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AP Photo/Newtown Bee, Shannon Hick
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Christmas is often characterized as
a time of great cheer. It is a long-awaited happy season when we look forward
to good times with family and friends, to gifts, to good food. And it’s all fitting,
because we should be celebrating in a way that is worthy of the King of Kings.
But this year, our Christmas preparation is stained with the blood of twenty
children and seven adults when a twenty-year-old man walked into an elementary
school and fired guns at them. Where is God in all of this? Why did God allow
this to happen?
All
this has happened before
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| 1611 painting by Guido Reni (1572-1642) |
Sometime after the birth of Christ, King Herod
the Great was visited by magi from the east. Herod saw himself as the only king
of Judea, and will kill anyone, including members of his own family, if he sees
him or her as a threat to his throne. So when he was told by the magi and his
own scribes that the long-awaited Messiah, the prophesied King of the Jews, was
born, he lied to the magi to have them help him find the child and then move to
kill him. But the magi were warned by an angel to not return to Herod, and so
went home by a different road. When Herod heard this, he was furious and
ordered the killing of every male child in the Bethlehem area – two years old
and below, to coincide with what the magi told him. And so it was done. (Matthew 2:1-18)
But
the question remained: Why did God allow this to happen? Those murdered
children had nothing to do with the boy Jesus, except that they were roughly
the same age. They were no threat to Herod. They were innocents.
Where
was God?
The most oft-asked question in the face of
tragedy is “Where was God?” The answer, at least in this case, is in one of the
names given to the promised Messiah – Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23)
Where was God when the boys of Bethlehem were being murdered? He was among them
who were marked for death. He was being pursued by a malevolent king who would
see no one as king except himself. God, in Jesus, suffered with those who were
killed, though He escaped death because His time has not yet come. But His time
did come, and He went to the cross willingly so that He might bring the Kingdom
where innocents no longer had to die.
Where was God in
the Connecticut Massacre? He was among those who died, taking upon Himself the
evil that this world would throw upon innocents. He was among the surviving
children, suffering the trauma of seeing beloved friends and teachers killed.
He was among the parents of the dead children, mourning and grieving the death
of those closest to their hearts. He was among the parents of the surviving
children, cherishing them all the more and offering up thanksgiving for sparing
their children. He was among all the people who sympathized with those who lost
loved ones, extending love and comfort when they needed it most. Above it all,
He is on His throne, holding on to His promise of returning to fully establish
His kingdom where no more innocents will suffer or die. And He longs to return,
even as His heart breaks for every tragedy that happens.
Challenge
