December 29, 2013
1st Sunday after Christmas
Isaiah 63:7-9; Matthew 2:13-23
The Forgotten Cast Member of the Christmas Play
Somehow, in just 15 months, my daughter, Isabel,
has acquired three nativity
sets. And for some reason, I found
myself comparing them. They all have
Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, of course, as well as an angel, an assortment
of animals, and three wise men. What’s
missing in two out of the three of them is a shepherd, which I find rather
interesting. The wise men make it to the
manger, but not the shepherds, the first people the angels go and tell about
baby Jesus and who are actually there shortly after his birth. The wise men don’t actually make it til a bit
later, and we’ll hear their story next Sunday.
However, in reading today’s
story, it occurred to me that someone else
is missing, too, and not just from Isabel’s nativity sets but from all of the nativity scenes I’ve ever
seen. There’s another player in the
Christmas story, one whose role we tend to forget about. And he’s even a named character, unlike the shepherds or the wise men: King
Herod.
Herod the Great ruled Judea from the
year 37 BC to the year 4 BC. Although he
was appointed by the Roman Empire, he had to fight for four years to firmly
take control of his kingdom and, as a result, he never felt his power was fully
secure. Herod’s domain was only 1,350
square miles, which is just a little larger than the state of Rhode Island, but
he built at least seven major fortresses so that he was never far from a
defensible stronghold. He was known for
rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem on its grandest scale ever, and this is the
temple that Jesus and his disciples knew.
Perhaps these are the reasons he is known as Herod the Great. However, King Herod was also known for ruling
with an iron fist, violently suppressing all opposition and was not above
killing his own family members, such as his first wife, his brother-in-law, and
three of his own sons, when he suspected them of wanting his throne. Given this background, today’s Gospel lesson
fits right in.
The wise men had stopped at
Jerusalem on their way to Bethlehem and had a conversation with Herod about the
baby who was born king of the Jews. Now,
Herod was king of the Jews. He had worked hard to secure and keep his
kingdom, and now there’s a baby?! When the wise men didn’t return to report
back to Herod, it’s no wonder he took matters into his own hands: kill all the
baby boys two years old and younger.
This is a part of the Christmas story we tend to not pay a whole lot of
attention to. We don’t want to hear
about the “massacre of the holy innocents”; we don’t want to connect Jesus’
birth with the murder of babies. We
don’t even really want to think about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus living as
political refugees in Egypt, fleeing political persecution. And yet that’s Jesus’ early childhood. It wasn’t idyllic, it wasn’t innocent; it was
life as a refugee. It was escaping a
cruel despot. This is the side of
Christmas that we’d rather forget.
This Advent we’ve focused on moving
from darkness to light, as in: “the people walking in darkness have seen a
great light; on those living in a land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.” On Christmas Eve this year at the 7:00 and
9:00 services, we chose to not end in somber darkness following “Silent Night,”
but in cheerful light, singing “Joy to the World.” It created a different feel to the service,
to move from darkness to light and end with the light. The prologue to John’s gospel tells us that “the
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” However, that does not mean that there is no
darkness and that’s what Herod reminds us.
Even at Christmastime, we can’t ignore the darkness because ignoring the darkness is ignoring reality.
At
a time when we put up lights and decorations, when we strive for perfection in
our festivities and our gifts, all the busyness can make it easier to forget
the darkness. We live in a fallen world
that is being redeemed, but when possible, we’d rather forget the
fallen-ness. We’d rather forget the King
Herods out there. We’d rather live in a
bubble where everything is a great. In
the most recent James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” just before the bad guy bursts
into the room and attacks, M gives a speech before the Intelligence and Security
Committee defending her department. M
and her department are accused of being irrelevant and unnecessary , because we
now live in a world that has become transparent, with so much information
available at our fingertips. In
response, she says, “I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to
us… Our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque! It's in the
shadows. That's where we must do battle.”[1] Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has
come, and yet we cannot forget the darkness.
We cannot forget those who continue to walk in darkness, we cannot
forget those who dwell in sin because Jesus came to save them, too. We are called to shine the light in the
darkness, not to ignore the darkness.
This
problem is especially prevalent during the Christmas season because we have
this idea that we’re supposed to keep
the hardships of the real world away from Christmas. There’s this notion that Christmastime is
supposed to be perfect, the meal should be delicious, the decorations should be
beautiful, the presents should perfectly fit the recipient, everything is warm
and joyous and merry this time of year… and yet. Just because it’s Christmastide doesn’t mean
the darkness goes away. King Herod is
still part of the Christmas story. Just
because we feast and put on our best manners for visitors doesn’t mean that
everyone eats their fill or has family to visit. There is this romanticized idea that
everything about Christmas should be just right, when the truth is that it’s
not. Last year I received a Christmas
card from a family who had to photoshop their family picture in order for all
three kids to look normal in it. In
every picture they took, and we’re talking about 30 pictures here, by a
professional photographer, one kid was making a weird face, another kid wasn’t
looking at the camera, or the baby, who had just learned to walk, kept trying
to exercise her newfound skill. That’s
Christmas. More than that, that’s life. It’s not perfect. Food will burn or someone will say something
inappropriate or the cat will get in the Christmas tree. Imperfection is part of life. Darkness is part of this world, since its
creation. “In the beginning when God
created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness
covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the
waters. Then God said, “Let there be
light”; and there was light.”[2] And everyone lived happily ever after. Unh-unh.
That’s not how the story goes. Sin
came into the world shortly after creation and darkness continues to threaten
the light.
That’s
why God sent Jesus, even during the reign of King Herod. Christmas
is God’s response to our sorrows and our darkness. God made flesh, God in human form, God in the
form of a slave.[3] Christ came to be in solidarity with us in
the midst of our darkness and to care for us.
We have not been left alone.
Darkness does not have the final word.
Jesus was not born to a wealthy family or one of prestige. His birth caused the death of many baby
boys. His early childhood was spent as a
refugee in a foreign country. And that’s
where God comes. God isn’t floating on a
cloud up in Heaven, watching you and rewarding you according to whether you’re
naughty or nice. God is down here among
us, with us, sharing in our places of darkness, bearing our burdens with
us. “This holy season is the promise
that God’s joy is deeper than our sadness, that ultimately life is more
powerful than death, and that the light shines even in the darkness.”[4]
Despite
the existence of darkness, light does triumph.
The greatest example of light defeating darkness came on the first
Easter morning when Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death. That
is the final word in the story. Whatever
places of darkness there may be in your life, whatever “King Herod” threatens
to overshadow the light in your life, wherever there is sin in the world, God
has come into those places in the form of Jesus. He suffers with you, he understands what
you’re going through, because he was human, too. Remember our Isaiah reading this morning: “For
he said, “Surely they are my people” …and he became their savior in all their
distress. It was no messenger or angel but
his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he
lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.”[5] It was no messenger or angel, but his presence that saved them. So don’t worry if dinner gets burned, that
sweater you bought as a gift doesn’t fit, or the in-laws tell you that they’re
staying another week. It’s ok that
things aren’t perfect. Do not fear the
diagnosis of disease, the loss of a loved one, or the Sta-Puft Marshmallow
Man. As long as there is darkness,
Emmanuel, God with us, will be with us to cast a light into those dark places
in our lives.
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