Herod Understood

Wineskins Contributor・12/28/18

When the wise men came to Herod and told him a new king was born, Herod knew exactly what that meant. His sovereignty had been called into question. Paranoid Herod did what paranoid control freaks do - he tried to have the newly born king killed before he was a threat. Let him grow up and it will be too late.

Baby Jesus is cute and cuddly. He seems and looks controllable, like you could pick him up and carry him around the house. Not so with grown up Jesus.

Herod was crazy but Herod understood this one simple fact. Jesus is a threat to our sovereignty. There could only be one king and we must choose who it is going to be.

None of us would want to murder Jesus, if that were even possible. But many of us take steps to ensure our own sovereignty, our own rule and our own control. Like Herod many lives are affected by our actions in this regard. We find ways to conveniently brush Jesus to the side and don't allow King Jesus fully into the center of our lives. In short, he is king and we aren't submitting.

It is time we are honest with ourselves about any similarities to Herod we might embrace. Jesus is king and that means that I am not so I need to stop acting like I am.