“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod,” (Matthew 2:2 NIV)
Call it strange, but I’ve always been fascinated with Matthew 2’s contribution to the Christmas story. (Read that again, I said Matthew 2, not Luke 2!) Quite honestly, it’s not a pulpit-friendly Christmas text with the infanticide and all. Yet it’s still a part of the Christmas narrative, not nearly as neat and tidy as our our church versions.
I grew up in another denomination and in it, advent gapes across four full weeks every calendar year. My preacher-mother covered Herod and his issues with some regularity.
“There’s a little Herod in each of us!” she’d exclaim. Clad in her robe and stole, her words hit like revelation right from God instead of biblical insight from the woman who made my cinnamon toast.
I’ve long suffered from an over-active imagination and right away, a pint-sized Herod took up residence in my brain. He was a round little man, red-faced and flapping about in gold lame. That tiny totalitarian has endlessly insisted on his own way.
When we look at Herod, we see a crown held hostage by his own kingdom. Herod’s lust for power and privilege made him mad from the grasping; paranoid over every wind and footfall. History recalls him as Great, but I suspect he was actually a very small man. Very small indeed.
This is a model of Herod the Great’s palace at Masada.
He built his fortress into the side of a high plateau
so he could see his enemies approaching from any direction.
Two thousand years ago, when Jesus arrived on scene, Herod was intrigued. The great man seemed to tamp down the envy long enough to make an arrangement with wise men on a mission. Herod had spies everywhere, so strangers from the East would have caught his attention quickly. When he learned of their intent –– in Bethlehem to worship a baby king –– he was furious. When he collected himself, he feigned interest. Even across a couple millennia, we can spot his insecurity. ”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.” (Matthew 2:8 NIV)
Though the star followers found the babe in the manger, they would never cross paths with Herod again. Herod didn’t anticipate being outsmarted by a few wise guys from out of town. Not shockingly, God had intervened on behalf of His Son and the learned men went home another way. Herod imploded on impact with the news.
What happened next is truly horrible. Absolutely, undeniably, heinous. Herod ordered the heartless destruction of every young boy in Bethlehem and the surrounding territory. He massacred all little guys under the age of two. We can’t fathom the wails of all the young mothers in a county crying out as their son were slaughtered.
We might insist that Herod had no intention of worshiping the infant monarch. We might believe murder was always his agenda. But who knows the heart of Herod?
Perhaps he was truly intrigued by the idea of worshiping someone larger himself. Perhaps an infant king caught his attention: ruling was hard and he wasn’t very good at it.
The truth is worship is far more demanding than we anticipate. There is a significant laying down of self when we surrender to a holy Other. We tend to look at Herod and think “What a monster!” without recognizing our own tyrannical tendencies. We must remember, there’s a little Herod in all of us, and left to his own devises, he will reap destruction.
We live in what Paul David Tripp calls competing kingdoms. There’s the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of self. The two kingdoms are mutually exclusive. The kingdom of self is tiny, turned-in and not nearly as sovereign as we’d like to think. As Herod, we attempt to rule our holdings with a heavy hand, and when the true King arrives on scene, we have to decide what to do with His glory.
We want to worship. In theory. It seems good to worship, good to cast our troubles off on an infant king. But time and growth require compounding submission and we can’t rule and surrender at the same time. We must die to our self. The abdication of the throne in our tiny yet strategic part of the Kingdom is critical to the gospel initiative.
So we struggle. Like Herod, we vacillate between worshiping the true King and getting our own way.
Beloved, our greatest spiritual battle isn’t against the dark forces outside our walls; it’s within. We fight the desires and appetites of our own personal, little kingdom. They wage war against the Kingdom of God. These impulses and preferences, left unchecked, will inevitably result in the destruction of others, just as they did for Herod. We will wind up trampling innocents in pursuit of what we want. (Have you seen the Black Friday Walmart footage?)”When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15 NIV)
This Christmas, let’s intentionally work to kick Herod off his throne in our hearts. Let’s search for ways to worship the infant King and let’s seize opportunities to invest in His capital-K Kingdom. Let’s intentionally deny the tiny demanding king of self and instead exalt the King of Kings in this season. Let’s surrender all our holdings to the One who rules forever. We wave our white flag now or we will eventually fall in opposition. Let’s choose to stand on the right side of history.”They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings –– and with Him will be His called, chosen and faithful followers.” (Revelation 17:14 NIV)
Lord, forgive us for holding fast to our tiny kingdoms. Today we’ve gotten a glimpse of our destructive potential. We are taken aback and we surrender anew. Sit on the throne of our lives as we commit to worship You. Amen.