Sermon Tone Analysis

Advent of Joy

One of my last years in college I had the opportunity to become the owner of seven small green plants.

Now these weren’t just any plants, because these plants were not just for decoration, but they were actually going to produce a fruit.

And not just any fruit, but a small red berry.

And if one were to open this small red berry they would find two little seeds that when those are dried and roasted, then ground up and combined with hot water become a wonderful beverage – coffee!

Now I’m not sure how many plants you have to have to be considered a “plantation,” but I felt like I was at the beginning stages of a coffee plantation right in my apartment.

But like other fruit trees, these little trees had to grow a little before they produced anything.

In fact, it turns out that it takes about 5 years until they finally produce anything.

And right on schedule, after four or five years our biggest tree finally bloomed and we harvested two – yes two – cute little coffee beans!

Exciting I know.

It was enough for about a drop of coffee.

But we were excited anyway because of what the plants were hopefully all going to do given enough time.

With a bigger perspective those coffee trees held the hope that we one day would have enough beans to brew a whole cup of coffee, not just one drop.

A bigger perspective looked beyond how scrawny they were – and they were scrawny, the big one named Josephine looked remarkably similar to Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree.

I’m not kidding, that thing was basically a little stick with three branches and a dozen leaves.

It’s a wonder there was ever a “harvest.”

But because of a bigger perspective and what that tree would potentially do, even years later, we were excited about that tree.

We anticipated good things to come from that thing.

Well, more than anticipating the freshest cup of coffee possible, we’ve been working our way through Advent in anticipation of Jesus’ birthday – what we celebrate every December 25.

Over the last few weeks we’ve looked at Advent through a few different lenses, like love and peace.

This morning we’re looking through advent through the lens of joy, and we’re doing so in the book of Matthew, chapter 2, the first twelve verses.

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The gospel writer Matthew, with the purpose of capturing a persuasive story of Jesus’ life for the Jews, links the Old Testament to what was happening in his day by drawing many connections back to the Jewish bible.

He presents Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of the long-awaited Jewish Messiah who would save both Jews and Gentiles.

For a long time they had anticipated a deliverer who would usher in a kingdom that would have no end.

Their scriptures were full of prophecies and expectations about what it would be like when the Messiah arrived, things like what tribe he would be from and what town he’d be born in.

And so Matthew’s first chapter includes a long list of Jesus’ ancestors and by the beginning of chapter 2, Matthew has already mentioned “Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham,” “Jesus who is called the Messiah,” and “Jesus the Messiah” again.

Is it really surprising that Matthew wants to convince those who were waiting for the Messiah to consider Jesus as the Messiah?

Not at all!

So right near the beginning of Matthew’s story we find this interesting account about Magi from the east who had seen a star and rightfully figured out that it meant there had been a birth of a king of the Jews.

This prompted them to travel a long way to pay him homage.

And here’s where there are lots of questions regarding these guys.

Growing up hearing this story we don’t think it’s too strange.

We’ve really come to expect them to show up sometime with the Christmas story.

But pausing for even just a minute, one might wonder who were these guys and where did they come from?

What kind of star did they see that made them pack up and head out to make this journey?

All of these are great questions with not many answers.

They probably came from Babylon or Persia, they probably were Magi for a country in that region and not kings themselves.

Another great question is when did they show up?

It seems like we always see them visiting the manger with baby Jesus, at least the nativity sets we have around the house place them there.

But it’s possible that this visit could be up to two years after Jesus was born.

And how many where there?

Was it three?

Twelve?

Or a whole traveling party who brought the three gifts?

Fortunately for us, Matthew gives us exactly what we need to know to keep Jesus at center stage.

Sometime after the birth of Jesus, Magi appear on the scene to pay an important visit to the one born king of the Jews.

And they go to the most logical place, King Herod’s, the one who has already proclaimed himself to be king of the Jews.

Not that he was “born” king of the Jews, because he wasn’t even Jewish, but he actually weaseled his way into the position by a combination of force and politics with the Romans who were the overall occupying force in Judea at the time.

So King Herod received these important visitors who informed him of the shocking news that there was someone “born king of the Jews” and that they wanted to visit him and indeed worship him.

Verse 3 is a telling verse of how King Herod felt about the news: “He was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”

He had no plan to worship Jesus.

A few verses later, we discover that Herod would take drastic measures to make sure no one threatened his hold on power, especially some small kid.

This is totally in character for Herod.

Even other histories written at that time record that he was a paranoid ruler.

He built a series of fortresses to a safe zone just in case he needed an escape plan.

He even killed or jailed people in his own family to hold onto power.

He was a paranoid ruler who was legitimately threatened by the news of someone who had been “born king of the Jews.”

And maybe even more threatened because the prophecies indicated that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

And so Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem, a mere six miles away, to find Jesus.

And again the star somehow indicated to them the place where the child was.

Their reaction?

They were overjoyed, or as R.T. France translates it, “they rejoiced with an exceedingly great joy.” [i] If you could imagine after traveling for months at the least, because of a star you saw probably two years before, you could imagine the culmination of such a journey to be pretty exciting.

With so much anticipation, they might have been jumping up and down!

Now that’s the kind of nativity set I want – one with Magi who are exceedingly joyful – their team just one after 15 years of losing to Navy type of excitement.

Wouldn’t that be a cool nativity set?

So they’ve been to King Herod’s maybe expecting to find the child in a palace, but here they are outside of town in the little village of Bethlehem, in front of just another house.

It could have been any of the houses in the village.

And just like any other house in the area, it probably had two floors: the ground floor that housed all of the family animals and the upstairs where the living areas and rooms were.

This is quite possibly the same house where Jesus was born, in the downstairs with the animals because the other rooms upstairs were already full.

The scriptures don’t elaborate on this point.

But none-the-less, the star has led the Magi to this normal house that they’ve spent a long time traveling to.

And they were overjoyed.

They bowed down and worshiped Jesus and presented their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The Magi’s story ends with a warning not to go back to Herod so they returned to their own country by another way.

Now in all likelihood, the Magi didn’t know truly how big of a deal the birth of Jesus was.

They seemed to know it was exceptional and they wanted to be a part of it.

They also may not have known the full extent of bowing down to worship him.

When they paid him homage, they physically lowered themselves to humble themselves in front of someone with a higher status.

And so without even knowing the full meaning of their worship, they worshiped.

And even with only a glimpse into what this birth really meant for humanity, they were overjoyed.

They “rejoiced with an exceedingly great joy.”

If they rightfully rejoiced after finally seeing the fulfillment of their journey, how much more joyful should we be in celebration knowing how this was a birth not of another kingdom of man, but of the Kingdom of God? How much more should we rejoice in celebration knowing that this birth showed that God is with us – Emmanuel!

How much more should we rejoice and be glad that our salvation arrived?

So because Christians look to this event and see that God has provided (First) a means of salvation, we rejoice!

With a bigger perspective of God’s work in the world we display joy because Jesus’ arrival began the path for us to have a relationship with the Almighty God.

In love, it was God’s plan to send his son to live and ultimately to die for us.

Paul wrote to the church in Rome all about this in .

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

A few chapters earlier, the Apostle Paul states clearly that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” but there is “redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

With a bigger perspective Christians look to this event and see that God has provided a means of salvation, he is Emmanuel God with us, and that’s why we rejoice!

We rejoice knowing that it is Jesus who changes our status from slaves to sin to slaves of righteousness.

We know and rejoice in the fact that we were ones without hope before, but through Christ we have a hope.

We see in this birth that God’s plan of salvation was not without cost.

It was a high price to redeem us.

We rejoice because even though it was a high cost, so high that we could not pay, God did and we rejoice!

We also display joy because (secondarily) Christians see that God walks with us and has promised us a future.

We have an amazing future to look forward to because he has given us eternal life where we will be his in heaven forever!

This larger perspective is especially important in troubling times, times when circumstances of all types would have otherwise brought us down.

Times when your car breaks down again, times when the house falls apart, times when the kids get into trouble at school, times when people are hurtful, petty, or just plain mean.