CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred Weimert
December 30, 2007
Abuse of Power
Apparently the Gospel reading
for today
is one that has been left out of the assigned readings…
for a number of years…
And probably with good reason.
As was the case with the
reading from Isaiah for today…
those
who assemble the lectionaries like to leave out…
more unpleasant passages.
And today’s reading is
perhaps one of the most unpleasant passages
in all of the Christina scriptures…
In Biblical studies it is called “The Slaughter of
the Innocents.”
It is the story of Herod deciding
to murder all children under the
age of two
in the city of Bethlehem.
In relationship to this story
I would like you to hear a brief remark
made by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine which she made in an
article
found in The Oxford History of the Biblical World
(ed. by Michael D. Coogan, pg. 357)
“Although the historicity of the ‘slaughter
of the innocents’ in Matthew 2 is questionable in the absence of other
testimony—the story probably arose out of the evangelist’s strong interest in
connecting Jesus to Moses (see Exodus. 1-2 on the deaths of the Hebrew
children) and reflects the folkloric motif of endangered heroes—doing such a
thing would not have been out of character for Herod.”
I
would agree with Dr. Levine’s reasoning…
Surely if Herod had done such a heinous
thing
It would have been reported by
Josephus,
or some Roman
historian...
but it wasn’t.
I would also agree with her
that while the historicity of this
event can be questioned
there is little reason to doubt
that Herod
if he felt so inclined
could have
easily had those children murdered.
Herod the Great was known for
executing people whom he considered to be politically
hungry...
He
killed two wives
Mariamme
and Alexanda
He
killed three of his sons...
Alexander,
Aristobulus, and Antipater
Obviously Herod’s penchant for disposing of beloved aspirants
was well known even to Roman rulers...
Dr. Levine quoted a quip
made by Caesar Augustus:
“I would rather be Herod’s pig [hys]
than his son [huios].”
Herod could have murdered
these children,
but it is more likely that the story is told as Dr. Levine
indicates...
because Matthew was working hard in his gospel
to prove to a predominantly Jewish audience
that
Jesus was the one who was to come…
the
one who fulfilled
the expectation
of Jewish scripture.
In the first chapter of Matthew verse 17 he uses a form of
gematria
a Jewish system of numerology
to show
that Jesus was like Davidic...
We don’t catch it because we don’t read Hebrew
but when
Matthew wrote:
“Therefore all the generations
from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the
deportation to
He was speaking of three
divisions
with
a value of 14...
Most
Hebrew words have a three letter root.
and
Hebrew letters substituted for numbers...
so
words had values.
One
word with the value of 14
was
dalet = 4
wav
= 6
dalet
= 4
4
+ 6 +4 =14
Da
vid or David.
In similar fashion you will hear three times in
today’s reading
Matthew
tells how Jesus’ life fulfilled scripture.
First
the quotation from Jeremiah
about
Rachel weeping for her children,
which
is related to
the death of the
Then
the family fled to
to
fulfill the words of the prophet Hosea (ll:1)
“Out of
Which
in the original was obviously meant to apply
to
the exodus event.
Finally
is the statement about Joseph’s family
returning
not to
so
that
"He will be called a Nazorean."
The
problem with that logic
is that coming from
hardly made one a Nazarene...
To become a Nazarene you
took a vow...
didn’t cut your hair
didn’t drink wine.
John the Baptist sounds
more like a Nazarene...
but when people
compared Jesus to the
ascetic John...
They called Jesus
a winebibber…
a drunkard… (Mt. 11: 19)
Matthew
is very concerned with showing Jesus to be
like Moses,
Hear his words:
Matthew 2: 13-23
Now after they had left,
an angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a dream
and said,
"Get up,
take the child and his mother,
and flee to
and remain there until I tell you;
for Herod is about to search for the child,
to destroy him."
Then Joseph got up,
took the child and his mother by
night,
and went to
and remained there until the
death of Herod.
This was to fulfill
what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet,
"Out of
When Herod saw that he had been
tricked by the wise men,
he was infuriated,
and he sent and killed all the children
in and around
who were two years old or under,
according to the
time
that he had learned from the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what had been
spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
"A
voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled,
because they are no more."
When Herod died,
an angel of the Lord suddenly
appeared in a dream
to Joseph in
and said,
"Get up,
take the child and his mother,
and go to the
for those who were seeking the child's life are dead."
Then Joseph got up,
took the child and his mother,
and went to the
But when he heard that Archelaus
was ruling over
in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go there.
And after being warned in a dream,
he went away to the district of Galilee.
There he made his home
in a town called
so that what had
been spoken
through the prophets might be fulfilled,
"He will be called a Nazorean."
...here
ends the reading.
I
doubt that most of us are much concerned
with proving Jesus to be like Moses...
for us that would be a step
down for Jesus.
Moses was a mere
mortal...
Jesus was something
more for us.
So
what does the reading do for us?
Are we going to be comfortable with a
God...
who helps his son, Jesus,
escape from harm...
While leaving these other loving
parents
in the dark...
grieving the loss of
their beloved murdered children.
What are we to think of Mary and Joseph
who just steal off into the
night...
saving themselves
and leaving their
neighbors’ children to be murdered”
At
least in the Moses story,
while Pharaoh wanted all of the male
children killed,
the midwives
acting as God’s agents
didn’t let
that happened.
Their clever answer to
Pharaoh’s question
Why no deaths?
was spoken with courage:
"Because the Hebrew women
are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before
the midwife comes to them." Ex. 1: 16
In so speaking out they saved
all of the boys…
not just Moses.
But
here it appears that Jesus alone gets saved...
are you happy with that God...
This isn’t a good lesson
especially for
children...
“We could get
along ‘quite well’ without you...”
my
parents said that from time to time,
but
they didn’t mean it.
Should we feel we are
expendable to God?
I hope not.
I hope we like
John Donne believe
“any man’s death...
any woman’s death...
diminishes me
because I am
involved in mankind.”
If
we can take anything from this story
it should be that all of our strength
should be used
to avert the abuses of power
which can lead to the
slaughter of the innocent.
I
read a report recently which stated:
“In the Vietnam War, 3
million civilians died; in the
Those are very tragic figures...
but what can we do?
I’ll
tell you the real tragedy...
The real tragedy is that the title of
that, 14 page, report was:
“The Human Cost of the War in
A Mortality Study, 2002-2006
The report was issued by
Bloomberg
and in cooperation with
Center for International
Studies
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
and
the conclusion of the report was
that after deducting the normal...
expected annual death rate
for the nation of
which was computed
over the 15 months before the war began,
…after deducting that
normal death rate…
there have been excess
deaths numbering 654,965
from 2003-2006
“of these, 601,027
have died from violence.” pg. 12
“...violent
deaths are almost entirely in males.”
pg. 11
You can find the report on
the internet.
Now the results of this
survey
may have that usual+ or –
4% error
but that will not give us the less than 50,000
numbers
we occasionally hear bantered about.
The slaughter of the innocent
isn’t just ancient history...
and it’s not just
Herod’s problem.
We can’t just sit back
like Augustus
and make quips about it...
as if we have not shared guilt...
as if their blood isn’t on our hands.
Oh all the bombs and the bullets
may not have been ours…
but the destabilization of this land
was brought on
by our fear and hubris.
The child born in
was born because God
cared about life…
was born to call us to
become involved...
with God and
our neighbor.
may
we realize that we can’t do one
without
addressing the other. Amen.