Matthew 2:13-21 | When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
A cry was heard in Ramah—weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted. -Matthew 2:18
For Irving Berlin, Christmas held not joy but sadness. The composer of “White Christmas” lost his infant son on Christmas Day 1928. His wistful song, which longs for a bygone time of holiday joys, would become wildly popular during World War II, resonating with troops overseas dreaming of Christmases back home.
Dreams and grief are crucial themes of the Christmas story. In a literal dream, an angel explained the miraculous conception of Jesus to Joseph (Matthew 1:20). Another dream warned the Magi to avoid the murderous Herod (2:12). And an angel told Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt with the baby Jesus (v. 13).
We welcome the dreams of Christmas. The sadness, however, intrudes like a rude guest. Rachel weeps (v. 18). For soon after that first Christmas a paranoid king would slaughter helpless children (v. 16). In Matthew’s gospel, Rachel, a matriarch of Israel, represents a nation’s inconsolable grief.
It’s a scene we yearn to see deleted from the story. Why must there be such sadness in this, the greatest of all stories?
Jesus Himself is the only satisfying answer to that question. The Baby who escaped the Bethlehem tragedy grew up to conquer all such tragedies, even death itself, by dying and rising for all of us. As another Christmas carol says of Him: The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight. -Tim Gustafson
What Christmas songs speak to you the most, and why? This Christmas, how can you acknowledge your griefs while also celebrating your joys?
Heavenly Father, Christmas so often finds us wrapped in sadness. This Christmas, be real to us in ways we haven’t understood before.