01/04 - A Preemptive Strike Could Not Stop the Message

Mathew 2:13-18

We never see this part of the Christmas story on a greeting card. There is nothing sentimental about danger, about fleeing the country to save the life of your child, or about some king killing your baby simply to prevent competition for his throne.

On the surface, this event appears to be about a violent, cruel tyrant who would stop at nothing to consolidate and keep his power. History tells us that this was not the only time Herod resorted to mass killing to accomplish his goals. However, something more profound was really going on.

What we really see here is a preemptive strike in the war between good and evil. The evil side struck early and struck hard against God’s work to save the world. War experts talk about collateral damage, that which occurs to innocent people as a byproduct of war. From the perspective of the evil side, the killing of innocent babies was simply collateral damage. This event confirms that Jesus came in human form to join in the spiritual war between good and evil.

This event also presents us with an interesting question: Given that Jesus came to die for our sins, why didn’t God simply let it happen with the babies in Bethlehem? The death would have been quick and efficient and would have accomplished the sacrificial killing of His son.

We must remember that Jesus did not come just to die—he came to live and to show us how to live completely from birth to death and then to resurrection life. There could be no shortcut. Every aspect of Jesus’ story is the message from God. Isn’t that what scripture means when it says “the word became flesh” (John 1:14)? If he had died that day, we would have gotten only the first few pages of the story.