Matt 2:1-12 for Sunday, January 6, 2008

Translation
(1)And Jesus was in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of Herod the King. There were magi from the east. They came into Jerusalem (2) saying "Where is the one who has been born king of Jews? For we noticed his star in the east and we came to worship him." (3)And hearing this King Herod was terrified and all Jerusalem with him; (4)and gathering all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked of them where the Christ was to be born. (5)They said to him "In Bethlehem of Judah, for thus it has been written by the prophet (6) "And you Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least in the rulers of Judah, for from you a ruler will come who will shepherd my people Israel." (7)Then Herod secretly called the magi. He found out from them the time the star appeared, (8)and sent them into Bethlehem saying "Go. Search carefully for the child and when you have found [him] report to me in order that I may go and worship him. (9)After they heard the king, they traveled and there was the star, which they saw in the east, it went ahead of them, until coming to a stop over the place the infant was. (10)And seeing the star they rejoiced with much great joy. (11)And they went into the house, they saw the infant with Mary, his mother, and they fell to worship him and opening their treasure box they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (12)And warned during a dream not to turn back to Herod, through another road they returned into their country.

This story is the stuff of movies. Inside plots and power struggles. It has all the makings of a Hollywood movie!

The magi and Herod seem to be the two major characters here and both are after the same thing: Where is the Christ child? The magi ask this question in verse two and Herod asks nearly the same question (he uses the same question word in Greek) in verse 4. Both want to know where to find the Christ child, but not with the same motive.

Herod is terrified to hear that the Christ has been born. In fact, all of Jerusalem is afraid. Naturally, Herod would be afraid of any other ruler coming to power as it would threaten Roman authority. That the Jews believed that the ancestor of David, the great general and king, was born meant that an uprising couldn't be far behind.

The magi understand something very different. They see a mysterious star and follow it until they find the Christ. They are not afraid, but understand that this child is something special, something holy. They carry gifts and endeavor to worship the child. Both Herod and the magi recognize that this child represents power, but they are at odds about what kind of power the child represents. The irony, of course, is that Herod seems infinitely more powerful than a tiny baby, and yet this infant is able to instill fear in the powerful ruler.

There is power in the Gospels, though it is never the power we expect. Jesus tells us to do things like sell our possessions, give to the poor, turn the other cheek. These are not the kinds of things that earn us respect or power in our culture, but there is power in them. If we trust enough in God, we are given power we never imagined. It isn't the kind of power we lord over others, but a power strong enough to change the world.

And perhaps that is what worried Herod the most. Not that an infant would somehow take over the empire, but that this infant would change the world. The magi certainly believed it. In a changed world, Herod would have no power any more.

Talk like this seems so mystical and surreal, but its true. God has worked in a magnificent way to change the world through one tiny baby.