A study in contrasts -- Herod and Joseph

The Nativity story is filled with diversity. The contrasts include an about-to-be-married young couple, Mary and Joseph, and an aged Elizabeth and Zechariah. The modest financial status of shepherds is contrasted with the wealth of the Magi. The Magi were Gentiles, most of the other cast members were Jewish in the eternal drama. Anna, an eighty-four year old widow, an Asherite, Joseph from the tribe of Judah, and Zechariah and Elizabeth, descendants of Aaron, are all included in the narrative.

But the differences between Joseph and Herod may be the most pronounced. At the Nativity moment the motivations, attitudes, and actions of the two men could not have been more different.
• Herod was a bully! He was prepared to do anything, even ordering a community-wide infanticide, in order to maintain power. Joseph was prepared to do whatever he could to maintain peace, to protect Mary’s reputation, and consistently serve others. One blighted, the other blessed.
• Herod was scheming and deceptive. Joseph was transparent and compliant, obeying both Caesar’s census edict and instructions from angelic messengers.
• Herod was a pursuer, hunting down opponents, but Joseph fled from conflicts, running toward safety.
• Herod thrived while giving orders, Joseph distinguished himself by obeying.
• While Herod lived in palaces and was comfortable negotiating with world powers, Joseph lived in modest surroundings and conversed with spiritual giants like Zechariah and Anna.
• Herod’s kingdom is buried in the dust of antiquity – powerless and a subject of academic study of failed governments. Joseph contributed to the advance of a Kingdom which has no end!
Readers are certainly able to add more stark differences between the men than those listed.

The world has always had a full complement of bully-spirited people. Nationally, a “my guns are bigger and more lethal than your guns!” attitude drives peace negotiations. Wars are most frequently fought over money, gaining and maintaining power, or accessing natural resources (water, fossil fuels, metals). On a personal level, appearances, achievements and acquisitions are used to leverage advantages of position and power. You and I hear the Herod spirit in debates, experience the same as we wait on check-out counter lines, or if we occupy someone else’s seat in church. The Herod spirit reveals a flawed ego, the need to assert self and control others. We might be more careful to remember that symbols of power can be amassed by careless religious people as easily as godless atheists.

Jesus’ disciples are wise to note the differences between Herod and Joseph. They are instructive and preparatory to understanding Jesus’ call to follow. Joseph’s “followership” model is a template for those who are serious about learning the ways of Jesus.

One last observation, unless God changes us, radically transforms us, we are naturally of the Herod spirit and bound to act as treacherously. But God does transform! That is the Natal Message given to all men. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)