Which Kingdom?: The Magi and Herod (Matthew 2:1-12)

This Advent season we’ve been working our way through the Christmas narrative in Matthew’s gospel… and to tell you the truth it feels rather strange… empty even… have you noticed,  there is no mention of Caesar Augustus and his census for taxation… there is no ‘no room at the inn’… no stable… no manger… no shepherds no angel choirs… in fact the nativity scene is… well…its missing.

Matthew, as a first century Jew, had started by telling Jesus genealogy, his whakapapa, showing us that he is the messiah, the son of David and the son of Abraham. He’d told the story of Joseph wrestling with divorcing Mary, whom he was betrothed to, because she was found to be pregnant… and receiving assurance in a dream that he should go ahead with the marriage because this was God’s doing. This baby was new creation by the Holy Spirit. Then all the things that we equate with Christmas get glossed over in the gap between “but he did not consummate the marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”  at the end of chapter 1 which as we saw last week was a sign of Joseph’s faith in andfaithfulness to God, … And then “after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea…” which we started our reading with this morning… and there is anything up to a two-year gap between those two sentences.

Luke of course gives us all the details about the birth of Christ that we are used to. He tells us the story from Mary’s perspective, he tells us Mary’s story, rich with eye witness detail and things that Mary treasured in her heart. Each of the gospels comes to look at Jesus from a different perspective, and together they provide us with a rich full picture.

 For Matthew, how the world reacts to Jesus the messiah, is his focus… into the story comes figures we equate with Christmas… the magi from the east… lead by the star…without which we just wouldn’t know what to do with the top of our Christmas trees... they come to Jesus living in a house with his parents now in Bethlehem, maybe to get away from the innuendo and finger pointing in their home town of Nazareth, which Luke told us they went back to after presenting Jesus at the temple.   I love the way Canadian folk singer Bruce Cockburn puts it in his song “the cry of a tiny babe “…

“Three wise astrologers take note of the signs
Come to pay their respects to the fragile little king
Get pretty close to wrecking everything “

The other major character in Matthews narrative is Herod, who Cockburn calls a paranoid dictator who when he hears there’s a child born king of the Jews sends death squads to kill every male child under two. While we focus on the gifts the magi bought to Jesus Matthew’s focus is on which king of the Jews will we choose… which kingdom, the kingdom of God or the realms of humanity.

Lets look at the magi,

Speaking of Kings, it wasn’t until about the fourth century that the magi were seen to be kings, and there have been a whole lot of traditions and trappings that have grown up around them… names and number. Matthew simply calls them Magi from the east. Magi was a term which originated in Persia and spoke of people who would have been, scientists, diplomats and well magicians or sorcerers. Not in a “You’re a Wizard Harry”, kind of way that we might think today, rather they were the religious people in their pagan society.  They would have been employed to know what was going on, they would look to signs and maybe influence the god’s, at a price.

After the exile, there would have been many Jewish populations in the Persian empire. In fact in the end of the book of Esther we hear that a great number of people in Susa the capital of Persia, became Jews. So the Jewish religion and its expectation of a messianic king, would have been widely known. The magi would have looked to the sky to let them know what is going on in the world. We are not used to that connection, we may see it in the way in which people might read a horoscope. There is speculation about what the sign they saw was. Some wonder about a comet, others suggest that we have recorded in many different cultures that Saturn and Jupiter were close together in 7bc and would have appeared brightly in the sky. Jupiter was the royal planet, and Saturn was associated with the Jews. Whatever it was it sent these astrologers on a quest to find and to worship the one born king of the Jews. This by the way is not a quick jaunt down the motorway, it is  a journey that would have taken them months to undergo. One top gear Christmas special has the intrepid trio of  Clarkson, May and Hammond undertaking the journey in cars, and it was quite an epic. In Ezra 7:9 we have Ezra’s journey from Babylon described as taking four months.  This is an epic journey they undertake.

For Matthew the Magi tells us a lot about Jesus the messiah, that his kingship will not only be for the Jews but it has significance for the whole world. The Magi would have heard of the hope for a king who would bring peace and justice to all the nations, and while not fully understanding Jesus as the son of God, they come seeking that. When they talk of worship it would not be the divine son of God, but to worship Israel’s God for the provision of this messiah; a just and righteous king.

Matthew’s gospel is book ended by gentiles acknowledging Jesus as the king of the jews. Here we have the Magi, in bright light, then at the crucifixion, we find the soldiers mockingly hailing Jesus as the king of the Jews, it is the title nailed above his head on the cross, and in darkness, a roman soldier’s, profound confession “surely this is the son of God’. Matthew the first century Jew, speaking to predominantly Jewish Christians, shows that the story is open to all people everywhere.

You could say here right at the start it’s kind of like we step into the story. These astrologers represent us. They tell us that Jesus the messiah is our hope, our prince of peace, our saviour… God’s just reign in our lives and our time and place as well. In Christ we are welcomed in…

Matt Woodley says the magi represent us as well as they are on that universal search’ they are seekers for truth “it is” he says, “what everyone would undertake if they were not stuck in the everydayness of their own lives”. Their search for the one born king of the Jews, shows how God leads people like you and I to come to the truth in Christ. In a way that they as pagan astrologers would understand God shows them a sign. What we call General revelation: God speaking through creation, through the elements of our culture that are open to new possibility. it gets them started, looking for the one born king of the Jews. Then they can only find Jesus as they encounter God’s special revelation; the word of God, the scriptures, as the high priests in Jerusalem, tell them through Herod where the messiah will be born. In this you get the sense that it is the Holy Spirit that leads them and guides them to the Christ Child. They are seekers, they come to Christ, like us they come by the leading of the Holy Spirit in God’s general and special revelation, as they are open to it speaking.

The amazing thing is that here in these men from the east, we see the hope of the gospel. These Gentiles and for the Jewish people even worse than that people who were involved in pagan religion recognise the signs and come searching for the one born king of the Jews to worship. There is deep irony in that in Matthew’s narrative because the religious people in Jerusalem, the high priests who you would expect were the ones waiting and longing and hoping for the messiah the most, miss it. Their focus is on another king of the Jews, Matthew tells us that Herod is disturbed by the news of the child, and all of Jerusalem with him. They are concerned how Herod will react. That leads us to the other king in this story. 

Lets look at Herod.  

Herod has no royal lineage, no claim to the throne. Herod was from Idumea in South Judea, his family were Edomites who had converted to Judaism. Matthew’s telling of Jesus whakapapa as the son of David and son of Abraham puts him in immediate contrast with Herod the usurper.  He becomes King with the backing of Rome, as he was able to keep order. He reigned for about forty years, and died in 4bc. He was seen by many as a successful king, in fact he was called Herod the great, building a dynasty from almost nothing. He was also known for his great building projects building fortresses to defend Judea from the east, and specifically for rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem.  In this he represents you could say a successful monarch, or at least a successful puppet politician under the rule of Rome in an unruly part of the world. He kept the peace… but at a price.  Herod was also known to be quite paranoid and ruthless. He had one of his wives killed, imprisoned many family members and even paid for two of his sons to be assassinated. The words pig and son sound similar in Greek, and Caesar Augustus famously summed Herod up with the Pun ‘that he would rather be Herod’s pig than his son”. We guess which one got treated better. It is his son Herod Agrippa who is the king in the time of Jesus death.

When Herod hears of the one born king of the Jew’s he is totally aware of the ramifications that this is the messiah, the long-awaited hope of Israel, with all that that means. He is the one who asks the high priests where the messiah will be born. He is desperate to hold onto his power, and while lying about wanting to worship the child, he secretly plots to have the child killed. Mark Woodley says that Herod represents the opposite human nature to the magi, he is desperate to avoid God and he devalues other people.  His focus is on the worldly power and its accompanying wealth.

We see here the clash of two kingdoms. One where the outward signs of religion are built up and used, the other that will look at change of the heart. One that seeks to hold onto power and life despite the cost to others, the other who will give up power and life for the sake of others despite the cost. One that focuses on itself and the other which welcomes and invites those outside to come in. One that enforces Peace with the threat and use of force, one that offers peace through the gracious offer of peace in forgiveness and reconciliation and right relationship. ,  One that holds onto power by might and violence depending on the backing of a world power, the other that comes as a little child and identifies with the poor and the lowly, trusting  totally in God’s provision.

This part of Matthew could be called the tale of the two kings… The magi from the east find themselves caught with the dilemma of which King will they choose. They come humbling searching for the one born king of the Jews, they are invited to trust the words of the one who was appointed  “king of the Jews.”

We know the story, that light guides them to the place, again we see that it is God moving by his holy Spirit. They come and they find Jesus and his mother and they worship him, they acknowledge that this is the one born king of the Jews… they give him their gifts. In this they are examples and witnesses to us. Which king will we choose, which kingdom will we choose. I know it’s a cliché but wise people still seek Jesus today… How will we respond to Jesus, born king of the Jews. Jesus the one who will save his people, Jesus Immanuel God with us. We too are called to worship and lay down our gifts before him.

Maybe I’m reading to much in to it but the other thing that happens is that warned by an angel in a dream, we are told that the magi, go home by a different way. I can’t help but feel that is a great description of what it means to acknowledge the one born king of the Jews, Jesus the messiah. Jesus as a man will talk of going on the narrow way the path less travelled. A new and living way…  Jesus again as a man will tell people that he is the way the truth and the life, to come to Christ is to be willing to walk as a follower of his, to go home by a different path. Which king? Which Kingdom? which path home? This Christmas…