I love a good political thriller.
The quest for power leads to underhanded deals, blackmail, betrayal and murder. The one in power is vulnerable, the one lusting after the power will do anything to get it and will eventually pay the price for as the saying goes, you live by the sword – you die by the sword.
The intrigue, suspense and clinching sequence keeps me interested in the story for the duration.
Herod’s role in the birth and formative years of Jesus reads like a mini political thriller. The city is abuzz with the arrival of the Magi with news of the birth of the King of the Jews. Meanwhile the real king – albeit a puppet put in place by the Roman rule – understandably gets a bit twitchy. The new kid on the block could be a threat to a status quo, it could ruin everything. So this puppet gives the Magi some direction with a request for an address so he too can celebrate the king.
It would have worked too, if it wasn’t for that pesky dream the Magi received telling to get out of Dodge by another route. Now enraged, Herod calls for desperate measures to eliminate any sense of competition from the issue. Infanticide leaving a whole district with crying mothers and devastated homes.
He rod literally misses the point. The inevitable rule to come had nothing to do with grubby feeble efforts to gain relatively limited grasps on power. Jesus rule is an epic overhaul of man-made schemes to revert to a true kingdom of righteousness and peace.
You would have thought we would pay attention and take the hint. Hundreds of years later that small-minded, petty, power-hungry mentality affects people more than ever. Sadly and ironically the church designed to reflect the submissive, servant approach that made Jesus so unique is infected with the Herod Complex.
Titles and offices are set up and are seen as positions of power. Soon as church gets in bed with state power, the intrigue grows as the power corrupts. Even as the age of Christendom ends, men in positions at church look to lord it over others justifying it with all manner of twisted arguments. The set up sustains them, the status quo reinforces it. As they scramble to keep power, people die in the pew. As they hustle to gain more power, people die in the community.
As the people die, again the people ‘in charge’ miss the point. Jesus has long gone. It is now just a hollow shell of a religious routine.
The cure to the Herod Complex is recogising our role in the Body and devoting life to fulfilling that role in a humble and submissive manner.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 