On this special episode of BibleWorm we’re reading the story of Herod and the magi as told in Matthew 2:1-23. This text tells a side of Christmas that we may not want to talk about, as it narrates the story of a fearful King Herod who kills all the babies of Bethlehem in his quest to destroy the baby Jesus, whom he perceives as a threat to his political power. We talk about the arrival of the magi from the East, who discern from the stars that the world is changing, and the religious authorities of Judea, who derive from the text where the child is to be born. We marvel at the power of dreams as a means of God communicating urgent messages that bypass rational thought. And we wrestle with the ways that religious knowledge—and yes, even Christmas— can be coopted by fearful people of power in service to death, asking how people of faith might instead be faithful witnesses to the God of life, who is coming into the world.