Come and Worship? – Matthew 2v1–12

Sermons Archive - Greenview Church

The birth of the Messiah, but two utterly different reactions, two polar opposites. We’re going to see some who want to worship the newborn king and another who wants to kill the king. One gives Jesus a five-star review and the other gives him a one-star review.

(0:28 – 0:46)

Not interested. Get rid. And I think what Matthew is showing us is something quite simple, but also something quite important, which is that people respond differently to the Messiah Jesus.

(0:47 – 2:05)

So in chapter one, he showed us that Jesus is the Messiah, but now in chapter two, I think he’s showing us there’s going to be different responses to this same king. Some worshipping, some wanting rid. That was true then.

And actually, I think if we sort of scratch under the surface a little bit, we’ll see that it’s still true today. These are the two fundamental reactions to the king, and really there is no middle ground between them. And so another way of putting it is that Matthew is putting before us all a choice this morning.

He’s showing us the Magi’s response and Herod’s response, and he’s saying, who will you be like? Whose response will you copy? So let’s think about these two responses. I hope you’ve got your Bible open in front of you. The first response is that of the men who wanted to worship King Jesus.

The men who wanted to worship King Jesus. We find them in verses one and two, and also later in the passage. There’s a kind of interesting structure that Matthew uses here.

(2:06 – 2:38)

But before Matthew gets to them, he does a little bit of scene setting in verse one. Verse one, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod. So we’re kind of fast-forwarding after the birth of Jesus.

We’re moving after the shepherds, the fanfare of angels and all that. That’s long gone. And it was during the time of King Herod.

(2:39 – 3:14)

Now, we’re not quite sure why Matthew drops that in at this point, but we’ll see in a moment why Herod’s such a big deal in this chapter. It was during his reign that Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? So immediately, two pieces of vital information about these travelling worshippers. Number one, they were Magi, which probably means that they were astrologers and courtiers.

(3:16 – 3:38)

Certainly, you couldn’t have made this journey unless you were a person of wealth and influence. So they were Magi, probably astrologers and courtiers. And number two, they came from the east, which not only means that they travelled from far away, but it also means they are foreigners.

(3:41 – 5:03)

And I don’t think, you know, I think when we read this Christmas story, we don’t feel the surprise of this somehow. But this would be a little bit like Russians visiting Kiev right now, you know, travelling from Russia to Kiev with friendly intentions. And yet that’s not so out there.

You maybe know this, that there are some Russians right now who are fighting Russians in Ukraine, fighting Russians. They’re called the Free Russia Legion. And they’re fighting against Putin.

They’re wanting to liberate Russians from the Kremlin. Well, that’s just as surprising as these Persians, these eastern people coming to Israel and saying, we will worship your king. It’s really surprising.

And yet, if you read chapter one carefully, you wouldn’t be so shocked. Because remember in chapter one, there were actually hints that in Jesus’ family tree, we saw outsiders could join the Jewish party. Remember, foreigners like Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba were included in the line of the Messiah.

(5:06 – 5:20)

And it wasn’t an unhappy accident. God wanted them in that line, just as God wanted the Magi to arrive here. See, the Magi are not gate crashers here.

(5:21 – 5:48)

God has sent them a personal, sizable, and sparkly invitation, an invitation they could understand in the language of the stars. The Magi were likely interpreters of the stars. And God uses something they were familiar with to start them on their journey to Jesus.

(5:49 – 6:47)

Actually, I find that quite interesting. Because in the Old Testament, God generally condemns astrology, and it’s not a good thing, biblically speaking. And yet, God can do whatever God wants, and God uses something that they were familiar with to make his Son known.

He conducts the path of a star. And I think this chimes with something that Andy said helpfully last week about the miracle of the virgin birth. The Bible is a lot less sheepish about these Christmas miracles than we Westerners are.

You know, when preachers in our kind of context preach from these passages, we kind of whisper the miracles in passing, you know. It’s a little aside that we’re slightly embarrassed about. But actually, in the passage, the miracles are prominent and unashamed.

(6:48 – 7:31)

The Bible says, conceived of the Spirit, conceived of the Spirit, conceived of the Spirit. At one level, a virgin birth is surprising. At another level, it’s the sort of thing you would expect if God stepped into time and history.

You’d expect some supernatural confirmations. A virgin birth, a flurry of angels, a guiding star. Westward leading to Judah and Jerusalem to the seat of power, the kind of place where you would expect to find the Jewish king.

(7:32 – 8:46)

And so, they draw their camels up in the city, and verse 2, they start to ask around. This reminded me of back in the days, the old days, before Google Maps. If you drove to somewhere unfamiliar, like say you went to a wedding, some place you’d never been, getting to the town or the city was the easy bit.

You know, you could just about get your car there. But very often, when you got there, it was the last part that was tricky. And so, you would roll down the window and ask a local.

And it was really annoying when you rolled the window down and you found it was another tourist, and they had no clue either. Everyone under the age of 25 has no idea what I’m talking about here. But that’s what happens here.

They’re almost at the place. They’re just a few miles away, but they need to ask the locals. And I’m sure they were wide-eyed locals.

We’re looking for the Messiah. You know the guy you’ve been waiting thousands of years to come? It was confirmed by a star. We’ve been following it here.

(8:48 – 12:58)

You wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you? Because we saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him. First mention of that word, this is going to be the key word in the whole passage. We’ve come to worship.

This is their intention. And I guess the question at this point is whether others will join them in the quest of going to worship the King. Well, what quickly becomes obvious is that others don’t share their enthusiasm, especially not Herod.

And so, we come next to the man who wanted rid of King Jesus. The man who wanted rid of King Jesus, verses 3 to 8. And I’m deliberately focussing here on Herod, the one man who wanted rids. You might say, well, aren’t there other people in this text? Well, there are.

But they’re kind of in the background. The people of Jerusalem are only mentioned once in verse 3. The chief priests and the law teachers are only mentioned once in verse 4. So, these folk are kind of more background, whereas Herod is mentioned four times in the passage. We spotted the first reference already, verse 1. But also in verse 3, verse 7, and in verse 12, Herod is the chief protagonist.

I think what’s going on is that Herod is being contrasted with the Magi. That’s the big comparison that Matthew’s trying to show us here. So, you’ve got the foreigners who come to worship the King, and you’ve got the powerful King of Judea who secretly wants rid of Jesus.

Now, who was this Herod? Can we say a little more about him? Matthew’s readers, I think, would have known all about Herod, whereas we might know less about him. Kind of like when there’s some trending cultural icon, and I’m asking my kids, like, who is that? So, maybe you’re going, who is this Herod guy that other people know about? Well, he’s the King of Judea, and he’s ruled over this province for almost 40 years. And crucially, by the time Jesus was born, he’s a fairly old king who’s feeling pretty vulnerable.

He’s about 70 years old at this point. And just a few years before the birth of Jesus, Herod has ordered the death of three of his sons, who he’s worried are about to commit treason and steal his throne. So, he’s a paranoid, older, weakening king.

This is not the guy you want to tell of a newborn king in his country, albeit this is the messianic king, but nonetheless. And so, Herod is disturbed, no surprise there, and all Jerusalem with him, verse 3. I don’t know about you, but I found that a little, you know, it’s always good when you go through the Bible to think, well, what’s the surprising bit in the passage? I think that’s the most surprising bit to me, at least. I can see why Herod was disturbed, but why would the city of Jerusalem be disturbed at the arrival of the Messiah? Wouldn’t they be looking forward to that? One commentator suggested that it might have been to do with a fear of the upheaval, the kind of, you know, how Herod was going to react, and maybe some war that was going to break out, maybe there was fears around that sort of thing.

(12:58 – 13:51)

They might have been disturbed for a different reason than Herod’s, but I think what is clear is that this is a foretaste of what is to come later in this gospel, when this same Jerusalem won’t just be disturbed by King Jesus, they will defy King Jesus, even call for the death of King Jesus. It’s like a little Easter egg in the story early on, suggesting that Jerusalem might not roll out the red carpet for its Messiah. So Herod’s disturbed, the people are disturbed, everyone’s disturbed, and Herod calls a meeting with the chief priests and teachers of the law.

(13:51 – 14:33)

These were the religious leaders who ran the Jewish temple and who taught the Jewish Bible, and he gets them together, and he needs their assistance, because he doesn’t know the answer to the question where the Messiah is to be born. He often claimed to be very Jewish, Herod, but he didn’t know even what a Jewish child would have learned in Sabbath school. Micah 5 verse 2, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

(14:34 – 16:59)

It’s always intriguing to kind of go back to the original reference. Actually, sometimes when you compare these quotes, you find that the people in the Gospels will change little words or little phrases here and there. There is actually a little difference between the quotation they give and what we find in Micah.

They add in an extra word, and it’s the word shepherds. The word shepherd doesn’t appear in Micah 5, but actually what they’re doing is they’re borrowing language from 2 Samuel chapter 5, and they’re kind of bolting it on at the end. In 2 Samuel 5, God said to King David, or as he was about to become king, he said, you will be the shepherd and ruler of Israel.

And so they bolt the shepherd language onto the Micah quote, because they want to show that the one who will be born in Bethlehem will be the shepherd king of God’s people. Now, that’s a kind of strange combination for us. Shepherd and king, isn’t it? Or shepherd and leader, because these are not words that we would normally associate with each other.

I mean, if I said to you what comes to your mind when you think of the word leader, you might think leader, CEO, or leader, military general. Leader equals something really powerful like that. But I would be surprised if you thought, you know, leader, shepherd.

But actually, if you were a Jew, you might think that. If you lived in an agricultural society where you saw shepherds every day of your life, and you saw shepherds who didn’t drive the sheep as in Western culture, but who led the sheep, who actually went in front of the sheep and showed them where to go as it was in that culture, then I think you would have a concept of a shepherd leader. After all, the Bible describes God himself in the terms of a shepherd in Psalm 23 and in many other places.

(16:59 – 19:14)

The Lord is my shepherd. You don’t get more of a leader than God, do you? And yet he’s the shepherd leader. There’s something of beauty in that, isn’t there? God is a leader who combines authority and care because where does God the shepherd lead the sheep? Not off the edge of a cliff.

He leads them to the green pastures and the quiet waters. The shepherd king cares for the sheep he leads. And that, I think, is the tragedy of the story of King Herod.

Herod may have been right to fear those would-be kings beneath him, maybe, but Jesus wasn’t an authority that Herod needed to be afraid of. Jesus is no Putin. He’s no self-serving Western politician just out for himself.

He’s a shepherd king who cares for the sheep he leads. That’s the tragedy of Herod. But Herod is disturbed, and the religious leaders are indifferent.

You know, you can’t help but wonder, because they kind of vanish from the story now, but you can’t help but wonder, why didn’t the Jewish leaders use this information? If Herod was hostile, they were just apathetic. And yet this is another Easter egg, I think, of bad things to come. Later in Jesus’ life, who would condemn Jesus to death? The chief priests and the teachers of the law.

Here’s a thing that I think is actually quite frightening. There is a very, very short step between apathy and hostility. There is a step, but it’s a very small one.

(19:14 – 19:39)

It’s a little shuffle. The person who says, I don’t care either way about Jesus. I’m just indifferent.

It’s just a shuffle away from, I don’t want Jesus. I want rid of Jesus. Herod is already there, though he’s keeping it wrapped up like a Christmas present at this point.

(19:40 – 20:58)

And he calls the Magi in. He asks them about the timing of the star. And really what he’s doing is he’s working out the age of the baby.

This is information that he’s going to use later, horribly, to decide what age of babies to kill in Bethlehem. But the Magi are blissfully unaware of this at this point. And so they give him the info and they go to Bethlehem almost as a search team for Herod to find the shepherd king.

And he says, once you’re done, why don’t you just swing your camels by Jerusalem again and give me the postcode, would you? So that I can go too and worship him. Second mention of worship in this passage. But this is not true worship.

This is fake worship. See, Matthew is contrasting the five-star review with the one-star review all the way through this text. And so in verses 9 to 12, he then turns back to the true worshippers.

(20:59 – 21:36)

And this is a message where point one becomes point three, right? We’re back to the same guys again, the men who want to worship Jesus. Now they continue their journey. Bethlehem’s in their sights.

They know where they’re going, but actually God throws in a little sparkle, another little sparkle of the supernatural as the star goes ahead of them to Bethlehem. This wasn’t necessary. But sometimes God loves to put his stamp on things, that extra sense of confirmation.

(21:38 – 29:39)

And he gives that great joy to the magi who just have that sense of divine approval. And so as they come to Bethlehem and as they find the house, they’re already grinning from ear to ear. And unlike the fake promise of Herod’s, they now do what they vowed to do.

They bowed down and they worshipped him, and they symbolised their worship by giving gifts, famous gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, I don’t want to bring anyone out in a cold sweat this morning, but I’m guessing you’re having to think of appropriate gifts for people and getting it right, quote-unquote. What do you give to a king? What are the right gifts to give to a king? Well, back in that era, you gave kings gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

This was like the standard set of gifts, really. I’m really not sure that the wise men would have seen the symbolism in these gifts that maybe we would see in them, looking back the way. You know, people after the fact have said these gifts represent Jesus’ kingship, divinity, and even his death.

And maybe we can see some of that in hindsight. But actually, in the original context, none of that would have been in their minds, I don’t think. Really giving gifts like this was a way of saying, you are my superior, I give homage to you as king, because this was gifts that were given to other kings at the time.

And very significantly, notice that it is one-way giving. See, that’s what you do when you’re giving to a superior, right? In the ancient world, if kings exchanged gifts, it was because they were on an equal level. But if the gifts go in one direction, it means that you are in charge, and they are serving you.

And so this one-way giving of gifts here is a way of them saying, you are our king, you are our lord. It’s such a different attitude to Herod’s. Not threatened by Jesus’ kingship, but rejoicing in it.

Not the one-star review of being disturbed and plotting his death, but the five-star review of worship and allegiance. And actually, if we then read on, which we’re not going to do to the next section, we would see that Herod then shows his true colours. We actually come back again to the man who wanted rid of King Jesus.

It was as well that the Magi were warned to return by another route. It was vital that an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to get out of there, maybe even using the finances of the gifts to fund a trip to Egypt for a few years. And I guess as we read that of Herod, we naturally would think, well, what a horrible guy.

And we might think, well, I’m nothing like him. And yet as I’ve thought about that, and as I’ve prayed over this passage this week, I’ve wondered at times whether I’m actually more like Herod than I would like to think. I mean, have you never found yourself thinking, I wish I could do whatever I want and not be so accountable to people? Have we never craved that sense of complete control of our lives? Have we never enjoyed independence and being in charge of our destiny? I dare say we all have.

Even those of us here who would claim to be Christians and who would call Jesus Lord, there are moments, aren’t there, where it feels inconvenient to be a Christian, where we want to do something that we just know isn’t really good for us. And that means we’re not so far from Herod. Maybe you’re not a Christian today.

Maybe this is the stumbling block for you for coming to faith. You might believe in God, or maybe you don’t believe in God. I mean, either way, honestly, the big issue for you might be this whole control thing.

It’s almost as if you don’t really want to look at Christianity to see if it’s true because it might be true. And that scares you because that means that your whole life would need to change. See, actually, we can be as paranoid as Herod at the thought of losing control.

And the question then becomes, can I really trust this Jesus to be in control of my life? Here’s the amazing thing. You can, because he’s the shepherd king. In fact, he’s such a good shepherd that the Bible later tells us he didn’t just lead the sheep and nourish them with some good stuff, but he laid down his life for the sheep.

I don’t know. You can’t doubt the intentions of someone who dies for you. I don’t think.

I don’t think that’s someone whose motives you really can question. That’s how much Jesus has your best interests at heart. And so if you’re not a Christian today, I just want to simply say to you, you can trust the shepherd.

You can trust him. And if you already are one of his beloved sheep, why not tell your sceptical, anxious friends who really aren’t sure of this whole Christianity thing, especially with some of the stuff they’re reading about in the press, but why don’t you tell them that they might not be able to trust the kind of institutional church, but they can most certainly trust the Good Shepherd. I wonder if you will end this year, not only proclaiming him to others, but also continuing to trust him yourself, continuing to have confidence in his shepherdly heart and gladly offering your life in worship to him.

Let’s just take a moment to pray. Our Father, we are so challenged by this very clear contrast. And Lord, we tremble a little because we see so much of us in Herod or so much of him in us.

(29:41 – 30:23)

And Lord, we want that autonomy. We want that supremacy. And we fear putting our trust in anyone else ultimately.

Father, help us to let go of that pride and let go of that autonomy and to put our lives in the hands of the one who gave his life for us. Thank you that he is the shepherd king and the good shepherd who didn’t run from the sheep, but who laid down his life for them. Help us now to proclaim him and to follow him.

In his name we ask. Amen.

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