1st Sunday after Christmas- The Killing of the Holy Innocents

 

Isaiah 63: 7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18; Matthew 2: 13-23

We are in the midst of the 12 days of Christmas, but our Gospel lesson today is not necessarily one you would want to read next to a cozy fire and the Christmas tree, while sipping eggnog. And yet, from his very birth, danger seems to be always looming for Jesus.

The birth of Jesus disturbs the balance of power. The messiah will bring with him a kingdom that is in opposition to the tyrannical powers of this world.

The Pharisees are bothered by him. The Sadducees are bothered by him. And eventually, the Roman Empire (represented by Pontius Pilate), are all troubled by Jesus.

We might have paired Revelation 12:1-6 with our Gospel reading. I’ve sometimes labelled this passage “The Christmas Dragon”.

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.”

It’s not just worldly powers that are disturbed by his birth. The demonic world is disturbed, and this takes expression as human beings co-operate with them in their violence as they hungrily grasp at power.[1]

King Herod the 1st (the Great) was sort of a stereotypically corrupt tyrant, who was obsessed with having Roman approval. He was very paranoid and very violent (especially near the end of his life, which is when we meet him in our stories). He owed his position to Rome. He actually didn’t have a rightful claim to the throne because he was from Edom (Idumean). He wasn’t ethnically Jewish. He married a woman connected to the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans lead the Maccabean revolt and became the ruling family. So, marrying into that family was really his only claim to legitimacy. …

According to the historian Josephus, Herod executed his wife (Mariamne) and her mother, as well as her grandfather. He also executed three of his sons (Alexander, Aristobulus, Antipater). When Caesar Augustus heard that he had done away with his sons, it is said he commented 

“I would rather be Herod’s swine than his son, because he spares his swine but kills his sons”. 

Referring to the idea that Jewish people don’t eat pigs, so it was safer to be a pig around Herod, than his son.

One of the things rulers like Herod are most paranoid about is losing their power. We see this same sort of paranoia in Pharaoh in the Exodus story when he commands the killing of the Hebrew baby boys. He was afraid that the Hebrews would outnumber them and turn on them. He was afraid of losing his power. Our Gospel is making a connection between Herod and Pharaoh, which also makes for a connection between Christ and Moses, who both escaped the violence.

In Herod, we see a man with great power who is paranoid about the potential loss of it. So, when he hears about the rumoured birth of the messiah, who is destined to be king, he is especially afraid. … Even if it isn’t true, the people’s hope could make trouble for him. Herod is the kind of ruler who doesn’t want to risk it. What we read about in our gospel is very much in line with the kind of person he was.

Strangers arrive in Herod's kingdom. They are stargazers or magicians, and somehow from a distant land they noticed something that has happened right under Herod's nose. A new king of the Jews has been born. And, of course, where else would the king of the Jews be born but in the powerful city of Jerusalem, so that is where they go to look for the child. … Herod, the present "king of the Jews" hears about the newly born king from strangers, who arrive from another land, and who are foreign Gentiles. When King Herod hears this news he is disturbed.

Herod gathers his scholars to find out where Scripture says the child king would be born. His scholars report to him that Scripture says the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. Herod then secretly calls the magi to him to pass on the information. The last thing he wants is for the people to flood into Bethlehem and replace him with a child. So, he secretly calls them to himself and after finding out how old the child would be according to when the star appeared to the magi, he sent them off saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage."

Herod has no plans to pay homage. He sees the child as a threat and would have the messiah killed to protect his fragile throne. He wants to use the magi to find the child, but when the magi escape Herod's manipulations, he turns to violence killing the children 2 years and younger in and around Bethlehem.

The Gospel is describing the kind of world Jesus is born into. Jesus is born into a world where a powerful king will kill children out of fear. Jesus is born into a world where children are killed to protect the power and control of tyrants. He is born into a world where the powerful get their way- regardless of right and wrong.

We still live in a world where the powerful get their way much of the time- even at the cost of the lives of children. The anti-Christ spirit that drove Herod in his paranoia is still present in our world. … There have always been vulnerable people sacrificed for the sake of power and control.

Herod can sometimes live inside us as well. He lives in us when we abuse our power, and conveniently overlook the vulnerable. Our culture gives us a certain vision of success. Sometimes we put that vision of success ahead of people’s lives, and sometimes that leads to people suffering. … When we place society’s vision of success ahead of people that can't defend themselves, the Herod within us is exposed. … The Christian vision of love refuses to see people as obstacles to our power and control. Instead, we are called to see people as created in God's image, as beloved of God.

The power of Jesus breaks that voice that the powerful always get their way. In Jesus, in his Kingdom, there is another kind of power available now.

When the Magi were searching for truth. God gave them a sign in the sky. King Herod tried to manipulate the magi to help him find the Messiah in order to kill the baby who is his competition. However, behind these scenes, God was invisibly working. … God used King Herod and his scholars to point the magi in the right direction using the Scriptures.

It is God's will that prevails, not the tyrant’s will. … God then uses a dream to protect the wisemen. And then another dream is given to Joseph, the baby's father, which thwarts Herod's plans to kill the Messiah. God's will prevails.

The power of tyrants will come to an end. … But, the power of Jesus is the power that created the stars and keeps them in existence. He was not born in a place of worldly power, like a palace in Jerusalem. He was born in the humble town of Bethlehem, and placed in a manger used for feeding animals. He will eventually enter Jerusalem on a donkey, not a war horse. He will rule, but it will not be the rule of a Tyrant. Jesus will rule like a shepherd who loves his sheep. He will choose followers, but they will not be those with worldly power or even those considered particularly wise. The followers he chooses will be fishermen, tax collectors, and ordinary people. The kingdom Jesus sets up is an alternative power- its people work differently, and its politics function differently. In the kingdom, power is not used to crush the defenseless. Jesus even says that it is in the least that we find him and serve him. He identifies with the vulnerable.

Jesus's kingdom and his people cannot be destroyed because that kingdom is Jesus himself and the people are the Body of Christ, and though they may lay in the tomb briefly, they will rise again. We, as the followers of Christ, have the power available to us to stand against Tyrants who use their power to kill toddlers to protect their fragile throne, because in the end it is God’s will that will prevail.

Herod is dead. The Roman emperors are dead. The Roman empire is no more. … And Jesus is alive. His followers are alive and active in the world.

In a world where the powerful seem to always get their way, we can be assured that there is a power that is stronger. It is a power that identifies with the weak and defenseless rather than crushing them or ignoring them. Tyrants will come and go, but the presence of Christ will remain and his followers will remain. Thanks be to God. AMEN




[1] Manasseh (2 kings 21); Canaanite kings (child sacrifice tied to worship of hostile spiritual powers). People aligned against God.