentration camps, the refugee boats; at Mi Lai,
Columbine, Sandy Hook; in Syria, Cambodia, Liberia, Chicago, Israel/Palestine. …
That woe is me,
poor child for thee! And every morn and day,
For thy parting nor
say nor sing bye-bye, lully lullay.
No comments:
Post a Comment