“King Herod Doesn’t Act Alone," Christmas II, Matthew 2:13-23
- Samm Melton-Hill
- Dec 30, 2019
- 8 min read
(complete sermon with citations can be found here)
“King Herod Doesn’t Act Alone: Power, Authority, and Hope in the Story of the Innocents”
Christmas II, Matthew 2:13-23
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Arlington, MA
Vicar Samm Melton-Hill
“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.”
During World War I, there is this famous incident that took place on Christmas Eve of 1914, which disrupted the horrors of the war. At this point, the war was in its infancy; it was just five months old and yet already nearly a million men had been killed or wounded. But on that Christmas Eve, in the midst of the war, there was a moment of human kindness that peaked through.
On Christmas Eve morning, British soldiers raised signs above their trenches that said “Merry Christmas.” And the German soldiers responded in the same way. Soon enough, the soldiers were singing Christmas carols together and had taken to an informal ceasefire. By Christmas Day soldiers from both sides were approaching the middle of the battlegrounds, unarmed, to meet with their opposition to sing carols and chat. They exchanged small gifts and allowed Christmas Day to pass in peace.
It was later learned that this outbreak of peace went on for miles along the battlefront. At one spot, the British and Germans played a game of soccer together. The Germans won 3-2. In some places, the truce lasted for a few more days, when soldiers refused to fire among their newfound friends. Eventually though, the higher ups of both of the armies replaced the troops with new ones and the fighting resumed. Those in charge also made clear that such informal truces would be punishable for treason, if you refused to fight, you were named a traitor.
This story from WWI reveals that the war, or at least the soldiers involved, are far more complicated than we give them credit for. Like most of our experiences in this world, the good and the bad are mixed together. This likely isn’t a surprise to us, but the extreme contrast of the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, just makes it a bit easier to see. Yet, the juxtaposition is not a new experience to us humans.
On Christmas Day this past week, like many of you, I had a lovely dinner with friends. We spent the day eating too many Christmas cookies, unwrapping some gifts, and facetiming with family from across the nation. But, as we sat around the tree, in front of the fireplace, and as I sipped on my coffee, I turned to scrolling through the news on my phone. As I scrolled through my phone, the news from across the world was anything but Christmas-like. Almost the complete opposite of my setting, the news told stories of police brutality in Hong Kong, threats of Nuclear War throughout eastern Europe, and political unrest in South America. I watched videos of the bushfires in Australia, read the stories of people fleeing from their war torn homes in Syria, and scrolled through photos of children caged in warehouses in Texas. Again, the good and the bad are always weaved together in a complex web.
We get this same feeling of contrast between our readings from Christmas Eve to the Gospel reading for today on the first Sunday of Christmas. Pastor Randall Stevens sums it up well: “After the lovely Christmas story about the birth of Jesus in the manger, the love of Mary and Joseph for God and their newborn son, the adoration of the shepherds and the choir of heavenly angels, followed by the visit of the gift-bearing Magi, the story takes a turn for the worse. Today, we read the story of King Herod’s response to the birth of Jesus. In Matthew’s retelling of the story, Joseph was warned in a dream by an angel, to take Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt and remain there until further notice. After all, King Herod was up to no good; he wanted to destroy the Holy Child, who King Herod deemed was a threat to his power and his throne.”
During this story, back in Jerusalem the wise men refused to report to King Herod the location of the child, the King of the Jews, Jesus. And Herod was infuriated with these wisemen turned resistors. So angry, in fact, that according to the text, he ordered his soldiers to kill all of the children who were two years old or younger, with the hopes that Jesus would among them.
This is not the ending of the Christmas story that I was taught as a child. Stevens goes on to say, “What a horrible conclusion to the beautiful Christmas story: from the birth of Jesus to the slaughter of the innocents. We move from singing “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie…” to the sound of “wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled because they are no more.” Here, today, we encounter the other side of Bethlehem, real-life Bethlehem where children are slaughtered by a jealous and [power-hungry] [crazy] king.”
The violence of this story serves a purpose in the Christmas narrative. It is meant to be disruptive to the peaceful narrative we have concocted in our minds. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran theologian and pastor during WWII, speaks about this disruption. He says that, “We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.” In this story, we encounter the true Bethlehem, again one where the good and the bad intermingle, but also one where daily life revolves around the power, wealth, and health of the kingdom.
At its core, this Gospel story is less about violence and more about power. There are two main points about power that that text is calling us to today. First, we must notice that King Herod does not act alone. In fact, Herod never murders an infant, he simply orders others to carry out the act.
Indeed, Herod’s worries are based in reality. He has reason to fear this newborn, the King of the Jews, because he fears losing his power as the King of Judea. According to Martin Luther, very practically Herod feared that “if the new king is born, the Jews will rejoice, and will secret him for a while until he [Jesus] is grown up, and then will espouse his cause, put him on the throne and banish me.” Here, Luther exposes the paranoia and fear behind Herod’s orders.
King Herod maintains his power as a violent and brutal king because of the people around him that allow him too. The power of the Herodian kingdom is found less in the king himself and more in the agents and actors that surround him. These agents are the ones who are benefitting from the kingdom and are willing to do just about anything, including slaughtering infants, to maintain that power.
New Testament professor, Matt Skinner says that, “Herod was no madman seething on his throne pulling the wings off butterflies. Many of his contemporaries saw him as a savior in his own right. Evil rarely presents itself as a beast with horns, fangs, and claws. Usually it dresses itself up in respectability. It burrows into systems that we rely on to keep our societies from spinning into chaos. Evil rarely acts alone. Tyranny and arrogance can’t exist in a vacuum. They demand accomplices. They survive because their enablers are also contributor.” Skinner pushes us to review systems of power and evil in our own lives? I’m not sure what these systems of evil might be for you, but perhaps they are the very systems that ensure that those innocent children stay locked in cages in Texas. Maybe they are the same systems of evil that incite violent acts of anti-semitism. These are the systems of racism, capitalism, fear, and nationalism. And while Matthew doesn’t necessarily reveal what exactly these systems are for us, he uses King Herod to force us to step back and see the systems for what they are.
Skinner helps us to see the system of power that has taken hold of the kingdom of Herod, but his point is not hopeless. In doing so, he also allows us to see what happens when there are people who resist those systems. The wise men refuse to cooperate with Herod so that Mary and Joseph are able to flee with Jesus. So, the first point about power that we learn from this passage is the hunger for power is pervasive and the king, or leader, never acts alone, but there is hope found in those who refuse to cooperate in these systems of evil.
And secondly, this story tells us about the power of God. This is the gospel to its core; a story about the ways in which God defies worldly power. It is a story of hope, one that tells us that we are not bound by the systems that make us feel powerless. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, preached a sermon on this very text. He writes in his sermon that, “The wise men from the East had worshiped Jesus and brought him precious gifts. Can there be a more terrifying contrast than to read in the same sentence that the king of the Jews, Herod, is searching for the child in order to slay him? Herod, who sits on the throne of David, king and at the same time tyrant over the people of God, Herod, the one who knows the history, the promise, and the hope of this people, plots murder when he hears that God wants to make his promises come true and wants to give his people the king of righteousness, of truth and peace. The mighty, brutal ruler who has often been stained with blood seeks to kill the helpless, innocent child because he is afraid of it. All worldly means of power are on Herod’s side. Yet God is on the child’s side.”
Bonhoeffer reminds us that God is with Mary and Joseph and Jesus in their suffering. He reminds us that this story is not simply about the violence of King Herod, but instead about the ways in which Jesus has the power to invert such temporal powers. Matthew is reminding us that when we feel powerless under the systems of the world一 money, laws, social customs, governments, substances一 that God is there with us in our suffering, just as she was with Jesus. Matthew is reminding us that if the holy spirit can transcend upon Joseph in a dream, then it can transcend in our own lives too. If the holy spirit can transcend into the trenches of WWI, then it can transcend into our own lives too.
Under the violence and beneath the complex history, the story of the Murder of the Innocents offers us hope. The significance of this story for us today along with these other prophetic voices helps us to wonder where we need the help of God in our own lives.
It has me asking: where are you feeling powerless this morning? Where could we use an angel to guide us? From what worldly powers do we need God to interrupt in our lives?
My hope is that the story of King Herod’s call for the death of the innocents begins to take on a new meaning this Christmas season. I hope that it disrupts our Christmas season to remind us that both the good and the bad can exist at the same time. That God has the power to defy the worldly systems that we are entangled in. And ultimately, that there is always hope. That God has the power to transcend all parts of our lives, offer help and comfort in all of our situations, regardless of how powerless we may feel.
We end today with a prayer from Bonhoeffer, the same one that he ended his sermon with in 1940: Let us pray. “We praise you, Lord, that you have everything in your hand and that you reign with such glory. You safely lead those who are yours through all oppression and animosity for Christ’s sake and according to your counsel. Lead your church-community and all its members in the new year as well, along the right path for your name’s sake. Amen.”
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