Herod and The Works of Darkness

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn. 1:4-5)

 

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed (Jn. 3:19-20).

 

When the Light of the World came into the world, there were three groups who were notified:  the shepherds, the Magi, and King Herod.  The Jewish shepherds were the "anawim," the "little ones," the "poor in spirit," who hastened to see the wonder they had been told -- and they received the kingdom of heaven as little children, immediately believing the message of the angels and falling to their knees to worship the Savior, the promised Messiah.

 

The Magi are fascinating.  They were non-Jews from a distant land, probably Persia, where the Jews had been in captivity some 400 years previously.  It is entirely possible that the Jewish writings, which developed during the years of captivity as a way of holding to their history and traditions, influenced the wise men from the East.  The Old Testament prophecies regarding the future "King of the Jews," the Messiah, were recorded during the Babylonian captivity as a hopeful message for the Jews.  But the wise men, the astronomers, possibly knew the writings of the Jews, especially that of Balaam's prophecy:

 

...the utterance of him who hears the words of God,

and knows the knowledge of the Most High,

who sees the vision of the Almighty,

who falls down, with eyes opened wide:

 

"I see Him, but not now;

I behold Him, but not near;

A Star shall come out of Jacob;

A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,

and batter the brow of Moab,

and destroy all the sons of tumult" (Num. 25:16-17).

 

Upon observation of a magnificent and unusual star in the heavens two years previous to the birth of Christ, it seems possible that the wise men searched out the scriptures known to them and discovered Balaam's prophecy, and they set off to discover this great new king.

 

When Light comes into the world, those who are ready to embrace goodness and light will set out in search of the Truth.  Those who hate the light and the truth, however, will inevitably feel threatened by the Light and will set out to destroy that which threatens their rule and power over tumult and darkness.  Herod was an evil man; he had already murdered his own sons to keep them from usurping his throne.  Now that he hears of a new threat from the wise men, he is determined to extinguish the "king of the Jews" also:  those who love darkness rather than light...will hate the light. 

 

When John says, "the darkness has never comprehended [the light]," the Greek word he uses for comprehended can also mean "embraced."  The more I study history, the more I see one "Herod" after another that feels it necessary to extinguish the Light of the Gospel, the Light of the world.  The pattern continues down to this very day and time.

 

The Communists came into power, and their first objective was to destroy the churches and to remove all traces of Christianity from the land.  Their churches were bombed, turned into prisons and mortuaries, warehouses, and basketball courts.  People who continued their Christian practices were exterminated, sent to Siberia, and their children refused an education and jobs.  In China and in North Korea, the pattern repeats itself even today.  In every land where evil men rule, their first task is to extinguish the Light of the world and to imprison Christians and Jews.

 

Reading Mindszenty, the memoirs of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, I am amazed at the extreme lengths evil men will take to suppress the church and those who believe in Jesus Christ.  When the Russians pushed the Germans out of Hungary in the 1940's, they quickly set about establishing what Reagan called "the evil empire."  They seized all private property, including all the Catholic schools in the land, and "re-distributed" it.  The result was wide-spread starvation and homelessness.  When Mindszenty appealed to Rome and to his fellow bishops for help, money, food, and clothing was sent from all over the world to help the Hungarians.  Of course, the state could not have that kind of interference, and after starving, beating, drugging all those who distributed foreign aid to the poor, including the Cardinal, they condemned some to death and some to life in prison. 

 

I continually hear even today that in some parts of the world, churches are being bombed and Christians are imprisoned in shipping containers for lack of enough jail cells.  In some Muslim countries, even the suspicion of someone owning a bible is enough evidence to condemn them to death.  We have no idea in this country what it means to be a Christian in the face of evil.

 

The pattern at the Incarnation of the Son of God continues to this day:  those who seek the Light come to the Light.  Those who love darkness continue to pursue, harass, and destroy the Light.  Fortunately, we have the words of Jesus:  the gates of hell shall not prevail against [the church].  And John's words, "the darkness has never comprehended it" can also be translated as "the darkness has never overcome it."

 

Whether we are like the Jewish shepherds, like the pagan Magi, or like Herod and his dominion, our response to the Light of the World speaks volumes about our destiny.