THE ADVENT – INDIFFERENT PRIESTS

The LORD called us to be His representative and His ambassadors…to be “His royal priesthood.” It is, not only a great honour, but also a great responsibility. This honour is bestowed not because of our achievements. This responsibility is entrusted, not because of our abilities and capabilities. We are but nothing, on both counts. Yet, the LORD entrusted to us this responsibility, and has empowered us, with His Holy Spirit, to carry on this all important work.

However, the Church, that is us, stood many a times, as mute spectators, in the face of injustice and inhuman acts…not by some others, but by Christians themselves. Many other times, the Church was an active participant of such injustice, atrocities and cruelty against innocent people. In some cases the Church was the active proponent, and the primary instigator of such acts of cruelty. It is a tragedy, that the Church, which is supposed to be God’s true representative, has many times abandoned its responsibilities, and silently sided with the evil.

When “1…the Wisemen from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” – Matthew 2:1-2. They, presumptuously went straight to Herod, in Jerusalem. We all know what Herod did to the children below the age of two – he killed them all.

What is more tragic and painful than Herod’s cruel, heartless and unjust act is, the silence of the priests of that day. If we think it is a strategic silence, then shame on us for such spineless reasoning and strategies. It is in fact, cowardice, well covered as strategy. It is callous indifference.

The priests who looked up the scriptures, when the Wisemen came asking for the new-born King, did not do anything further, to verify the words of the visitors from the East, nor about the prophecy they just read. The Bible records, “4 And when he [Herod] had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:” – Matthew 2:4-5. Please note – “all the chief priests and scribes of the people…said to him…”

All the Chief Priests and all the Scribes read the prophesy…however, none seemed to have believed what they read to their king, and to the Wisemen. They did not care to go check it, if the prophecy had come true. There is no visible action on their part.

When the king committed such heinous crime against innocent children, they were silent, and their hearts seem to have grown cold, and got well accustomed to their frozen conscience. We see such things down through the Church history. The church was complicit in her silence. Many times, the Church was the instigator and the promoter of such cruel acts.