Angry, Antiochus invaded Palestine and attacked Jerusalem, He tore down its walls and took over the temple. Previously he had allowed Jews to freely practice their religion. No more. He entered the temple and placed a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the holy of holies. He then stood before the alter and slaughtered a pig, took the blood from the pig, and rubbed it over everything in the Temple. Defiling it.
The Temple was taken over by him. Inside it, all forms of debauchery took place. Outside of it He banned all Jewish religious practices.
In the midst of this, arose a man named Mat a thias Maccabee. Mattathias lived in a small village 20 miles north of Jerusalem. One day a Syrian officer arrived and ordered Mattathias to offer a Greek offering on the village alter. He refused. Another Jewish man standing there offered to carry out the sacrifice. Right as he was attempting to do this Mattathias rushed forward and killed the man and the Syrian Officer.
Immediately, the men of the village fled to the hills and began a guerilla war against the Greeks as well as other Hellenized Jews. If they found a boy who was uncircumcised they would circumcise him. If they found an alter to an idol they would tear it down. After a year of fighting Mattathias’ son Judah took leadership of the rebels He was a strong warrior and led a little band of misfits against the Syrian army again, and again. Finally, sometime in December, exactly three years after Antiochus, had desecrated the temple, Judah Macabeeus entered it, reclaiming it for the Jews. In order to properly worship in temple the menorah, a large candle needed to be lit. Unfortunately, there was only enough oil for 1 day. Miraculously the candle stayed lit for 8 days allowing the production of more oil. This is what the Jewish holiday Hanukah celebrates and why it lasts for 8 nights.
For the next few decades religious Jews fought for their political freedom against the Syrians and for their religious purity against the Hellenized Jews. After winning victory over both the Syrians and the Hellenizers Judah’s brother Simon was declared by the Jewish people to be both their King and high priest. His family line was declared to be a royal line.For the next 80 years the Jewish people had both political and religious freedom.
In 64 AD about 60 years before the birth of Christ, Rome conquered Palestine, eventually appointing Herod King. Herod who we read about in Matthew 2 was himself the son of Jewish converts and married to a descendent of the Royal Jewish line. Because of this he himself took the title King of the Jews which might be why he was so curious about the birth of a new King.
It is important take a moment to very briefly to talk about how the bible was written, or at least how the gospels were put together. Matthew, Mark and Luke contain many similarities. If you have ever read them much you will see that they have many stories and sayings in common. For instance, each gospel records the baptism of Christ and each his death by crucifixion. However even in their shared stories we see some minor differences in some of the details. For instance, Matthew and Luke both record different Genealogies of Jesus. If you study them you can see that Luke gives us the family tree of Mary, Jesus’ mother while, Matthew records an abbreviated family tree of Joseph, Jesus’ father. Matthew does this because he wants to show that Jesus is a King in the line of David. The authors of the gospels made choices about what they included in their gospels. They told individual stories in ways that supported the broader arguments they were making in their books. They didn’t simply record what they had seen and heard, they did it in their own way and from their own perspective and for their own purpose. When we read scripture we have to ask, who was it written to and why was it written. Why did the writer include this story and not another story? Why did they include this detail and not another?
Our text today in Matthew 2 is completely unique to Matthew. In no other place are we told about the Wise man or Herod killing the newborns, or Jesus’ trip to Egypt. So here we ask, why did Matthew include these stories? What was he trying to communicate to his readers? To answer this we have to think about who Matthew’s readers were.
Matthew’s readers were early Christians who were almost exclusively Jewish. Most of them still followed the laws of Moses. They still practiced circumcision. They still attended Jewish Sabbath day services. They still thought of themselves as Jewish and the still thought of Jesus almost exclusively as the King of the Jews. They still had deep resentment towards anyone who wasn’t Jewish based on some the history we talked about earlier with their non-Jewish conquerors. In the recent past the gentiles had desecrated the Temple, banned the reading of scripture, banned circumcision, and attempted to convert every Jewish person to Greek culture.
Because of this animosity towards gentiles many of Matthew’s readers believe Jesus was was solely a Jewish King, not the King of the whole world. It was in response to this believe that Matthew told his story of Jesus’ birth. He wanted to answer the question that many early Christians were asking, whose King was Jesus? Was Jesus a Jewish King or a Gentile king? This is the question behind the story we read in Matthew 2.
In this story we see three groups of people respond to the message that Christ was coming to earth as king. Lets start reading in verse 1. (Read vs 1-3) In verse 3 Matthews tells us that upon hearing the news about the possibility that the King of the Jews might be born, Herod and Jerusalem were disturbed. Why were they disturbed? The word in Greek that is translated as disturbed is interesting in that it was used to describe waves being made on calm waters. That is when someone throws a rock into the water it creates ripples. It troubles the water. This is what Matthew was talking about here. He is saying, news of Jesus’ coming kingdom, troubled Herod and all of Jerusalem. It shattered their calm. It created waves.
It is easy to figure out why this message troubled Herod. Someone who claiming to be the King of the Jews would be a direct threat to him. His claim to the throne was tenuous and not based on any true biological connection to the royal line, but based on the whim of the Romans. If there was a king who had a more legitimate claim to the throne he could be in for a coup. I think of all the characters in the story then, Herod’s response makes the most sense. He was troubled by a possible threat to his throne.
However, he wasn’t the only one troubled. The text also says, all of Jerusalem was troubled. Why were they troubled? Jesus wasn’t a threat to their throne but he was a threat to the status que. He was a threat to their way of life. The people of Jerusalem had figured out how to live in peace with the Romans and with Herod. Herod gave them a lot of religious freedom, he protected them, he built a huge Temple for them to worship at. He built one of the most beautiful ports in the world in Caesarea which stabilized the economics of the region, especially for those who lived in Jerusalem. It would have been nice to have a truly Jewish king, but at what cost. If a stranger came and declared himself to be the King of the Jews, Herod would have to respond and his response would break up the good thing they had going. They would lose a lot.
The people of Jerusalem had become content with their way of life. They didn’t want the trouble that would come from having Jesus be their king.
Many of us, I know myself specifically have at times become content with our spiritual lives. We come to Church, we read our Bible, we love our spouses, we are kind to our kids, but there are parts of our lives we don’t want to open up to God because we know it will cause us trouble. We are right in thinking this. It will cause us trouble. Allowing Christ to take over every part of our lives might cost us our friends, families, and finances. It will cause us pain. It will cause us embarrassment. Later in Matthew, Jesus makes it clear that following him will cost our very lives.
Most of us realize this cost so we believe in Christ, we follow the teachings that are easy, the stuff we think we can do, and we leave the rest of ourselves untouched by his power.
The truth is Christ wants all of us. He wants our whole selves. But we can choose whether or not we want him in charge. We have the power to resist what God wants to do. We have the power to compartmentalize Jesus. We have the power to stop God’s work in our lives… We have the power to not go to Bethlehem and worship the savior.
The second respond to the message that the King was coming that Matthew records for us is the response of the Chief Priest and teachers of the law. Look at verse 4. (Read vs 4) After Herod was informed by the Wise men that they believed the King of Jews was coming he went to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. Who were the chief priests? The chief priests and legal experts were part of group of people called the Sadducees. We talked about them a little a few weeks ago. They were priests by birth, part of the tribe of Levi. They were also very political. Their power and influence rested in their ability to maintain close ties with Herod. He gave them authority over the Temple he had built. Because of this connection, Herod went to them to ask about the Messiah. They told him based on the prophecies of the prophet Micah, that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.
Where is Bethlehem in relationship to Jerusalem? Bethlehem is about 4 miles from Jerusalem. That is same distance from as it is from Sumas to the high school. An average person walks about 3 miles an hours. That means it would have taken an hour and 20 minutes for the High Priests and Scribes to visit Bethlehem. They could have left that morning looked around, made some calls, asked some questions, and been back for dinner that night. But what was their response? They didn’t even bother looking. They didn’t even make the trip. They didn’t send a messenger. They weren’t even curious. Their response to being told that the Messiah, the Christ, the King of the Jews had come was one of apathy. They did nothing. They weren’t even troubled. They were like the teenager who looks at you after you yell at him and simply shrugs his shoulders. That all you got old man… not impressesed. Not interested. In modern terms it’s a giant, Meh.
Apathy is the lack of emotion, interest or concern about important things in life. Typically apathy is a coping mechanism. It is a form of self-preservation. If I don’t get passionate about something or someone I can never be hurt and disappointed by that thing or person. I’m sure for some the religious leaders this is exactly what it was. For hundreds of years, their ancestors had been waiting for a Messiah, for a savior, for God to send someone to earth who would restore their kingdom, who would bring an everlasting peace. For hundreds of years they had been disappointed. Just 60 years before, so within the lifetime of some of these men, they had witnesses the destruction of the kingdom by Rome brought in by the Maccabean family. Another Messianic dream had died. Their passion was destroyed and they had become apathetic. They couldn’t even get motivated to go investigate the latest claim that a Messiah had come.
More than likely some of us here today have struggled with apathy. I know I have. Most of us have been disappointed by God in some way. We thought our lives were going to turn out different than they have. We thought God was going to do something that he never did. We thought was going to give us good health only to get sick, we thought he was going to keep our kids safe, but he didn’t, we thought he was going to give us peace and joy but all we ever got was disappointment. Because of this disappointment and hurt we have become apathetic. We have lost our passion. We have gotten to the place where walking for an hour and 20 minutes to find God is to far… Its easy to beat up the religious people in this story. To say, those idiots, how could they be so lazy? How could they be so jaded? This passage challenges us to ask… what would I have done? What am I doing now? Does Christ still excite me? Does it still evoke passion in me? If it doesn’t have I admitted that? Am I choosing to do anything about it? Have I told anyone about this? Am I asking for help or simply going through the motions? If today, you are struggling with apathy tell someone and find someone who isn’t apathetic. Find people who are passionate about Christ and hang out with them. Passion is contagious!!
Lets continue the story… Many of you right now are saying… Chad don’t you know this is Christmas? This should be a happy sermon… It should be uplifting… It will be…Finally, lets take a look at the main characters in the story, The wise men and how they responded to Christ’s coming. These men of course were from the East. They were astrologers in the sense that they looked to the sky for predictions for the future. This was a common practice within their culture. It was also common practice in the Roman world. 50 years before Christ came, Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor died. During the mourning period for his death a comet had appeared in the sky. The Romans believed that Caesar’s soul had taken to the sky and he had become a god. This belief in astrology is probably why Herod took the wise men’s claims seriously.
We know very little about why they showed up in Jerusalem seeking the King of the Jews. Apparently they had seen a spectacular star in the sky and through that star it had been revealed to them that the King of the Jews had come. They might have gone to Jerusalem simply because they knew Jewish people lived there and figured a Jewish king would rule Jewish people.
It is all very mysterious. Because of this they have been subjected to an incredible amount of speculation. What we do know is that it was revealed to a group of godless gentiles, worshipers of stars, that the King of the Jews had come. How did they respond? Did they view his coming as trouble? NO. Did they shrug their shoulders? NO! They listened to God,
They sought Christ.The brought him gifts.
To be honest with you, worship is a tough word for me. I think it has been hijacked by all kinds of people with all different agendas. If you ask a music director at a church what worship is you will probably be told worship is singing praise songs in church. They will even emphasize a certain style of music as being worship music. To many people worship = singing. To others worship is going to church. They call Sunday services worship services because to them going Church=worship. This is always simply not true. A better definition of worship is the one given to us through the actions of the wise man.
To worship God is to listen to what God has revealed about himself, to seek Christ wherever he is, and to give our gifts, our talents, our wealth, our very selves for him to use. How do we listen to God? Finding out what God wants us to do in specific situations requires prayer, studying scriptures and being in community with other people, but finding out what God wants is different than listening to God. Listening requires that we do what God says to us. The wise man acted on what God had made known to them. We all know that difference between someone hearing what we say and actually listening to what we say. Many times my wife will tell me something and think I’m not listening to her. She will then ask me what she said and I can repeat it to her word for word. However I haven’t really listened to her. Worshiping God requires our obedience to what he says to us. It requires us to allow God to clean out our lives, to go into the dark places we have never let God into. It requires us to face trouble.
Worship also involves seeking Christ. What does that mean? To seek Christ means that we constantly try and stay in his presence. We do that by looking for Christ everywhere we go. When we go to the store we see Christ in the cashier. We see Christ in the kindness of a stranger. We see Christ in the immigrant, in the homosexual, in the poor, and in the filthy rich. We see Christ in the innocence of our Children. We see Christ in the beauty of the snow. In every person we see a good creator. Doing this takes work. It takes discipline. But it will radically change how we treat others. It is easy to be negative. It is easy to look at the world and see all the bad. To live in fear. To look around us and think, my goodness it has never been this bad, I can’t wait to leave this place and be with God. If however we believe an infinite God came to earth then we must believe the earth and everything in it has infinite value. It has his fingerprints all over it. God hasn’t left the world. Christmas reminds us of that. To worship God then means that we seek God in the mundane of everyday life and we treat others as we would treat Christ.
Finally, to worship God as the wise man did means we give our gifts to Christ for him to use. Many commentators have speculated about the meaning of their gifts, but it is just that, speculation. It is best to just recognize that they brought what they could. They brought gifts worthy of a King. Like the wiseman we all have gifts for the king. We all have gifts of our Time, our Treasure, and our Talent. To worship Christ as the wise men did means we give these to him.
So this is the story of Jesus’ birth as told by Matthew. At the beginning we talked about the question Matthew was trying to answer for his hearers. Whose king was Jesus? Or another way of saying it is, in the story, who had Jesus as their king? Did the common Jewish person in Jerusalem? No, they didn’t want the trouble a new king would bring. Did the religious leaders of the day? No they were apathetic towards a new king. But the Wise men did. Christ was their king because they listened to them, they sought him, and the worshiped him.
Matthew was telling them and is telling us today that Christ is not a Jewish or gentile king. He is the king of anyone who invites him to rule their lives, Anyone who obeys him, seeks him, and worships him is his subject. That is the good news of Christmas. God’s salvation is free an available to anyon