Who is this Child - A Royal Visit & A Royal Plot
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 2:1-15
Micah 5:2
Quite a bit of attention
Last week we saw that the announcement of Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus created quite a few problems for Mary and Jospeh.
It was a somewhat unusual situation.
A situation which required a huge response of faith from both Mary and Joseph.
The Archangel Gabriel appearing to Mary telling her that she will conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Appearing to Joseph in a dream telling him that this is a miracle and he is to take Mary home as his wife, even though everything in their culture said that he should send her away in disgrace.
Unusual.
Unsettling.
Events that would cause any one who was aware of the situation .... and actually believed both Mary and Joseph’s account...... to believe that this was the work of God.
To ask themselves
Who is this child?
Now you would expect that these events would cause a bit of attention in Nazareth where Mary and Josepth were located.
And you can understand that it probably caused a few questions to be asked in Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s home town when Mary suddenly turned up to visit Elizabeth.
But in reality beyond two small villages no one would pay any attention to the somewhat inconvenient timing of the pregnancy of a young woman.
Except!
We do find that this pregnancy did attract attention.
Attention from a very unusual source.
Attention that over the course of a couple of years caused many to ask some very serious questions.
We read in Matthew 2:1-16 of two very different groups of people who became fascinated by this child.
One group came to worship.
The Magi (Wise Men)
We Don’t Know Much About Them
Traditionally they were called Magi, but this designation is often used in a negaitve sense in the Scriptures and we really don’t know why Matthew used the term he used.
The consensous is that there is no hint that Matthew used the term in a negative sense or even that he placed these men in any particular class of Magi.
The best that we can come up with is that Matthew saw these men as Sages from the East, wise men who spent their time in astronomy and the interpretation of dreams.
Somewhat in the sense that the prophet Daniel was considered a wise man who understood astronomy, geography, mathamatics, politics, history and dreams.
These wise men were possibly from a ruling or educated elite class from the Persian Empire.
But we just don’t know for sure.
Matthew tells us that they studied the stars & interpret dreams.
And their study of the stars led them to conclude that a great King had been born in Judea.
But once again there is no historical evidence that there was an expectation among the Gentile nations that a great king or a Messiah was expected.
But there was a strong expectation amongst the Jewish Diaspora and possibly in Rabbinical tradition of the time that the Messiah would soon come.
And as if these men were from the Persian Kingdom then they would be aware of these sorts of beliefs as there was a significant Jewish population in Persia who had not returned to Jerusalem after the exile.
No “star” has even been firmly identified.
Although there was quite a bit of thought amongst the Jewish people of the time that the Messiah would be heralded by a star.
But there is no indication that the priestly class in Jerusalem thought that a special star or sign had appeared.
And none of the Gospel writers or any contemporary writer mentions a special star or heavenly sign.
Matthew himself makes nomention of a star although he could have linked the arrival of the Christ Child with Numbers 24:17 which says,
“I see him, but not here and now. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel. It will crush the heads of Moab’s people, cracking the skulls of the people of Sheth.”
So how these wise sages arrived at the idea that there was a special star that heralded the arrival of a great king and led them to the land of Judea we just don’t know.
But here they are looking for new King of the Jews who they have come to worship.
The other group who became fascinated by this child sought to destroy him
Herod the Great
Was king of Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth.
Ruling from 37 BC to 4 BC.
We believe Jesus was actually born born between 6 BC and 4 BC,
Remeber the Gregorian Calendar we use miscounted some things.
Herod was a shrewd politician, a great soldier and particularly good at keeping the jewish inhabitants in line and raising taxes for Rome.
The Romans liked Herod the first, whom they called Herod the Great.
He was a favorite of Rome, loyal and effective as a local ruler.
He was a great builder and transformed Jerusalem.
He rebuilt forts, a significant palace, instituted Roman games and began the rebuilding of the temple in Jersusalem..
And like many rulers of the time he was somewhat paranoid about threats to his rule.
Killing a number of his 10 wives and several of his sons whom he saw as threats.
Hence his actions in Matthew 2:16-18
16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. 17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A cry was heard in Ramah— weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.”
Herod the Great was disliked by pious Jews, not so much for what he did to the children at Bethlehem.
Such brutality was somewhat par for the course in those times.
The Jews tolerated him because he had usurped the throne, he wasn’t a natural born Jew being of Idumean birth, that is the land of Edom.
His ancestors had been Israel’s enemies throughout the conquest of the land and the times of the Judges and the Jewish Kingdom.
His family had probably converted to Judaism a couple of generations earlier when they were conqured by the priest king John Hyrcannus of the Hasmonean dynasty, leaders of the Maccabean revolt which reestablished a short lived Jewish kingdom
It is unclear how dedicated he was to the Jewish faith, even though he claimed to be Jewish, but he effectively navigated the wishes of both the Jewish peope and Rome.
Herod the Great was a complex character.
Someone who held onto power and when the Christ child was born.
His hunger for power, meant the slaughter of the innocents.
You can not get a more stark contrast
The power hungry king and the worshipping magi
Murder, - Worship
Callous disregard, - Gifts of great worth and significance.
Sending others do do the killing, - personally traveling vast distances at great expense and risk.
People tend to react to Jesus in a number of ways.
For some there is hostile rejection at what he ultimately represents.
Jesus the one who will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
People don’t like the idea that they need saving!
Others fall at his feet in worship (Matthew 2:2)
They see and embrace the fact that he is King
Who is this Child? - How do we see him?
One to be worshipped - or one who is a threat
Now you might say to me, “how can I see my Lord as a threat?”
But here is the sting in the tail.
The Christ child is a threat.
A threat to our independence
A threat to our desires for self
And a threat to our comfort.
Because if he is our Lord we can never be comfortable with how much we know and are known by him,.
How much we are devoted to him.
How much we are willing to give for him.
Who is this Child?
Is he the one to whom we will devote ourselves more and more each day?
Is he the one to whom we will give more and more of ourselves each day?
Or is he just the baby in the manger, a nice idea, but one that is best left in the manger?
