by CCW | 28 December 2023 10:00
No feast is more disturbing and disquieting than the Feast of the Holy Innocents and yet it belongs necessarily and inescapably to the mystery of Christmas. It reminds us in no uncertain terms of the radical meaning of Christ’s holy birth. He comes to redeem and to save by means of his sacrifice on the Cross.
The story is graphic and disturbing but points us in the direction of the doctrine of substituted love. The little ones of Bethlehem are killed in the name of Christ, the one whom Herod fears as a rival to his reign. In his wrath he “slew all the children that were in Bethlehem” and beyond. They are killed in the place of Christ. As the Collect suggests, “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths.” How are we to understand such disturbing words that speak to the disturbing forms of the destruction of the little ones in our world and day?
The theological point is that their sufferings and deaths participate by anticipation in the sacrifice and death of Christ by which we have eternal life. They are seen in the lesson from Revelation as defined by Christ, as “they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” He goes to the Cross for the salvation of the world, the whole world, we might say, which includes the past and the future. At the very least, this feast suggests that their lives and deaths are not meaningless but find their truth and meaning in Christ. And so for us.
The Gospel story of the slaughter of the Innocents also highlights the reality of our human griefs and sorrows: “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they are not.” There is no human comfort that will satisfy and overcome our griefs at loss and sorrow. The only comfort is found in Christ and in our being found in him. Such is the radical meaning of Christ as Saviour. He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Christ’s “whole life was a continuall Passion … his Christmas-day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of one and the same day,” John Donne observes. Christ’s life is but “a continuous cross.” The Feast of the Holy Innocents reminds us of the serious nature of Christ’s holy Nativity. Christ’s life is but “a continuous cross,” as Lancelot Andrewes notes; the Cross is present even in Bethlehem, he says, referring precisely to this feast. He marks the parallels between Herod’s wrath and Pilate’s indifference towards the innocent. The Holy Innocents share in the innocence of Christ, falsely accused and falsely condemned. But they also share in his glory and life, in the redemption which his sacrifice brings.
Fr. David Curry
Feast of the Holy Innocents
Xmas 2023
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2023/12/28/sermon-for-the-feast-of-the-holy-innocents-12/
Copyright ©2026 Christ Church unless otherwise noted.