Mystery in the little martyrs of Bethlehem

I’m struggling writing my sermon for tomorrow, Holy Innocents (Mt. 2.13-18), because I simply don’t know what to make of those little children who were killed. My mind keeps going to the still-born baby I buried a couple of years ago, the time I visited the hospital to pray with a woman about to have a procedure to remove her miscarried child, and my wife’s own miscarriage. One points to the mercy of God and the hope of the resurrection, but it doesn’t alleviate the sadness that will always be there in this life. I suppose the only thing to say is that why God allows suffering even to “innocents” (and their parents, especially mothers) is a mystery, and we must trust God works it for good. In all that I’ve read in the last few days, C.F.W. Walther comes closest to saying something satisfactory in the following:

Yet there is a very rich comfort to be derived from the murder of the children of Bethlehem. We can, indeed, be comforted when God allows our dear children to suffer much, for this shows us that God wants to glorify Himself by their sufferings. They, too, become martyrs of Christ, bearing the cross for their Savior. By their suffering, they, too, will enter into glory. When you look upon the sickbed of your dear little one and your weak heart wants to break because of his suffering, do not murmur against your God! He, the all-loving heavenly Father, loves your children as much as you do, and precisely for that reason, He often lets them suffer greatly and bitterly here on earth. They now sow with many tears, but they will one day harvest with much joy. They may now experience great misery, but one day they will be very glorious. You cry over them now, but you will rejoice with them in eternity. Therefore you should say: “Lord, as You will. Your will be done!”

When we suffer much and are troubled by the thought that God is angry with us, we should remember this comfort from the suffering of the Bethlehm children. God often lays great suffering upon the unbelieving world in wrath for the punishment of its sins, but He also allows His dear children to suffer out of love that He may be glorified in them. The bloody end of the Bethlehem children was not a punishment but a glorious deliverance and the greatest grace God could show them. Therefore, we who believe in Christ cannot doubt God’s fatherly love, even when He lays upon us much suffering in this life. God punishes and disciplines those whom He loves, knowing that one day He will make them glorious. He may let them struggle here, but He will one day bring them to a celebration of eternal victory. Those who mourn now will find eternal comfort.

-God Grant It, pp97f

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFeDUb8sO68]

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