Put Herod back into Christmas

Today is Holy Innocents' Day, the day of the church year when we remember both the babies killed by Herod in Bethlehem and those killed by Pharaoh in Egypt at the time Moses was a baby. The Rev. Joy Carroll Wallis's words from a Christmas sermon seem appropriate,

No sooner have the wise men left the stable then King Herod plots to kill Jesus. He is so determined that he is willing to sacrifice many innocent lives in order to get to this one baby. Herod recognizes something about Jesus that in our sentiment we fail to see: that the birth of this child is a threat to his kingdom, a threat to that kind of domination and rule. Jesus challenges the very power structures of this evil age. Herod has all the male infants in Bethlehem murdered. Not so cozy. This is the Jesus who entered the bloody history of Israel, and the human race.

But we don't want to think about Herod. Van Horn calls him the "Ebenezer Scrooge without the conversion, the Grinch without a change of heart." We Christians like to talk about putting Christ back into Christmas, but let's not forget to put Herod back into Christmas.

Herod represents the dark side of the gospel. He reminds us that Jesus didn't enter a world of sparkly Christmas cards or a world of warm spiritual sentiment. Jesus enters a world of real pain, of serious dysfunction, a world of brokenness and political oppression. Jesus was born an outcast, a homeless person, a refugee, and finally he becomes a victim to the powers that be. Jesus is the perfect savior for outcasts, refugees, and nobodies. That's how the church is described in scripture time and time again—not as the best and the brightest—but those who in their weakness become a sign for the world of the wisdom and power of God.

Joy Carroll Wallis is an Anglican priest and was a consultant to the British television comedy series, The Vicar of Dibly. The quotation above is from a sermon delivered at Cedar Ridge Community Church.