Behold, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Juda. Saying, "Where is he who is born king among the Jews?" We have seen his star in east and we love him. King Herod heard this and was disturbed, as was all of Jerusalem ..... Then Herod called the wise men privately and learned the time when the star appeared to them. He sent them to Bethlehem and said to them: Go and inquire diligently after the child. When you find him, tell me again so that I may also come to love him. (Mark 2:1-3,7-8)
Muhammad must travel to the mountain if the mountain doesn’t want to come to Muhammad. Herod must also go to the wise men if Herod doesn’t arrive.
Although the analogy is flawed, it is still worth considering. An alternative analogy may be better: Before returning to the topic of the Nativity we might think about Volodymyr Zelensky’s Christmastime visit to the imperial capital, in light of an earlier episode from the life of Judea’s infamous client-king.
For the sake of analogy, Pompey the Great, the Republican Rome’s Ronald Reagan–had conquered Jerusalem 63 B.C. and brought Judea under Rome’s control. Herod, second son of Judean courtier Antipater was not yet ten.
Herod was a young man who received appointments in the new territory. He spent his youth paying tribute to his Roman overlords, and trying to straighten a bizarrely corrupt house in Galilee. Both the former were his successes, but he had very little success with the latter.
His father, Pompey’s favorite ally in the region, helped him rise quickly through the ranks. Herod was on track to lead a small area of remote province until his death at the age of 30. It is likely that he would have been happy to do this; it was a good life as a tetrarch.
In 40 B.C., everything changed. The fate of Hyrcanus II was decided by Antigonus, his nephew, who dethroned the weak, elderly king, Herod’s father.
Antigonus was not the only one who had taken the crown. As part of an overall push into the Roman-controlled Levant, the Parthian Empire, which was at the height of civilisational conflict with Rome, had supported the usurper. The pro-Hyrcanus and pro-Roman factions were caught in a brutal conflict with the Parthian army.
The Romans and their Judea allies seemed to be in desperate straits. Herod’s brother was killed in battle. Herod, in desperate times, set out to Rome himself to get help for the war.
Cleopatra welcomed him with open arms in Egypt. He made it to Italy with difficulty and was greeted by Mark Antony, his old friend. Although the chronology isn’t correct, it is Bill Clinton in principle.
Herod was already poor at this point and had almost begged for his way to Rome. He only asked for a small portion of Rome’s fortune so that he could continue fighting the invaders.
Antony had greater plans. Rome had allied itself with Hyrcanus as he was easy to control, but his weakness had proved to be a liability too many times. Rome needed a replacement in the region, not a restoration.
Caesar Octavian agreed. He was a great admirer of Herod and shared Antony’s desire to secure the eastern territories. To take over the East, who better than a friend and war veteran of the Western powers? The Senate convened and was easily convinced that Rome should support Herod in order to prevent the Parthians from gaining control of Judea and making the Roman sphere smaller.
Herod was flanked on both sides by Antony and Octavian, two of Rome’s most powerful men. The Senate crowned him a king as the rulers who had long since been an empire followed behind. He first went to Antony’s lavish feast, then he returned to the east for a long bitter campaign.
Twelve years later, it was gone.
Herod is not to blame for this, though. All of this was simply the progression of a course set in motion by Julius Caesar decades earlier (contrary popular belief, America’s Caesar is George W. Bush).
Herod was only a minor player in the story. Zelensky, too, will be a minor player in the history of the American Republic. The story would not be complete without Herod. The poor of Rome are starved and the northern borders are under siege. Meanwhile, the city’s coffers have been emptied to support a friendly but fatally flawed government halfway around the globe.
Men have lost their sense of their proper loyalty, their proper duties and their proper ends on both sides of this story. The ambition of Pompey; Antipater’s cunning, the weakness of Hyrcanus; conquest of Rome; the apostayy of Israel; Antony’s plotting and Herod’s pride all culminate in the moment when the two-bit ruler from a distant province decides to oppose the Word Incarnate.
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The matter of false gods becomes completely intertwined here. These are the conditions that made possible the Incarnation. It seems like the Gospel flashes in and out of his mind as the man who sought to kill our Lord. He lived in flesh and blood and his part in history continues to echo through the ages.
We are on the brink of a new season, and we hope that everything will be made new. However, we can still expect greater wisdom from men who have set false gods and false kings and put broken orders back in their place. They decide before it is too late that enough is enough for Caesar and his minions.
They entered the house to find the child and Mary, his mother. As they fell down, they loved him. After opening their treasures, the couple presented him with gold, frankincense and myrrh. They went to their country another way after they received a reply in sleep saying that Herod should not be returned. (Mark 2:11-12)
