“Magi”
1 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, 2 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.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests
and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the
prophet: 6 “ ‘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.’ ” 7 Then Herod
summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had
appeared. 8 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.” 9 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. 10
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11
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. 12 And being warned in a dream not
to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:1-12 ESV) Last
week I preached on “The Annunciation.” If you remember, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary, a nobody, by anyone’s
standards—culturally, religiously, financially—and he tells her that she will
become pregnant with the Christ. She
responds, by asking, “How?” He
tells her that the Holy Spirit will do all the work and encourages her by
saying, “Nothing is impossible for God.” She
responds with utter and complete submission saying, “Behold, I am the servant
of the Lord…may it be unto me as you have said.” Now,
it is interesting that the only other people who were let in on “the secret”
were the shepherds, who were bigger nobodies than Mary (refer to the passage we
read in the Scripture reading), and these strange men called Magi. Although they weren’t nobodies, culturally
or even financially, they were outsiders. To
put it another way, Jesus’ initial public offering (IPO) wouldn’t be for
another 30 years, when the Baptist would announce, “Behold, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.” Before then, you only got to invest if you had “inside information” and
the only ones given this information were nobodies and outsiders—it gives us
insight into God’s heart. Normally,
IPOs are only really offered to those who are already wealthy—the rest of us
get to straggle in at a much higher price. Imagine,
if years ago, Jeff Bezos walked through downtown Seattle and started giving
shares of Amazon to homeless folks or tourists—the establishment would have
been upset to say the least. That’s
what happened at the birth of Jesus. That
said, today we’ll look at three things: I.
The
Wisdom of the Magi (1-2) II.
The
Foolishness of Herod (3-8) III.
The
Joy of Giving (9-12) I.
The Wisdom of the Magi
(1-2) 1 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, 2
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.” A.
Two
questions come up immediately: Who were the Magi? How did they know to find out
about the birth of Jesus?
1. Who were the Magi? Although there is much that can be said, I’ll
try to give you a “Reader’s Digest version.”
(a) By the seventh century
BC, their religion was proclaimed to be the official religion of Babylon.
•
Much
like Judaism—a monotheistic, sacrificial system, run by two groups of
priests—Magi and Sophi.
•
In
fact, these two groups of priests formed an upper and lower house that decided
who should or shouldn’t be “the king.” In other words, they wielded so much power that a king could not rule
unless he had their blessing. In other
words, they were “king-makers.”
(b) In sixth century BC,
things get interesting…
•
The
brightest and the best are taken into captivity in Babylon—the most famous of
whom was Daniel—the prophet. He and his
friends are trained in all the learning of Bablyon—one could even make the case
that they are Magis in training.
•
Daniel
2, King Nebuchadnezzar has strange dreams and he calls all the soothsayers and
“magicians” to help interpret his dreams [word “magician” should probably be
translated “magian.”] and they can’t do it!
•
The
King decrees that all the wise men in Babylon are to be killed.
•
Daniel
asks permission to give it a try.
•
He
tells his friends to pray so that the King will not destroy them with the rest
of the wise men.
•
He
succeeds and is put in charge of all the wise men in Babylon (Daniel 2:46-49).
•
What
do you imagine he taught them for decades?
He taught them about the coming Messiah…at the end of Daniel, we see
where he writes that in seventy “weeks” the Messiah prince would come…about 500
years.
(c) Fast-forward 500
years…apparently there was some astrological phenomenon that made them believe
that all that Daniel had said was coming to fruition.
•
They
saw the rising of His star.
•
They
didn’t have details so they did the logical thing and headed to where you would
expect to find “the king,” Jerusalem. B.
Two
things we notice: 1.
They
are wise—they ask for directions. 2.
They
are willing to risk anything to find the Messiah. (a)
The
Romans had recently taken over Jerusalem from the Parthians [new Babylon] and
had placed their puppet—Herod—over it as “king.” (b)
In
other words, they could’ve been killed simply by coming in and asking about
another “king.” (c)
This
causes big problems for Herod: not only does he risk either losing face and/or
beginning another conflict, but there is a bigger problem. What if they are right? Notice: II.
The Foolishness of Herod
(3-8) A.
Herod was troubled. Why? 1. Secular scholars say that he was troubled because the Magi were
representatives of the Parthian Empire—they had been the ones booted out of
Jerusalem by the Romans. They say that
the Magi would come into Jerusalem and asked this question just to pick a fight
on behalf of Phraatis IV—King of the Parthians. 2. Herod and the people (Jerusalem) were indeed
troubled, but not by the threat of the Parthians, but the
threat of Jesus. We know this because of Herod’s response—he
gathers the scribes to ascertain where the Messiah would be born. His concern is the baby. (a) Herod is troubled by the prospect of Jesus
for the same reason that many of us are—he is a threat to our sovereignty or
control.
•
If
it is true that Jesus, this baby, is the real king, then Herod is finished. He’s no longer in control. He’s left with only a few choices…
•
Try
to avoid Him, try to do away with Him, or submit to Him…
•
If
He really is the true King, avoiding Him is impossible because he will
eventually assert Himself.
•
Killing
Him is an option, but we know from hindsight, that you can kill Him, but you
can’t keep Him down.
•
If
this is the case, the only option that makes sense is submission—you give up
control. (i) This is one of the toughest things for us to
do. Everything around us screams and
tells us that you are autonomous, that what makes one successful is taking
charge of your own destiny. Ask any of
the self-help gurus; they make billions every year selling this concept. If any of their advice (taking charge of
your own destiny) really worked, they would have taught themselves out of a job
long ago. If you aren’t like Herod and troubled by the
prospect of losing control, you’re probably like “the people” and troubled by
the prospect of losing that which controls you. (b) “All Jerusalem” had been in bondage so long that they had grown to |