Hope in tragedy (Jer 31:15; Matt 2:16-18)

Christmas is meant to be a season of joy, but instead of the most wonderful time of the year, as the song says, for some it is the most painful of all. In this part of the world, there are almost daily reports of the measles epidemic over in Samoa, of cancelled traditional Christmas programmes in order to contain the disease, of the death of babies. For those mothers who lost precious children, Christmas will be a heart-rending season. Our Christmas readings rarely encompass Herod’s massacre of the babies in Bethlehem, yet God’s Word does not sanitise our celebrations into an unreal ideal. We want to cry out to God asking why He would allow the slaughter of innocent children, but we can only bow our heads and accept that God’s way at this time is not to sweep evil aside in judgement but to enter into this world and break evil’s power from within. Indeed, Jesus would one day give His own life for that very purpose.

Perhaps one of the more obscure connections that Matthew makes is the prophecy about Rachel weeping for her children in Ramah from Jer 31:15. In Jeremiah’s context, Jerusalem has fallen (587 BC) and God’s people are taken into exile. Ramah was the place where they were gathered (Jer 40:1) before the march to Babylon (see map here). Rachel was one of the matriarchs of Israel from whom the twelve tribes descended[1] and Ramah is in the territory of one of her sons, Benjamin. Given this connection we can understand why Jeremiah envisaged the grief over the exile as Rachel, the mother of Israel, weeping for her descendants.

Once again, it is best to understand Matthew’s point not as prediction and fulfilment in the traditional sense, but as highlighting a pattern (type) or drawing an analogy between two events. God’s people were no longer in physical exile, but the full restoration of the kingdom with a Davidic king on the throne hasn’t happened yet. They were still under foreign rule and the seemingly senseless massacre of the children in Bethlehem was a brutal reminder of how little control Israel had over her destiny. When we think of the parallels, however, we need to recognise that this Jewish method of linking two events with a citation is meant to encompass the wider context of the passage quoted. Thus, God tells Rachel to dry her tears because there is hope for the future and the exiles will return (Jer 31:16-17). Likewise, Matthew’s point is that the story is not finished with Bethlehem’s tragic loss, but with the hope of God’s mercy beyond it. Let us pray for and be sensitive to those who are engulfed in grief this Christmas and if it is our own situation, may we know God’s caring love in our suffering.

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[1] Jacob, also known as Israel, had two wives: Rachel and Leah. His 12 sons whose descendants became the 12 tribes of Israel, were born to him by his two wives and their two maids (Gen 29:31-30:24; Gen 35:16-19). Using the maids as surrogate mothers, as it were, when a wife was barren was common practice. Children born this way were legally their father’s.