The baby in the manger threatens no one at all

At first sight this seems obvious: you can for example have a room full of the grumpiest adults, wallowing knee deep in themselves, and place a baby in their midst, and, mostly each one will begin to coo and melt at the baby’s smiles, gurgles and expressions. Babies are not really a threat.

The appearance of a baby in a family does change everything though, doesn’t it? It changes relationship at all sorts of levels.

The baby, or toddler, who was presented with the magi’s gifts, is a threat. Jesus’ very existence threatens Herod the Great. Matthew jolts the Christmas season back into reality with his story of the despot massacring the innocents.

We know that Herod was a tyrant. He had murdered members of his own family who he perceived to be rivals to his power base. The list of his atrocities would suggest that Matthew’s account is accurate: all boys under the age of two to be slaughtered. History is full of such accounts of despots becoming more and more paranoid as their grip on power tightens.

There are some who seek to defend Herod. How can someone who is so concerned with the reconstruction of the Temple to its Solomonic glories have stooped so low. High culture though does not disbar someone from becoming a tyrant.

The threatening nature of Jesus is seen in the gifts that are presented to him: gold, frankincense and myrrh

Gold for kingship. No wonder Herod was afraid. Jesus birth was a threat. I am reminded of Tom Wright’s now famous dictum: the confession Jesus is Lord had a flipside: Caesar is not.

Incense would not have stuck well in Herod’s nostrils. Used much in the Jerusalem Temple, yet there were many who challenged the legitimacy of the king. He was an Idumaen rather than a Jew
priest

Myrrh – a reminder of death. Incarnation is wonderful, but for Christians, Jesus is the one born to both die in our place as well as to offer a pattern for life. It is this notion rather than kingship that threatens our postmodern sensibilities.

I wonder in what way does the baby Jesus threaten you today?