Comfort for Rachel

A couple of weeks ago I heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth. A dark thought occurred to me as I heard the story of hopes and prophesy fulfilled; did the mothers of Bethlehem resent Jesus? 

Joseph and his pregnant wife were in the overcrowded little town for the census (Lk 2:1-3).They may have been overlooked, even in a small town, but three things would make them unforgettable. They likely stayed with relatives, she gave birth, and a group of shepherds disturbed the peace with a very strange story about this particular baby. They also stayed about forty days before returning home to Nazareth.Less than two years later babies and toddlers were slaughtered.So, when Jesus began his public ministry all those years later, did they remember him? And did they resent his survival?“Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” It was a dark thought, and I dismissed it until the school shooting tragedy this week.

Again innocents were slaughtered and Rachel is inconsolable. Pray for her, weep with her, and please stop making sense of it. No mother believes her child to be in a better place when out of reach. All she knows today is that if there is a God he could have prevented this and for some unreachable reason, he did not.

In our collective grief we will grasp at reason to hold chaos at bay. We will blame gun legislation, developmental disorders, and the secularization of society. Some good may come of this bargaining, but it won’t comfort Rachel. She sees that the world is broken.

Everyone who sees death up close knows that our world is broken. Even though it is common to all of us, the passage of generations has not reduced the pain of separation, or the wrongness of it.Jesus came to our broken world by way of Bethlehem. He came to deal with sin and death and to make a way to the next life in an unbroken world.He was innocent, and evil humanity slaughtered him.

I don’t know why God allows this pain. There are long-winded theological explanations about free will and his infinite ability to weave the outcomes. But, I know is that He is good, I know He is bigger than our capacity to understand, and I know He knows the pain of seeing His innocent son die at the hands of evil.

If the mothers of Bethlehem did remember Jesus as a survivor of the evil that took their children they may have blamed him. Some may have seen the outcome of his life and heard His gospel proclaimed. Those would see the bigger picture, though the loss of their children would remain senseless. There may also be a bigger picture for the mothers of Newtown, but there is no way to make sense of these deaths.

Jesus came and died as an innocent for we who had earned death. He made a way to an unbroken world where Rachel is reunited with her children, and she is consoled.