The Madness at Christmas

Shock and Wonder Series – Christmas 2012 @ Life Church

Sunday 23rd December, morning services. 

I had prepared this message prior to the tragic events in the USA, which obviously affected how I chose to deliver this.  Perhaps God is saying something to us all.

Matthew 2:13-2:20

This morning I want to think a bit about a king.  After all it’s that time of year when we think and focus our attention upon the child-King, Jesus.  But I want to think about an adult king, Herod the great.

He is the patriarch of the Herodian Dynasty, the group that held sway in Palestine – albeit as puppet kings of the Roman Empire – before, during and after the time of Jesus.

1. Insanity in His Mind

His son, Herod Antipas, is the one who married his brother’s wife, beheaded John the Baptist after being duped by his step-daughter and wife, and he was also the Herod who assisted in Jesus’ crucifixion with Pontius Pilate to railroad Jesus on Good Friday. Herod Antipas was an unsavoury character – but know this – the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Daddy – Herod the Great – was a piece of work.  The title, ‘Herod the Great,’ was not granted because he was such a wonderful leader.  He was called  this because of his extravagant building program that included the Jewish Temple and the city of Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea.  But this is where any positive connotations associated with his name come to an end.

The treacherous manoeuvrings that he orchestrated cost lives, but he also got the Romans to name him Tetrarch of Galilee and a few years later “King of the Jews”.

Herod was ruthless.  He eliminated his enemies, his wife, mother-in-law and heirs – even his own sons.

One historical record says that when Herod fell gravely ill, he had many of the leading nobles of the city rounded up in an arena.  Herod had soldiers hold them there with orders to kill these people when he died.  Herod’s rationale: “If they won’t mourn me, at least they will have something to mourn.”

On other occasions he was known to disguise himself and mingle with the townsfolk, listening for grumbling words from the peasants.  If he heard anything that did not please him he would have them executed.  He was incredibly insecure.

2. Murder In His Heart

But he is best known for the mass murder of the infants in Bethlehem.

Matt. 2: 16: When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

We don’t tend to sing carols about this. 

We’re not told how many families this affected.  We are told it happened and historical records back this up. 

The numbers probably weren’t huge.  Maybe less than 100.  But those families at this first Christmas endured horror and suffering only – only because of Herod’s brutality and paranoia.

This murderous king wanted to destroy a potential rival, the King of kings that God had sent into the world – Jesus Christ.

Herod the Great is best remembered, not for what he did, but for what he failed to accomplish.  Herod is the king who couldn’t kill Jesus.

So many questions and concerns surge from this.

• Was it Jesus’ fault that those children in Bethlehem lost their lives?

• Why didn’t God warn the other families about Herod’s treachery?

• Why didn’t God intervene in order to stop Herod?

• Today we might ask: why do bad things happen to good people?

The big “why” questions are the hardest to answer and any answer in fact risks sounding trite.

These are the kinds of questions that get right to where we live out our lives. 

Considering the fairness of things or the rightness of things leads us to question the goodness or the omnipotence of God.

C. S. Lewis: “If God were good, he would wish to make his creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty he would be able to do as he wished.  But the creatures are not happy.  Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.”  [The Problem of Pain].

This is the classical argument made by the atheist.  The problem with this is that at its heart is the desire for self to be satisfied; this rationale sees God as our servant.

In essence – the Christian response to pain is, “I don’t know.”  No Christian theologian can honestly answer the “why question.”

We can only speak about what God has revealed about Himself.  So how do we address the “why question?”

By affirming two entirely opposite realities and we live in the tension of the two:

• First: To honestly acknowledge pain and suffering.

As with all tragedies, real pain and suffering come into the lives of people.  As long as we are on this side of eternity, this will be part and parcel of human life because of sin.

And that sin is part of all our reality – babies, mums, dads and the entire world.

Sin has brought pain and suffering to humanity.

Humankind has rejected the love of God and therefore we have a fallen creation, and consequences of a sin-felled humanity, like any cancer, strike without warning, mercilessly and unfairly.

• Secondly: God does love you and never leaves us, even in the midst of the why question.

The birth of Jesus promises this:

Matthew 1:22-24: All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

The birth of Jesus was the promise realised that God was always going to be with us!

Some would say when we become Christians that we then walking this bubble of protection that nothing will ever harm us.

It is true that the Bible promises no weapon formed against us will prosper [Isaiah 54:17].  The NIV uses the word prevail.  Both have the same idea: they won’t succeed or triumph. 

But remember my friends that does not mean that these things will not be formed and used against us.  It means that they won’t win!  Their fruit will not last.  We are victorious.

3. Life in His Blood.

It wasn’t Jesus’ time to die; Jesus still had a life to live.

When Herod pursued Jesus it just wasn’t His time because a Cross was waiting.

But when the time was absolutely perfect, this second truth, this incredible work of our living, loving God, the Cross of Jesus Christ, and his Resurrection, began the unravelling of all the treachery of the Herod’s and the human tragedies and pain and suffering of God’s children.

Is God all powerful?

Look at the Cross for those answers.

There, through a cruel instrument of pain and torture, Christ conquered the dominions and principalities and powers:

Colossians 2:15: And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

He destroyed the sting of death [1 Cor. 15:55] by taking of the sin that creates the tragedies.

Is God truly love personified?

Look there, at the Cross, where multiple aspects of love are on display:

• the Son willing giving His life for us.

• the Father willing giving the Son for us.

• the Divine great exchange taking place: our sinfulness and punishment for Christ righteousness and freedom.

These things that God offers us in his Son are not intended to provide a hollow or pat answer to people experiencing pain.

Nor does this exempt us from the suffering associated with tragedies on this side of eternity.

Pain is still a part of this life.  There are no easy answers, but there is hope. 

• Hope that we aren’t passing through these trials alone [Matt. 28: 20b].  
• Hope because we know our God understands what suffering is like because He endured it in countless ways as Jesus suffered and died [Mark 15:34; Hebrews 4:15]. 
• Hope because the grave does not have the last word [1 Corinthians. 15:55]. 
• Hope that the day will come when all tears will be wiped away and that there will be no more suffering and pain [Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4].

Wrapping it up:

Herod couldn’t kill Jesus because Jesus was going to give His life willingly.

The King of kings has triumphed over the evils perpetrated by all the earthly kings that preceded Him and those that followed.

The shock is that tragedy also surrounded the birth of Jesus because of an evil king.

The wonder is that Jesus was born at all.

What will you do with Him this season?