Janet Benlien Reeves

The Life King Herod Missed King Herod was a mentally unstable tyrant whose paranoia led him to murder anyone he viewed as a threat to his throne. He not only murdered all the baby boys of Bethlehem under the age of two in his attempt to kill Baby Jesus (Matthew 2:16), but he also murdered one of his wives, her sons, and other members of her extended family. In his later years, he even killed his own firstborn son, Antipater (Perowne). King Herod was not a fictional character, yet writers will recognize that his life fits the character arc of a Tyrant, one of the shadow arcs of the King, perfectly. In her book, Writing Archetypal Character Arcs: The Hero’s Journey and Beyond, K.M. Weiland says, “Because the King Arc is all about surrendering power and prestige as a preparation for the descent into the underworld of elderhood (and, eventually, the end of life), the Tyrant’s rejection of this arc is ultimately an attempt to reject his own mortality” (133). If we apply this to King Herod, ...

    In many Christian traditions, peace is the focus of the second week of Advent. As we reflect on this prompt, we may think of Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and look forward to the day when He’ll make peace our permanent state of existence. No conflict. No worry. No confusion. No frustration. No anger. No heartbreak. No pain. But peace is more than something to look forward to. It’s also something we can learn to practice now. Throughout His life on this earth, Jesus showed the way. We learn that way by studying the Gospels. Through our determination, with the help of God’s Spirit, our practice of peace can help make this world more harmonious now. This is true because Jesus is our peace. Ephesians 2:14 tells us this. In the passage containing this statement, Paul is addressing hostility between Jews and Gentiles. He says that Jesus reconciled, that is, made peace between, the two groups through His death on the cross (v. 16) and that through Jesus, all people,...

At Christmastime, we celebrate Jesus’ birth— as we live the life made possible through His death and resurrection— while we look forward with hope to His return. We focus on His Nativity, but we know that event has already happened. Christ’s birth is in the past, not something we hope for now. We celebrate Jesus’ birth at Christmas the way we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, adoptions, and other annual celebrations of one-time events. But Christmas is more than a birthday celebration. Christmas is a remembrance of hope. We no longer hope for the promised Christ child. He has already come. Instead, we hope—look forward to—the second coming of our grown-up, mission-fulfilled, crucified, resurrected, and glorified Savior and King for eternity. The remembrance and reality of the first event is our hope for the second. We live in this hope every day. Just as God was and is and is to come (Revelation 1:8), through Advent, we celebrate what happened in the past, what is happening...