While our pageants and nativity scenes would never admit it, the first Christmas was a time of sorrow, marked by inconsolable weeping for children murdered by the state. It is the story of the murderous Herod enacting a mass slaughter to defeat a challenge to his power.

Though we would probably prefer not to talk about it even now, the story forces our attention to the acts of power in our own day. It demands that we account for the ways in which our own systems of Empire wield death to in the interest of power.

The Magi Come to Bethlehem

The story of the magi visiting Jesus in Bethlehem seems innocuous enough. The “wise men,” as they are popularly known, come from Persia (modern-day Iran) to Bethlehem, a journey of more than 1,000 miles, following a star that rose in the sky on the night that Jesus was born. While we tend to think of them as “the three wise men” none of those words are actually reflected in the story.

First, Matthew doesn’t tell us that there were three. We know that they brought frankincense, gold, and myrrh, but it is possible that these gifts were given by two travelers, or by ten.

Second, it isn’t clear that the “wise men” were all men. In Greek these travelers are called magoi (English magi), which grammatically is a masculine plural form. But in Greek, as in Spanish, a group of mixed gender is referred to by the masculine form. While it is certainly possible that the magi were all men, there is nothing to prevent us from envisioning women among them.

Finally, the term “wise” doesn’t fully convey the significance of the magi. They are indeed wise, but their wisdom is of a particular sort, based on astrology and dream interpretation. They are astrologers and fortune tellers, searching the stars for heavenly signs that portend significant events.

The Birth of a King

At the birth of Jesus, these magi see a star in the sky, indicating the birth of an important figure. For instance, at the birth of Alexander the Great, some 350 years earlier, astrologers reported seeing a new constellation accompanying his birth. When Matthew tells us that the magi saw a star accompanying Jesus’ birth, he is indicating to us that Jesus, like Alexander, will change the world.

So, from the beginning this story is about Jesus’s challenge to political power. His birth is accompanied by a star. He will be a king. His birth is going to upend the world.

Curiously, as the magi follow the star, it doesn’t immediately lead them to the house where Jesus is living with Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. Rather, it leads the magi to Herod, who goes by the title King of the Jews. Conflict seems inevitable.

Yet it seems that the star is actually capable of precision guidance. After the magi depart from Herod, the star will lead them directly to Jesus in Bethlehem. Not merely to the correct town or the correct neighborhood—but to the very house where they will find Jesus. Thus, it seems that the star leads them to Herod not because it is incapable of giving them better directions but precisely because the start wants Herod to know that a king has been born. The star seems to be picking a fight with Herod.

Herod the Great

Historically speaking, Herod the Great was a brutal king who lived in constant fear of being overthrown. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Herod executed a number of perceived threats to his power, including both the high priest Aristobulus III and his own wife Mariamne. An Idumean by birth, Herod was placed in power by the Romans, but he struggled to gain the approval of the people. Throughout his life, he feared a popular uprising that would cost him his throne.

So when the magi arrive at Herod’s palace asking him where they can find “the child who has been born king of the Jews” (2:2), we can imagine how upset Herod must be. When the magi tell him that they have “observed a star at its rising,” Herod must know he is in trouble. He knows immediately that the magi are speaking of the messiah, and he consults the priests and scribes about where the messiah is to be born. Consulting the scriptures, they tell him the messiah will come from Bethlehem.

A Murderous Plan

Sending the magi to Bethlehem, Herod instructs him to return to tell him where they find the child “so that I may also go and pay him homage” (2:8). Of course, Herod doesn’t plan to pay homage to the new king but to destroy him. Faced with a threat to his power, Herod resorts to treachery. He uses the people’s religion against them. He pretends to be a faithful believer in order to protect his own power.

The star guides the magi to the house where Jesus is staying with his parents (1:12). They enter the house, bow down to this new king, and offer him gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. Then, being warned in a dream, they travel home “by another road” (2:12). Even these gentiles from afar recognize the messiah and pay him homage. But Herod wants only to kill him.

When Herod realizes that he has been duped by the magi, he sends men not just to find and kill the young Jesus—but to murder all the children in Bethlehem under the age of two. It is the overreaction of a fearful and desperate king. Herod wields death to preserve his power.

Resisting the Death-Wielders

Matthew constructs his story of Herod to call to mind another attempted infanticide by the pharaoh of Egypt, told in Exodus 1. In that the story, the Israelites in Egypt had grown powerful and pharaoh, feeling his power threatened had forced them into slavery. When the Israelites continued to grow in power, pharaoh had commanded the Egyptian midwives to kill every Israelite boy as soon as he was born.

But the midwives, fearing God, refused.

Matthew reminds us that throughout history the powers of Empire have stood in opposition to the plans of god. Pharaoh wielded death to preserve his power over the Israelites. Herod wields death to protect his power from the little baby messiah, who has come to shepherd his people.

So, too, in our own day Empire often stands in opposition to God. Empire wields death to preserve power rather than exercising authority to shepherd the people.

The story of the magi reminds us that infant Christ came into the world to redefine what it means to be king. Jesus doesn’t wield death against his enemies, but defeats death through the power of resurrection. Jesus doesn’t live in fear of losing his power, but willingly gives up equality with God to become one of us, even to the point of dying on the cross.

To Herod, and to pharaoh, and to the kings of our own day, the story of the magi exposes the deathliness of the Empire. It reminds us that our loyalty is not to the one who wields death but to the one who rises up to new life. Like the magi, and like the midwives before them, ours is not to collaborate with death but to go home by another way, testifying to the light that has come into the world.