Herod Much?
A bit of pre-Lenten thinking
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. (Matthew 2:3-4)
Herod wanted to locate the Christ-child to destroy him (Matthew 2:13).
Evil intent aside, Herod’s perspective is short sighted. The Christ — Messiah in Hebrew — was expected to come and liberate the Jewish people from their Roman occupiers and establish a new Jewish kingdom, based on the ancient glories of King David. Why wouldn’t Herod want that for his people?
Herod was a Jew, but served as a Roman-allowed regent, to give the Jews a veneer of national identity while the Romans taxed and trampled them.
Put bluntly, Herod like the perks of his job. Forget about some divine promise of everlasting freedom, peace, and abundance — Herod was living his best life now. And would kill the holy child to keep it that way.
When Christians pray as Jesus taught, we ask God to let
…thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
But as any honest Christian knows, we have our “Herod” features. We have thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and stuff that don’t belong in God’s kingdom.
A useful pre-Lenten reflection might be to ask what Herod-like preferences I have:
How is my life self-centered and short sighted?
How do I lord over and enjoy the perks of my little time and space, rather than live as a citizen of my true homeland?
Identifying such Herodian influence can suggest Lenten disciplines by which to surrender our crowns and join the heavenly host in worshipping the living and eternal God.
I really liked your thought on Herod, being a “Jew”… why wouldn’t he desire the Messiah’s presence. Though, seeing his desire to keep things as they always have been, that desire present clearly puts him outside the desire of the Jewish dogma.