1st Sunday after Christmas

Matthew 2:13-23

The blood of Christ redeems the blood of the martyrs.

Today we celebrate the infants who were who were brutally

martyred by Herod for Christ’s sake. There is a certain irony here:

Christ is spared from death only so that he might day at the proper

time. Like the infants in Bethlehem, Jesus’ blood is also shed,

only not as a martyr but as a Savior, for them and for us. It is right

for us to weep with Rachel for her children. (Jeremiah 31:15) But that mourning gives

way to rejoicing, because they are not lost forever but will be raised again by the death

and resurrection of Mary’s infant son.