{"id":5254,"date":"2012-12-15T09:48:20","date_gmt":"2012-12-15T17:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=5254"},"modified":"2015-05-05T15:08:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T22:08:12","slug":"tis-the-season-for-the-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/12\/15\/tis-the-season-for-the-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tis the Season . . . for The Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I told daughter Allison the next post would be on “the powers” and she said, “Angels?” I guess I didn’t mean the real<\/em> powers, though that would be a good topic too. Rather I meant those that rule the earth, representatives of whom are very much part of the nativity story . . . though never part of a Christmas creche.<\/p>\n

Take Caesar\u00a0Augustus\u00a0as prime example. His role is distant but central. It was by his dictum that a census be taken and, by Jewish custom, meant this engaged couple had to return to their place of heritage. That was a hundred miles from where they lived, no easy walk for a pregnant girl, donkey or none; and they’d never have gone but for Caesar. But getting them there, just in time for the birth, fulfilled (and still shrouded) the prophesy that in\u00a0Bethlehem\u00a0the world’s savior would be born.<\/p>\n

Such wasn’t noted by many, certainly not Caesar, whose statuary around the empire named\u00a0him<\/em> as “Savior of the World.” His coins called him “Son of God.” There might have been a problem had he known these titles were being\u00a0ascribed\u00a0to a baby in a far off provence.<\/p>\n

It’s of note that Christ was born at the height of the Pax Romana, the widest rule of any one man in history, before or since.<\/p>\n

Any such claim for title was<\/em> an issue with Herod, however, the low born and ambitious half-Jew\u00a0king they called “The Great.” And they’d better. Josephus\u00a0wrote that he spent all his energy routing out any competition,\u00a0murdering even his own sons and his favorite wife for moves he thought suspicious.<\/p>\n

One of the lowest despots in all history, and Jesus born right under his nose.<\/p>\n

Not that he’d have known at all had the magi not inquired. Then, his insecurities burning, he sent out his men to cut down all Bethlehem’s babies under the age of two.<\/p>\n

The Massacre of the Innocents<\/em> has been painted by many a\u00a0Renaissance\u00a0artist, but you’ll never find one on a Christmas card.<\/p>\n

And how about those soldiers, strong, trained, armed and fierce, up against sucklings and mothers. It’s thought that with tiny Bethlehem’s population of a thousand, some twenty children were killed.<\/p>\n

What? No. Maybe it never happened. Go to Wikipedia: “It’s all myth,” with scholars quoting each other.<\/p>\n

And so the opposition continues.<\/p>\n

No matter: When a bigger picture’s unfolding, even the powers<\/em> can’t stop it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

Next: The Pious<\/em>
\nWith apologies for the coincidence of the 20 children killed in\u00a0Connecticut, in these, our civilized\u00a0times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would be nice if everything of the season was only light and cheer, but there’s more, not so pretty, just real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5254"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10740,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5254\/revisions\/10740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}