One of the readings at the carol service at St John’s was the account in St Matthew’s Gospel of the visit of the wise men to Jesus and how they presented to him gold, frankincense and myrrh. Today’s gospel reading, appointed for the First Sunday of Christmas, is how that story develops. It is the darker side of the story but it leads us deeper into the mystery and meaning of Christmas.
King Herod, who has learned that another king has been born, takes measures to kill this newborn king. Joseph is forewarned in a dream and the Holy Family escape to Egypt. They are the first asylum seekers mentioned in the New Testament. Herod uses blunt force to get Jesus killed: all the children up to the age of two in and around Bethlehem are killed.
This is shocking violence and Matthew quotes a verse from the prophet Jeremiah to capture the grief: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more’. The Church refers to these children as ‘The Holy Innocents’ and they have their own day in the calendar, today 28th December.
This is indeed the darker side of Christmas and it speaks into the world we know so well. There are many autocrats in today’s world. Powerful rulers who will not, like Herod, baulk at using violence to secure there own power. I learned recently that the Vatican has secured the release of two priests in Belarus. They were imprisoned for criticising the brutal autocrat Aleksandr Lukashenko. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union he has been the only president of that country. Many more religious leaders are in prison. They are a particularly vulnerable group. Because Christians finally answer to an authority which is higher than any earthly ruler, they are a threat to such rulers. If I were preaching like this is Belarus today I should soon be in prison.
St Matthew in the very first verse of his Gospel gives Jesus the titles ‘Messiah’ and ‘Son of David’. Both these titles are royal titles. And we sing carols quite happily which speak of Jesus as king. The chorus from ‘Angels from the realms of glory’ is an example:
Come and worship
Christ the new-born King,
come and worship,
worship Christ the new-born King.
I noticed that when I was typing this out ‘King’ is printed in our hymn books with a capital ‘K’. Jesus is King with a capital ‘K’. He is the true King who defines what authority and power, true authority and power look like. At at the end of his earthly ministry, the placard put over his cross will read, ‘Jesus. King of the Jews.’ Autocrats from Herod to today’s examples do not like this sort of talk. Those imprisoned for their faith in Jesus, the new-born king, show us the sort of choice we have made in becoming Christians.
The days between Christmas Day and New Year’s day are packed with saints. They cast shafts of light on Christ, Christmas and being Christian.
- December 25th Christmas Day. Mary, most eminent of all the saints, is the one who gives birth to the Christ-child, stays close to him throughout his ministry right up to the point of his crucifixion and then is there with the first disciples at his ascension and at the coming of the Holy Spirit. She is the model disciple.
- December 26th St Stephen’s Day. The Church’s first martyr. ‘Why do we have this?’ a parishioner once asked me; ‘Christmas is about joy, isn’t it? Christmas is about joy, yes, but is it really just about jollity?
- December 27th St John the Evangelist, the author of St John’s Gospel. The opening 18 verses are, as we say in the Carol Service, the unfolding of ‘the great mystery of the incarnation’. We read there: ‘The true light was coming into the world… the true light which enlightens everyone… the light shines in the darkness but the darkness did not overcome it.’ There is darkness in the world. It manifests itself in all sorts of ways. But Jesus is the light of the world and the darkness, for all its Herodian rage, does not overcome it. The light shines and that is the joyful news.
- December 28th today, the Holy Innocents, girls and boys, whose witness we have been pondering, together of course with Mary and Joseph fleeing with the baby Jesus.
- December 29th Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury murdered in his Cathedral by knights sent by Henry II in 1170. Another example of a ruler doing away with a troublesome Christian this time in our own country and many centuries nearer our own time.
It’s quite an array of witnesses to Jesus, born for us, born a king.
In the darkness the light shines and Jesus is that light. 2025 moves ever closer to 2026, with all that the coming year will bring for ourselves, our families, our nation and our world. Jesus remains for us the true light, the light which enlightens each and everyone of us, for he is Emmanuel, ‘God with us’ and in that we find our true joy.
Service: Canon Bill Croft 28th December 2025. (St John the Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Isaiah 63.7-9, Matthew 2.13-end