Matthew 2:1-20 records King Herod’s cold-blooded murder of the young boys in Bethlehem shortly after the birth of Jesus. It’s a disgusting event that has come to be known as “the Massacre of the Innocents.”
The Christmas story would be absolutely beautiful if it weren’t for this episode. We certainly never see it depicted on Christmas cards. Yet perhaps every Nativity scene should feature a set of Herod’s soldiers lurking behind the magi—knives drawn, ready to thrust. That’s how the first Christmas went down.
Indeed, there’s a shadow of evil that hovers over the first Christmas. We should be grateful for that—not because we rejoice in bloodshed but because the gospel writers don’t attempt to sanitize history and rub out the unpleasantries. Rather, they help us appreciate how the God of the Bile is a real-life God, willing to “roll up his sleeves” and become part of the mess of this world in order to redeem it.
When God comes to save us, there is a price to be paid. And that price was paid not only at the cross; the meter started running at the manger. But it’s nothing short of poetic justice that Jesus was born under one Herod, crucified under another, and yet he outlives them both.
As political rulers go, Herod was indeed “Great.” He kept the peace. He improved the landscape and infrastructure of Israel. He even renovated the temple. Everybody loved what he could do for them, but they hated the cost.
In every life there is usually a “Herod” that has gained power over us. We’re seduced into calling it “great” because it does things for us. It helps us cope. It makes us feel secure. It even keeps the peace for us—at least for a little while. Today we call them addicitons. We love what they do for us, but we hate the cost. And what is that cost? The cost is we soon become like Herod ourselves.
• We become emotionally unstable.
• We become spiritually compromised.
• We become personally destructive.
When Herod is the king of our lives, we hurt other people, but our selfishness blinds us to the devastation we’re causing.
Historian Paul Maier estimates—based on the population of Bethlehem at the time—that about 20 children died at Herod’s hands in this slaughter. There’s a cruel irony in that number this year. A few weeks before Christmas, another “massacre of the innocents” shocked us all.
Twenty children were gunned down by another madman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Talk about personally destructive.
The good news is that the Herods of this world never get the last word. Jesus, the new king, does. But there’s always a cost for the toppling of a dictator. These little boys in Bethlehem were the cost. Still, they were killed for a noble reason. They died because they looked like Jesus. Literally.
In the end, the Christmas story is more beautiful than we thought because Jesus topples the false kings who don’t deserve a crown. Christmas was God’s “declaration of war” on all that is in us that is unlike him, and therefore needs to be taken out of us. That’s worth putting on a Christmas card. And even through the tears of slaughter it is worth remembering:
The kingdom of this world
Is become the Kingdom of our Lord
And of His Christ
And He shall reign forever and ever!
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Filed under: Christmas Sermons, Sermons Tagged: Addictions, Christmas, Evil, Herod the Great, Jesus Christ, Massacre of the Innocents, Matthew, Newtown Shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Suffering
