The Calm Before the Storm

Today is Christmas Eve. It's that 24-hour period we all gather up our strength and energy for that most hectic holiday of all--Christmas Day! It's a day of reflection and for trying to remember what this whole business has been leading up to. It's the day when we probably most think about the birth of Jesus.

And I don't know why, but the one person who always comes to my mind when we tell the Christmas story is----well, Herod. Yes, that's right. I know he's historically viewed as the evil villain of this tale, but I've always had a real soft spot in my heart for him. Think about it from his point of view for just a moment.

Herod had a pretty tough time getting to be King of the Jews. He'd fought battles for it and he'd had a heck of a time getting the Romans to give him the title. But there he is, he's finally made it. Only to find out, of course, that the Romans aren't really going to stay out of it. Being King of anybody is never an easy business. There's always something going wrong that somebody wants to blame on you.

So there he is, just minding his own business doing kingly stuff like banishing wives and killing his own sons whom he thinks are becoming too powerful. And these guys show up in town. Now here's an interesting bit of Christmas trivia--we do not know how many wise men there were! Yes, I had always been brought up seeing the little nativity sets with three men. But go back to Matthew and read again, "behold, there came wise men from the east..." See? No number. We just all assumed there were three because three gifts were given. Some traditions say there were 12.

Anyway, some number of wise men show up in town and start asking where can they find a newly born King of the Jews? And poor Herod knows he doesn't have any newly born sons. Keep in mind, he was mighty old by 4 BCE, his last two wives had no known children, and the two before that only daughters. So its not as if he can pull out a baby and say, "Right here he is!" And according to Matthew, it isn't just Herod who's worried about this. All of Jerusalem is, too. I'll bet there was some pretty excited talk around the old water well when these wise guys start asking questions about where's the new king!

So Herod calls them into a private meeting. And he pretends that he, too, wants to find this baby so that he can pay his respects. And he gets the wise men to tell him what they know. And while Matthew doesn't exactly tell us how, they know this "star" they've been following portends the birth of a new King of the Jews. But I guess stars don't work exactly like a GPS. They get you into the neighborhood, but they can't give you the exact street address. Herod's priests and scribes have to provide the information that the prophet has foretold of the coming and that it will take place in Bethlehem.

Now here's the part of this story that has never quite made sense to me. Herod sends the wise men on their way to find the baby. He doesn't send his own men with them. He just tells them to go find the baby and when they've found him, to come back and tell him where he is. You really wouldn't think he'd be so trusting of foreigners running around in his territories. And Bethlehem is only about 5 miles south of Jerusalem. But that's where laziness will get you.

It isn't until the wise men have all left by a different route and Joseph, Mary, and the baby have skipped town that Herod wises up and realizes he's made a mistake in trusting those guys to come back. Then, of course, he orders the death of all babies under a certain age just to be sure he's got this potential usurper. And while to us this may sound like the most evil thing anybody could ever do, Herod (as I mentioned earlier) had no problem executing his own sons when he feared they might have ideas on taking over. So killing a bunch of other people's babies probably didn't cause him any sleepless nights.

So there you have it. While you're gathered with your family tonight to sip a bit of eggnog and look at your beautiful Christmas tree all aglow with little LED lights, and you see all the presents that tomorrow will be just more stuff in your life and a giant pile of paper trash, read again the Christmas story. And give just one moment's thought of how the name of Herod the Great has come down all these years in history as one of the most evil people to have ever lived. And that's why he is today's dog pile!