Untitled Sermon (3)

Scripture Introduction:

For the last several years when we would go to my grandmother’s for Christmas I had developed a bit of a tradition. I’d take the wise men from her nativity set and move them a couple years to the East.

I did this because I’m a theology nerd. And I don’t intend to mess up your Christmas this morning, but I want us to look at this story of the wise men.

What’s the typical story about the wise men?

Let’s see there are three of them. They are dressed up like kings. You’ve maybe even heard their names, Caspar, Melchior (Melk Your) and Balthazar. They’ve been riding their camels and following this star for quite some time and on the night when Jesus is born they show up, star hanging over the nativity scene, and they offer this baby—born to be king—valuable gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We three kings of Orient are...

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light. But are all of these details in the text in Matthew? Listen in and see what’s there and what isn’t.

Read Text

Matthew 2:1–12 ESV

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ” Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Quite a few of those details are missing, aren’t they. The text clearly has this as happening AFTER Jesus was born. They didn’t show up on the night of his birth.

There is nothing in the text that says they are kings. They are magi—astrologers—probably Zoroastrian wise men from Persia serving the king there.

We don’t know their names. We don’t know for certain where they came from—only from the East. We do not know that there are three. We’ve supplied that because there are three gifts which are given.

We don’t know what they were wearing. We don’t know that they were riding on camels.

What is the impulse for us to put them there? I think some of it is just from church history and how the story has grown over the years. We’ve inherited tradition here too.

And I think there is something where we want to not only have shepherds and the poor and really nobody of import there in the nativity scene. He’s a king. We want to make it a glorious occasion.

That’s kind of an impulse we have isn’t it. Who is in charge? Who is leading this thing? It’s comforting in some reason to have these three kings there, offering their gifts, bowing a knee to Jesus.

King of kings, Lord of lords.

But he’s just a baby and so while he grows up it helps us to know that other kings are there.

In some way that is really what this text is about. It’s about the absence of kings, imposter kings like Herod, and the one true King—Jesus. It’s about Jesus who is born as king, and we see in this passage a few different responses.

So here is what we will do this morning.

First, I want to lay a bit of background. Go to Genesis, Psalms, dip into Hebrews, and kind of show that we were made to rule, but we’ve abdicated our crown, and so because of this we are left searching for rulers—and then we get angry with the ones we do have. Things like that.

Then I want to go back to Matthew 2 and fill out some of this story with the wise men—see how Jesus is the answer to the problem of kingship—and then we’ll close by looking at the different responses to Jesus’ kingship.

I. We abdicated our throne

I am trying really hard here not to take you on a long journey through several books of Scripture.

I’ve preached a whole sermon on this before a couple years ago on Hebrews 2, so take out your notes from that one...

It’s kind of a complicated argument in Hebrews 2 but I’ll see if I can sum it up quickly. First, you have to see Genesis 1:26-31 as a background. You and I were made to rule. Work and keep the garden. You were created for this. Created to have purpose and meaning. You know this, just look inward for 5 seconds and you can see it. You want to matter.

Hebrews 2, though is an interaction with Psalm 8. That’s why it’s complicated. Psalm 8 is David saying basically what Genesis 1:26-31 says—we were made to rule. But he introduces this problem he says,

“At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him...”

What the author of Hebrews is doing is wrestling with Scripture and reality. He’s saying we were made to rule but it sure doesn’t feel like we are ruling. Doesn’t seem like we are in control.

And it’s because we aren’t living up to what we were supposed to be. We gave up our crown. Or really, what happened is that we were supposed to be vice-regents with God. He is the King, He is the ruler…but we wanted to be “like God” and so we tried taking His position and/or to rule on our own.

As such we didn’t really set our crown down…we rebelled from the true King and as such we lost our crown.

And we’ve been trying from that moment forward to get that ruling back. That’s why Israel clamored for a king. They didn’t want only God to be their ruler…they wanted what the nations had.

We need to insert a little Psalm 2 into here.

Psalm 2 ESV

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

What does that Psalm tell us?

This psalm tells us that we still want to rule. We still think that we are in charge. We believe that we are the ones calling the shots.

But it also tells us that God is in charge. He is the king. And this psalm was picked up by the early church in Acts when the nations were raging against them. They saw Jesus as the fulfillment of this.

Jesus is the king that God has established.

And it is that same point that is present here in Matthew 2.

Let’s fill in a few of the details that we do know.

After Jesus was born…see, not at the manger scene. I’m going to say it’s somewhere around the age of 2, because that’s the age of children that Herod went after.

Days of Herod. This is Herod the Great. Not Jewish, but ruled over them. Mixed relationship with him. He did great things for them, but he was a godless pagan.

Wise men from the east. Don’t know much. Don’t really know a specific location…likely Persia, just because of some of the words that are used. But they come to Jerusalem b/c there is some kind of star that rose that told them a king of the Jews was born.

Matthew, Volumes 1 & 2 The Quest of the Magi

In the Old Testament, Daniel and his friends were Magi: educated men, seeking the truth, trained to counsel and advise their king, much like the cabinet of a president or prime minister. Other Magi were charlatans or scoundrels (Acts 8:9–24). Our Magi seem to be learned, noble, and wealthy

They have come to worship.

Interesting. A couple of points. First, notice how God speaks to people in their own language. Not a fan of astrology. You aren’t supposed to be looking into the heavens for signs. But God, graciously, reaches them where they are.

Herod hears this and is troubled. And everyone is troubled with him. What does that mean? It means that when Herod the king is agitated it makes all the people around nervous too.

Ever been in a home like this, or had a relationship like this? It’s not healthy. But his emotional temperature is what is ruling everything. If Herod is mad then it means bad things for them. So, “Mr Ranger isn’t going to like this Yogi”.

So what does he do…he gets all the religious leaders together and says, “what do we make of this?” Your books, your religion, is going to speak of this more so than what these wise men are saying. Give me some details.

Bethelehem of Judea…and then he quotes Micah 5:2. And that’s significant too because this is David’s place. And so it stirs up even more feelings of…uh oh..this could be the rightful king.

Herod wants to find the baby so he can kill him. But he pretends like he wants to worship him.

The star comes back, rests over where the child is, they rejoice exceedingly and with great joy. This is something here about the good news coming to the Gentiles.

They see Mary. They fell down and worshipped him. Just a little side note there—notice where the worship is directed. Notice the posture towards Mary and then to Jesus. He is the king. No co-redeemer stuff here.

They give three gifts. Expensive. And then they have a dream…God speaks to them again…they don’t tell Herod and go back their own way.

So what do we do with this story?

We want to be king. And if we can’t be king we want to be connected to the king. We were made to rule…but that is shipwrecked.

We want a king. We long for a king. But not THAT kind of a king.

Psalm 2

Jesus is the king. So what do we do with that? The text doesn’t born to be a king…it says “born king”. He IS the king even at His birth.

He is the king of your life.

He is the one who is taking us back to the Garden.

He is the one who is restoring our crown as well…but he does it through the cross.

Cradle—cross—crown.

In this text we have four main responses. And I’m indebted to Daniel Doriani for bringing this out.

Four responses:

1. Anger. Herod…I am king. And I’ll fight anybody who tries to take my throne. Is that you? Captain of your ship. I’m in charge!

2. Anxiety because your leader is upset. Inability to leave the system. Might even acknowledge in some way that Jesus is the king…but it doesn’t go into the core of your being. You’re still stressed out. You’re worried about what this means for your life, what this means for your surroundings. What would it TRULY mean for Jesus to be king of your life? How does this impact anxiety?

3. Apathy. They aren’t searching. Why weren’t they there? Why not have been setting up shop in Bethlehem.

4. Adoration—they worship king Jesus.

We need a new king because we abdicated our throne.

A king has come…what do you do with it?