Herod the (Not So) Great

Matthew 2:3–8 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,           are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler         who will shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” CONSIDER THIS When you take a little time to look at the facts and figures of “Herod the Great” in Jesus’s day, you could say that he accomplished much during his administration. In the forty years he served as king of Judea before Christ’s birth, he had kept the order and was responsible for many of the major building campaigns of the day, including the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem, designing and constructing several aqueducts in the region, as well as building the massive fortress known as Herodium, a.k.a. the “Mountain of the Little Paradise.” Of course, nothing gets built without the funds and money coming from somewhere. Where did it all come from? It came from the people of King Herod’s day. The people certainly paid for all that expansion because Herod taxed them severely, so much that they could barely afford food for themselves, and starvation resulted. And that’s when Herod would provide food for the people. In short, he had an uncanny ability of oppressing and stealing from the people yet manipulating the outcome by making the people feel grateful for any food he gave them in return. It was a vicious and manipulative cycle. So, on the outside, you could certainly say things were secure under Herod’s reign. Buildings were built, and his administration looked sound, yet under the hood, Herod the Great was not so great at all. Herod had a problem: power. Under all the accomplishments and what he was building externally, on the inside, he was a tyrant, power-hungry, and threatened by anyone who could be perceived as greater, smarter, or more powerful than he was. To Herod, everyone was a suspect, including his own sons, whom he had killed for fear of them overthrowing him. Knowing all of this now, re-read the Scripture for today’s devotional and add those layers to Matthew’s Christmas story. Imagine the moment when these Magi from the East ride into Jerusalem with joy and praise and inquiring about the one true King—the Messiah born “King of the Jews”—the very same title that Herod had claimed for himself. This single event in Matthew’s story has paranoia and disaster written all over it. Herod, addicted to power, learns this other king has come into the story—his story—and is faced with someone who could both challenge his authority and overthrow his rule. No wonder Herod is “disturbed,” as Matthew so eloquently puts it (Matt. 2:3). Rest assured that when he gives the Magi a wink and smile and says, “Be sure you let me know when you find him so I can ‘go and worship him’ too” (v. 8), that was not Herod’s intention. Why are we spending time with King Herod today, and what is this story’s place in our Christmas story? I think a good takeaway for us from today’s text is this: it is never a bad thing to do a heart check. Whether we realize it or not, all of us can have a small dose of what I would call the “hidden Herod” inside of us. At the core of Herod the Great was a fear of being insignificant and of being forgotten. Those feelings led him to push harder into power, which led to oppression, which resulted in murder. No matter how you look at it, the more you pursue power, the more you pursue control in your life, the harder you grip onto those things, the more you lose that which really matters. Because, guess what? It’s not about you. When you realize the lengths God has gone to reach you through the gift of Jesus, it’s more about what he desires to do within you and through you that matters most. In this story today, let’s acknowledge the darkness. It was a broken world then; it’s still a broken world today. Yet, there is hope in this story. Christ came into a dark world two thousand years ago, and that brings hope and light into our world today. That is good news for us all! THE PRAYER  Almighty God, reveal to us the hidden Herods we might have tucked away in the secret places of our hearts. Help us loosen the grip of all control so that, with open hands, we can receive the love and acceptance you make available to each of us today. Amen. THE QUESTIONS Herod had a great deal of darkness that he kept hidden. What’s the danger in that? Where is control, power, and a fear of insignificance hiding in the hidden places of your heart? How does this story free us from those things?