Matthew, the Magi, and the Newborn Christ

Today we’ll be wrapping up our short Advent series through the beginning of Matthew’s gospel. Matthew was one of Jesus’s twelve disciples. And the Holy Spirit compelled Matthew to write down this part of the Bible, here, to summarize Jesus’s life and to explain why it’s good news for us. Today we’ll be in Matthew, Chapter 2, looking at the magi, the star, and King Herod.

You may remember, two weeks ago, we were introduced to the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew’s point in it all was to teach us about Jesus’s identity. Jesus is the one chosen by God, the one whose coming has been predicted throughout the Old Testament Scripture. Jesus is the Christ, the King.

And last week, Matthew pointed out how the unique circumstances of Jesus’s birth further prove that Jesus is the promised King of the Jews. He’s a new man in the place of Adam, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He’s the divine Lord in human flesh, born to save his people from their sins. And he’s God with us – in order to bring us to be with God.

And as we work through our final text this morning, we’ll give some attention to how the birth of Christ was received, and what this means for us. But before we come to our text, please pray with me:

[Pray and Read Text]

One Message – Different Responses

When you’re at one of those classic family Christmas meals, or a New Year’s Eve party, or a church potluck – you’ll notice that people don’t fill their plates with the same thing. I don’t think that any of us are really surprised by this. We all understand that people have different food and flavor preferences. But it’s interesting to realize that the same food that attracts certain people, might repel others. Whether it’s spiced lentil stew, or raw veggies, or chocolate cake – some people will be drawn to these dishes – others will be repulsed.

And when it comes to the good news concerning the birth of King Jesus, the same is true. Matthew has declared, that God has given us a king, to save us from our sins. And a decision needs to be made here, which is far more important than what you’ll put on your plate for dinner. You and I need to consider, how will we respond to this news? What will we do with these words of Sacred Scripture?

Even though there’s just one message, here, not everyone is going to respond the same way. Some people will take hold of this good news, and others will turn away, to their own harm. And so we need to take care how we listen. We need to think through whether our response to Jesus really fits with who the Bible says he is.

And as we work through the text this morning, Matthew mentions four more remarkable aspects of Jesus’s birth, to get us thinking about how we’re responding this good news. First, Matthew describes the Magi (or the wise men) coming to Jerusalem. Second, the Movement of the Star. Third, the Message of the Scriptures, and Fourth, the Manner in which Christ was received. These will be my four points as I work through the text.

The Magi Coming to Jerusalem

So first, Matthew draws our attention to the Magi Coming to Jerusalem. Verse 1 of our text 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.”

I’m referring to the wise men here as Magi, because when we think of wise men, we tend to simply think of men who are wise. But the Greek word used here, magoi – magi – it has a more specific meaning. The word magi refers to a class of Eastern spiritual leaders that had existed for hundreds of years. And the magi had a reputation for sorcery and astrology. (The word magoi, or magi, is where we get our English word magic from). And the magi, here, would have been influential religious rulers from the Persian empire (technically the Parthian empire, at this point). The Persian empire, at the time, was quite a bit east of Israel. So the text here makes sense when it says, “wise men from the east came to Jerusalem.”

What you may not realize, though, is that this isn’t the first time in the Bible that we’ve been introduced to the magi. If you go back to the Old Testament book of Daniel, it speaks about a time, around 600 BC, when the Jewish kingdom collapsed. And hundreds of people – including a number of young men like Daniel – were carried away as prisoners of war to the conquering kingdom of Babylon. As Daniel grew, though, the Lord was with him in Babylon. And he became part of a class of advisors to the king, generically referred to as “wise men.” Daniel’s wisdom came from his relationship with God and the Scriptures. But this group of so-called “wise men” also included enchanters, magicians, and astrologers. And in the Greek text of the Old Testament, some of these royal advisors in the Babylonian Empire were magi.

What’s interesting about all this, is that Daniel was eventually promoted, to become the chief of all the wise men – first in Babylon, until Babylon was defeated by Persia, and then also in the rising Persian empire. Under Daniel’s leadership, there’s no historical indication that the Magi became Jewish. We can’t definitively say that these “wise men” from the east were building their whole lives on the wisdom of the Bible. Yet their exposure to Daniel’s God, through his wisdom and writings (Daniel 2:44, Daniel 9:26), appears to have left a lasting impression on this community of Persian astrologers. Daniel’s influence appears to be the reason why, more than 500 years later, at the time of Christ’s birth, a group of these magi set out on a months-long journey to locate the king of the Jews.

Be encouraged by this. This isn’t the main point of the text here, but bon’t underestimate the value of opening your mouth, and speaking to others about Christ. Your words might leave a much bigger impression than you realize. The words you say, the letters you write, the way you live – things like this matter. Certainly it did in Daniel’s case, for the magi here.

So Who Were the Magi?

But as we continue to consider who the magi were, it’s worth pointing out that we can’t really can’t refer to them as kings. The magi were certainly powerful in the Persian empire. They were wealthy and influential. They even had some sort of role in selecting who the next king of Persia would be. But they weren’t kings. And when it comes to how many there were, the Bible simply doesn’t tell us. The traditional number of wisemen is three – most likely because there are three gifts listed here. But we need to be careful that our understanding of the Bible isn’t dictated by human traditions, but that we’re instead developing our convictions based on what the Bible actually says.

The point here isn’t to go out and complain to everyone about the historical inaccuracies of the song, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” My goal here isn’t to puff you up with pride with knowledge like this. Instead, this should be a reminder to us all to keep our hearts humble before God’s Word, and to make sure we don’t go beyond what’s written, into the land of wild guesses and speculation. There are certain things the Bible doesn’t tell us. And that’s okay.

In fact, the text doesn’t even tell us exactly when the magi came. They came sometime after Jesus was born, when Mary and Joseph had been settled into a house – that’s implied in verse 11. And it likely happened sometime before Jesus turned two years old, based on the age of the babies that Herod ordered to be killed, in verse 16. But Jesus’s exact age here is unknown. Frankly, Matthew doesn’t find these things important. Instead, the point here is that a group of pagans, caught up in astrology – these wise men came to Jerusalem from the Persian empire – from a thousand miles away – to find the great king promised for the Jews. And Matthew’s subtly making the point here that Jesus isn’t just a king for the Jews. He’s a king for all nations. And this is certainly a remarkable aspect of Jesus’s infancy.

The Movement of the Star

But there’s a second remarkable occurrence that Matthew refers to, here: The Movement of the Star. This is my second main point. In verse 2, we see that when the wise men arrive, they start 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.”

Now, when it comes to the star here, if you’re anything like me, your mental image of this star has probably been shaped by pictures we’ve seen in story-book Bibles, nativity scenes, or Christmas movies. The star of Bethlehem is often pictured as a spectacular, colossal radiance floating around low in the sky, shining a spotlight beam straight down onto Jesus’s house. But there’s nothing in the text that describes the star as being unusually bright, or extraordinary. In fact, if something bizarre was happening in the night sky, we’d expect the people of Jerusalem to be less surprised by the arrival of the magi. We’d expect Roman or Greek sources to comment on the cosmic event, as they commonly did for lunar and solar eclipses. But it’s quite possible that the night sky looked very ordinary.

It probably wasn’t the way the star looked that caused the magi to notice it, but where the star was placed. You may remember, I mentioned earlier that the magi had a reputation for being astrologers. For those of you who don’t exactly know what astrology is, astrology is when people try to read the positions of the stars and planets to gain some sort of supernatural information. The Bible doesn’t explain what techniques the magi used. But by reading the positions of the stars in the night sky, these men from Persia came to an astonishing conclusion. Almighty God had interrupted the normal pattern of human history, by bringing His hand-selected King to the Jews. And the magi were so deeply impressed by the importance of this event, they start making plans for a months-long journey, to welcome the king, and to worship him.

I think many of us tend to assume that the magi followed this big glowing star to where it was, floating over Jerusalem. But the text suggests something different. The magi (who are from the East, remember!) they say that they “saw his star when it rose” – literally, they “saw his star in the East.” So if the magi were going in the direction of the star, they would have gone East, toward India. But instead they went West, to Jerusalem, to the city where they most expected to find the Jewish king.

It isn’t until verse 9, that we’re finally told that the star “went before them” to bring them to Jesus’s house in Bethlehem. Somehow, the star moved, and these astrologers aligned the position of that moving star with the location of Jesus’s house. And though we don’t know exactly what it looked like for the star to move, and to rest above the house, I think it’s safe to say that something supernatural took place – something that can’t be explained by astronomy or the other sciences.

And as Christians, we should be able to affirm the miracles of the Bible like this with confidence. The God of Christianity is not confined by time and space. He has power over all things. He’s able to alter the fabric of the universe with ease. And so we should not be surprised that this God, at this climactic event in human history, would perform supernatural works to confirm the arrival of His Son – His chosen King.

And notice how the magi respond to the moving star in verse 10: “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” If the star was simply doing what stars do, ordinarily and naturally, why would the magi have such an emotional response? But it says here, not only that they rejoiced, not only that they rejoiced exceedingly, but that they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Matthew’s telling us here in the strongest way possible that the magi were ecstatic – thrilled! They’re seeing something happening in the skies that they’ve never seen before! They’re seeing the hand of God at work, to lead them to His chosen king.

And the supernatural events associated with Jesus’s birth – we shouldn’t feel embarrassed about them. We shouldn’t be ashamed to admit that God is real, and capable of miraculous things. Instead, our response should likewise be joy! God has proven to us, a hundred times over, with extraordinary signs and wonders, that Jesus is the King of heaven and earth – over Jews and Persians – over planets and stars. Jesus is King. And God used signs and wonders to confirm that this is true, for the sake of our faith. So rejoice along with the magi. Celebrate that God is guiding you, also, to His Son by the supernatural movement of this star.

All this being said, though, I want to close out this point by making it clear that the Bible here is not endorsing astrology. I can understand how some people might begin to think here that astrology must be a good thing. Because the magi here, through their astrology, end up at the right place at the right time to worship the right person. But Matthew here isn’t saying, “Go and do likewise.” He isn’t interested in teaching us about the methods of the magi. And the rest of the Bible, as well, doesn’t in any respect, encourage us to try to read messages from the stars, or to consult horoscopes, or to interpret omens from anything else. In fact, the Bible speaks quite directly against things like this.

Astrology and interpreting omens – these things are spoken against in Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 15, and in Isaiah 47, verses 13-14. The idea is that pursuing astrology is a way of devaluing – and even denying – the sufficiency of God’s Word. God has spoken everything we need to know, and has preserved it for us in the Bible. The sacred writings are able to make us wise for salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15). Turning to something else to hear from God – listening for inner spiritual voices, consulting a Ouija board, or even trusting in the words of a fortune cookie – this isn’t the right way for God’s people to live.

For people don’t know any better, from time to time, God might stoop down to our level, and use even our silly superstitions and our immature understanding of spirituality to lead us closer to Christ. That’s what he did for the magi here. But when we come to have the Spirit of God guiding us, working through His Word to lead us into truth, it’d be foolish for us turn back to our old ways, looking for signals in the sky, or dreams, or mystical experiences. Being a wise man really doesn’t come through astrology. It comes through a study of God’s Word. Not from reading the stars – but from reading the Scriptures.

The Message of the Scriptures

In fact, this is further confirmed here in our text. Matthew shows us here that the arrival of the Christ fulfills “The Message of the Scriptures,” which is my third point: the Message of the Scriptures.

When the magi show up in Jerusalem, the whole region there was officially controlled by the Roman Empire. But the Roman Emperor gave local authority into the hands of a Jewish King – to King Herod, mentioned here in verse 3. And the magi come to Herod, asking him about the whereabouts of the Jewish king. As it turns out, the answer to their question doesn’t come from astrology, or from Eastern meditation, or from randomly throwing a dart at a map. Instead, when Herod takes this question to the chief priests and scribes, we see that the answer is instead announced by the Scriptures, in the writings of the prophet Micah.

Matthew quotes Micah in verse 6: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

So the ruler of Israel had to be born in Bethlehem. That’s Matthew’s main point here – to show that Jesus is the king, the Christ. And Matthew probably felt the need to confirm that Jesus was born in Bethlehem for his readers, because it wouldn’t have been common knowledge. Mary and Joseph weren’t from Bethlehem. They were from the village of Nazareth, in a region much further north – the region of Galilee. But Luke’s gospel explains that they were in Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth because of a Roman census. But not too long afterward, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus ended back up in Nazareth again, which is where Jesus would have spent the vast majority of his growing-up years.

So as an adult, Jesus wouldn’t have been known in Bethlehem. His accent and mannerisms likely would have made it seem like Jesus was thoroughly Galilean. In John’s gospel account, in Chapter 7, verses 41 and 42, this is the conclusion the Jews were coming to. And since many Jews thought that Jesus was born in Galilee, in the village of Nazareth, they assumed that he couldn’t be the Christ, born in Bethlehem. But Matthew confirms for us here that Jesus is, in fact, the fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy. He’s the Christ born in Bethlehem.

Yet I believe that Matthew quotes the prophet Micah here for another reason, as well. Micah’s prophecy not only confirms the global location of the Christ, but also the global Lordship of the Christ. If you read the greater context of Micah’s prophecy, about Bethlehem, he says “from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore, he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great, to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.”

This ruler, being raised up in Israel, is described as one who will be great, not just to the borders of Canaan – not just throughout the Roman Empire – but to the ends of the earth. And even in the earliest days after Jesus’ birth, this prediction was already being proven true. People from distant lands were already drawing near to affirm the greatness of this king. The Promised Ruler of Israel isn’t just a king for a certain ethnic people, in a confined geographical space. There isn’t one god for the Zulu of Africa, and a different god for the Swedes, and some other Supreme being for the Japanese, and another for the Native American tribes of Central Michigan. But there is one God, over all people – One creator, who deserves the loyalty and love of all his creatures – One Lord, who will be great to the ends of the earth. And it’s Jesus.

But it isn’t enough for us to simply hear this message. We have a responsibility to respond to it rightly.

The Manner in Which Christ Was Received

So in our text, Matthew describes for us the remarkable manner in which Christ was received. This is my fourth and final point. The manner in which Christ was received.

Let me remind you, that all this time we’ve been considering just one basic event. There’s one set of facts. One message, about one child being born in Bethlehem. Yet Matthew records that there are two very different ways that this news is responded to.

On the one hand, there’s the response of the magi. They respond with excitement and reverence. And what’s remarkable about this is that they aren’t even Jewish. When it comes to the promises of God, they’re on the outside. They likely don’t fully understand the greatness of this Jewish king. And yet when God stoops down to their level, and communicates through the means of their astrology to tell them that the King has come, they go to him. They take the cost upon themselves, to journey across mountains and deserts, all because they want to kneel before Jesus, and adore him, and honor Him as king.

And that’s precisely what they do. As they follow the star, filled with crazy amounts of joy – once they find Mary and Jesus in their house, verse 11 tells us that they “fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts: gold, and frankincense and myrrh.”

Some people say that there’s a special symbolism implied in the gifts – gold for Jesus’s kingship, frankincense for his divinity, and myrrh in anticipation of his death on the cross. But I think the main idea is simply that Jesus is being honored with royal gifts. When the magi come to Jesus, they’re like that woman who pours the alabaster flask of ointment on Jesus’s feet. They’re offering themselves, voluntarily, whole-heartedly to worship. Their generosity is motivated by real delight, rather than reluctant duty. Their respect is motivated by humility rather than hypocrisy.

But then, of course, there’s King Herod. His response is much different, as Matthew points out. Verse 3 of our text says that, “When Herod heard this” – when he heard that a new king of the Jews had been born – “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” There’s no mention of joy here. King Herod was unsettled – agitated.

And as events unfold, it becomes clear why. Even though King Herod was technically Jewish – and even though Herod the Great here was actually responsible for organizing the renovation and the expansion of the Temple in Jerusalem – he had no interest in receiving God’s chosen King – like many of the other Jews. Instead, the idea of a new king sounded threatening to Herod. He didn’t want to give up any of his power. He didn’t want someone telling him what he could or couldn’t do. Herod, himself, wanted to be King!

And I think there’s an extent to which we all can relate to this impulse! Surrendering to the authority of someone else – admitting that another person has the right to give us commands and responsibilities – for many of us, this sounds like a problem – not a solution. We imagine that no one could possibly run my life better than me. And yet the Bible teaches, quite plainly, that no one can run our lives better than God. We are wicked sinners in need of a Savior. We are fools in need of instruction. We are weak mortals in need of a divine King. Even if Jesus isn’t the gift we want, we need to recognize that God’s provision of Christ Jesus for us is the gift we need.

So notice again the contrast that Matthew makes here. The awkward, unusual reality of this situation is that the pagan magi have been earnestly awaiting Jesus’s coming. They’ve crossed land and sea to worship Jesus. Meanwhile, the Jews – those considered to be the people of God – have done no such thing. In fact, the Jewish ruler, Herod, has done everything in his power to put Jesus to death.

And though I don’t imagine any of us have reacted as violently against Christ’s authority as Herod did here, we should still consider our attitudes and affections toward Christ. Are we excited to know him? Are we thankful for his first coming? Are we eagerly awaiting the day that he comes again? Are we laying down our treasures before him, in worship to the king? Or like Herod, are we unsettled by Jesus, annoyed by him – feeling threatened by Him?

I expect that Herod perhaps loved the grandness of the temple, the Jewish culture, the Jewish people, the Jewish notions of tradition and morality – but Herod’s problem was that he didn’t love King Jesus. And by setting the magi and Herod here, side by side, Matthew is likely foreshadowing here that the Jews will reject Jesus, but that the good news of salvation will extend to all nations. Though the words of John 1, verse 11 are true – that “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him,” it’s also true that this ruler of Israel from Bethlehem will be great to the ends of the earth.

So let’s keep watch on our hearts, to make sure that we respond to the news of King Jesus with the same earnest exertion, joy, and worship as the magi. Let’s make sure that we aren’t just loving our church culture, or church people, or church traditions and morality – but that we’re loving Jesus himself, and humbling ourselves under his authority.

Matthew’s record, here, about the birth of Christ makes it plain that this man, Jesus, is a most extraordinary person. God himself has made him king. So how will it impact your life? How will you respond? Please pray with me: