Everybody loves stories. Stories are what define us as a culture. Stories are what give us a glimpse into the past without having to spend tedious hours studying dusty old history books. I recently finished again one of my favorite books ever written. A book called Ireland by Frank Delaney. It is a great book and I would encourage anyone to read it even if you do not know that much about Ireland but the overarching theme of the book itself is about a boy who becomes enthralled by a traveling storyteller in the 50s and 60s and how it dominates his life. For generations upon generations, throughout the world storytellers were the means by which people learned history, the way people learned about the events that shaped their culture, that shaped their morals, that shaped their countries. They challenge us to think about ourselves.
Stories always have a point to make. Something that they are trying to accomplish in the mind of the listener. As I have mentioned already, the purpose for Matthew telling us this story, story that is not based on a true story like we see it beginning of books and movies sometimes, but a story that is absolutely true. Matthew’s purpose for telling us the story is to make the reader or the listener recognize that Jesus is the prophesied messianic Davidic king. When we hear this story, as when we are presented with the truth of the gospel, we must make a decision. Given facts about Jesus as the Messiah, how are we going to respond to him?
This morning we are going to continue our way through the book of Matthew taking a look at chapter 2:1-12. Now I am going to warn you up front here, much of this morning is going to be spent in something of a history lesson. I am going to be introducing you to some background information on the major characters and the setting of chapter 2 as a whole and hopefully do it an interesting way such that you will have a new appreciation for this part of what is generally associated with the story of the birth of Christ.
Let us begin by reading and then we will point out these major players.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.” After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.
With the possible exception of the crucifixion itself, I do not believe there are any narratives in Scripture that have been illustrated in paintings, dramatizations, murals, statues, stained-glass window, or greeting cards as the Nativity has. There are also few narratives that are as clouded by myth, tradition, speculation, misinformation, and for lack of a better word, lies, then the birth of Jesus.
In large part, it comes down to the human desire to use the imagination to fill in details that are not given. In fact, several of the early fake gospel accounts like the Gospel of Thomas were written to fill in the details people wanted to know but the apostles did not record for us.
Scripture is sufficient to inform and instruct us in everything we need to know about the life and ministry of Jesus and how we are to understand every aspect of faith and practice. But we must be extremely cautious about in any area of Scripture, is going beyond the actual text of Scripture into speculation. As we have been going over the topic of heaven and our Sunday school class, we have seen some of the ways in which going beyond what Scripture actually says has damaged people’s perceptions of what eternity will look like.
Some may claim that this sort of imaginative speculation is harmless, but there is a great deal of misinformation in that speculation that can harm people’s understanding of the truth of God’s Word. More than that, the Word of God is not some mere piece of literature or fantasy that we can change or adapt to fit our own desires. Instead we must do everything we can to understand the truth of what the authors wrote and why. Hopefully in clearing out the myth that has surrounded this story I can help you to see how sticking to only the truth of what we know in the word can make the narrative all the more meaningful.
We will begin our look at the major players in this story with a look at King Herod, also known as Herod the Great. This Herod is actually the first of several who are mentioned in the New Testament. He was initially appointed as governor over Galilee by his father Antipater who was given his position by Julius Caesar many years before. Herod was a particularly successful governor for the Romans because he was both militarily and politically savvy. Throughout his life he had numerous victories against both the Jewish guerrilla bands who continue to fight against their foreign rulers as well as other upstart tribes in the area.
In about 40 B.C. Herod fled to Egypt when the Persians based out of Babylon attacked Palestine. From Egypt he went to plead his case before Rome to back him militarily in the reconquest of the area. Upon removing the Persians after several years of fighting he was declared by the Romans to be the king of the Jews and ruled the area we know today as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and most of Syria.
Though he was called the King of the Jews, he was not actually Jewish. He was from the Edomite tribe who throughout the Old Testament were a bitter enemy of the Jewish people. To strengthen his claim and acceptance among the Jewish people he married into one of the ruling Jewish families.
Herod was not only a capable military commander but he was also a shrewd politician. He bought favor with the Jewish people by relieving taxes in times of difficulty and going so far as to use his own treasury to purchase food for the poor during a time of famine in 25 B.C. He spent a great deal of money on infrastructure in the major cities and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem.
Now least you think he was some sort of good man, Herod was extremely paranoid of losing his power which led him to exceptionally cruel and merciless actions against even his own family. Suspicious of even his own family, he had his brother-in-law drowned, his wife murdered, and even three of his sons executed. One of the greatest evidences of his insane cruelty and narcissism was that shortly before his own death he had the most prominent figures in Jerusalem imprisoned for no reason. He told his guards that because he knew no one would mourn his own death, those prisoners were to be executed the moment he died to guarantee there would be great mourning in Jerusalem at the time of his death.
We will spend some time looking at verses 16 – 18 next week, but when you understand Herod’s insane jealousy and the lengths to which he would go to keep his power, the murder of a handful of infants seems almost incidental.
We come to the “magi,” or your translation may say “wise men,” or “Kings,” from the east. There has been a lot of myth surrounding these mysterious men for many centuries.
During the Middle Ages legends developed around these men and they were narrowed down to three kings and even given the names Casper, Balthazar, and Melchior. Because they were thought to represent the three sons of Noah, one of them is often pictured as an Ethiopian, one as Middle Eastern, and one as more European. Apparently, everyone of Asian descent came from someone other than Noah’s children. They are generally pictured in common art and greeting cards as just the three of them riding camels, in long expensive flowing robes with turbans on their heads, and holding their respective gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
In the 12th century, a Roman bishop even claimed to have miraculously found their skulls after they had been lost and without any sort of documentation for over 1200 years. You can even go to the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany and see their sarcophagus, because apparently these guys were inseparable even in death.
Of course, that is all a load of garbage. There is no real indication given as to how many of them came, their names, or any other titles other than that of “magi.” Now we do know some things about who the magi were.
The magi were first recorded around the seventh century B.C. As a priestly tribe within the people group known as the Medes who lived in eastern Mesopotamia. It is likely that their existence and religious duties extended even further back. Those would be the Medes who were part of the Medo-Persian Empire several hundred years later that ruled in Babylon when Jerusalem was sacked and slaves like Daniel were deported back to Babylon.
The name “magi” is the root word where we get our words both “magic” and “magician” and this group of people were understood to have secret and somewhat magical knowledge as most priestly classes throughout world history have. But these guys were special in that they lasted far longer than any other sort of group did. More than that, they were established as the highest standard of education in both the sciences and religion, which were really not distinguished at the time, throughout the Middle East.
The magi were dedicated to the collection of knowledge and wisdom throughout the ages. Because of their combined knowledge of science, agriculture, mathematics, history, and the different occult practices of their religion, their political influence continued to grow until they became the most prominent and powerful group of advisors in the Middle East from the Babylonian empire until around the time Islam took over. That is somewhere in the range of the thousand years or more depending on how far back they went before recorded history.
Because of their recognized position as the wisest of men, they were the kingmakers in the Middle East for those many centuries. In order to rule over the Medo-Persian Empire, the Babylonian empire, and even the Greeks who ruled after Alexander the great, kings were required to master the magi’s craft and knowledge before they would be allowed to reign. The Magi wielded a great deal of power for centuries, even long into the Greek and Roman empires.
We learn from the book of Daniel that it was the magi who were among the highest ranking officials in Babylon while he was there. These were the “magician’s” that could not interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. When Daniel did interpret the dream, he was appointed as the ruler over the whole province of Babylon and as the highest ranking person within the magi order. We know that Daniel was highly regarded among the magi and that the plot that was hatched to have him thrown in the lions den was concocted not by the magi, but by the secular governors and ruling authorities in Babylon.
The magi at the time of Daniel’s arrival were actually a monotheistic religious cult. They worshiped a god that was closely associated with fire but often incorporated other aspects of other religions as they filter their way into the various Middle Eastern empires. They would have seen in the Judaism of the Old Testament many similar practices and principles and once Daniel reached the highest position within their order it is likely that the magi would have learned much about the one true God, the God of Israel, and would have studied in detail the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah.
When they arrived in Jerusalem searching for the one who was born king of the Jews, it would not have just been 3 guys on camels who slipped into the city and started asking around, but instead it would have been a massive entourage of rich and powerful men along with all their servants and bodyguards. When we see in verse 3 that “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him,” they would have been troubled at the large military force that was seemingly looking around for a new king that would start a revolution in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.
This would have been a huge deal. We also know that in that timeframe, multiple Roman historians wrote about the fact that there was a prophecy that was generally accepted throughout the whole Middle East that a man would rise out of Jerusalem and lead all of the sematic peoples to overthrow the world. It is very possible that Herod and Jerusalem would have been troubled because they would see the coming of these kingmakers as a possible attempt to install a person as king who would begin this major rebellion.
So that gives us some idea of who the magi were, but why did they come to Jerusalem if it was not to install a rebel king to lead them against Rome?
Of all the aspects of the story, we know the least about the star in the East that the magi claimed to have seen and inspired their journey. There is a lot of speculation about it. One of the most influential aspects of the magi’s knowledge and religion was astrology. The study of the stars and the movement of the celestial bodies in the night sky. Some have suggested that it was Jupiter or conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, others a low hanging meteor or even Haley’s Comet, that is described here in Matthew.
One thing we know for certain it was not an actual star because of course it would have burned up the earth. The Bible does not give us any explanation as to what it was and so we cannot be dogmatic in any way on the issue. Personally, I believe that it was a special visual manifestation of the glory of God. Both the Hebrew and the Greek words for star are also figuratively used to represent a brilliant or radiant light. We know from the Old Testament there were several instances where the visible glory of God appeared before the people and it is always described as a bright light weather in a pillar of clouds or fire or on Mount Sinai with Moses.
Again, we must be very cautious to go beyond the actual words of Scripture and into speculation. One thing we do know is that it is something that both appeared over the area of Jerusalem such that the magi would have followed it to that location. There was some sort of sign, something that made them come. It drew them to Jerusalem where they began asking around the city for any information on the one who was born “King of the Jews.”
We also know from verse 9 that after they had been told the prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem, the star, or the brilliant light, or whatever it was that they had seen before while they were still in the East, seem to have shifted and come to rest over the house where Jesus was. That is why I believe it was not some sort of celestial body or event. It was not a sign in the stars but something much closer to earth that was visible to these men who were seeking the Messiah.
Notice how in verse 2 and then again in verse 11, these magi, these well informed and dedicated men knew to search for a king who was worthy not just to be king but to be worshiped. I believe that this indicates these men had a pretty good idea of what was they had come to worship. We know that from Daniel that they would have been introduced to the prophecies of the Old Testament. Even in the time of Jesus there remained a large population of Jewish people in Babylon who are the descendants of those who had not returned from the exile 400 years before. Because of their propensity to integrate other religious beliefs into their own, it is wholly possible that these magi were God-fearing Gentiles and that they were seeking the Messiah.
Our final group of players in this narrative is the chief priests and the scribes. These were the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the religious elite, the scholars and the teachers of the people. The ones who knew as we can see in verses 5 and 6, the prophecies concerning where the Messiah was to be born, and yet they were not looking for him.
These were the ones who should have been the 1st to recognize the sign that the Messiah had been born. They should have been focused on waiting for their true king to come but instead they were far too focused on their role as the judges and legislators of the Jewish people or in the case of the Pharisees, in the new religious system of legalism that had come to dominate the Jewish people.
They had studied and debated the Old Testament to huge extents. So much so that they had begun to move beyond the words of Scripture itself, they lost their foundation in Scripture and became focused on their own teachings and man-made ideas about the law.
After establishing the position of Jesus as the Messiah King in chapter 1, Matthew begins the 2nd part of his purpose in writing his gospel in chapter 2, to show that the people of Israel rejected their Messiah. John 1:11 says that Jesus, “came to his own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” This is one of the overarching themes throughout the book of Matthew, the rejection of the king by the Jewish people overall and specifically the established religious people in comparison to the acceptance among of Jesus by the poor, the largely untrained, and most surprisingly the Gentiles; who above anybody should have had little to no understanding but are the ones who time and again show the most faith.
After Jesus is ministry begins and he preaches a sermon on the Mount in chapters 5-7 we see in chapter 8 the faith of a leper, then we see the faith of the Roman centurion. In chapter 9 a woman who has been pushed the edge of society because of an incurable disease. In chapter 11 there is a denunciation of the cities of Israel who saw the miracles of Jesus and the statement that if Gentile cities had seen the same signs would have repented. Chapter 12 begins the serious battle between Jesus and the religious leaders. Then the faith of another Gentile woman in chapter 15, and it goes on and on. Rejection by those who should most have been looking for the Messiah, and acceptance by the poor, the marginalized, and the most unlikely people.
That is what we see here at the announcement of the birth of the messianic king. I asked at the beginning of our time this morning, “Given facts about Jesus as the Messiah, how are we going to respond to him?”
In this passage we have the 3 responses to that question. You can respond as the high priests and the religious leaders of the Jewish people did, with an apathy that is derived from your desires to maintain the man-made systems of religion and attempt to reach heaven on your own accord. Though the same high priests and religious leaders would later attack Jesus in much the same way that Herod did, initially the response was one of apathy rather than excitement.
You can respond as Herod did, as we will see when we look further into 16-23, you can respond with abject hatred at the possibility of losing the tiny bit of control you think you have. This is really the end of anyone who is confronted with the truth of who Jesus is. Though they may, like the religious leaders of the Jewish people, initially respond with simple dismissal, we see from Romans 1 that all those who reject Jesus as the Messiah exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an idol of their own creation and will defend it with ferocity. They are called “haters of God,” along with a number of other accusations.
Or you can respond as the Magi did. You can worship him. We see back in Matthew 2:11, “after coming into the house they saw the child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him.” They knew who it was that they had found and they worshiped him accordingly. They presented him with 3 gifts, and their giving was not in addition to their worship but an element of it. With the gift of gold, they recognized his royal stature. Gold was a symbol of nobility and royalty and Matthew again presents Christ as King mentioning the gift of gold.
Frankincense was a costly incense that was used only for the most special occasions. Most importantly we see it used in offerings in the temple to God. From the earliest times of the church, it was suggested that frankincense was a recognition of Jesus’ deity. Myrrh was also a perfume but was often used in the preparation of bodies for burial. It has been suggested that it was a representation of his mortal or human nature that was fated to die.
Matthew is presenting Jesus as the Messiah King and forcing you to make a decision. What will your response be? Will you reject him for your own version of religion? Will you actively persecute him in order to maintain control of your own little kingdom, or will you bow down and worship him, recognizing him as King, recognizing him as fully God and fully man, the perfect Savior and Lord that he is?