CPTnet
29 December 2007
FORT FRANCES, ON REFLECTION: Herod's Slaughter of the Innocents--child
killing as national security

[Note: The following reflection by CPT Director Emeritus Gene Stoltzfus has
been edited for length and clarity. The original piece is available
at<http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com <http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com>
<http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com > <http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com > ]

Where I grew up, we read the story of Herod ordering the massacre of
children under two years of age but we never connected it to warfare,
national security or the perpetual, bloody struggle of people in power to
stay in power. We just thought this was part of God's plan removed from
real life.

Herod the Great, King of Jews was actually answerable to the Roman Emperor
since he had secured that position through crafty lobbying in Rome. Early
in Herod's political career, Jewish leaders took note of his brutality,
although he represented himself to be a Jew. Herod extended his power
through treachery, including the killing of brothers and at least one wife,
but because he maintained good connections in Rome, he kept the support of
the local Roman garrisons.

By the time of the Magi's visit, Herod ruled the entire region around
Jerusalem. In their meeting, King Herod and the Magi discussed a new baby
rumoured to be a future Jewish political leader, specifically King of the
Jews, exactly Herod's own title awarded years earlier by the Roman Senate.

The arrival of the Magi recorded in Matthew reminds us of the international
significance of the rumoured new King of the Jews. During their visit
sometime after Jesus birth, they probably absorbed some of the intrigue,
danger and political culture of the Jerusalem and Bethlehem region. Their
dreams turned ominous and warned them of danger. Unlike so many of us,
however, they listened to the warnings in their dreams and altered their
travel plans for the journey home in order to avoid the net of informers on
the lookout for threats to Herod's rule.

The escape of the Magi after presenting gifts occurred at the same time as
the flight of Jesus' parents to Egypt to protect their child and avoid the
genocide of infant males in Bethlehem unleashed by Herod's regime.
Genocidal programs were a part of state security policies and warcraft used
to make things come out right, as far back as people can remember. Only in
modern times, when the arms-length push button technology of warfare has
become available, has narrowly defined genocide fallen out of favour,
although the "kill numbers" have increased.

Churches around the world remember Herod's genocide on various days
following Christmas--most commonly December 28--as the Feast of the Holy
Innocents. The murdered Bethlehem infants may be the first martyrs;
although I hesitate to call them Christian martyrs, because no one was a
Christian yet. Their deaths remind us that most of the victims of state
security policies are innocent. Mary and Joseph's flight to Egypt reminds
us that refugees, job seekers and others who illegally cross international
borders in search of security include people of all ages who are carriers of
transcendent truth--if we have the eyes, like the Magi, to read the signs.