Years ago a friend of mine was with his nephew in the card department of a store at Christmas time. The nephew (around 12 at the time) was shocked to hear a boy about his age ask his Dad, “Who is this baby on all the cards?” My friend’s nephew went to Catholic School and had been taken to Sunday Mass by his parents since he was an infant. He could not understand how someone could live in Canada and not know that the baby on Christmas cards was Jesus.
Today it is more common to find Christmas cards with Santa, Christmas trees and poinsettas than a picture of a baby on them. We who have grown up in families that attend church services are so used to seeing pictures of the baby Jesus and hearing carols about singing angels, shepherds and wise men, Mary, Joseph and Jesus that they seem commonplace. Silent Night, Holy Night, All is calm, all is bright - it is a picture that comes to our minds all through Christmas season. But it didn’t take long for things to take an ugly turn. You might say all hell broke loose.
St. Matthew is the only Gospel writer who tells us the story of the men from the east who came to Jerusalem to find a baby born to be king of the Jews. They are called ‘wise men’ by St. Matthew -some think they were astrologers possibly because they had followed a star. Traditionally there are three because they brought three gifts to the baby - gold, frankincense and myrrh - but there could have been more or or even less than three. It is said they were ‘wise men from the East’, but no one knows where they came from.
In Jerusalem, the travellers visited Herod the Great who strived to stay on the right side of the Roman rulers and was doing quite well at it, thank you. Herod had built a palace at Caesarea Maritima (in honour of Caesar Augustus) and though he maintained he was a Jew, did everything he could to stay in Caesar’s good graces. Caesar Augustus claimed the title ‘Son of god’ for himself as his stepfather, Julius Caesar was worshipped by the Romans as god. When, years later, Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was, St. Peter answered, “You are the Son of the living God.’ that is, not the son of a dead god, Julius Caesar.
Herod the Great was a ruthless man who murdered anyone who got in his way, including his own wife and sons. When Herod heard from the visitors that there had been a baby born who was to be King of the Jews, he felt his place as ‘king’ was seriously threatened. He found out that Bethlehem was the insignificant town that the prophet Micah, who had prophesied 700 years earlier, would be the birthplace of ‘...a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’ (Micah 5:2). And so that is where Herod advised the men to go and cunningly told them to bring him news about the baby so that he could go and worship him, too. The wise men did not suspect Herod’s intentions, so perhaps they were not all that wise after all.
The men did find the baby with his mother Mary and Joseph now in a house in Bethlehem and presented him with the three gifts, gold (because he was a King), frankincense (because he was a priest) and myrrh (because he would die). Fortunately, God warned them not to return to Herod, and they went back to their country by a different route.
Joseph also had a dream that was that he should flee to Egypt with the child and his mother because Herod was planning to find the child and destroy him.
Herod was not happy about being tricked by the wise men and sent his soldiers to kill all the boys under two years old and under in Bethlehem. Does this mean that the story of the wise men’s visit could have been up to two years after Jesus’ birth? As Bethlehem was a small town, there may not have been that many boys killed, but their mothers surely wept for them. “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled because they were no more.” They are remembered as the Holy Innocents and the first martyrs.
The Holy Family stayed in Egypt until they heard that Herod the Great had died.
Jesus continued to be in danger throughout his life. Like Herod, the Devil (or Satan or whatever you like to call the embodiment of all evil) does not like to lose his role as ‘ruler of the world’. Herod’s son, also King Herod, had St. John the Baptist the forerunner of the Messiah, killed. Several times people tried to kill Jesus, and finally, they did succeed. The charge was blasphemy - he claimed to be God. The joke is he is God, and it was God’s plan for him to die in order to save us all along! Jesus conquered death by his death and resurrection.
Today, those who believe Jesus is God are often denounced, laughed at, made fun of and sometimes, also killed. Yes, one could say, “all hell broke loose” and still is. But, in the end, the devil will have no greater success than Herod did.
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