Last week we heard the story of the magi, the wise men from the east, and how they came and worshiped Jesus and presented Him with the very best gifts. That was the usual text that you would hear on Epiphany Sunday, as we begin celebrating the revealing of God's saving light to all of us. Now, you're going to hear the rest of the story. This text we are going to look at is not the usual text for this Sunday in Epiphany. In fact, it is not a text that you would probably hear a lot of sermons on. Follow along as I read the rest of the story from Matthew 2:13-23.

What a sad story. The "Slaughter of the Innocents," as so many paintings have titled it. What a horrible, tragic, manifestation of evil in this world! How could King Herod have possibly done something like that? Why did this happen so soon after the happiest story in mankind's history? Believe me, I have been often asked, "Why would God allow such an evil thing to happen?" These are good questions. Do we have answers? Herod was a power-hungry ruler whose actions reeked of evil. He was extremely paranoid and had killed a good number of his own family, even his wife, because he was paranoid they might want to take his power from him. Why? How could he slaughter so many young children? Do we have an answer? Can we explain his actions? What could have been done to keep this from happening? Couldn't God have stepped in? What can we do to keep things like this from happening in the world? Can we rid the world of evil like this? Can God help us?

There is a blanket explanation that is used to explain everything from a toothache to an earthquake. Maybe each of us has used the expression at one time or another: "the will of God." No matter how horrible the event may have been, some are content to say that it must have been the will of God. For some reason, people find comfort in their losses if they can explain the car wreck and the heart attack and the factory closing as being the will of God. Those things may be the will of God, but if that is our answer, then we are left to explain why a loving God wills for those bad things to happen.

There's a popular book by Harold Kushner, which a number of people mistakenly refer to as "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People." That's the question everybody wants answered, but that is not the title of Kushner's book. Nor is that the point of his book. The correct title of the book is "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." Isn't that the best we can do? We can spend years wondering why, but it is beyond human capacity to make sense of most tragedies. We can try our best to explain evil, but most of it is beyond explanation.

Another way to deal with evil is to eliminate it altogether. It sounds impossible, but there are folks working around the clock trying to rid our communities and world of evil. Various levels of government constantly are providing resources and services to ease human suffering. Vaccines are given to young children to guard against crippling and even fatal diseases. Nutritional supplements are made available to people of different ages and backgrounds to help maintain good health. Federal officials negotiate with other countries with the hope that war and unnecessary devastation might be prevented.

People are working in other ways to eliminate evil in all its manifestations. Tremendous amounts of money are devoted to research for cures to our most dreaded diseases. All sorts of technological developments may point the way to a better quality of life for us all. Educational programs are geared to equip us with the knowledge necessary to deal with everything from crime in our communities to adopting a healthier diet. Progress is being made in encouraging and producing better citizenship. A lot of evil is eliminated when people resolve their conflicts in a civil way. Every time anger is channeled in a positive way, evil is curbed. Every time groups handle their differences of opinion in a mature way, possible acts of evil are averted.

But does this work? Is evil eliminated? Evil not only comes when the hurricane trashes a town or the x-ray reveals bad news. We recognize evil in the abusive parent and the manipulative friend and the irresponsible spouse. Despite our best efforts, we are not going to eliminate all the evil around us, or even within us. That's right, we have evil lurking in our very thoughts. Evil lives in the things we say. And evil comes out in the things we do. Evil isn't just around us. It isn't just coming from people like King Herod. It is here because each of us has a flaw. A flaw called sin. It means that by nature, we are going to do things that are not only bad for our community, but an assault to God! Evil persists in such a magnitude that eliminating it seems very unlikely. The problems are numerous, the suffering is great, and the sources are so uncontrollable that we will never eliminate evil.

So, we can't explain evil and we can't eliminate it. We can't answer the big "why" question. But we can deal with the "when." When evil happens, we need to be reminded not to get on God's case, because God Himself suffered the ultimate evil! That's right! He was the greatest victim there ever was! Jesus, God's Son, took all of the evil, all our sins, all of the responsibility for the acts of Herod, Hitler, Dahmer, Pastor Schulz, and you here today, and suffered a cruel death and separation from his heavenly Father for all of it! He took the responsibility for ALL of the evil in the world and suffered the worst evil for it. Why? So that we would not have to suffer the ultimate consequence of evil. Because of Jesus' victory on the cross, evil no longer has power over us. The devil cannot take us to hell. Death gives us no more fear, because it is not going to last forever. You have been forgiven for your evil, and no evil on this earth can take away the eternal life in heaven with God you have to look forward to!

But evil still happens here. Herod still killed children. Today abortion doctors do. Murder, rape, stealing, and adultery fill the news every day in every city. You suffer wrong. You do wrong. When bad things happen to good people, how do we respond? Look at our lesson. Despite the tragedy in Bethlehem, what did God accomplish? His Son was saved so that He could go about doing the work that would not only cover the evil Herod did, but even the sinfulness of those children. God's purpose was accomplished. God's wisdom goes so far beyond ours, and so does his love. We see tragedy in the ending of human life. God sees his children coming home! As his children, we need to trust in his loving wisdom.

We can't eliminate evil in this world. The only answer we have is to work around the evil. Evil events give us opportunities to share God's solution with those who don't know it, and to remind those who do. It gives us opportunities to remind people that God's love for our souls is what matters so much more than what might happen to our bodies. We have opportunities to do this with our words as well as our actions. There's a story about a certain man who purchased a paper at a newsstand. He greeted the newsman very courteously, but in return received gruff and discourteous service. Accepting the newspaper, which was rudely shoved in his face, the customer politely smiled and wished the newsman a nice weekend. A friend observed all of this and asked, "Does he always treat you so rudely?" "Yes, unfortunately he does." "And are you always so polite and friendly to him?" "Yes, I am." "Why are you so nice to him when he is so rude to you?" "Because I don't want him to decide how I am going to act!"

As long as we live in this world, there will always be evil around us. Let's not let it mold our actions. People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway! Let's not let evil get us down or mire around in the question "why." Let's not let evil take our focus off the fact that God is all about love, and has guided all of history to serve your best eternal needs, and that your life with Him in heaven is what is more important. Let's let evil help us appreciate just how wonderful God's love is! Let's not let evil make us forget that we had a part to play in why there is evil in the world. And most importantly, let's not let evil make us forget that God has forgiven us for all of the evil we have committed, and that He has triumphed over evil for us! God, in his good Word, will never let you forget that! Amen.

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