Matthew 2:1-6
Response is the determining factor to many circumstances in
our lives. Good and bad things happen in
all of our lives. What determines the
outcome of these circumstances in almost always how we respond to them. The Magi in the story of the birth of Jesus
are one of the most mysterious and most often misrepresented characters. Most Christmas pageants and nativity scenes
portray them as having arrived shortly after the shepherds. This is clearly not the case. More than likely Jesus was somewhere between
one and two years of age when the Magi arrived.
We know this because of Herod’s questioning as to when the star had
appeared and his decree to kill all the children under the age of two. In today’s text we see three different groups
of people receiving the same news about Messiah’s birth. In that way, their circumstances are
identical. However, their responses are
very different from one another. The
question that we must answer about ourselves is which of these responses do we
have when we are presented with the truth of Jesus?
MAGI’S WORSHIP: The Magi are truly an enigma in many
respects. We don’t really know where
they were from other than “the east” and we really don’t know who they
were. We also don’t know how they
identified the star as a sign of the birth of Messiah or how this star came to
move and stop at it did. There have been
many attempts to claim that the Magi were students of the Scriptures and were
able to connect obscure prophecies to their study of astronomy and thereby were
able to identify what nobody else could.
There are also attempts to scientifically explain this amazing star as
an aligning of the planets in a special way.
However, while these theories could be true; it seems to me just as
likely, if not more likely, that the Lord revealed the sign of the star to the
Magi in a supernatural way and that the star itself was a supernatural creation
of God like the pillar of fire and the cloud that led the children of Israel in
the desert. Whatever the means of
revelation the Magi had; the important thing for our purposes is to look at
their response. They responded by
seeking out Messiah so that they might worship Him. They traveled for days if not months to seek
out the Messiah in order to bring Him gifts, bow at His feet and worship
Him. This is the proper response to the
coming of Messiah. Once we know that
Jesus is Messiah, our first response must be one of worship and sparing no
expense or effort to commit our lives and our resources to Him. One day we, like the Magi, will come into the
presence of Jesus. When that happens the
Bible tells us that we will all bow our knees before Him. Unfortunately, for many of those bowing
before Jesus in heaven it will be too late because they rejected Him as Messiah
on earth. For those unbelievers this
will be the last time that they will be allowed in the presence of
Messiah. We must be sure that we respond
to Jesus today with faith that He is the Son of God and that He died for our
sin and was raised from the dead. The
proper response to Jesus is faith and worship.
HEROD’S WORRY: The Magi deduced that if the Messiah was
born; He would be of the ruling class and would most likely be found in the
capital city of Jerusalem. This
assumption brought them before Herod where they informed the Roman (puppet
king) ruler over Israel that the Messiah, rightful King of the Jews had been
born and that they had come to worship Him.
This, understandably, was a distressing bit of news to Herod. Since he considered himself to be king of the
Jews and had every intention of passing this kingdom on to his sons; the idea
of another king was disturbing to him and his entire household. Power can be an intoxicating and very
dangerous thing. People have done all
kinds of despicable things to gain and keep power. Herod had converted to Judaism, more than
likely, in order to solidify his power over Israel. Now that power appeared to be threatened. Unfortunately, throughout history people have
used God and religion as a means of advancing their own agendas and exercising
power and control over others. Popes
priests, bishops, pastors, elders and deacons have all been guilty of using
their positions of authority to demonstrate their power and control over
others. Biblical leadership is always
compared with being a servant, but power seems to have the ability to corrupt
the hearts of even godly men. Herod was
threatened by the coming of Messiah because he was using religion as a means of
maintaining his own power. We must
examine our own hearts today to make sure that we are not using the biblical
authority established in Scripture in an unbiblical way. When we are entrusted with leadership
positions our concern must be to serve others and not about our recognition or
protecting our “turf.” None of us have
any power or any “turf” all belongs to the Lord and were are privileged to
serve under His authority in any and every capacity.
PRIEST’S WORDS: Herod’s worry sent him scrambling to find
out where this King of the Jews was supposed to be born. He went to the chief priests and the scribes
in order to find out what the Scriptures said about the location of Messiah’s
birth. They rightly interpreted the
Scriptures and informed him and the Magi that it was Bethlehem. We must conclude that these religious leaders
knew that the Magi had been informed of Messiah’s birth. What is so surprising about their response
or, more accurately, their lack of response is that they demonstrate complete
indifference. Perhaps they, like Herod,
were happy with their current positions of influence and prosperity. Or maybe they had just stopped believing that
the promise of Messiah was true. It is
astounding to me that when the Magi went on their way to Bethlehem to worship
Messiah; they just sat there in Jerusalem and did nothing. They knew the Scriptures, they interpreted
them correctly but they did not act upon what they knew. Religion was their profession but they did
not possess a personal relationship with God or place any personal hope in the
promises of Scripture. They, very
likely, taught passionately about the coming of Messiah but they had no real
interest or true belief in His arrival.
I fear that there man people in the pews and pulpits of churches today
who enjoy the practice of religion but do not have a true relationship with
God. They may be excellent students of
Scripture and have all the right answers to those who might make inquiries of
them. They are proud of their knowledge,
are eloquent in speech and are able to use these gifts as a means of gaining
prosperity. Their heads are full but
their hearts are empty. It is easy for
us to criticize the indifference and the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in
the days of Jesus; but we must be very careful to examine our own hearts. Self-righteousness, legalism, religious
rituals and hypocrisy sprout up naturally in our sinful hearts. We must be sure that these are not the things
that describe our response to the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed to us in
Scripture.
APPLICATION: Worship must be our default response to
everything that we learn and every circumstance that life might bring us. Serving God in humility must be our only
ambition and we must carefully guard our hearts from the lust for power that
comes so naturally to us. Love for God
and a love for others must be the results of our knowledge of Scripture. We must protect our hearts from the cold
indifference of religion and draw near to God in a vibrant and personal
relationship.
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