Introduction:
A. Today I want to begin by talking about The Scrooge and The Grinch.
1. Personally, I have always enjoyed the story of the Grinch more than the story of the Scrooge, probably because of the humor of the Grinch and his little dog dressed up like a reindeer.
a. The Grinch also has a really catchy song – “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch!”
B. I’m sure you remember the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly old man who believed that Christmas is just an excuse for people to miss work and for idle people to expect handouts.
1. He didn't believe in all of the good cheer and charity that the season promotes, and he made sure everyone knew it.
2. One night, Scrooge was visited by the ghost of his former business associate, Jacob Marley - a man who was as greedy and cold as Scrooge.
3. Marley warned Scrooge that if he continued to live so selfishly, he would spend eternity wearing the chains that his greed had built.
4. Three ghosts then visited Scrooge in succession: the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
5. They showed Scrooge the error of valuing money over people.
6. Scrooge was frightened by the bleak picture of his life and promised to change his ways.
7. Finally, Scrooge awoke on Christmas morning a new man.
8. He became jolly and charitable, and truly turned into the man he promised the ghosts he would become - He carried the spirit of Christmas with him all the year round.
C. In like fashion, the story of the Grinch is the story of a bitter and hateful creature who hated Christmas.
1. Every year the Grinch was irritated at the thought of the Who in the nearby village of Whoville having a happy time celebrating Christmas.
2. So disguised as Santa Claus, with his dog made to look like a reindeer, he raided the village to steal all the Christmas things.
3. He thought that the village was sure to have a sad Christmas with all the Christmas things having been stollen.
4. But when the community celebrated Christmas even without all the stuff, the Grinch was at first confused, but then was changed by what he learned.
5. Listen to the end of the story in the words of Dr. Seuss:
“Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN'T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?
It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
And what happened then...? Well...in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!
And he...HE HIMSELF...! The Grinch carved the roast beast!
D. Both of these stories are heartwarming stories because the cold, selfish, bitter person changes.
1. They are redemption stories, where the “bad person turns good,” and we all like those kind of stories.
2. This morning I want to tell you the story of someone who’s story does not end quite so positively.
3. I want to tell you about a man who hated Christmas even more than the Grinch and Scrooge combined.
4. Only this man is not a make-believe character - He’s for real.
5. This man hated Christmas even though he had even heard the word.
6. He’s the man history calls Herod the Great and his story is told in Matthew 2.
I. King Herod the Great
A. Herod was born into a politically well-connected family and was destined for a life of hardball and power brokering.
1. At 25 years old, he was named the governor of Galilee, a high position for such a young man.
2. The Romans were hoping that Herod could control the Jews who lived in that area.
3. In 40 B.C. the Roman Senate named him “King of the Jews” - it was a title the Jews hated because he was anything but religious, respectable, and Herod had been forced on them.
4. Herod was the embodiment of the ultimate villain - he exhibited 4 classic characteristics of a self-absorbed despot: power, prestige, possessions, paranoia.
B. Herod had a preoccupation with power – actually, he was addicted to power.
1. His life, and his use of power, can be summed up in three words – he was capable, crafty, and
cruel.
2. Herod was extremely capable in what he was asked to do.
a. Soon after becoming king, he wiped out several bands of guerrillas who were terrorizing the countryside and used subtle diplomacy to make peace with many competing factions.
3. In addition to being capable, Herod was also very crafty.
a. He arranged all his relationships as conduits for power, and his craftiness had no limits.
4. Because he had a morbid distrust of anyone who might aspire to take his throne, he was also known as a cruel man.
a. He held tightly to the reins of power and brutally removed anyone who got in the way.
b. Over the years, he killed many people: His brother-in-law, his mother-in-law, two of his own sons, and even his wife.
5. The great historian, Josephus, called him “barbaric.”
6. Because Herod was willing to kill his own family, while carefully observing Mosaic dietary laws, his Roman Master Augustus jested: “I would rather be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son.”
C. Herod had a preoccupation with possessions.
1. Herod wanted it all. He wanted everything a Roman Caesar had
2. With the knack of King Solomon, Herod built 7 palaces and 7 theaters one of which seated 9,500 people.
3. He built stadiums for sporting events the largest could seat 300,000 fans!
4. He even constructed a new temple for the Jews.
D. Herod was preoccupied with prestige.
1. Herod loved to make an impression on others.
2. He built entire cities with state-of-the-art architecture and amenities and named them after his superiors.
3. He was also a smooth talker and had a special ability to win over his opponents.
4. Several of his 10 marriages were prestige-oriented and politically motivated.
5. He once married the daughter of his leading rival in order to gain leverage.
E. Herod was preoccupied by paranoia.
1. Ever since an enemy poisoned Herod’s father, who was a king himself, Herod was beset with paranoia.
2. He went to great lengths to make sure a secret ingredient never ended up in his soup.
3. When he became king, he commissioned tens of thousands of slaves to build over 10 emergency fortresses, all heavily armed and well provisioned.
4. In addition, he established an elaborate network of spies.
5. Anyone with a plot to dethrone Herod was sniffed out and eliminated before he could eat his breakfast.
F. Herod ruled for more than 40 years—until he clashed with another King—one who was also called, The King of the Jews - Jesus.
II. Jesus, the King of the Jews.
A. Now, with that as background, let’s fast-forward to the final months of Herod’s life.
1. One day word came to him in Jerusalem that some visitors had arrived from the East.
2. These were strange men with a strange question.
3. They then asked him a question that shook him to his core, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” (2:2)
4. They were looking for someone who was born King of the Jews.
a. Herod was probably thinking, “What’s up with that, I’m the King of the Jews.”
5. But he wasn’t born a King - he had to fight and kill to gain that title.
6. What were these men talking about? Why didn’t his spies tell him about this threat to his throne?
7. Matthew 2:3 says:, “When Herod heard this he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him.”
a. The word “disturbed” literally means to shake violently.
B. Now, even though Herod is old, remember the three words that define him—he was capable, crafty, and cruel.
1. He knew that somewhere in the ancient oracles was a prediction of the exact place where the Messiah, or special one of God, was to be born.
2. So he called together all his advisors and religious leaders to find out if the Bible had anything to say about a coming King.
3. Without having to think much about it, they responded in Matthew 2:5-6: “In Bethlehem in Judea, for this is what the prophet has written: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’” (Micah 5:2)
4. Herod must have winced when he heard the word, ruler - Maybe these strangers were on to something.
5. What if the boy they are looking for is the One the Bible predicted would come?
6. He knew he had to do something about it and do it immediately.
C. Herod called the stargazers secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
1. He sent them to Bethlehem and said in verses 7-8, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
2. So, off they went - the star that led them over 800 miles through the desert miraculously reappeared and led them to the exact house Jesus was in.
3. When they found Jesus, they bowed down and worshipped him, offering him expensive gifts.
4. By the way, this event happened much later that what our Christmas cards and Nativity Scenes depict.
5. The wise men did not arrive the very night Jesus was born their trip across the dessert would have taken many months.
6. Verse 9 says that the star stopped over the place where the child was.
a. This word is used for a toddler, not a newborn baby.
7. Also, verse 10 mentions that they came to the house where the child Jesus was there’s no mention of the stable or manger here Jesus and his parents were in someone’s home when the wise men showed up.
D. The mysterious men from the east knew something Herod would never know—that the little boy in a tiny house would someday rule the world.
1. They were not ashamed to give him gifts fit for a King.
2. Just before the wise men stepped off center stage and drifted into the twilight of history, we are told one last fact about them in verse 12: “Having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.”
3. Joseph also was warned in dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to protect them from Herod.
4. When Herod realized he had been tricked by the Wise Men, he was furious and did something worthy of Hitler or Stalin - he ordered the cold-blooded murder of all males less than two years of age - Herod the Great became the Butcher of Bethlehem.
Conclusion:
A. Rarely in history was a battle between Kings so unequally stacked.
1. Herod the capable, crafty, and cruel dictator filled with power, possessions, prestige, and paranoia, armed with firepower, resources and armies stood against the little Jesus, held safely in the arms of his loving mother.
2. To say that the two Kings, Herod and Jesus, merely “crossed paths” is way too mild.
3. According to a fundamental law of physics, the force of impact depends upon speed and direction.
4. Jesus and Herod were both moving fast, but from totally opposite directions.
5. King Herod represented the popular perspective on power: Get it, keep it, use it.
6. King Jesus had a radical philosophy: Use power to serve others.
7. No wonder the two kings clashed.
8. They both possessed immense power, but how they chose to use it revealed that the hearts of two radically different men.
a. One was a tyrant, the other a servant.
b. One was consumed with self-interest, the other focused on pleasing God and serving others.
c. One manipulated, slandered, deceived, and coerced; the other healed, touched, taught, and loved.
B. Herod the Great was perhaps the ultimate oxymoron in history.
1. He was rich in what most of us consider valuable, but was totally bankrupt as a human being.
a. He was addicted to power, obsessed with possessions, focused on prestige, and filled with paranoia.
2. In order to fully understand the opposite paths of Herod and Jesus, let’s take a look at the end of their stories.
3. Herod, with all his wealth and power, came to ruin.
b. In the final year of his life, his body was infected with disease; his pain was so bad that he often screamed throughout the night.
4. Jesus, after a life of poverty and lowly position, descended yet further and was crucified on a rough-hewn wooden cross.
a. His cries, like Herod’s, also pierced that dark afternoon.
b. By completely yielding His power, Jesus also died.
5. But there was a critical difference—Herod could not save himself from death; Jesus could have, but He chose not to.
6. During his life, Jesus willingly suffered from the abuse by religious leaders, suffered from the ignorance, hard-heartedness, and rejection of many people, suffered from the constant threats to His life, the betrayals of friends, the beatings, and then He died on our behalf—all for a single purpose: to demonstrate God’s outrageous love.
7. While Herod wielded the power of hate and self-protection, forming armies, building fortresses and killing at will, Jesus wielded the power of liberating love.
8. Those two kings couldn’t have been more different.
C. I think if we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we see too much of Herod and too little of Jesus inside us.
1. Given the right situation, every one of us is capable of working a little of Herod’s magic—especially if it helps us get what we want.
2. The Herod side comes out:
a. When we would rather rule, than serve.
b. When we focus on what we own or what we want to buy rather than on what we can give.
c. When we’d rather be honored, than look for ways to honor others.
d. And when we see others as a threat instead of as people who matter to God.
3. The question for each one of us is: Which King of the Jews is ruling in our lives right now?
D. See, Herod the King and Jesus the King still clash today—in fact, they compete with each other for control of our lives.
1. Herod stated that he wanted to go and worship Jesus, but we know Herod was in no way interested in bowing down to another King—even though he said he was.
2. Sometimes we act like Herod in this regard.
3. We might say that we are interested in following Jesus and obeying Him as Lord, but are we really deep down inside or are we just going through the motions?
4. But what does it mean for Jesus to really be the king of our lives?
E. There is only one King who is worthy of our allegiance and that is Jesus, and if we follow Him and truly serve Him we will never be disappointed.
1. Both the Scrooge and the Grinch learned the real meaning of life and of Christmas, and I hope we have learned the real meaning of life and of Christmas as well.
2. When we come to know and believe in King Jesus: the one who was miraculously conceived in Mary, humbly born in a manger, selflessly died on the cross, and triumphantly was raised from the dead, then we discover the really meaning of life.
3. And when we turn our lives over to Jesus and put our faith in Jesus, then his power saves us from our sins and transforms us, making us more like Him and more useful and effective in His service.
4. So, on this Christmas Day, let’s pledge or renew our allegiance to King Jesus – the one who went from the manger to the cross and now reigns at God’s right hand in heaven.
5. And let’s wield Jesus’ greatest power to change the world – the power of God’s love.
