Auden’s version of the Christmas story sent me back to the Bible to see exactly what the gospel writer had to say about it. Not much, it turns out. Herod’s motive for the massacre was implied rather than stated. It says he was “troubled” at the news from the wise men that a new king of the Jews had been born, but it doesn’t say why he was troubled. The suggestion is that Herod saw him as a rival for this throne, and therefore he took action to neutralize the threat.
Auden’s poem gives a different spin on the biblical tale. There is a soliloquy by King Herod, explaining in great detail why he gave the order to kill the children of Bethlehem. In short, he says he did it for the good of the nation. He was trying to protect his people from religious extremists. Herod imagines all the terrible things that would befall his country if this infant messiah were allowed to live. He explains:
“Naturally this cannot be allowed to happen. Civilisation must be saved even if this means sending in the military, as I suppose it does. How dreary. Why is it that in the end civilisation always has to call in these professional tidiers, whether it be Pythagoras or a homicidal lunatic they are instructed to exterminate? O dear, why couldn’t this wretched infant be born somewhere else?”
Herod is portrayed as a champion of Reason, Civilisation (spelled with an s instead of a z, of course) and Patriotism. He is a tragic figure, reluctantly forced to make a tough decision for the good of the country. He even ponders what it would mean if this Child truly was God incarnate, as the wise men said. He says, “And for me personally at this moment it would mean that God has given me the power to destroy Himself. I refuse to be taken in. He could not play such a horrible practical joke.” In that way he talks himself out of the Incarnation and into murder.
This has made me think about the justifications people give for killings today. I think of the man who just murdered the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. It seems like it was a personal vendetta against the insurance company. I think of the manifesto written by the man who recently shot two kindergarteners at a Seventh Day Adventist school in California in retaliation for American support for the Gazan war.
I think of the horrific murders and kidnapping of Israeli civilians by Hamas over a year ago. I think of the killing of ten thousand children in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces. The reasons these Middle Eastern perpetrators give for their actions sound very Herodian. The Slaughter of the Innocents continues today. The Christmas prophecy is fulfilled again. “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, mourning, and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children.”
We are so quick to rationalize our actions in the name of reason, religion, country, and civilization. Herod the Great had his reasons, and he thought they were good reasons. Just like he had reasons to renovate the Jerusalem temple. For that act of philanthropy, he was given the title “the Great.” In light of today’s conflicts, it is interesting to note that Herod was an Arab by birth, but a practicing Jew.
When we read the biblical Christmas story of the “Slaughter of the Innocents,” we are quick put distance between him and us. We put ourselves above him and judge him harshly. But are we really so different? Americans certainly did not act so differently when it came to the indigenous population of North America. The pogroms of European history were carried out by Christians who thought the purges were good for society. Many Nazis were devout Christians, as were American slaveowners in the South.
Would American Christians act differently today if we believed we were serving God and country? I hope we would, but I am not so sure. We certainly are not doing anything today to prevent the regular mass shootings of American schoolchildren. Because of Auden’s poem, I am looking at the world through the eyes of Herod this Christmas. It does not look so very different from our world.
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