01-11-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 11, 2024
This Sunday, we will look at the scripture from Matthew’s Gospel called the Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 2:13ff), when Herod, who was the King of Judea, gave orders to execute every child two years old and under living around Bethlehem. Now such an order would have been recorded in Roman history, and since it was not, there is some question about its historical validity. For the Gospel writer Matthew, there is an underlying theme of Jesus as the new Moses, and so there is the connection being made between Pharaoh seeking to kill the children of the Israelites when Moses was only a baby and Herod wanting to kill any threats to him after the Magi announced a new King of the Jews. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, there were those who were threatened by him—those who often had great power, authority, and armies. Why is it that Jesus would have been a threat to them? I believe this is a question not only asked of Herod, but also of people throughout history who should have felt incredibly secure yet not only felt threatened but also acted upon those feelings. Some will say it is because they have more to lose, but I don’t believe that necessarily answers the question. I am going to suggest something for which I have no empirical evidence, but I believe many people in places of power have an unspoken realization of just how truly fragile their power structures are, and things as unexpectedly absurd as love and mercy could not be ignored. These powerful yet threatened people knew how to defeat armies and other traditional dangers, but the love and mercy, gentleness and kindness, made them feel very uneasy. In the end, even killing the individuals who represent these heavenly ideals is not to destroy the true power, as its source is God. Sadly, because these Jesus-like attributes rarely have immediate success, people exchange them rather quickly for more traditional methods that are not as threatening to the powerful. Like a lot of things in the Christian movement, this sort of sounds counterintuitive, but think of people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His approach threatened no one, but it was terribly threatening to many.

Though it is rarely easy to remain true to the ways of Jesus, Gracious Lord, I pray for both resilience and patience, as those were attributes found in Jesus. May his living spirit continue to be my mentor in this work. Amen.