“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her king!” Except Herod thinks he is a king and not the president of the United States.
Worse still, there are people who identify as Christians yet stand behind him. They believe he represents their interests, that the agenda of the “kin-dom” can be fulfilled through his campaign promises, and that one’s faith in Jesus is proven by support of him, specifically. God forbid.
Still, they give three cheers for Herod, who claims to be “the chosen one.” In the Bible, Herod massacred the innocents. In America, the Trump administration used a government shutdown to withhold SNAP benefits, affecting 12.4 million children. For just 30 cents a day, you can feed an American.
Wall-to-wall news coverage of his failing administration, he surrounds himself with yes men and women and travels to rallies where the crowds sing his praises. But what of Mary’s Magnificat, her song of praise? Hers is the “first noel.”
Depending on who is in office, how quickly we change our tune. We look at presidents as savior-kings, voted in to deliver us from one group or another and to ensure that our side rules. Four or eight years, it is a temporary win, a quick fix.
Still, raindrops keep falling on Trump’s head. Having no interest in climate change, even if it suggested the coming Messiah, he would not believe the report of the Magi.
Trump does not trust the wise men. He doesn’t believe in science. This is fake news to him.
Paranoid though a self-described “stable genius,” there is plenty of room for him: homes, hotels, golf courses and other rental properties. All in his name, it all comes back to him.
Persons stand in line just to be in the same room with him. Yet, Mary and Joseph will go door-to-door with Jesus on board, as we have no room for them.
Poverty-stricken Nazareth probably wouldn’t have been on our list of vacation destinations. It’s no place to raise a savior. Nothing good comes from there.
Some talk with such certainty as if they know where simple and supreme goodness dwells. They are certain of where and with whom God should be found.
“Being religious does not translate across the board into being good or trustworthy,” Eugene Peterson wrote in The Jesus Way. “Religion is one of the best covers for sin of almost all kinds.”
The “kin-dom” of God is here and its ruler is in a feeding trough. Jesus is wrapped not in the finest of linens, but in milk rags.
Jesus squirms and so does Herod. God in the flesh, Jesus gets under Herod’s skin.
But this is a given. The prophet Isaiah said, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders” (9:6).
Jesus’s ministry is not good for a capitalist society, a tyrannical government, a prison-industrial complex or a healthcare system that seeks to enrich pharmaceutical companies. Jesus is bad for business, principalities and powers. Politicians say, “God bless America” as if it is a given, but it is better offered as a prayer request.
Herod is cursing and Jesus is cooing. Herod is pacing the floor while Mary is up all night with Jesus, who has his days and nights mixed up.
Jesus cannot walk and Herod cannot stand the fact that his kingdom does not have a leg to stand on because the “kin-dom” of God has come near.
Herod fears he will be overthrown and tosses and turns. He can’t get comfortable.
The world is not big enough for him and Jesus. One of them must go.
Keep this in mind and govern yourselves accordingly.
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
