Can I give you a ‘once upon a time’ story? Once upon a time, a little more than two thousand years ago, in a land the Romans called Judea, two kings were alive at the same time and in the same place. One king was about seventy years old; the other king was an infant. The big king was evil; the little king was pure. The big king was rich and powerful; the little king was poor. The big king lived in a palace staffed with servants; the little king was born in a stable. The little king’s mother was a young peasant girl from an obscure village, and his adoptive father was a carpenter.

Of course, you know the names of the two kings. The big king’s name was Herod. He was known as “Herod the Great.” He was a master builder, starting an ambitious expansion of the Temple in Jerusalem. A large portion of a supporting platform of that Temple structure, now known as the Wailing Wall, is still standing today.

But there are a couple things you ought to know about King Herod. He was a puppet-king. Judea was under Roman control and occupation. The Roman emperor allowed Herod to ‘rule’ in Palestine. Herod was appointed governor of Galilee in 40 BC, and later that year the Roman senate declared him “King of Judea.” He was a king, but a king who would not dare displease Rome.

In Judea Herod was not considered to be so “great.” In fact, most conservative, observant Jews of his day would say that he was not even Jewish! His ancestors were Edomites and not Jews—and his grandfather’s generation had embraced Judaism because there were a lot of swords were pointed at them. He could never be recognized as a true king of the Jews. He was not of the tribe of Judah. He was not related to David.

No, I’m not writing a special for the History Channel. What I want you to understand is the insecure position Herod was in during his reign. In Herod’s life, reality didn’t quite match up with outward appearances. That is something worth remembering.

One day Herod receives some unusual visitors from far away—“Magi from the East,” as Matthew describes them. [Nowhere is there an indication of how many there were!] Magi were most likely Persian [think Iranian] priests of Zoroaster, who were into the interpretation dreams and the study of astrology. The Magi came to Herod because they were following a heavenly object [“a star at its rising/in the east”]. Their search led them to Judea. “We have come to worship him—he who has been born king of the Jews.”

No wonder Herod was greatly troubled. He didn’t like the idea of another king in his realm, especially a true king whose birth was signaled by signs in the sky! He consults the chief priests and scribes about Messiah. [By the way, I wonder why the chief priests didn’t go along with the Magi—perhaps indifference?] He tried to fool the wise men. He met with them secretly and asked them how to find this newborn king. He lied to them. His fear and obsession with keeping his kingdom intact turn him into a liar. When his plan fails after the Magi scoot back to Persia without reporting to him, Herod becomes enraged, and you know what happens next. Herod becomes a mass murderer, ordering the slaughter of all male children in the area of Bethlehem under two years of age. But God warned Joseph in a dream, and the young family fled to Egypt. In a short time Herod the Great died, and the new king came back from Egypt.

The big king died and now is remembered as a little king—pathetic, paranoid, murderous. The little king grew up. He is Jesus, and now he is King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.

A part of the Christmas story is the story of a king who missed the real king. His little, insecure, pathetic kingdom mattered more than the Kingdom which God was bringing into the world. Really it’s an old, old story. The little kingdom wars with the big Kingdom, and the kingdom of this world wars against the Kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of man wars against the Kingdom of God.

This war wages behind every human intention, decision, thought, word, desire, and action. Everything any of us does is done in pursuit of one of these two kingdoms. We were created, as Paul Tripp likes to say, for ‘big Kingdom’ living. But sin twists and perverts our allegiances and causes us to become Herods—fiercely dedicated to our little kingdoms, believing our kingdom is as good as it gets, and blind to transcendent, eternal glories of the big Kingdom—the Kingdom of heaven.

Think about Herod again. Herod’s greatest achievement was a religious one. He expanded the Temple. But even that was all about advancing and securing his little kingdom. This is how we get ourselves in trouble without realizing it. Most of us don’t wake up in the morning thinking in Kingdom terms. And without realizing it, we can do religious things (go to church, help others, study the Bible), all in the hope that God will ensure the success of our little kingdom.

We end up living for earth-bound treasures: success, someone’s affection, power and control, a certain lifestyle, parenting successful children, a trouble-free marriage, pleasure, or stuff. Let me ask you this: What makes your day a ‘good day’? What tends to make you happy and satisfied with life? If we watched a video of you during 2008, what treasure would we conclude that you are seeking?

We end up defining life in terms of our needs and anxieties. Herod felt stuck between keeping Rome happy and proving himself to skeptical Jews. Maybe you feel stuck in a similar way. You will never be able to control all the things that need to be controlled in order for you to guarantee that all your needs will be met and that your kingdom will come and your will be done.

Living for your little kingdom will shape the way you respond to everything God has placed in your life. Living for your little kingdom turns life into an endless, fruitless search for earth-bound treasure and an endless, fruitless focus on yourself. The Bible has a word for this way of living: sin!

We know what we like and the people we want to be with. We know the kind of house we’d like to own and the car we want to drive. We know how we want people in our family to respond to us. Without even recognizing it, we quickly fall into a ‘my desire, my will, my way’ lifestyle, driven by the cravings of our hearts. Like Herod, the more threatened my kingdom becomes, the more likely I am to manipulate, lie, become outraged, and destroy. But the promises of the Bible are an invitation to be a part of a bigger and better Kingdom—the Kingdom of God.

“It seems then,” said Tyrian, smiling himself, “that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places.”
“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”
“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” [C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle]

The big Kingdom really is big! Its purposes span all of history and spread to all of creation and speak to all kinds of people. After all, a group of Iranian Zoroastrian priest-astrologers are the first seekers! The big Kingdom of God and my little kingdom cannot co-exist peacefully. The Kingdom of God cannot be squeezed or chopped down to fit into the constricted space of your little kingdom. And that is a good thing: that is why we weekly call you all to worship. Worship is opening ourselves up to the grandeur of the Kingdom of God—acknowledging one greater than we are, whose Kingdom is greater and much, much better than ours—the Lord God is his name.

I want this Christmas to be a time when you reconsider Jesus the Messiah and ponder what it is to worship him and what it is to seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness—to welcome a new way of living, a way of living that recognizes a loving heavenly Father and his unwavering commitment to provide all his children need to live lives committed to his Kingdom. The little king born in Bethlehem came to tear down your kingdom and expose its emptiness. He gave his life to buy us, to bear our sins, and to welcome us into his Kingdom. By his grace may everyone hear be able to say with the Iranians, “We have come to worship him.”