“A bunch of dirty spies!”
That’s what the wise men were called in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the wonderful story by Barbara Robinson.
A bunch of dirty spies!
That’s what the bunch of rowdy children in the book called the wise men when they heard the Christmas story for the first time. The Herdmans were their names if you know the story.
A bunch of dirty spies, which is actually not too far from the truth.
King Herod was threatened by the birth of this mysterious child and he sent the Wise Men out looking for him with instructions to send word back when they found him. Herod said he wanted to pay homage, but what he really had in mind was murder.
So the Christmas story begins with intrigue and deception, and spies.
Will the Wise men be co-opted by Herod? Will they give the location of the child away?
The Wise Men are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they choose to leave the country by another road, a secret escape.
Right after this Joseph has a dream of warning as well, and he escapes by night with Mary and Jesus, they leave the country, escaping to Egypt, fugitives on the run.
King Herod in his mad desperation and fear then has all the male children two years old and younger in and around Bethlehem executed.
The first people to die for Christ, the first martyrs.
God on the run.
The fugitive God.
That is the Christmas story in the Gospel according to Matthew.
The Gospel of outsiders for outsiders, a fugitive Gospel for God’s fugitive people, who don’t fit in to the way of things, who are a threat to the way of things.
An alternative King has been born, an alternative kingdom has begun that crosses over the borders with the authorities in hot pursuit.
We live in two worlds at once, two kingdoms.
Where will our allegiance be?
Who is our King?
The God who is a fugitive or the King who serves raw power and fear?
The life of faith is in many ways a covert operation, we are double agents, infiltrating a fallen world with hope, forgiveness and new beginnings.
The temptation is always that we will go native, cave in to fear and power and violence because they appear inevitable and unbeatable. The way of Herod rules this world without compromise.
Being in the world without being owned by the world, that is where the life of faith always stretches us, always questions us, always challenges us.
Which King do I serve?
For whom do I spy?