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Introduction: A Christmas Surprise

Has someone ever reacted in a way that you were not expecting or that took you by surprise, that caught you off guard? A story like that came to my mind with my Dad one Christmas when we were younger. A little bit of backstory about my Dad. He loves all things German. He grew up in Germany and has a lot of very fond childhood memories there. If he sees something, anything, whether a food item or a trinket that’s from Germany, he’s going to go out of his way to buy it. He gets really excited. He’s going to shove people over to get the item.

My sister knew this about him, and she searched and searched, and she found for him ‘Stollen’, which is a traditional German sweet bread that is usually eaten around Christmas time. All of us knew that he was going to be so over the moon ecstatic about this. My Mom and I were convinced that this year, my sister was going to win Christmas for my Dad. So Christmas morning comes.

After so much anticipation, so much anxious waiting on my sister’s part, it was time for my dad to open his present, the ‘Stollen’, and he unwrapped it. He looks at it and with a very, very unaffected reaction, he says, Okay, thanks. All of us, needless to say, were really confused by his reaction. My sister knew what to expect, that he was gonna freak out over this. She knows my Dad so well that she could predict precisely what would happen. She thought she could predict exactly what was going to happen.

That’s what’s happening in our text here today. Matthew is telling us of two reactions to Jesus’s birth. Both of them are unexpected. This story might be very, very familiar to you. You might have grown up hearing this story year after year at Christmas. But don’t let your familiarity with this story make you miss that. This is meant to be a surprising story, especially for the first-century Jewish audience. It would not have been what you would have expected or guessed would happen when Messiah arrived.

 

The Wise Men

So if you have your Bibles open them today to Matthew chapter 2, starting in verse 1. It says:

“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, 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’.”

The events that Matthew is telling in chapter 2 are real events that happened at a certain time. Matthew gives us at the beginning of chapter 2 a timestamp and a geolocation for this story of Jesus’s birth. This occurred at a real time in history. You can look it up, you can plot this on a historical timeline in the days of Herod. This is a real place in history. If you wanted to, you could hop on a plane right now and go and visit and touch the spot where he’s saying this happened.

It happened in Bethlehem of Judea. Matthew is emphasizing here that this isn’t a fable or a fantasy story. This is a story grounded in a real time at a real place. This is the setting for what he’s about to describe. We read on in verse 2 that there are these wise men from the east who have come to Jerusalem. Who are these wise men, these Magi? A lot of speculation has been given about them, and if you wanted to, you could go down a seemingly endless rabbit trail on how traditionally people have viewed these Magi.

There have been a lot of interpretations of who these men from the east are, and there’s been a lot of allegorizing them. It seems most likely that these are astrologers or dream interpreters from Chaldea or Persia. Traditionally, people have thought that there were three wise men, even attaching names to each of them. But what we need to note here is the Bible never says the number of how many men were there.

So there was a group of men without any names. All the scriptures tell us is that a group of Magi came from the east following a celestial event that they noticed. But no matter who these men are, what’s important to pay attention to in these verses is that these men are definitely Gentiles. They’re not Hebrew, they’re not Jewish men coming. They’re not Israelites, but they are coming to worship the Messiah, Jesus, born king of the Jews.

That’s already giving us a taste of something unexpected. It doesn’t seem like many Israelites would be sitting around expecting that gentile astrologers, dream interpreters, kind of like pagan magicians, would come all this way and worship, not meet as a sideshow attraction, but to worship Jesus. This raises a question: Where did these Wise men get the information that a star would lead them to the one born king of Israel? What is this star? Is it a natural phenomenon or maybe supernatural?

Some have linked it to a planetary alignment of Saturn and Jupiter. Others to Halley’s comet or some low-hanging comet. A lot of speculation, but I think my answer today is going to disappoint you. I don’t think we could know for sure where they got this information on what exactly the star was. I think Matthew is keeping that mysterious for a reason. While we can’t be certain of what exactly the star is, I personally tend to think that maybe this was a supernatural event that God caused to lead these men to Jesus.

We can’t be sure, nor can we be certain what knowledge these men had that they gained to follow the star. Maybe they had documents, or they were pulling from oral tradition. Maybe they got this from prophets who were taken in captivity in Babylon and were living in Persia during exile. Or maybe there was some entirely different source that they got from God.

But it seems Matthew doesn’t want you to focus on these details anyway. It’s much less important how these wise men heard of Jesus’ birth than the meaning that they’re coming to visit his birth. The fact that they’re there is more significant than how they found out. Matthew does catch the reader off guard that these Gentiles seemingly spring up from out of nowhere with no real background on why they’re showing up to pay homage and worship Jesus the Messiah.

It seems this event is meant to be surprising to the reader. These men are not who you would anticipate to be some of the first to show up to worship Jesus. Like seeing a really grizzled, angry biker gang, engaged and enjoying Madame Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera. That’s probably not the group of people you would expect to be doing that. The Magi signal that the Gentiles are being brought into the saving plan of God. That’s the point. As has been hinted at throughout the entirety of the Old Testament, the Gentiles will be brought into faith.

The Magi are yet another example of Gentiles being brought into the people of God. Following after Ruth, the Moabitess, after the promise that Abraham would be a blessing to all nations, the repentance of Nineveh, and other prophecies of salvation going out to the nations. I think this visit follows in the footsteps that Gentiles are now responding in faith and worship.

 

King Herod’s Reaction

This matches up with what happens throughout the book of Matthew. If you continue reading on in this book, Matthew will often point out Gentiles reacting positively to the Messiah. He contrasts this to the Jewish reaction to Jesus, which is overall negative. None of that is what anyone would have been expecting. It’s weird, it’s strange, it’s baffling that Gentile people outside of the chosen people of God respond with faith and worship towards Jesus.

While the people that Jesus came for, the house of Israel, the ones that have the blessings, the covenant, the Scriptures, are responding negatively and harshly, and oftentimes with hostility towards Jesus. Chapter 2 begins what Matthew will continue to do throughout his Gospel. Contrast these two reactions of people towards Jesus the Messiah. Unexpectedly, these Gentile wise men from the east have come to worship Jesus the Messiah, the true King of Israel. We read on in verse 3, another reaction to Jesus, we read:

“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes and the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.”

So now we get to Herod’s reaction, and it’s negative. That’s maybe somewhat odd, but that’s not surprising for Herod. A little backstory about Herod. Herod is not a natural-born king. His father wasn’t king. He’s a king placed over the Jews, sort of as a puppet ruler over the kingdom of Judea by Rome, a hostile power. For the most part, he’s unliked in Jerusalem. To the Jews in Jerusalem, he’s not a popular figure. He wasn’t elected by popular vote.

Herod is part Idumean as well, which means he’s partly descended from the nation of Edom, which was founded by Esau. Historically speaking, that nation has almost always been hostile to Israel. Some sources even cite that while he was nearing the end of his life, Herod himself acknowledged that he wasn’t popular and acknowledged that no one was going to cry for him when he died. So what caused me the most confusion this week in my study was why, if Herod is troubled, why then is all Jerusalem troubled with him?

Because the text tells us that he was troubled, and so all Jerusalem was troubled with him. I think this is helpful to note, all Jerusalem is a figure of speech here to say that the city as a whole was troubled. Not necessarily every person. If you knocked on every door in Jerusalem, not everyone is going to have the same level of emotion. It’s just saying that the majority of the mood of the city, overall, was troubled about this news, was in an uproar, and was upset.

So why was all of Jerusalem upset with him? We’re going to return to that question in a moment, but let’s keep looking at Herod’s reaction. Herod seems to know some things about the coming Messiah. Herod is not stupid. He may not be liked, but he’s not a stupid man. He’s a smart guy. He seems to be aware of Messianic prophecies and that they’re found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

We see in verse 4, he assembles the chief priests to ask them, Where is this Christ to be born? Suggesting he knew enough to know where to look. He’s not stumped by the Magi’s question, Where is he who’s been born King of the Jews? He places that as a telltale sign of the Messiah. So he gets all of the scribes, the chief priests, together, all of the religious elite, and the scholars of the time to search the Scriptures and tell him where this Messiah will be born. But he’s not doing this out of excitement. He’s not eager to find the Messiah. He’s anxious. He’s troubled by the news.

He sees this as a rival to his own power. As we see later in Matthew’s gospel, Herod wants this information in order to destroy the Messiah, not to congratulate him. Herod’s claim to the throne is not strong. He’s not king by birth. He’s not popular in Jerusalem as well. Now it seems that Messiah has burst on the scene. This is going to cause some problems for him politically. No wonder this man is troubled. If you or I hungered for power the way that Herod was always hungry for power, it would trouble us too.

After all, his claim to the crown is tenuous. It’s not solid. Herod knows this. He had any potential rival to his power put to death, including many of his own family members. Some of the historical sources say that there was a saying in those days that it was safer to be one of Herod’s pigs than one of Herod’s sons. He did indeed have a few of his sons put to death as potential rivals. Herod is hostile to this new Messiah, and he will do anything he can to stop this newborn king so that he can hold power over Judea.

In the third book of the Lord of The Return of the King, there’s a character named Denethor. He’s reigning over this kingdom, Gondor, as steward of Gondor, not as king. As a result of a lot of events that happened in the past before the story of The Lord of the Rings takes place, the king of Gondor has gone away. The steward is appointed to act in his stead, govern the kingdom while he’s away, so that it doesn’t go into chaos. To rule the kingdom as if he were king until the true king returns and takes over the reign. Then, as the story goes, the king does return. And what does the steward of Gondor do?

Well, he resists the king, of course. He doesn’t want to accept this king. His house of stewards has been ruling successfully for many generations. He doesn’t even see that this kingdom needs that king. They have a king in the stewards. At this point in the story, the wizard Gandalf gives one of my favorite lines to Denethor. He looks at him and, in frustration, he says, “It is not given to you to resist or deny the return of the king.” To say it another way, Gandalf is telling the steward, You have not been given authority.

You have not been given permission. It is not part of your duties. It is not in your pay grade to decide who gets to be king over this kingdom or not. The true king, the one born of the royal lineage, is here now. He has the birthright to the throne. He has the legal right to take the throne. That’s what’s happening with Herod. He’s like the steward of Gondor, and just like the steward, he’s resisting the new king who’s come on the scene. This king Jesus has the legal right to rule. I think it’s important to note in verse 2, the magi ask the question,

“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?”

They’re not asking, where is this newly born king, per se. The language here more fits what they’re asking for, where is the one who is born king by birthright? The one born with kingship rights. You can see why their language causes Herod, the king appointed by a hostile power, to be a little anxious when they asked him, Where is the one who is rightfully king? Where is the one whose birthright is kingship?

Matthew states in his genealogy in chapter 1, he sets this up to communicate to his audience that Jesus, through legal right, through the line of succession, is heir to David’s throne. By legal right, he’s the true king. With this question that the Magi pose, Matthew again is highlighting that Jesus is the one who has the birthright to be king. Jesus is of the line of David. Matthew 2 is now further connecting Jesus as the true king and contrasting that to Herod.

 

Jerusalem’s Reaction

Herod is troubled about the arrival of the Messiah, but as I said earlier, all Jerusalem joined in and was troubled with him. So why is all Jerusalem troubled with Herod? After all, as a reminder, they don’t care for Herod as a ruler. You might have guessed they would have been aching for another ruler to come and take this guy’s place. Is this just a way that Matthew is expressing that all Jerusalem was in a stir, that the news of the Messiah went viral in those days?

Is that what Matthew’s getting at? Maybe he’s just saying the news of the Messiah was trending through all Jerusalem. I think what he means here is that all of the people were troubled by this news. They were bothered by the thought of the upheaval that might come. They knew, after all, very well the length Herod was capable of going when pushed, when threatened by a rival.

It seems they were rightly troubled by the way Herod lashes out in hostility in verse 16. You will see later that he has all the male children killed to try to stop this rival to his power. Herod is capable of extremes, to say it mildly. But they should be excited about the news that Messiah is here. Instead, they’re troubled, following after the emotions of the current ruler, the emotions of the current time.

They’re looking at the immediate consequences, which, yes, can be severe, but they’re looking at the immediate consequences rather than seeing the eternal significance of what’s happening in their own day. You should have expected them to be excited. After all, Jerusalem is the city of David. This is the city of the great king. This should be the very epicenter of excitement that Messiah is here.

What is the city doing? It’s troubled along with an unrighteous king. They’re following in the path of an unrighteous king, while the righteous king of glory with the birthright of kingship has been born just neighborhoods away. No one in this story is reacting the way you would anticipate them to react.

 

The City of Bethlehem

So after the scribes and chief priests finish their Herod assigned homework, they find the scriptures that say the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem. We read this in verses 5 and 6. The scriptures say:

“They told him ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel’.’”

They’ve located an Old Testament prophecy declaring, clear as day, Messiah is going to be born in a specific city, a specific place, Bethlehem of Judea. Before we unpack this a little more, I think it’s important to explain the difference in the quotation from Matthew 2. Matthew is quoting from the book of Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. But if you or I were to open our Bibles and go to Micah chapter 5, verse 2, what we would read would be a little bit different than what Matthew has here.

I think there are some good reasons why. The first difference is that Micah calls it Bethlehem Ephrathah, which Micah does, in order to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in the region. Kind of like saying, I’m going to meet you in Springfield, Illinois, not Springfield, Ohio. So I’m saying Illinois to make sure that you don’t end up in Springfield, Ohio. Micah is being precise with his language here about the location.

So there’s no confusion. It’s going to be in Bethlehem, that specific Bethlehem. But so is Matthew. But instead of saying Ephrathah to make it clear, he says of Judah, since that would make more sense for his readers at the time, they’ll understand Bethlehem of Judah to be that same city. They’re the same spot. It’s just a different way of referring to the same city. They’re both referring to precisely the same city, but using different terminology to refer to it.

Matthew is also writing in a different language, so he’s using his best communication tools to take this prophecy written in Hebrew and write it for a Greek-speaking audience. But there’s something that I think the Christians should never forget about what we confess of the Scriptures. Matthew is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Things are being revealed here by the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit quotes himself in Micah.

This might be, I think, one of my favorite quotes that is different. My heart was so warmed this week by the way that Matthew quotes Micah, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Micah says, Bethlehem, you are least among the cities, but from you a ruler is going to come. Matthew says, Bethlehem, you are by no means least. A really strong negation. You are absolutely not least, because from you has come the ruler of my people.

Matthew is sitting on the other side of the incarnation as he’s writing. He is on the other side of the arrival of the Messiah. Bethlehem is now glorious because in that city the arrival of God in the flesh has taken place. Do you see the difference in the quotation? Yes, it’s true that in Micah’s day, Bethlehem was not a significant city.

But now in Matthew’s day, it is no longer even able to be mentioned as insignificant. It is a significant city because the Messiah has come to Bethlehem, forever changing how that city can be referred to. It’s almost as if Matthew is quoting the prophet while also simultaneously revealing the fulfillment of that prophecy in the quote itself. Bethlehem is no longer the least among the nations because the promised ruler has come.

 

Go Share the Good News

So, what do we take away from this small section? At the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah from the line of David, he is the true king. He is God incarnate who has entered the scene. He was born in the city of David. According to prophecy, he was born in a specific place at a specific time. Jesus is not an idea. Jesus didn’t come spiritually only. These events happened in a real place at a certain time in the days of Herod. You can go look it up on your calendar. The magi have come to worship him. Another sign that people from every nation, every tribe will be part of God’s family.

This is a great reminder to us that we are to take the Gospel to the very ends of the earth to pray for our missionaries that are out there right now doing that very thing. I’m very thankful that our church supports and prays for missionaries. That we’re committed to sharing the Gospel and preaching it in our community as well.

All Christians have been commissioned by Christ himself to go and share the Gospel. Making disciples. You should share your faith, share the good news with others. Go and tell the nations, or better yet, go right now and just tell your neighbors about Jesus, the Messiah.
The Gospel does not discriminate. That is sweet news for us. All People, no matter your ethnicity, language, or background, can repent and believe in Jesus. This wonderful message of salvation is for anyone and everyone. As Paul himself says in Acts 17, verse 30:

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”

So now, as a memory device, whenever you think of these wise men or see a nativity with the wise men in it, or you’re listening to the song We Three Kings on the radio, think of the mission of God. Use that device to remind you to take a few minutes to pray for a missionary going to the nations. Maybe pray that God would give you an opportunity to share the gospel with someone today. May hearing or seeing these wise men pull you into worshiping God, that He offers salvation and mercy to people from every nation by the Gospel of Jesus.

 

Conclusion: Respond to Jesus

In this short text, we see wise men rejoicing over the newborn king. We hear that Bethlehem is no longer insignificant. Messiah has come to this little city. May this stir up worship in your hearts. Jesus has come as God promised. He is the perfect revelation of the Father. He took away our sins and our weaknesses as God promised. He died and rose again on the third day as God promised. Now we see the love and salvation, the kindness and the care, the justice and the righteousness of our God in full display in Jesus, the King of Kings. Come and worship this king. Messiah has come.

That demands a response from the reader of the Gospel of Matthew, which now includes you and me. Today, there are two contrasting reactions to Jesus that Matthew gives. There’s Herod and all of Jerusalem, troubled by the coming of the Messiah. This news is not a source of joy for them, but of angst and anguish. Many people follow in those footsteps today who have reacted similarly with anger and hostility towards the Gospel. Rejecting Jesus, rejecting God’s word, resisting him.

That could be one way that you respond to the news that the Messiah has come and entered into history. But you could respond like the magi bowing and worshiping King Jesus, who is God with us. You can respond to Jesus in love and worship, and gratitude. This season should be filled with excitement for the Christian, not just for toys and candy, and presents.

We are remembering one of the greatest moments in history. Unlike the Old Testament saints before us, who long awaited, eagerly anticipated the day the Messiah would show up on the scene. We get to know the details. We live on the other side of Christ’s first coming. His first Advent. That should stir up so much joy in our hearts.

Jesus came in perfect fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies. He came in weakness, in gentleness, in kindness to save his people from their sins, offering his own body, his own life, to bear the wrath of sins that we had earned, so that in turn we can be forgiven and united to God. If you’re here this morning and you don’t believe in Jesus, you’ve been resisting him or living in hostility to him, or maybe you’re just saying, I’m really not sure how to respond to Jesus this season. I would encourage you, I would implore you to bow and worship this king.

He is worthy of your worship. Repent of your sins and give your life to this Messiah who is gentle and lowly of heart, who sacrifices himself to save his people from their sins, their mistakes. May today be a day of new life and salvation for you. We’ve looked at reactions to the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. That was their reaction to Jesus. But for those of us who have heard the gospel, how will you respond to Jesus this season? Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we worship you and we thank you that you did not leave us in the sins and state that we put ourselves in, but that you planned from eternity a path to offer salvation to all kinds of people. Lord, it’s not just the elite few or those with a lot of money or those from a certain background.

Lord, you give salvation to anyone who would repent and believe the gospel. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your mercy, that you would take on our sins, bear our iniquities upon yourself. You didn’t have to do that, but you did.

You chose to show love to people who didn’t deserve love, who shouldn’t have been given love, but you gave them love. And, Lord, it says you gave us love aboundingly, Lord. Love beyond what we can imagine. So we praise you and we worship you, Lord. We thank you for your mercy that is demonstrated so fully in Christ. Lord, we pray that the gospel would keep going to all nations, that all people might hear the good news that you have made the way for your people to be united to you again and for all eternity.

May you continue to strengthen missionaries across the globe. And, Lord, may you strengthen us as we are called to be evangelists for your gospel here and now. Help us to do that. Help us not to fall prey to shyness or cowardice, Lord, but that we would boldly tell the gospel the greatest news that has ever hit the scene.

Lord, that we would be sharing that with all. May we truly embrace you, Lord Jesus, this season. May this season be a time of rich worship and meditation on who you are, Lord Jesus. Your person and your works. And Lord, your character, your kindness. We love you, Lord Jesus, and we pray that everything we do here is glorifying to you.

We pray this in Jesus’ name.