This young family had driven a far piece to be able to join their extended family this Christmas.  It was Christmas Eve and the country roads were snowy and icy.  Taking a turn a bit too fast, the car slid and wrapped itself around a tree, instantly killing the driver-the young father of two, the one whose parents and siblings and cousins they were driving to see.  His wife and one of his young children were also killed, his lone surviving child in critical condition at the local hospital.  This was the Christmas gift that awaited his family.  Others-elderly, the terribly lonely-also took this lovely, magical, sentimental time to die.  Many of the aged just get sick and give up going on while some of the lonely and hopeless commit suicide because there is no Christmas family for them.  As many of us this time of year medicate with sugar plums and sugar cookies and Santa Claus, for others it's the end of the road.  And for those of us fortunate enough to enjoy this season, we need to remember there is another side of
Christmas, one that brings death and despair for others.

Matthew's Gospel alone gives us a story of the other side of the first Christmas, one also involving death and tragedy.  An angry and terrified Herod, warned about a possible usurper king just born in Bethlehem, deals with the situation by putting to death every male child two and under to stave off the threat.  Matthew's story still echoes with the screams and wailing of those parents on the other side of sentimentality.  Thus, we are reminded that the ultimate Christmas gift comes with an ultimate price, one that would be regifted by the "reason for the season" himself.  All this helps us to keep things in perspective as we go about discarding wrapping paper, over-consuming rich food and some type of electronic screen activity, and returning unwanted gifts.

 

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
   the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has done for us,
   and the great favour to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
   according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,
   children who will not deal falsely’;
and he became their saviour 
   in all their distress.
It was no messenger or angel
   but his presence that saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
   he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

 

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
   wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.’  Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.  There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’

 

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.  For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham.  Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.  Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.