This morning, we meet Magi following a star looking for the divine king the star’s pointing to. They follow the star to Jerusalem, assuming that a king would be born in a palace, and end up at Herod’s palace. Along the way they encounter people who only pretend to worship or pledge allegiance to Jesus.
Imagine the surprise of Herod when these scholars from the East come and ask to see this new king and it’s not one of his sons! Herod quickly calls his own wise men to tell him where this new king is! Herod’s cunning, he calls the Magi and shares with them what his scholars discovered, “For this is what the prophet has written, But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” Herod tells the Magi, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” Herod wants the Magi find the child, tell him where he is, and then kill this threat to his throne. Herod’s focused on keeping power and control and is willing to use lies, force, and violence to keep power.
The Magi set their sights on Bethlehem. As the sun sets and the stars appear, they see the star again and are overjoyed. They follow it to the house where Jesus and his parents are living and see the child Jesus with his mother Mary; they bow down and worship him, knowing that this is the child-king anointed by God.
They unpack the gifts they had brought for Jesus; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each gift is given symbolic meaning by the early church; gold for a king, frankincense so prayers might go up to God on its fragrant smoke, and myrrh points to Jesus’ suffering and death as it was used to anoint the bodies of the dead. The Magi give valuable gifts to honour Jesus and acknowledge him as the divine king of the Jews.
The Magi offer some of their best to Jesus. How do we normally come before our king, and what gifts we offer to him? Who do we offer our loyalty and allegiance to; what are the most important things in our lives; is Jesus even close to the top of our lists? This past week we celebrated Christmas and we offered plenty of our wealth on the altar of commerce. What do we bring to our king as we come to him? We reveal our hearts by where we offer our gifts of wealth, time, and talents. The Magi’s gifts reveal their hearts and loyalty. We’re called to give our lives over to Jesus; not simply trying harder to be good or nice. God now tells the Magi in a dream to not return to Herod, so they go home by another route.
Herod now murders the boys in Bethlehem up to the age of 2. Matthew uses the words of the prophet Jeremiah to express the pain here, "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." A high school student in Thunder Bay was angry over this story. She asked, "Why does God only save Jesus, why doesn't he save the other boys?" She wondered if God didn't care enough. These are honest questions. The question "why" is a powerful question and often comes out of pain. There are evil people in the world; sin has been around ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Satan’s able to lead some people to do great acts of evil; Herod’s only one example, his cruelty extended to murdering 3 of his own sons when they threatened his throne. At his death, Herod commanded his soldiers to murder one member of each family so that the whole nation would mourn when he died.
The Bible doesn't hide from the hard things of life. God acknowledges the pain in life, the tears shed by people as suffering that enters into every life at some time or another. The people of Matthew's time know that the history of God's people is filled with blood and tears, but they also know that God hears the cries of his people, sees their tears, and responds.
Matthew's reference to Rachel weeping for her children refers to the pain and suffering the people of Israel experienced when they were taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire hundreds of years earlier. As you read further in Jeremiah, God offers hope, "This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land. “… Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord." Mathew, in quoting Jeremiah, points to the return of Jesus from Egypt, as Israel had.
An angel comes to Joseph in a dream and tells him to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt until it’s safe. Joseph obeys, faithfully bringing his family to a place of safety. They spend time in Egypt, likely in Alexandria where there was a large Jewish population. There’s always been a complicated relationship between Israel and Egypt as we see in Isaiah 19:23–25, “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” God has bigger plans than we often realize, plans that include blessing other nations. When it’s safe again, God comes to Joseph and tells him it’s time to go home. When Joseph arrives in Judea, God directs him to go to Galilee, away from Herod’s equally evil son. Joseph settles in Nazareth where Jesus can be raised in safety to grow into his call to become king.
The scholar Rodney Reeves in his commentary explains that Matthew’s Christmas story reflects a confrontation between kingdoms, “The story of Jesus’s birth is more than a narrative of Israel’s covenant story coming true. It’s about two kingdoms colliding, two irrepressible forces clashing. The kingdom of heaven invading earth. The reign of God versus the rule of men. Herod against Joseph.” The early church hears an echo back to Moses being saved to lead God’s people to freedom, as God now saves Jesus from Herod to lead God's people out of our slavery to sin.
That clash of kingdoms still continues today. Augustine writes that there are two cities, the City of God and the City of Man. Augustine writes, “Two loves have made the two cities. Love of self, even to the point of contempt for God, made the earthly city; and love of God, even to the point of contempt for self, made the heavenly city.” These cities are what they love.” Herod’s in love with power, control, and himself, using fear and cruelty to hold onto power. Earthly kingdoms focus on pleasing enough people to stay in power, not on God’s will or desires. Jesus brings in the kingdom of heaven where love of God comes first and then flows into love of other. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of willing sacrifice, creating places and people of shalom, with Jesus as king and saviour, as symbolized in the Lord’s Supper. These two kingdoms contrast each other and we’re called to choose which kingdom to belong to.
No matter what’s going on, no matter how evil man can be, God’s in control of all things, including our suffering. God doesn’t let us suffer because he doesn’t love us, rather, he meets us in our suffering and promises to carry us through it. Jesus won’t always change our circumstances, but he’s the resurrection and the life and weeps with us when evil hurts us. Often, we can’t understand why we suffer or experience evil, yet we trust that God’s working for our ultimate good. God gives us the church family to walk with us, support us, weep with us. Jesus also experienced evil. The gospels show that every indignity and evil was done to Jesus, yet Jesus never yields to evil. He never strikes back, never fights evil with evil, he responds in love. In the end, he defeats all the forces of evil, establishing the kingdom of heaven. We can choose the kingdom focused on keeping power for the few on the backs of the many, or we can choose the kingdom of shalom for all rather than the few, the kingdom focused on following God’s desire for all creation. Do you choose Herod or Jesus as your king?
God works through dreams to Joseph and the Magi. The lives of the wise men, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus himself are spared because they paid attention to the dreams God sent. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures to guide us to the child in the manger, the king whom wisemen worshipped; the Son of God come to save his people.
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