Second Sunday after Christmas (1879)

Matthew 2:13-23 God's Word and ways are always offensive to human reason. Why?1 It is a futile, godless and pernicious undertaking if one, as it often happens in modern times, wants to make divine mysteries inoffensive and more relevant. No, man's will estranged from God must first be converted by the working of the Holy Spirit; man must first come to faith in Christ as his Savior: then God's Word and ways are no longer offensive to him, then everything that God speaks and does is exceedingly comforting and instructive for him. The same can be said for what our Gospel today tells us: the flight of Christ to Egypt and the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem. Let us put before us: Two remarkable examples how the offense of human reason is comforting and instructive for faith; 1. the flight of Christ to Egypt; a. how offensive it is to human reason . in regard to the person of him who flees there2, . in regard to the way how the escape occurs3, . in a hurry, . at night, . with the help of weak men (bearing everything that can be borne), . in regard to the neighborly purpose, for whose sake it is undertaken (for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him); b. how instructive and comforting it is for faith; the flight is . the fulfilling of a divine prophecy4, also . a portion of the work of redemption of the Savior, . it takes a blessed end5, . again to fulfill a divine prophecy, . for a witness that God would remove us also at the right time of persecution;

2. the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem,

1 2

1 Corinthians 2:14; Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33. Matthew 2:13; cf. Luke 2:11. 3 Matthew 2:13-14. 4 Matthew 2:15. 5 Matthew 2:15, 19-23

a. how offensive it is to human reason; it asks: why did God allow . the gruesome murder of so many little children . so much sorrow and wailing of mothers? b. how it should appear to faith; . it does not happen by chance, but according to divine prophecy6, . it happens for salutary chastisement of the mothers, who . awakened from the sleep of security, . were pointed directly to Jesus as Messiah7 . it happens to the best of children, who . in the state of grace (Circumcision, Rachel's children = children of God's people), . die as martyrs of Christ; . it happened to the best of all Christians, who learn from it . that even the seemingly most terrible thing happens under God knowledge and management, . that God wants to wake them salutarily and keep them in faith when they want to fall into carnal security. Franz Pieper

6 7

Matthew 2:17-18. ibid. Cf. Jeremiah 31:15.