HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS 2 The Slaughter of the Innocents
- Gracia Grindal
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: James Clemens
REFLECTION
Every time there is a school shooting, images and sounds of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents come to mind. Cruel and senseless, pure evil. King Herod hears from the wisemen that a king has been born in the neighborhood, in his realm, and he wants to kill him. Temporal power is fleeting and tyrants do everything in their powers to keep it. When fighting against divinity, however, swords and soldiers are utterly useless. Jesus will ultimately be crucified because he has been called a king of a kingdom, which he tells Pilate is not of this world. His resurrection, which shows him to be lord of death, sin and devil, will be followed by his ascension which is his coronation. He goes to be seated at the right hand of his Father from where he will rule. Pilate and Herod and all the powers of Rome could not prevail against him.
While these assassins can cause deep and inconsolable hurts to those left behind, Christians believe that we have the last word. As Jesus promised the thief at his right hand that he would be with him that day in Paradise, so he promises us that if we are in him, we will be raised as he was. The truth gives us courage when tyrants rage, but still the hurts go deep.
Joseph in responding to the angel in his second dream brings Jesus and Mary to Egypt and saves Jesus from death, for the time being. Jesus will go to his death thirty some years later. Joseph saves him so that Jesus can do his saving work for us. The scene of the holy family fleeing on a donkey into safety is a picture of great meaning and significance. God is using the simplest people to get his work done, battling the greatest empire on earth with the weakest and least: a simple carpenter, a new mother and a baby. Joseph is doing what God called him to do: protect his wife and child.
We may think God cannot use us as we are not very powerful. But as Paul makes clear many times, God’s strength is in weakness and here we see the truth of that. How impotent the powers of Herod are against the Lord of life, now just a nursing baby. It doesn’t make sense to us, but we know that it is true. When you take a step out into the unknown, praying for God’s guidance, you never know where it will lead. But I can promise you it will always end up in something surprising.
Mary tells of the Flight to Egypt
Flee! King Herod heard the wisemen tell
Of a king’s nativity in Bethlehem.
Murderous with power, the potentate cried. “Kill!“
Newborn baby boys threatened him
Sweet in their mother’s arms, ripped from their hands.
Joseph, dreaming of danger, took us south
To Egypt, like Moses fleeing Pharaoh’s commands.
Riding the donkey jogging me back and forth,
Panicked by sights of soldier’s swords and shields
We fled, nature’s cycles rolling by
Riding along the greening barley fields,
Emerald grain under a topaz sky,
Nodding their blades of foliage in the breeze
Innocent of Herod, his steel decrees.
From The Sword of Eden Gracia Grindal Wipf and Stock 2018 link to Amazon
HYMN INFO
Written for Holy Innocents day, this text remembers the phrase from Matthew 2:18, regarding the slaughter, “A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” . One hears Rachel weeping whenever there is a school shooting anywhere. James Clemens set the text which was included in my Festival and Martyrs collection Wayne Leopold published in 2017. Clemens is an accomplished composer of everything from musicals to hymn tunes. He lives in Virginia where he continues composing.
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