Within three days of the good news, comes the bad news. Yes, the Word has become flesh and is dwelling among us; but there seems to be a catch: the process of full redemption and recovery is to be accomplished within human beings, resistant materials that they are, step by step. As Robert Frost once observed ‘the best way out is always through’. Indeed the whole logic of incarnation is that God’s reaction to our evil is to meet it head on, not to steer round it. If this is the nature of the operation, the fulness of any redemption brought us in this holy child is bound to be a process that works from the inside out, needing to take flesh in real people through the seemingly random and cruel processes of the world, not a magic wand job.
Reality itself is not a magic wand job. Beneath the angel strain will roll at least two thousand years of wrong. At the sharp end of that will be innocent victims who will have to take their chances in a precarious and unjust world. The fact that God counts himself among them and takes his chances like the rest of us may be some comfort, but not exactly comforting. Herod does his thing, makes his choice, and the kiddies die anyway.
‘Rome wasn’t built in a day,’ observed the late great Brian Clough. ‘But then I wasn’t on that particular job.’ If Brian, or indeed most of us accustomed to having what we want at the click of a mouse, ruled the world, this is how it would be: Jesus would appear, ping! every one would go ‘Aha!’ ping! Herod would have no choice. The swords would turn to rubber or something, or at least the henchmen would call in sick. Herod could wish anything he wanted, however evil, but he would be unable to vent his paranoia in the real world. That would be that.
But what would that be? That would be the Fat Controller, the manipulator, pushing the buttons, wouldn’t it? That would be God the village copper, sorting everything out with the cheery wave, a few wallops, and the occasional well-aimed Monty Python 16 Ton weight. And if the whole message of the Incarnation is that God isn’t actually any of those things, it’s disappointing, perhaps, but hardly surprising that the Kingdom of God isn’t a ‘Ping’ thing. The ping has to come from us. It doesn’t merely happen on autopilot — indeed nothing happens like that.
What’s the point of kingdom come being a slow painful internal process, you may say. There might as well not be a God at all!
Well, not quite. It there weren’t a God at all, none of this would ultimately matter anyway, on anything but a notional, intellectual level. Unjust suffering would be no more significant than any other happenstance. We would just have to conclude ‘It happens,’ like sunspots or black holes. Being Nasty might be possible to portray as ultimately illogical, but Herod, and a thousand tyrants since, have a slightly different logic of their own, and, in a Nietzschean universe where might is right, who would be able to say they were wrong?
Over and above the particular choices that Herod, or for that matter any of us, may make, the wrongness of this unjust suffering stands in contrast to the justice of God, which stands eternal. That means it is what it is, whatever we may think of it, and remains supreme on a meta level. Indeed it defines the terms in which these things happen, whilst leaving us free to choose. Herod may get away with it, but no excuse he may offer can ever be adequate. No amount of rage and spite, power and opportunity, can change injustice into justice. That really would put us in a fix, far more than being told the score and given the choice.
The Christmas story turns out to be a moral compass, not a remote control device. Power games and bullying, attempting to fiddle the books by manipulating the politics regardless of the human cost, will always be off limits — a sign that the kingdom has not quite come in us as fully as it wants to, whether we are Herod or Hitler, a world leader or poor clergy of the Anglican communion. Oh, but Herod will say, what’s the alternative? The alternative is faith, but it’s harder to live by faith than by manipulation, especially if we seemingly have the means to accomplish our will by the latter. To think and act differently, we need a renewed outlook, and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit, nudging us along the way to wholeness and hope. And each step we take closer to that advances the peace and salvation of ourselves and all the world.
Alan Wilson is area Bishop of Buckingham in the diocese of Oxford.
Dear Bishop Alan,
Thank you for sharing this. The murder of the innocent children is one of those stories I find very difficult, and would rather exegesis it away. Thank you for bringing this perspective. — James+
I love this, thank you.
The thought that nothing can change injustice into justice is intriguing, because as our awareness of what is just changes throughout history, things that used to be considered fair and just are now often seen as morally indefensible. You only have to think of how corporal punishment for children has become a criminal offence in some countries.
We have to be really careful when trying to claim that our faith is always a valid moral compass.
Thank you, Bishop Alan. The morality of expediency, and even sometimes of a perceived “greater good” is often, it seems, the siren song that leads our collective Ark to run aground. I’m sure Herod and his advisors merely thought themselves prudent and wise, in the Realpolitik of their time, preserving stability and continuity in government…
“I’m sure Herod and his advisors merely thought themselves prudent and wise, in the Realpolitik of their time, preserving stability and continuity in government…” – Tobias Haller – Thank you, Tobias, for your thoughts. I suppose the main difference between the ABC and Herod in this instance, is the fact that Herod’s action was mainly of self-interest; whereas, Archbishop Rowan ought to be more aware of the fact that the damage from his action/inaction has affected the lives of LGBTs in the Church – ostensibly on more ‘moral’ grounds. This is more of a problem. Herod was a despot; the… Read more »
Any chance of a reality check between Herod and Hitler, please? Hitler was real in his industrial scale exterminating, whereas the story of Herod (no nice chap) and the first born male is fiction. It does actually matter – it matters to the people who suffered under Hitler.
Pluralist
what does matter is that people always knew that characters like Herod could exist. He’s a perfectly valid description of what people can become like when they have absolute power.
We don’t use the bible to seek historical truth in it but much deeper truths about life that are still valid today. That’s the whole point of those stories. If anything, that they are not historical makes them more powerful because you cannot simply say “oh well, that was Herod, he’s dead now”.
The world is full of Herods and always has been. The comparison is very apt indeed.
I think we need to know that the historical details surrounding the birth narratives are not historical in the broadly accepted term but we do also know that Herod was bloodthirsty as well as being a successful political schemer and once we accept the writing as non-historical in nature (midrash might be a better term) we can see that there are aspects of historical truth in the record.
I agree can be quite demanding to keep switching from the historical to the ‘story’ but I think both genres communicate truth and meaning but in different, powerful ways.
“It’s harder to live by faith than by manipulation.” Words to remember in our media-driven age.