The message seems so clear.
Why are so many fervent believers in the Christmas message unable to apply it to today’s world and the leadership of our own nation?
From the second chapter of the Book of Matthew:
Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.
And from the Emperor Augustus in 4 BCE:
Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium.
It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.
The ruthlessness was stunning, even to the emperor himself. Decades before, Herod had murdered his wife and had her family killed when he heard rumors that his in-laws were conspiring against him. Twenty years later, he had two of his own sons killed for possible conspiracy.
Now, he had another thought. After he had named Antipater as his heir, he began to suspect this son might also plot against him. Antipater was a victorious General by then. Emperor Augustus had to approve the execution, so he may have said what he is quoted as saying. Herod was the appointed King of Israel, so he would not have killed swine, at least for food. Killing his children was another matter.
About the same time, Herod is said to have ordered the killing of about two dozen children in and around Bethlehem. It is doubtful Augustus even heard about that, or that he would have cared if he did.
Christians cared, years later when there were Christians. We sometimes call it the Massacre of the Innocents. Matthew is applying early scripture from the Book of Jeremiah. When Jerusalem fell to Babylonian conquerors, scripture has Rachel the ancestor crying out in grief for the dead.
The Biblical story has been dramatized ever since. Herod hears through travelers from the East, the three wise men, of a new King born in Bethlehem. Once they find the new King destined to replace him, he wants them to let him know all about it.
If you find this child, bring me word. That I too might worship him.
Claude Rains as Herod in The Greatest Story Ever Told
Then he has all male infants age two and under slaughtered.
Go to Bethlehem and kill this child. To be sure, every newborn boy in Bethlehem must die.
Be certain that none escape.
Well yeah, just to be sure.
Not everything you’ve been taught in Sunday School is gospel, of course. There is only one non-Christian reference to the mass-murders, and that ancient historian has some historical facts a little garbled. Macrobius has Herod’s son included in the Bethlehem slaughter because he is one of the infants under two years of age, which seems an unlikely age for a military officer.
Macrobius is also the ancient source for the remark by Augustus about Herod, his unlucky sons, and his lucky pigs. It’s an ancient play on words, since pig and son sounded a little alike back then. But it would only work if Augustus was speaking Greek.
And it seems a boneheaded move for three allegedly wise men to tell Herod all about the star and Bethlehem, even if they did not know he was a remarkable sociopath. Let’s imagine the recklessness:
Can you help us, your majesty?
We’re looking for the NEW King you don’t know about yet.
The one who will be ready to replace you.
Still, Herod might have known about a future rescuer of Israel that was to come from Bethlehem. There were prophesies.
Augustus might have made a Greek pun or two. Lots of upper class Romans spoke Greek, especially when they were showing off a bit. Greek was the language of education. And the most wealthy families had tutors from Greece.
The ancient attack on infants would have provided a pretty good reason for Mary and Joseph to take their little future king and escape to Egypt.
There is some scholarly skepticism about the mass murder. But no argument involves Herod being incapable of such monstrosity. Someone who would murder so many in his own family would not have much moral objection to killing the children of strangers.
The death of those children and the flight of the family of Jesus to Egypt to escape the massacre, whether true or not, really ought to resonate among today’s Christians. We don’t know how Mary and Joseph were treated when they became foreign migrants looking for sanctuary.
Were these new refugees, escaping from violence, regarded by Egyptians as a danger themselves?
They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.
Were they closed off from others because, as Jews, they did not share the religious beliefs of most Egyptians?
…total and complete shutdown of Muslims…
Or were they welcomed, maybe even helped?
Christians sometimes look for parallels in today’s world as we speak our rituals and read our ancient teachings.
We can be tempted to lose a basic lesson. Immigrants, even those who cross into the United States apart from established points of entry, have the legal right to a hearing. If, after intense investigation, it turns out they are indeed refugees from violence or persecution, they have the right to sanctuary.
But our President says he wants more immigration from Europe, and fewer immigrants from the south, whether they are refugees or not.
Why aren’t we letting people in from Europe?
– Donald Trump at CPAC, March 15, 2013
The current administration has ordered a slowdown at southern border crossings. Manpower has been cut. People are now processed at an absurdly slow rate. Those obediently following instructions, staying in line, find themselves waiting along roadways or on bridges for weeks, and sometimes months. They are vulnerable to heat, cold, hunger, and thirst.
And their children share in the danger.
That danger is deliberately amplified. Border patrols are assigned to seek out supplies left in the wilderness by those of good will to help those desperate to survive. When our agents find those little jugs of water and baskets of food, they are ordered to destroy them.
Children die in custody. Officials respond:
We’ll continue to look into the situation. But again, I cannot stress how dangerous this journey is, when migrants choose to come here illegally.
Kirstjen Nielsen, Homeland Security Secretary on Fox News
The hardship is not an oversight. It is policy.
Our government has adopted a strategy for the new goal of discouraging immigration by those it deems less desirable than others. Those who gather their children and run away from the monstrous violence largely financed by American drug money can be turned away, if only our nation becomes more monstrous than the conditions they flee.
On the day of the 9/11 attacks we watched, then listened to accounts about bodies hitting the pavement in New York. For years after, we wondered about the evil of bin Laden, until we could celebrate his death. What kind of person would cast innocent people in that situation, giving them that terrible choice: dying by burning or by leaping from a great height.
Today, our government works to provide a terrible choice to parents of vulnerable children. Stay in the conditions we have helped to create in your home countries, where your children are threatened with rape, violence and death.
Or discover we are worse than what you seek to escape.
Some of my brothers and sisters in Christ celebrate as we watch parents and children running through teargas.
News reports tell us our President believes he owes his office to those who are celebrating his actions, and that he will face defeat if he does not stoke, then satisfy, their hatreds.
And I remember the ancient stories with which I was raised:
Stories of a national ruler who tried to keep his hold on power by sending the powerful forces he controlled to attack little children.
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The Party of Trump rejoices in gleeful cruelty as people they hate lose food stamps, healthcare, and fair wages, and are deprived of voting rights, poll access, and fair elections with fair representation. If you are part of a minority, you are a target.
And that just applies to American citizens. If you are a foreign brown person or Muslim seeking asylum the cruelty is amplified.
Most Christians used to call this kind of cruelty evil. I still do. Lies, hate and cruelty are evil. Denial of this as evil only enables it further.
Let’s be clear. Trump is evil. Period. Those who support Trump are wittingly, or unwittingly, supporting evil. The same goes for the Party of Trump.
Time to call a spade a spade, folks.