“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13).

The light of the manger in the cave, this Sunday after Christmas, still burns brightly—the witness of the angelic hosts crying out to the shepherds “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men” still rings in our ears (Luke 2:14).

And yet … we now hear of Herod and his desire to kill the “Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).

The light in the manger which shown forth for man was being sought out by men, not to bask in its glow as did the Magi, but rather to extinguish it so that it could shine on no others. Truly, as the Gospel of John tells us, “The light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it” (John 1:5).

Herod and his chief priests and his scribes were blind. They were blind to the nature of the light, for, as the Evangelist Luke tells us, the truth of the light is revealed only to those with a “noble and good heart” (Luke 8:15). Herod and his court knew that “something” was happening but like so many of us, he could only think in “human terms.” This messiah, this King of the Jews, whom the Magi sought out, was for Herod, an earthly competitor—a rival to his throne. His frame of reference, his whole manner of reasoning, made him blind to the true nature of the light that shown forth from the cave that first Christmas morning. Herod, an earthly king, did not know that which humble shepherds knew.

And Herod reacted violently. As we have seen throughout history, when mankind finds something it does not understand, it tries to kill it. The light in the manger was a threat to Herod’s earthly way of existence, for the light came to expose the darkness and consume it. The only way he could preserve the darkness of his world was to snuff out the light before it had a chance to burn.

And what was this “earthly way of existence” for Herod. Possessions, wealth, power—all of these were attributes one would associate with Herod or any other earthly king for that matter. These are the fruits of the devil, for they weigh a man down and separate him from his creator—making it as hard to reach paradise as “a camel passing through the eye of a needle” (Matthew 19:24). Possessions, wealth, and power created for Herod an illusion—an illusion that he himself was a God. But the king who came into the world that night in the cave would preach poverty over wealth, humility over pride, and love of neighbor over love of self. Herod could never hope to comprehend the language of this new king— and the darkness did not understand it.

The world has not changed much since the time of Herod, for as we read in Ecclesiastes, “nothing changes under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Sometimes we witness physical persecution like the slaughter of the Innocents by Herod—the large number of martyrs during the Communist yoke in this past century bear witness to this. Whether it be outright murder or defacing an image of the Mother of God and propping it up for all to see, the darkness cannot understand the light and seeks to destroy it. It will stop at nothing to extinguish the light. To prove this we need to look no further than to see what the “world” has done to the feast of the Nativity of Christ.

Take a trip to a greeting card store, and see how many cards actually have anything to do with the birth of Christ. You will find “some” but they will definitely be in the minority. Turn on the TV and look at what the mainstream media has to say about this great feast of the Christian world. You will find that Christ and His birth are rarely mentioned, if at all.

How has this come about? It has come about through the persistent work of the devil—the deceiver. For the devil saw Christians from the very beginning celebrate Christmas—he saw the joy, the celebrations, and the feast, and he whispered in man’s ear and said, “isn’t this celebration wonderful?” and “this feasting is marvelous.” The devil kept telling man how wonderful his feasting was so that man would become enamored with “the feasting” and not “the feast.” What has resulted is a form of idolatry. Modern society has made an idol of the celebration and the feasting at the expense of Christ and His Nativity.

Does this mean that Christmas trees and gifts and celebrations are bad things? Certainly not. What it does mean, however, is that we need to recall what we are celebrating. We need to focus on the fact that the trees and the gifts and the feasting are meant to celebrate the Nativity of Christ and not the other way around. Without the Nativity of Christ at the forefront of our thoughts and activities, our trees and gifts and parties become idols that we worship as surely as the Israelites worshipped the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. We become modern day idolaters, worshiping the symbol and not the God to who the symbol is offered.

Just as Herod tried to snuff out the light, so also does modern, secular society seek to throw a blanket over the entrance to the cave where the Christ child was born. Herod’s approach was a brute force method, an attempt to physically silence the King before He could claim His throne. The result was the slaughter of the Innocents. Today’s approach is more subtle and far more dangerous, for it casts its net out over millions of souls and slowly drains the spiritual life from them.

The light from the manger, however, is a consuming light. It shines forth over a span of 2000 years and continues to burn as brightly as when it first appeared that night in the stable in the cave. Herod could not extinguish it. The Cross could not vanquish it. The pagans could not snuff it out. Truly, the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. For this light is “the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9).

We need not fear darkness, for darkness was obliterated when the light burst forth in the manger that first Christmas. The manger calls us, it beckons us to turn away from the darkness and step into the light. We are all called to the manger as surely as the Magi and the shepherds were. Whether we bow our heads in humility and step into that manger or not, is our choice.

May God bless you and keep you—In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Fr. Demetrios E. Tonias is the pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord, NH, one of many "Share the Light Parishes" around the country that partner with the Orthodox Christian Network in a cooperative effort to build an effective media outreach for Orthodoxy. Fr. Demetrios, whose articles and sermons will regularly appear on MyOCN.net, holds an M.Div. and Th.M. from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in historical theology at Boston College. You can read more written by Fr. Demetrios and listen to his parish's OCN-produced Internet radio station, by visiting Holy Trinity's Web site.

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