Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents in the season of Christmas. Yes, it’s the twelve day Christmas season until Epiphany on January 6th, and don’t you forget it!
Anyway, most of you know the story of how Herod received the news of Christ’s birth. It was not like that well meaning 1962 song “Do You Hear What I Hear” in which the local king welcomes and proclaims the birth of the child that “will bring us goodness and light.” No, the actual local king, Herod, did his worst to kill the Child, even to the point of having the male infants of Bethlehem slaughtered. Those are the Holy Innocents.
Yes, dark and familiar. And our inclination is to write that off as the homicidal madness of one evil man. Now no question Herod was quite insane. He was particularly paranoid and ruthless about any perceived threat to his position and power. Hence not only was he troubled at the news of “he that is born King of the Jews” but “all Jerusalem with him.” (Matt. 2:2-3) No telling what mad Herod would do about a rival to his throne as he was in his later years, in poor health, and even more insane.
But there is more going on here than just the deranged evil of one man. Yesterday was St. John’s Day. And St. John’s depiction of the Nativity of Christ provides insight into what was behind Herod’s effort to kill him.
“What?” you say. “St. John’s Gospel skips the birth of Jesus.” And you are correct. But he wrote a symbolic Nativity in his Apocalypse, in Revelation 12.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. (KJV)
Leaving aside the identity of the woman — the most common interpretation through the centuries is that she is the church — the child who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron (a reference to Psalm 2) is obviously Christ. And if you guessed the dragon is Satan, you would be correct again. So it was not only Herod who tried to destroy Christ, but Satan behind him egging him on, just as Satan later egged on Judas Iscariot.
Satan failed to kill Christ — rather he failed to kill Christ and keep him dead. So, as the chapter goes on to depict, Satan, enraged at his failure, at Christ’s victory and at the growth of His Holy Church, goes on to “make war” on Christ’s brethren, upon the faithful Church. Keep that in mind with the now annual attacks on churches every Christmas. It is no coincidence that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world.
Thus far more than Herod is the problem; it is the Satan and his forces of evil. But there is another problem. It is us.
“What? Speak for yourself! I love the baby Jesus!” And I’m sure you do, as I do. But are we so Christmasy when that babe who is now King of King and Lord of Lords seeks to be your King? When he makes claims on you? We should be glad about his authority, and on a good day we might be. But on those not so good days, wouldn’t we rather be our own kings and queens? Once we get past Christmas, instead of singing to “the newborn King”, we’re prone to singing, “You’re not the boss of me now.”
John Keble preached a convicting sermon — he preached a lot of those — on this very subject on a Holy Innocents Day. (Plain Sermons, Vol 2, Sermon 72. I’ve failed to find an online version sadly.) One of his observations is downright prophetic:
Let a Christian once allow himself to find Christ’s commandments too strict for him, and there is no knowing how soon he may be a confirmed unbeliever.
Is this not like many church leaders, deconstructors, and exvangelicals today who began their apostasy by going soft on sexual morality? Refusing to obey Christ’s authority in one area, particularly an area sensitive to oneself or to the prevalent culture, can be a door to opposing his authority altogether. When a church or church leader or teacher goes soft on any substantial area on which Scripture teaches, we should beware. And those in a position to do so should immediately call for repentance before the disobedience grows into outright apostasy.
At the same time it is easy to point fingers at such or at Herod and ignore those many times we are like Herod. We’d rather be our own rulers than having Christ rule us. We might be more subtle about it than Herod; we share that obdurate tendency with him nonetheless.
I’m not much into New Years Resolutions, but a good one would be: Don’t be Herod. Welcome and follow Christ’s authority over your life instead of trying to evade or even subvert it. Jesus is a better king than Herod or yourself anyway.
Which is all the more reason to continue to have a Happy Christmas.
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This is a lightly edited version of a post from Mark’s substack.
