Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading, from nearly the end of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, commands Jerusalem to arise and shine. Light has come even though night still covers the earth. The people are gathering and you will grow radiant. All will come bringing gold and incense and they will sing the praise of the Lord. Matthew’s Gospel describes the scene where astrologers from the east arrive in Jerusalem. The ask for the location of the “newborn king of the Jews” as they have seen a star rising in the sky. King Herod was disturbed by this and asked his chief priests and scribes. They told him that the Messiah was foretold to be born in Bethlehem. He sent the astrologers to Bethlehem and asked them to report back to him after finding the Messiah so that he (Herod) could offer homage also. The astrologers travelled to Bethlehem and found Jesus, paid him homage and presented him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In a dream they were told to return by a different route and did not return to give a report to Herod.

I’ve spoken of this reading in several different places and I’ve normally preached a sermon of joy. I focused on the astrologers (who we’ve described as the “Three Wise Men”) who presented gifts to the newborn Savior and how we continue in their tradition in the gifts we give each other for Christmas. I described how we give each other gifts because we recognize the Christ in each other.

That’s all true, but there is a darker theme in these readings and while we don’t like to recognize it, it’s true nonetheless.

The darkness centers on King Herod. Herod was a Jew, but we know that his father was a convert to Judaism and Herod’s “Jewish cred” was thin. Religions like Christianity and Islam seek to convert others to their religion, but Judaism does not. This may be hard for many of us to understand, but the fact that Herod was a recent convert made him suspicious to most Jews of the time. They weren’t entirely convinced of his sincerity and honestly, his actions in this reading make their point.

You see, most Christians think of the Jews/Israelites who lived between the Exodus from Egypt and the birth of Jesus as poor desert dwellers. The truth is much, much more complicated. It’s true that they conquered the land we now know as Israel and it’s true that they were conquered by the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans, but it doesn’t mean they were all marginalized and poor.

In reality some of them were able to do well, and become quite wealthy and influential. The Herod we read in this Gospel was one of them. As a Jew he professed to await the Messiah, but in reality he was doing just fine and the arrival of the Messiah would have messed things up for him. He never would have admitted this but the arrival of the Messiah and promised liberation would have robbed him of his status and place in society.

This explains the attention he gave the astrologers. They were not a cause of joy for him, but instead a cause of fear. Herod feared that these astrologers foretold not the redemption of the Savior but the end of his cushy life. His power over the Jews depended on the continuing domination of the Romans and the absence of the Messiah. Only then was he able to rule.

And Herod was destroyed by a dream. The astrologers were warned not to return to Jerusalem but instead return by another route. Herod was robbed of the opportunity of killing Jesus.

And this informs us of the most horrible part of the story. At some point Herod figures out that he’d been duped by the astrologers and needed to do something to make sure this child didn’t fulfill the prophecy that would end his luxury. The passages after this gospel describe how an angel appeared to Joseph and Mary and warn them to flee to Egypt because Jesus’ life was in danger. But after they fled Herod demanded that all boys two years old or younger were to be killed.

We don’t know how many male infants and toddlers were killed but we commemorate their memory each year on December 28th and call them the “Holy Innocents.” And while the experience of the astrologers giving gifts to Jesus shows us how generosity can be contagious, so too can be sin.

Herod’s fear of losing his position caused him to plan the death of Jesus, but when that didn’t work he grew a great deal more evil. That happens sometimes: an employee steals a small amount of money from his employer and finds it unsatisfying so he steals more and more until he is caught. A politician accepts a bribe thinking “it will just be this one time” but gets addicted and can’t explain his way out when the spotlight hits him.

Thinking his plan to kill Jesus just needs to be broader, Herod moves from murder to genocide and untold children are murdered.

And they were murdered for no reason. Herod’s plan didn’t work because Jesus was in Egypt and beyond Herod’s reach. As a matter of fact, according to Matthew’s Gospel, the Holy Family stayed in Egypt until Herod died. Full disclosure: Most sources believe that Herod died shortly after these events and there is reason to doubt that any boy was actually murdered but the point remains valid: Herod was an evil man who knew no limits in his ambition.

But here’s the takeaway from this reading: even limitless evil does not work. Herod went to horrendous lengths to protect himself and it didn’t work. But even a generation later, when Pontius Pilate was successful in killing Jesus, it still didn’t work. Jesus’ resurrection proves that no matter how powerful evil gets, it’s still not powerful enough to defeat good. Herod was defeated by the astrologers’ dream (to return by a different route), by Joseph’s dream (to flee to Egypt), and finally by his own death.

We are Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, not because of luck or power, but because God decided to go “all in” with us. Nobody knows the power of evil better than God because God knows the power of good better than we do.

I have to confess a certain amusement that the Holy Family escaped to Egypt for safety when their ancestor Moses fled Egypt as a place of enslavement. This tells me that there is no place on earth that is outside God’s safety.

Thousands of years later we find ourselves in a world that puts great emphasis in limits and borders. None of us find the idea of escaping persecution hard to imagine. But its become a cottage industry here in the United States to believe that those who escape evil have only themselves to blame, as if they are escaping only to create evil in other places.

In reality the 21st Century refugees read today’s Gospel with knowing nods. They flee not with an agenda toward their destinations but with grief toward their home. When they arrive they care only for the safety of themselves and their descendants and are willing to sacrifice their own lives to invest in their children.

If Herod horrifies us from 2000 years ago, we should also be horrified when people are forced to flee today and also find no room at the inn.