Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 3:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
All our Nativities are out now. The cattle are lowing, the angels descending, and the shepherds quaking, but I will bet there’s one person in the story who’s not in your Nativity this year: Herod.
For good reason. Herod was a vile and pernicious ruler. A scoundrel and an hedonist, out of lust and the will to political power he had 10 wives, murdered one, and also murdered three of his own sons. This fact led a tour guide I once had in Israel to understatedly say, “He wasn’t exactly a good, family man.” No he was not.
But he did have the economy booming. He ruled with an iron fist, kept the so-called Pax Romana, pretty-much ended war, and re-built and built and built the Temple, and, in the eyes of the people, and with Rome’s backing, was restoring Jerusalem to all its former glory.
And so when Herod heard of these wise men coming from the East, asking about a rising King of the Jews, he was afraid, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod was afraid, and so the people — priests, and scribes, and soldiers, and merchants, and traders, and mothers, and fathers, and farmers and seamen— were afraid also. They were afraid, not because they necessarily liked Herod or even believed that he was really their “King” (a title given to him by Rome and not the Jewish people themselves) but for the very same reasons he was — because maybe this so-called new “king” might come along and disturb the peace, and ruin the good thing they had going.
This Lesson today tells us maybe we ought to put Herod into our Nativities. Because he was there. And, maddeningly, all the people were with him.
May those with ears to hear let them understand.
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