Herod and Figuring out What Drives Us

In Matthew's account of the infancy of Jesus, when Herod finds out from the three wise men that a king has been born that will rule Isreal, he orders that all the children under the age of two be killed, out of fear that the new king will grow up and take over from Herod.

What Herod does is not only monstrous, but stupid.  Fast forward twenty years.  With the average life expectancy in the ancient middle east at around 25 years or so, the years when an adult male would be available to work in the fields and serve in the army would be few and fleeting.  Consequently, Herod's genocide would have drastic consequences for Herod in the future, particularly in the reduction of males able to create products to be taxed and to strengthen Herod's armies.  Herod's genocide actual makes it more likely in the long run that his fears of losing power will come true.

There is in each and every one of us an underlying nature that causes us to do what we do.  It is the engine that drives us.  What drove Herod is the engine of fear.  We are all afraid, but when fear becomes the engine that drives us, we turn into dumb monsters like Herod and can commit terrible things.

We are all afraid.  But through God's grace, our underlying nature can be transformed.  The engine that drives us can be the engine of joy and service to others.  Our underlying nature can be holy.  As always, our example is Jesus, who as the Son of the King of Kings, was driven only to bring about the redemption and reconciliation of the world.

Pruning Trees and God's Plan for Us

When I was growing up, my parents built a home on a two acre piece of land in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Part of the lot was heavily wooded, with lots of beautiful trees.  For the first few years, there was a lot of work to be done with the cultivation of the trees.  Many of the trees were dying because their own branches and vines were inhibiting the trees' growth.  I was taught how to prune the trees.  I learned that pruning trees was all about figuring out the parts of the tree that were killing the tree, and removing those parts.

Every day after school, I picked up an axe and went to work.  To the casual observer who didn't know what was going on, it would have appeared that my agenda was to destroy the tree.  I was, after all, holding an axe, and hacking away at the tree.

What I was doing was the opposite of destroying the tree.  I was giving new life to the tree.  I was saving the tree.  In order to save the tree, I had to remove the parts of the tree that were destroying it.

John the Baptist uses the imagery of pruning to describe the nature of repentance.  God's agenda in us and in our world is not to destroy us and bring destruction to the world.  That is, unfortunately, often our own agenda for ourselves.  God's agenda is to bring us new life and to bring about a new creation.  In order for us to become a new creation, there are parts of our behavior and our nature that have to die.  We must allow God to enter into our souls and into our world so that we can find new life.