Welcome to Wednesday’s Podcast.  Our reading today is Matthew 2: 13-23.  Today we’ll focus on verses 16:

‘When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time learned from the Magi’

REFLECTION:

During 2020 we’ve seen how COVID19 has spread across the planet & is changing the way we live – we are now in the middle of the new normal.   We’ve also lived through some of the worst racial tensions since the Civil Rights movements started in the USA.  And to top it off we’re also living through some interesting political times.  The main Russian opposition leader is lying in a German hospital after being poisoned by Novichok.  Will the US President Donald Trump secure another 4 years?  And what will become of Brexit?

In the early part of Matthew’s gospel we meet King Herod.  Picking up the point I made yesterday – he often has a lesser role if any at all in the school nativity.  If you’re familiar with traditional Christmas Bible readings you’ll recognise his name.

His presence in the story serves to remind us that Jesus’ birth was into not only a racially divided society – we talked about this yesterday – but also a nation under occupation; of political corruption and tyrannical leadership.

Herod was a political genius.  He was of mixed race descent.  His mother was an Arab and his father an Idumean who practiced Judaism. Through clever marriages; political deals and just downright genius he secured himself as the power broker between the occupying forces of Rome and the Jewish people and those living in Palestine.  He made huge amounts of money for himself and the people he ruled over.  His infrastructure projects were legendary – nothing on HS2.  But there was a darker side – he became increasingly violent and ruthless.  He was a divisive character and became more brutal particularly towards the end of his life.  He murdered most of his family and before his death ordered that a whole town be murdered so that there would be mourning after his death.

It seems to me right now that politics feels really divisive.  The US elections, Biden vs Trump, or even in our own country the disagreements over how to respond to Covid or Brexit.

There’s a lesson here for us about where we place our faith.  Herod used his religious expression to curry favour with the Jewish people.  He had his agenda.  The religious people on the other hand couldn’t stand Herod.  He wasn’t even a proper Jew but they used him because he gave them a voice – he kept them in power.  It was a compromise.  Both people, Herod and the religious leaders, wanted power.

What caused it?  Insecurity.  Threat.  As Herod began to lose power-  he became controlling.  As the Jewish leaders felt threatened by losing their power – they reached out to Herod.

And here’s the biggest deal:  Jesus turns a power hungry religious establishment and this faux monarch on its head.

By the time the Magi visited, Jesus was in reality most probably a toddler. And Herod was so threatened he ordered the mass murder of a whole village & the surrounding area.  Jesus at the tender age of a toddler becomes a political refugee.  Just let that sink in!

If you’re watching US politics right now it feels a bit ugly if I’m honest.  The truth is that the human heart hasn’t changed.  But these passages remind us that it’s precisely this world that Jesus embraces and he steps right into the middle of it walking in the totally opposite spirit.  From the moment of his early childhood – he will threaten people and they will look for ways to silence him.  Herod started that.  The escape to Egypt is God’s way of reversing Israel’s wilderness years – it’s subtle and it’s easily missed – but points to a much bigger picture.  It’s saying Jesus is going to rescue his people through ...