Our Daily Bread: O Holy NightSample

Sleep Well

“The time of the Lord’s favor has come.” -Luke 4:19

How easily the words to some of our best carols escape our hearing. Take, for instance, the exquisitely gorgeous “Coventry Carol.”

The first verse ushers us to a safe place. Mary croons to her infant: Lullay, thou little tiny child / sleep well, lully, lullay.

Soon, however, the lyrics lead us where we’d rather not go. Violence intrudes. Herod the king in his raging / Set forth upon this day / By his decree, no life spare thee / All children young to slay.

Herod had learned of the birth of the king of the Jews from the wise men as we read in Matthew (Matthew 2:2). Consulting the religious leaders, he then heard that the prophecies foretold Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem (vv. 4–6).

So Herod ordered the slaughter of every baby boy there (v. 16). Matthew records the anguish: “Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead” (v. 18).

Herod thought he’d won, but he is remembered only as an archvillain. Jesus gets the last word.

Decades later, He stood up in a synagogue to read another prophecy: “He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come”, as we read in Luke, chapter 4.

Jesus changed the trajectory of our story. Violence will end. A new day is coming.

Tim Gustafson

What aspects of the holidays trouble you? How might the words of Jesus in Luke 4:18–19 encourage you this Christmas season?

Today’s scripture reading is from the book of Matthew, chapter 2, verses 13-18.

(Read today’s scripture.)

Let’s pray…

Thank You, Father, for sending Your Son to bring peace and healing to our broken world.