The Bloodbath at the End: Power Then and Now
Epiphany Part 1
Today is epiphany, the day that the Christian church remembers the arrival of the Magi from the East that came bearing gifts to the one born "The King of the Jews." (Matthew 2)
The reigning King of the Jews - Rome's puppet king Herod - had quite the reputation in the then known world. He built a mountain (758 meters / 2,487 feet high) in the desert to celebrate a military victory and named the place after himself. The mountain had built into it a palace that had four towers, each seven-stories high at the top, a theater that could seat 600 people, and a pool so large boats could be floated in it. He builds a port at Caesarea, a gym in Tripoli, the city of Augustus Sabasti, a temple in Leiodecia and Rhodes, fortresses in Cyprus, Macarus, Alexandria, and funds the Olympics - all to impress Rome. All of this was paid for by heavy taxation, likely 80-90% of ones income total. Herod lives a lavish lifestyle, spends money like water to impress others in power, and all of it is paid for by others.
Herod's grip on power included murdering anyone that opposed him including two of his sons, his brother-in-law (drowned in the pool), his mother-in-law and his wife's grandfather who was a high priest. Augustus Caesar once commented "it is better to be Herod's pig than his son." His ego was so large that he placed an order that when he died for the people of Jericho to be brought into a stadium and killed so that it could be guaranteed mourning. He builds a new temple in Jerusalem (the one in Jesus' time) and places an eagle - the symbol of Rome - over the entrance, just to stick it to the people. To rub salt in the wound he built a building next door to house Roman soldiers and made sure it was just a little taller.
It is to this King Herod - The King of the Jews - that a group of foreigners arrive looking to worship the new King of the Jews. Herod is clearly not happy. He tries to get the visiting worshippers to provide him information to knock off this new threat. They don't because a dream tells them to take the long way home.
One definition of epiphany is "a moment of sudden revelation or insight." The story of epiphany ends up being the one in the scriptural record that reveals just who Herod is. After not being able to learn the location of the one "born King of the Jews" Herod orders all the boys born in the pervious two years to be killed. Herod is willing to kill children to make sure he can keep his grip on power.
***
On this celebration of epiphany - January 6, 2021 - another king who builds towers with his name on them tried to keep his grip on power. Another King, concerned with impressing others in power, fought to keep his position. On this day another insecure leader was doing whatever it took to make sure his loss was mourned. Today a new Herod encouraged opposition to his successor. Today many of us were glued to the news of the riotous insurrection taking place at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. in support of a king retaining his power.
Like the epiphany story in the New Testament revealed the true Herod to those reading the Bible, today is a day of revelation. The rioting incited by Trump and his supporters is an epiphany revealing the results of four years of seeking to gain, control, and maintain power at any cost.
***
The good news in the original epiphany story and the epiphany taking place today is that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, is the one with the true power. Jesus' power, however, comes from giving away all of his status, all of his control, all of what he possessed, all of the things he was the master of, in order to die. Jesus allows himself to become the object of an angry job so that he could become a living epiphany that reveals our desires to be over and against the other - a matter of keeping our own power. And not only does Jesus die as a victim of a mob, he comes back forgiving even those that killed him. True power, a Jesus-like power, is not about holding on to power, but letting it go.
***
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
No comments:
Post a Comment