Dr. Ron Sumners
December 14, 2003
This is the Christmas season. The sanctuary is decorated, most of us have Christmas trees, and our hearts are full and everyone is happy at Christmas… right?
No, there was one man who wasn’t happy about Christmas. In fact, he was pretty angry about the whole thing. He isn’t a make-believe character. He was very real. He hated Christmas and he never even heard the word. He was the man that history called Herod the Great.
He was born into a politically well-connected family and destined for a life of power brokering. At the age of 25 he was named the governor of Galilee, a high position for such a young man. The Romans were hoping that Herod could control the Jews who lived in that area. In 40 B.C. the Roman Senate called him “King of the Jews.” It was a title that he hated because he was anything but religious. He wanted as little to do with anything Jewish as possible.
Herod was the embodiment of the ultimate villain. He exhibited four characteristics that are typical for bullies and despots.
Herod was preoccupied with power. Power has been described as the ultimate human obsession. If power were an alcoholic beverage, Herod was passed out on the floor, drunk with it. The Bible links power with sin. If power is defined as the ability to control resources in order to secure one’s destiny, then Herod was the epitome of power.
His life, and the use of his power, can be summed up in three words: he was capable, crafty and cruel.
Herod was extremely capable in what he was asked to do. Soon after becoming king, he wiped out several bands of guerillas that were terrorizing the country side and used subtle diplomacy to make peace with many competing factions.
In addition to being capable, Herod was also very crafty. He arranged all his relationships as conduits for power. His craftiness had no barriers. Because he didn’t trust anyone, he was also a cruel man. He held tightly to the reigns of power and brutally removed anyone who got in his way. Over the years he killed many people: his brother-in-law, his mother-in-law, two of his sons, and even his wife.
Herod was a cruel killer. He murdered out of spite and he killed to stay in power. Human life meant nothing to him. The great historian Josephus called him “barbaric,” another writer called him the “malevolent maniac.” The intensity of Herod’s cruelty grew in direct proportion to the amount of power he possessed.
Herod was also preoccupied with possessions. He wanted it all. He desired everything a Roman Emperor had. With the knack of a Donald Trump, Herod built seven palaces and seven theaters, one of which seated 9,500 people. He even built stadiums for sporting events. The largest could seat 300,000 people! He even constructed a new temple for the Jews.
Herod was obsessed with what he could build and possess.
Herod was preoccupied with prestige. He loved to make an impression on others. He built entire cities with state of the art architecture and amenities and named them after his superiors. He was also a smooth talker and had a special ability to win over his opponents. Several of his ten marriages were prestige oriented and politically motivated. He once married the daughter of his leading rival in order to gain prestige and power.
Herod also suffered from paranoia. Ever since an enemy had poisoned Herod’s father, who had been king, Herod was paranoid about most everything. He went to great lengths to make sure poison never got in his food. He had servants who tasted everything he ate before he would partake. He commissioned tens of thousands of slaves to build 10 emergency fortresses, all heavily armed and well provisioned. He also established an elaborate network of spies. Anyone with a plot to overthrow Herod was sniffed out and eliminated quickly. Those who opposed him would be invited to a midnight swim in the Jordan River with a cement overcoat on!
Herod ruled for more than 40 years, until he clashed with another king, one who was also called, “The King of the Jews.”
Now, with that as background, let’s fast-forward to the final months of Herod’s life. Herod the Great, King of the Jews, is slowly dying of what modern scholars think was a venereal disease. His body was racked with convulsions, his breath foul, his skin covered with open sores, and he was rapidly losing his mind. But he was still the king. One day word comes to him in Jerusalem that some visitors have arrived from the East.
These were strange men . . . with strange questions. They were stargazers and they requested an interview with Herod. They asked him a question that shook him to the core: “Where is the one who was born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
They were looking for a King of the Jews. Herod must have thought, “What is up with that? I am the King of the Jews.” But he wasn’t born a king. He had to fight and kill to get and keep the title.
“What were these men talking about? Why didn’t his spies tell about this threat to his throne?”
Matthew 2:3 says, “When Herod heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him.” The word “disturbed” means to shake violently. And no wonder he was shaking. He had finally subdued all his enemies. He had killed all his foes and was ready to die triumphantly. Now these strangers come with their strange questions. No time to rest now. There was one more person to kill; a young child who claims to be king. No wonder that all Jerusalem was shaken . . . no one knew what this wacko would do next.
Even though Herod is old and sick, remember the three words I used to describe him; capable, crafty and cruel. He knew that somewhere in the ancient oracles was a prediction of the exact place where the Messiah or anointed one of God would be born. So, he called together his advisers and found that the city was Bethlehem.
Herod calls for the stargazers and tells them to go find the child so that he can worship him. Off they went. The star that had led them over 800 miles through the desert reappeared and led them to the exact house Jesus was in. When they found Jesus, they bowed down and worshipped him, offering expensive gifts.
By the way, this event happened much later than our Christmas cards and Nativity scenes depict. These wise men did not actually arrive the night Jesus was born. Their trip across the desert would have taken many months. Verse 9 tells us that the star stopped over the place where the young child was. The word used means “toddler” not a newborn baby. Also verse 10 tells us that it was a house they came to not a stable. I guess we can just use some white-out on our Christmas cards!
The mysterious men from the East knew something Herod would never know; that the little boy in the house would one day rule all of creation. They were not ashamed to give him gifts fit for a king.
God warned them not to go back to Herod and they step off the stage of history and returned to their own country.
When Herod realized that he had been tricked, he went crazy. Remember that he was a bloodthirsty killer by nature. All the worst instincts of a lifetime of cruelty now came to the surface. He was furious and did something worthy of Hitler or Stalin or Saddam Hussein. He ordered the cold-blooded murder of all males less than two years of age. Herod the Great became the Butcher of Bethlehem.
Rarely in history was a battle between kings so dismally stacked, Herod the capable, crafty, and cruel dictator filled with power, possessions, prestige, and paranoia, armed with firepower, resources and an army – and little Jesus, held safely in the arms of his loving mother.
To say that the two kings, Herod and Jesus, merely crossed paths is way too mild. According to the fundamental law of physics, the force of impact depends upon speed and direction. Jesus and Herod were both moving rapidly, but in totally opposite directions. King Herod represented the popular perception of power: get it, keep it, and use it. King Jesus had a simpler, yet radical philosophy: use power to serve others.
No wonder the two kings clashed! They both possessed immense power, but how they chose to use it revealed the hearts of the two radically different men. One was a tyrant, the other a servant. One was consumed with self-interest, the other focused on pleasing God and serving others. One manipulated, slandered, deceived, and coerced; the other healed, touched, taught and loved.
Herod the Great was perhaps the ultimate oxymoron in history. Rich in what most of us consider valuable, he was totally bankrupt as a human being. He was addicted to power, obsessed with possessions, focused on prestige, and filled with paranoia.
In the final year of his life, Herod’s body was infected with disease. His pain was so bad that he often screamed through the night.
Jesus, after a life of poverty and lowly position, descended yet further; to a rough-hewn wooden cross. His cries, like Herod’s, also pierced the night. By completely yielding his power, he also died. But there was a critical difference – Herod could not save himself from death; Jesus could have, but he chose not to.
In life, Jesus willingly suffered from the abuse of religious leaders, the ignorant, and the hard-hearted. He suffered the betrayal of friends, beatings and finally death on our behalf. He did this all for the purpose of demonstrating God’s incredible love. While Herod wielded the power of hate, Jesus used the power of liberating love.
If you and I take a hard look inside, we will see a little of Herod staring back at us. Given the right situation, every one of us is capable of working a little of Herod’s magic – especially if it helps us get what we want. I know that there is still some Herod kicking around inside of me! He comes out when I would rather rule than serve; when I focus on what I own rather than what I ought to give; when I would rather be honored than look for ways to honor others; and when I see others as a threat instead of as people who matter to God.
I’d like for us to take a little assessment to see how we are doing this morning. Let me ask you some questions. Which king is ruling your life right now? Are you infected with the virus of self-promotion and craftiness this Christmas? Do you think more about yourself than others? Do you crave power and the adrenaline rush that comes from controlling your own resources and controlling the people around you? Are you more afraid of what others may think of you than you are of God’s opinion of you? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, Herod may be sitting at the control board of your life!
Herod the king and Jesus the king still clash today. In fact, they compete with each other for control of our lives. The old Bob Dylan song says, “You gotta' serve somebody!”
Herod stated that he wanted to worship Jesus. It strikes me that Herod was in no way interested in bowing down to another king. Are you like Herod in this regard? Do say that you love Jesus and worship Him, but you are just going through the motions? “You gotta’ serve somebody”, who will it be? Will you serve Herod, which means you basically serve yourself, or will you serve Jesus? It is a decision that you will make this Christmas!
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