Why Herod Trembled. A Brief Christmas Reflection.

Last updated on: December 22, 2014 at 9:55 pm by Kyle Roberts

Why Herod Trembled. A Brief Christmas Reflection. 2014-12-22T21:55:53-05:00 Kyle Roberts

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This post is part of a special Patheos conversation: “Modern Magi on the Meaning of Christmas,” featuring myself, Scot McKnight, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Billy Kangas.

As his latest contribution to our ongoing “Modern Magi” series, Billy Kangas posted a rich reflection today, an in-depth reading of Russian artist Anton Rublev’s nativity icon. I hadn’t seen the image before, though I am well familiar with Rublev’s famous icon of the Trinity–in the form of the three visitors who appeared before Abraham at the “great trees of Mamre” (Gen. 18). As Kangas pointed out, our discussion has turned the meaning that the birth of Jesus has in a world of danger. Nadi Bolz-Weber suggested that we need to put Herod back into the Christmas, so that our Christmas reflections are as realistic (and as truly life-giving) as the original version.

It is no doubt a shame when we overlook so much of the significance of the birth of Christ as a threat to the powers of this world. It’s all right there, in the gospels. In Matthew, Jesus’ birth suggests that the new king is here. In the royal line of David, grafted in through Joseph’s adoptive fatherhood, the announcement of Jesus’ birth involved a claim to the royal Messianic identity. John the Baptist preached about the coming of the Messiah, and proclaimed that, whereas John only baptized with water, Jesus would baptize with “he Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” John’s description of Jesus’ ministry of Jesus called for apocalyptic imagery–the kind fit for prophets and Spirit-bearers.

As Jesus’ sets out in his first public act of preaching, following his baptism and temptation in the wilderness, Matthew gives us another prophecy:

the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

And the text tells us that, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matt 4:16-17).

But if we go back 30 or so years prior to John the Baptist’s preaching and to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, it seems a bit odd that Herod responded the way he did–with reckless, desperate violence–to the announcement of the birth of this baby–by a poor mother in an obscure section of Galilee, well outside the power center of Jerusalem. Granted, despotic autocrats aren’t known for measured reason, but still.

Matthew’s message in setting forth the conflict between the baby and King Herod is clear: Jesus came to bring a new order of things. To announce and usher in the new kingdom. As Richard Horsely put it in Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, through Jesus, “God was bringing an end to the demonic and political powers dominating his society.” And David Kaylor summarized:

Not the end of the world but the end of an era, the end of a political, economic, social, religious system that falls far short of God’s will, and the beginning of a new order in which God’s will comes to fruition.” Jesus “ rejected the current situation and sought the renewal of God’s people.

So though he was “infant lowly,” one of poor estate, Matthew tells us there was something about Jesus that signified a direct affront to the powers and principalities of the world. The kingdom of Jesus would whittle away at the empire of the world–even if it was not quite in the way or in the manner expected. That new kingdom would come in and through the power of the Spirit of God–the Spirit of life and liberation. That is a threat to those wedded to the imperial powers, and to those who place their hopes in those powers for their enduring legacy and for their final validation.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 16, 2014

A Manger with no Danger: Or, How Many More 'Slaughters of the Innocent' Do We Need?

Next Post

January 7, 2015 Can there be a Postcolonial, Missional Church?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2020 November 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 December 2018 July 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz