Commentary: Threatened by a Baby? … by Don Kirkland

Valuable, and even essential, insight into the meaning of the birth of Jesus can be gained by considering the events of that sacred moment in divine and human history through the eyes and in the mind of the Christmas story’s most sinister figure, King Herod.

Herod was an Idumean, a descendent of Abraham through Isaac and Esau rather than through Isaac and Jacob. The ancestors of King Herod saw themselves as participants in God’s covenant with Abraham, though they had not gone into Egypt with Joseph and had not returned with Moses and Joshua.

To the Romans, whom he served as the official king of the Jews, Herod was too Jewish. To the Jews, who served him, Herod was not Jewish enough.

It is not difficult to imagine the concern it caused Herod when one day a group of wise men from eastern lands came to his palace and asked him, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” Having no answer, only a troubled spirit, Herod summoned the leading priests and teachers of religious law to ask them, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

He was told, in the words of the prophet Micah, that the Messiah, the one whom God said would be “the shepherd for my people Israel,” would be born in Bethlehem, a small town about five miles south of Jerusalem, where Herod had a summer place.

The Gospel of Matthew chronicles the actions taken by the threatened King Herod in the days following his visit with the wise men and his meeting with Israel’s religious leaders, which include the murder of all the boys two years old or younger living in the Bethlehem area.

The second chapter of Matthew makes for inspiring reading at any time of the year as it provides the unfolding story of God’s plan of redemption.

Herod did not have a proper understanding of the type of kingdom God had in mind when he sent Jesus into our world, when ‘the Word became flesh and took up residence among us.?

His throne was not in danger due to the birth of a Jewish baby in Bethlehem. He did not know that, however. To him, Jesus represented danger to all that he held dear. But was Herod really threatened by the “babe of Bethlehem?” And are we? If Herod could speak to you and me today, I think he would say something like this:

“Listen to me, you ought to feel threatened by that baby. After all, he didn’t stay a baby, a cuddly infant you could carry around. He’s a king in a way that I could never have been a king. He’s eternal, and he’s a threat to any kingdom builder. That’s why he’s dangerous. You have areas in your lives in which you want to be lord. But I tell you, you and that baby can’t both be lords, and you’d better not take what I?m saying lightly.”

For all of its “tidings of comfort and joy,” the Christmas story conveys a threatening message as well. Jesus represents danger to all who build kingdoms other than the kingdom of God and to all who enthrone themselves rather than Christ as the lord of their lives.