jenk

No sooner have the wise men left the stable then King Herod plots to kill Jesus. He is so determined that he is willing to sacrifice many innocent lives in order to get to this one baby. Herod recognizes something about Jesus that in our sentiment we fail to see: that the birth of this child is a threat to his kingdom, a threat to that kind of domination and rule. Jesus challenges the very power structures of this evil age. Herod has all the male infants in Bethlehem murdered. Not so cozy. This is the Jesus who entered the bloody history of Israel, and the human race. [...] We Christians like to talk about putting Christ back into Christmas, but let's not forget to put Herod back into Christmas.

Herod represents the dark side of the gospel. He reminds us that Jesus didn't enter a world of sparkly Christmas cards or a world of warm spiritual sentiment. Jesus enters a world of real pain, of serious dysfunction, a world of brokenness and political oppression. Jesus was born an outcast, a homeless person, a refugee, and finally he becomes a victim to the powers that be. Jesus is the perfect savior for outcasts, refugees, and nobodies. That's how the church is described in scripture time and time again - not as the best and the brightest - but those who in their weakness become a sign for the world of the wisdom and power of God. - Joy Carroll Wallis writing in www.sojo.net

I used to want to gloss over the Herod references in the story. To me they were part of the Christian Martyr Complex I was so tired of hearing about - "Oh, poor Christians, everyone's against us, we're so persecuted." In 100AD Rome, yes; in 1980s America, not so much.

This article made me rethink Herod's role. That Jesus went against the standard Jewish religious establishment I take for granted - but so much of the Gospels (written, in part, with an eye toward convincing Rome that Christians aren't anti-Roman) softpedal that Jesus was executed by the Roman government as a traitor. People seem to forget that Jesus was a threat to the government, if only by seeing it as less than supreme in importance.

It seems that Jesus was set up to be countercultural on many fronts - against the state, against the standard religions, against even social convention. To quote another part of the article:

We smile at the warm cozy nativity scene, but have you ever spent a night in a barn? Or given birth in a barn? The reality is very different. Most scholars suggest that in Luke's account it's not just that the inns were full but that Mary and Joseph were forced to take the barn because their family had rejected them. Joseph has relatives or friends of relatives in Bethlehem. So rather than being received hospitably by family or friends, Joseph and Mary have been shunned. Family and neighbors are declaring their moral outrage at the fact that Joseph would show up on their doorsteps with his pregnant girlfriend.

Food for thought :)