Biblical storytelling at its very best

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

A reflection on the daily readings, for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs, by Father Perry.

+ The only thing sadder than watching a child throw a tantrum is watching an adult throw a tantrum.

Herod, a sad and threatened big boy, lied and plotted to have the baby Jesus killed because he understood that Jesus was going to be a great king and he was not about to have his authority and rule as king usurped by anyone — not now, not ever!

So, having charmingly extracted information from the Magi as to where the baby Jesus was being born, his plan was to destroy the child.

But, as divine luck would have it, an angel got to work and in the middle of the night alerted Joseph to flee to Egypt.

Interestingly, there is a parallel story about a little baby boy being rescued from peril by being floated down the river.

Yes, Moses.

And didn’t he turn out to do the works of God for Israel? And didn’t all the baby boys under 2 years of age have to suffer death at the hands of pharaoh?

And so, as fate would have it, but for such a nasty and tantrum-filled response, King Herod had all of the baby boys under the age of 2 murdered; no so much in hopes that he would, in the process, kill the baby Jesus (that would be the frosting on the cake), but in a rage believing that he had been deceived by the Magi and given bogus information. He threw his little snit fit and killed all of those little baby boys.

Yes, he managed to cause a lot of sadness and a lot of sobbing and loud lamentations because he was having a bad day, and that could just not be.

Any adult tantrum is sad, but a murderous tantrum and the murder of infants? Now that is truly sad.

This story, though, has an even bigger purpose in the big story that Matthew is telling.

Of course, its literal value is questionable for a few reasons; it is only told by Matthew, which is kind of strange; tragedy usually gets passed along even more than success.

But even more, Matthew is the evangelist to the Jews as noted by his constant quoting of the Jewish scriptures at least 18 times; but also, he began the Gospel with that incredible and long and very Jewish Genealogy describing and thrice delineating the clear and direct line of David — which was clearly Jewish prophetic fulfillment.

But finally, in perfect parallelism, Matthew repeats a very important Jewish story, namely, the killing of the baby boys under 2 years of age in a plot by pharaoh to kill the baby — Moses.

And what did Moses, the man, do?

God used him to free Israel from slavery and lead them to freedom.

And what would Jesus, the man, do?

Like Moses, but even more so, he would free everyone from slavery to sin and lead them to a new freedom of grace and salvation and love and life eternal.

Matthew cleverly tells, especially the Jews, that Jesus is the new Moses and that they were truly being led to a new and promised land — and an eternal land at that!

Once again we see biblical storytelling at its very best.

What’s more, the murderous plot to destroy Jesus would come, but not just yet. It would be incubated for 33 years, and then it would be a communal tantrum of, yes, the jealous leaders — not just one king but many tantrum-filled adults.

So sad!

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Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.