St. Matthew 2:16-18
One of the most tragic incidents mentioned in the
bible and that too in very few words, is the killing (cold blooded murder) of
children two years and below in and around Bethlehem by Herod. The usual
reaction to the story is wondering about the cruelty of Herod and about why the
birth of Jesus led to the killing of several babies and how justified is such a
birth of the savior of the world. It has parallels to the saying “mother killer”
when a birth of a baby leads to the death of the mother due to some birth
complication.
The association comes for many people and the more
one thinks about it, the more one is perplexed by the association of how this
can happen. This association is what prevents us from raising our voice and
doing good. We think that if we say something and that leads to something happening
to someone, that we are responsible for that. It is though a very naïve understanding
of the situation. We have to sometimes say things for the common good and for
the benefit of society. We are not opposing a person but the evil in a person
which even he/she may or may not be aware of.
Herod was a leader and the birth of Jesus needn’t
have bothered him too much. Yet he is surprisingly rattled. The birth of a baby
upsets him! This also makes us think what kind of a leader he was. But what he
ends up doing through the murder of innocent children is that he reiterates
that he is inherently evil. So who was the reason of the deaths? Herod or Jesus? Many a time we think that if
not for Jesus the children would not have died.
One must come out of the understanding that Jesus
was responsible for the death of the children. There was only one planner and
executioner and that was Herod and perhaps his advisors. If we do not accept
this, many of us will step back from doing any good because we will think that
others will be sacrificed in the process of what we are going to do. The
thought is always “I can sacrifice whatever but why should others be affected?”
This thinking is not helpful because it will prevent us from doing any good
even though we are capable of it. The celebration of Christmas and the time
which follows up to new year will be like this. It is a time to not just
remember the birth of Christ, but to do what he did. In the process we are
bound to ruffle feathers, bring discomfort to others and be a thorn in the
flesh to many. This is why we must understand that celebration and dejection go
hand in hand. There was wailing and sadness in Ramah and mothers were crying
because they had lost their young ones. But we need to cry only if Jesus lead
to the death of the children. Contrary to this he did not. It was Herod who had
planned and implemented this. Jesus was only a ploy he used.
There are many leaders who do likewise. Someone else
is made out to be the reason of a cruel decision. It appears so in the case of
the death of the young here as well. But that is where we err and we must know that
the birth of Jesus leads to the birth of courage and expression of views and
opinions in a culture that cannot express itself. The murder of the babies is
the cowardice of Herod and nothing else. The women wailing are made to think
that the reason is something/someone else. But as soon as they would have known
who the conspirator was, they would have stopped crying because the children
died cruelly at the hands of a dictator.
Civil wars rife in Syria and Iraq and international
conflicts like in the case of Israel and Palestine and internal conflicts in
many parts of the world all lead to genocide and the brutal killing of
children. The killers will always say that it happened because of some rebels
and external forces. The truth though is that it happens because the regime
wants to quell dissent in various forms. The killing of the babies by Herod
reminds us of the danger of regimes who will justify their actions and use
religious symbolisms to say that they are right. The killing of the children
instead should remind us of the birth of Jesus who went against the shrewdness
and injustice of repressive regimes and instead stood with the people and
fought for life and human dignity.
The birth of Jesus is not a time to cry but a time
to raise our heads and question countries and dispensations that are anti
people and oppress people. The people of Syria and Palestine among many other
countries deserve to have access to their mother land and live a life of
dignity there. We must not allow the creation and continuance of Herod like
figures who use the birth as an excuse to take life instead of encouraging life
and dignity. The innocent children died a violent death due to such sinful
characters and this should not continue to happen during the commemoration of
Jesus’ birth narrative.
