Introduction
Today's reading does not sound like Good News. Today's reading contains the darker side of Christmas. We are used to the familiar nativity scene, the angels, the shepherds and the familiar wise men whom we shall meet properly next week. But we are not used to the slaughter of those babies; this is the horror of the Christmas story, and part of the story which is often left out. We don't have Herod and those babies on our Christmas cards - maybe if we did we would see the full meaning of Christmas, the real consequences of God becoming one of us.
Who Was Herod?
The King we meet in the Christmas stories is a complex character. Herod was of mixed race, half Jewish and half Idumaean. He had made himself useful to the Romans in the wars and civil wars of Palestine and they liked him. Indeed they liked him so much they made him governor of Palestine in 47BC and entitled him King in 40 BC. He was to reign until the year 4BC. Herod was called Herod the Great and, in many ways deserved the title. He was the only ruler of Palestine in the Roman era who succeeded in keeping the peace. He rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and could be very generous - in hard times he lowered taxes and he even sold his own gold plate to feed the starving.
The flaw in Herod's character was his desperate craving for power and his suspicion of others. The older he became the more suspicious he became. He murdered his wife, Mariamne, and his mother in law, Alexandra. He assassinated his three sons, Antipater, Alexander, and Aristobulus. The Roman Emperor Augustus quipped it was safer to be Herod's pig than his son. At the end of his life he withdrew to his favourite city, Jericho, and ordered a selection of the most influential people in the country to be arrested. He left instructions that these should be killed as soon as he died. This was, evidently, so that there would be some tears shed at his passing.
In short he was not a nice man!
Herod and the Wise Men
So we have this strong, but insecure king, who is told by some passing astrologers that there is a new born king in his land. His fears are aroused and, after asking his priests about the old prophecies, they tell him of a line from Micah which indicates Bethlehem is the place where the Messiah will be born. Bethlehem is a small, insignificant town but Herod will take no chances. Possibly 30 or 40 new born boys are killed.
God Smuggler
Joseph's ability to hear God speaking in dreams meant that he was forewarned and the man whose genes God did not need, now finds himself the most important person in the story. He becomes a God smuggler and takes his family to Egypt to escape Herod's attention. Sadly the families of those who are killed are not so fortunate and the pain of these unjust murders and the loathing of Herod must have been intense.
The artist Holman Hunt painted this picture called the Triumph of the Innocents. Unlike the two earlier pictures, the slaughtered children are here shown dead, as spirits, accompanying the Holy Family on their flight to Egypt. It is as if they get the last laugh over Herod as his plans have been foiled and his days are numbered. Who knows God's judgement upon him and his murderous career when he eventually found himself in the place of judgement?
What Can We Learn from This?
The story is a strange one. Indeed only St Matthew records it in his Gospel. It certainly brings us back down to Earth with a bump. The story is an antidote to all those peaceful Christmas scenes we get on Victorian style Christmas cards. The story reminds us of the risk God took in coming to Earth. The story reminds us of the horror of this world and how Jesus entered into it, escaping slaughter and injustice.
Jesus escapes an unjust death at his birth, but, as we know, the shadow of the Cross hangs over his whole ministry. He will still have to face an executioner, still at the hands of a Roman puppet and after being tried by Herod's son, also called Herod.
Christmas is wonderful and peaceful. The angels sang of the peace which God wills for His earth. It is difficult not to be moved by the sleeping baby in the crib, by the shepherds coming to see him, to be awestruck by the strange wise men who follow that star, but Christmas is also about the nitty gritty of our lives. It is about power, and passion, and prejudice.
Herod reminds us of the lengths our kind will go to, in order to hold on to power and privilege. The story reminds us of the power of dreams and how God can use them. But above all the story reminds us of the great risk that Jesus took in coming to earth for our sake, a risk which ended in the journey to the cross and to eventual resurrection.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.