King-sized failings: Mark Russ considers Herod

‘For Herod’s victims, the good news is bittersweet. The difficult times are not over yet.’

Christmas isn’t good news for everyone. For the Herods of the world, it’s very bad news. We meet Herod in the second chapter of Matthew’s gospel. Here, Jesus is presented as a second Moses. This makes Herod another Pharaoh. He represents tyrants and oppressive political powers. Just as Pharaoh can’t bear to free the enslaved Hebrews, Herod can’t bear to acknowledge a rule other than his own. The message of the magi about a new king can only mean Herod’s downfall. He can’t give up his power – who would he be without it? So Herod schemes and lies, and manipulates the magi with false piety. But he’s unable to eradicate the threat to his reign, and when his schemes don’t work, he rages, destroys and murders. Where Pharaoh failed to kill the boy-children of the Hebrews (his plans foiled by the resourceful midwives Shiphrah and Puah), Herod succeeds.

Is Christmas good news for Herod’s victims – for the slaughtered boy-children of Bethlehem and their grieving parents? This is where we find the tension in the Christmas story between the now and not-yet. The good news is that the tyrants’ days are numbered. Babylon is fallen. Their end is nigh. Oppressive political power has no lasting foothold in God’s good creation. But at the same time, they won’t go down without a fight. Even in their death throes they’re able to cause great suffering. For Herod’s victims, the good news is bittersweet. The difficult times are not over yet. There is still much to struggle for. But God’s light is in the world, revealing that which Herod wishes to remain hidden. God’s judgment is pronounced on the powers of domination, and God’s children are given hope to endure and resist evil.

Where do we find ourselves in this part of the story? When Herod hears of the arrival of a new king, he is afraid, and the whole of Jerusalem with him (Matthew 2:3). There are people who benefit from Herod’s rule, who are invested in Herod’s reign. Are we like the rest of Jerusalem, fearing for the end of an order that gives us power and privilege? Are we like the supposedly wise magi, who can sense that a new dawn is breaking, but assume they’ll find it in Herod’s palace? Are we the mothers of Bethlehem, mourning for those crushed beneath Herod’s boot, praying for the day when, like another Herod, he’ll be struck down by an angel of the Lord, eaten by worms and die (Acts: 12.23)?

Herod reminds us that Christmas is not as simple as we might want. It is both good news and bad news, depending on who you are. A Christ-shaped future is breaking through, but the struggle isn’t over. There is still evil to be resisted but, in the end, love, mercy and justice win. In the words of Doris Plenn: ‘When tyrants tremble, sick with fear and hear their death-knell ringing; When friends rejoice both far and near, how can I keep from singing?’

Mark is a programmes coordinator at Woodbrooke.

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