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Date: 2022-01-02
Audience: Grass Valley Corps - ONLINE
Title: Acknowledging the King
Text: Matthew 2:1-18
Proposition: Jesus is acknowledged as king
Purpose: Recognize that he is Messiah
Grace and peace!
Starting new year looking into a new chapter: Matthew chapter 2.
Hey, isn’t this all part of the Christmas story?
We celebrated the birth of Jesus a week ago!
Why are we still working on it?
Couple reasons.
First, this part of the story happened weeks, months, or perhaps even a year or more after the birth of Jesus.
Second, it includes the story of the so-called “wise men”, and the celebration of their visit happens on January 6 each year.
It’s a special day, noted for being the first day AFTER the Twelve Days of Christmas.
It’s also a popular day to take down your Christmas lights and decorations.
In today’s passage we will see Matthew continue to turn expectations about Messiah on their head.
Pagan astrologers will come to worship while the king of God’s people will refuse.
The religious elite will show they are aware of God’s plan, and that they don’t care about it.
And Matthew will continue to use traditional scripture teachings to support the end of traditions and welcome a new way of living.
Grab your Bible, flip to Matthew chapter 2, and start at verse 1:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem[1]
Matthew assumes we know all about the people and places he’s talking about, because the folks he wrote for did.
But most of us these days need a little help, so let me sketch it in for us.
Jesus, he’s why we’re here.
Matthew believed he was a promised king of kings who was somehow both sent by God and who was at the same time God in human form.
Everything Matthew writes about him demonstrates that he was and is this King who came to bring about a new kingdom.
Bethlehem in Judea was a small shepherd’s village just over five miles from Jerusalem, the capitol city of the Roman province which was all that remained of Israel.
The people there, by and large, raised and cared for the flocks of sheep used for sacrifices at the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
Herod the Great had his primary residence there – there being Jerusalem, not Bethlehem.
King Herod was far too important to spend time in any mucky little villages, even if they were part of his kingdom.
He was King of the Jews because that’s the title he’d asked his friend Octavian for after he had aided the Roman’s quest to become Emperor.
He was called Herod the Great because he built many large palaces, thriving seaports, and other cities dedicated to his Roman pals, all while keeping an iron grip on Judea itself.
The Magi are the hardest group to pin down here, as they are not a specific historical figure or event.
As a group, the Magi were astrologers, possibly Zoroastrians, who came from Persia, from ancient Babylon, or what was left of it.
They came from an area steeped in old power and old money.
The Romans ruled over them, yet treated them carefully, as honored leaders of an allied nation, rather than as subjects to be controlled and exploited, like the Jews.
To Matthew’s audience, the Magi were known because one of Israel’s great prophets, a man named Daniel, had become one of them during the Exile of Judah to Babylon six centuries before.
Though he had risen to rule over them and had successfully held his position against their scheming, Daniel had remained an outsider through his life and the other Magi had constantly sought to overthrow him.
But God protected him in all things, preserving his stories and prophecies alongside other inspired scriptures so the people would be able to read them and take heart, knowing that God is always faithful.
And now, not long after Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, a group of Magi arrived in Jerusalem, asking for an audience with Herod, because, we’re told, they (verse 2)
2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
[2]
Remember, they were astrologers!
Seeing things in the skies was their trade.
And something – we don’t know what – lit up the night in an unusual way, one that these Magi read as an omen of an important birth – a king, unlike any other king, who would rule over God’s people.
Someone who was going to change the world.
Someone they wanted a chance to meet and to celebrate and even to bow down before as they honored him as being a greater power than they were.
Nowhere are we told or is it suggested that the Magi had bowed or paid more than minor respects to Herod, who they would likely have considered to be no more than an equal.
Which should help you understand what Matthew says next a little better:
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.[3]
The Magi sought one BORN King of the Jews?
Herod wasn’t born king – he had been appointed king.
His own people tolerated his rule because Rome decreed it, not because they viewed him as legitimate.
Herod rewarded prophets and diviners who validated his reign, because if he hadn’t paid them to do so, they probably wouldn’t have.
He portrayed himself as the greatest king, even calling himself Herod the Great.
To preserve his name, he had named most of his children Herod as well.
And his grandchildren.
Boys and girls!
He wanted his name to be a title which suggested eternal rule.
He encouraged people to refer to him as a god, similar to the way the Caesars elevated themselves.
And he jealously protected his rule from those he thought might conspire against him.
These Magi, boldly telling him they were looking for one born to replace him, would have upset him in a way that little else could.
Let’s be clear about the power represented by the Magi, by the way.
If you didn’t get this from what I said before, you should be aware of it now.
We aren’t talking about a couple of guys on camels wandering in out of the desert mumbling about a comet flaring up.
These people were world leaders.
And there weren’t just three of them, though Matthew doesn’t tell us how many.
Early church tradition said that twelve had come on this journey, each supported by a thousand soldiers and an army of retainers.
Jerusalem was disturbed because a force from another land coming into your capitol and publicly upsetting your somewhat unstable ruler is disturbing!
As a sign of how he was intimidated by the Magi, Herod responded to their declaration with restraint and diplomacy, characteristics he was only known to manifest when he was at a disadvantage.
And he called his own wise men in to get some answers.
4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
[4]
They had this prophecy on tap because it had been around for centuries.
The location, among those educated in the scripture, wasn’t a difficult question.
What they had always lacked was the time.
They knew the what and the where, but not the when or the who.
They were also fuzzy on the why, with most expecting God would send a Messiah to throw off the bonds of Roman rule.
And the how?
Well, that was easy, right?
Even today there are so many people who believe that the only way to create change is by inflicting great violence on those we call our enemies.
That was certainly Herod’s plan.
Raising a banner against Rome would involve dethroning HIM, after all.
He couldn’t allow that.
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.
8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “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.”
[5]
“When was this great person born again?
Exactly?
I’d like to make sure I’m getting the right size of gift.
So embarrassing to bring diapers to a toddler, after all.
You go find him and let me know, okay?”
The Magi can be forgiven for not knowing or understanding the local politics well enough to know this was a bad idea, because it sure seems that they agreed to come back and tell Herod what they found out.
They leave at once.
Verse 9:
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