When Pagans Preach the Gospel |12.31.23| The Word Became Flesh pt.5
When Pagans Preach the Gospel (Epiphany)
Matthew 2:1-12
Pastor Erik Anderson
– Well, we begin our passage at the beginning of this chapter that this story of the wise men, which by the way, occurred a couple years probably after Jesus was born.
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So oftentimes our nativity scenes have the wise men right next to the newly born Jesus, and that’s a helpful image for us to see all together. But Jesus would have been a toddler at this point. So Mary and Joseph would have had baby Jesus, and they decided to stay in Bethlehem for a few years.
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Joseph was a carpenter or a builder, is actually what the word is specifically. So maybe he worked in stone or wood, we don’t know exactly, but he knew that he could get a job around. He knew that he could build and make money, and he knew that they had family there. So they actually ended up staying in Bethlehem for a while, and it was the time of King Herod. This Herod is Herod the Great, who was from south of Jerusalem, and his mother was Jewish. And the tradition then and still today was that the children followed the mother’s religious tradition. And if you have any Jewish friends, you know this is still the case. I had a lady that I worked with when I graduated from college, I worked at a lumber yard for a year, and one of our ladies that worked there, her husband was Jewish, and she was Catholic, and her children were raised Catholic, even though her husband was quite devout. That’s because the tradition that’s still around today is that you followed your mother’s religious tradition. So Herod grew up as a Jew,
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but he was not really dedicated to the Jewish faith, or to Yahweh, because we know later that he has no awareness of the Messiah, or where he was to be born, or really no awareness about what God was promising.(…) We know that Herod was also very paranoid. He had one of his sons killed because he suspected that his son was planning to overthrow his rule.(…) At one point, one of his 11 wives was guarded day and night by armed guards, because he heard that she was thinking about running away from him. He was a cruel, oppressive, paranoid man, and the Roman Empire, who ruled over the people of Israel at this time, had placed him in power as king, because they knew they could control him. So he was this kind of lackey, this terrible, paranoid, awful man who was set as king, both, and the king in Israel was both a religious and a government figure.
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And here these men come from the east, and they’re asking where the child who’s been born king of the Jews. These wise men had been looking at the stars, observing them. These wise men either came maybe from Persia, or maybe even India, and they were probably star worshipers. We don’t know exactly what their religion was, but they certainly weren’t Jewish.(…) They came from very far away, and they were observing the stars, and they saw a new star appear, and that represented a new king.(…) And by their projections and their study, they knew that this star was associated with the king of the Jews.(…) Most likely they had their hands on some of the old scrolls of the prophet Isaiah that described the stars being changed when the Messiah was born. And so they make the long trip to Jerusalem, where a king should be born,(…) at the temple, the palace, where the king should be born. So these wise men, or sometimes as they’re called magi, these pagans visited the king, because surely it was one of his sons that would be the next king.
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So these, sometimes we hear that song We Three Kings. These three men probably weren’t royalty, but they were probably religious leaders. So these pagans hear about this new king from the stars, and they take the long trip to visit him, to pay him homage, which is a strange thing for pagans to do, to recognize that a new king is born, and they wanted to come and give him gifts.
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Herod’s response is that he was frightened, he was disturbed, and he gathered the leaders, the religious leaders and the scribes along with him, and he asked where is this Messiah to be born, revealing that he has no idea what the scriptures might say. And the religious leaders, the scribes, quote to him Deuteronomy 17, that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem,
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and that the Messiah is gonna come from the line of David from Bethlehem.
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So here we read that these scribes told Herod this, but they never asked why.
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They never stopped to inquire why this might be. This might be because they were scared of Herod. Maybe they were afraid of his rule and his cruelty, and so they didn’t wanna follow up, they didn’t wanna ask too many questions, but we also know that the scribes themselves didn’t even go to Bethlehem to find out what was going on. So here we have Herod, the governmental ruler, who also is a religious ruler, and the religious leaders and scribes, knowing the Messiah is born, knowing where he is, but not really intending to go see him. We learn later that the only reason Herod wanted to know where the child was was so that he could kill the child, to save his own throne.
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After they had this conversation, he sends the wise men out, and here in verse nine through 11 we read this, when they had heard the king, they set out, and there ahead of them went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.(…) Remember, Herod was frightened, he was disturbed,(…) but here these pagans who had traveled so far, they were filled with joy, and they went into the house that they were staying in, and they paid him homage, they gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh, these precious materials.
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The wise men went to go find the child, and when they got there, their response was so different from the religious leaders,
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their response was so different from the government leaders. They were not afraid, instead they were overjoyed.(…) One more little correction, the three wise men that we see in our nativity scene represent the gifts, not necessarily the number of wise men. We actually even know how many there were. There could have been a whole troop of them, or there could have maybe only been two. We don’t know for sure, but in our nativity scenes, the three wise men represent the three gifts, not necessarily there were only three of them.
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And these gifts that they give, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, sometimes are talked about as if they were foreshadowing the death of Jesus, and there may be some of that, but honestly, the more likely thing is that gold, frankincense, and myrrh were three very valuable things that were easy to travel with, and when they were presented, they could be sold for lots and lots of money, and therefore, instead of just traveling with gold itself, they brought these easier to transport, or instead of traveling with money, they brought these easier to transport goods that then could be sold.
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So we hear this beautiful passage about the wise men that we know so well, and we ask ourselves, what is God telling us in this passage?
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What is God inviting us to think about in this story of the wise men? The first thing that should jump out to us is that God used foreign, pagan, star worshipers to proclaim the birth of Jesus Christ,(…) that they brought these valuables along with them, and actually by bringing them gold, frankincense, and myrrh, by bringing them valuable goods from their own land, they fulfilled prophecy.
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There were several prophecies in the Old Testament that the Messiah was gonna be born of the line of David. He was gonna be the eternal king to rule in Judah forever, and that all the nations would come to him, and all the nations would bring their riches to the king of Israel, the king of the Jews,
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and so here these wise men are fulfilling this prophecy.(…) Gentiles coming to the king and offering him riches.
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God is beginning to complete his mission, this mission, this rescue mission for humans, that God is building a new creation, that he’s going to make all things new, and he’s going to set an eternal king who’s going to rule forever over the entire world, both Jew and Gentile, and on the mountain of the Lord, there will be no more pain and no more suffering and no more tears, and everything is gonna be good and right as it should be, that the wolf is gonna lay down with the lamb, that the beast and the cattle will calmly lay down together.
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This is the vision of the new creation that God talked about in the prophets, and here he is beginning to complete it.(…) The eternal king is born,(…) and the representative from the nations is coming and bringing him gifts.
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The religious leaders didn’t get it. They missed it. They did not seek out the Christ child themselves. They didn’t reflect on the importance and the impact that the birth of this child would have, and we simply don’t know why they did it, why they didn’t do that, why they did not think to go and visit this child. Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels, and here he is proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah, the eternal king,
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but these pagans recognized it. These pagans saw it happening, and they came to tell the story, to pronounce the good news that Jesus was born, and they pronounced it to the religious leaders(…) who should have seen it.
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Herod and the religious leaders did not join God in his mission.(…) They did not understand what God was doing. They did not understand that God was beginning to renew all things in Jesus,
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and so we also find out that God is gonna use whatever means necessary to proclaim this good news, the promises that he offers,(…) and these pagan heathens joined God.
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They joined in God’s mission by proclaiming the gospel.
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They joined in God’s mission by telling the good news, by going and telling it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.
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You see, what we oftentimes miss
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is that Paul later in a letter says that the gospel is foolishness. It seems backwards and upside down to what we expect and what the world tells us.(…) The world tells us that we need to earn what we get and that being powerful and being a stakeholder, those are the people who need to champion the gospel, but what God actually tells us is that the gospel is a free gift and it’s offered to all, even the most undeserving, even the pagan heathen star worshipers,
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and it is oftentimes delivered by the lowly like shepherds(…) or by the unexpected,(…) like the pagan wise men as they traveled so far.
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Not only did they proclaim this good news, but their gifts actually funded Jesus’ family’s flight to Egypt as they heard about Herod’s diabolical plan to kill all the young boys in Bethlehem. They were able to run away and live in Egypt for a time(…) because of the gifts they received.
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Pagans paved the way for the Messiah to survive the bloodthirst and paranoia(…) of a religious political leader.
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It’s so far backwards from what we would think.(…) We would think that Herod being the king of Judea and the scribes knowing the scripture should be the ones proclaiming the good news,(…) but it’s simply not.
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We are invited to join Jesus in his mission.(…) We are invited to join Jesus by announcing this good news, that Jesus Christ is born,
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that he is making all things new, that he is the eternal king who is going to rule over new creation, that God wants for you and for me a full abundant life, full of the promises of God, full of the internal spiritual promises that we’ll get in the new creation. We get to experience those now and he’s offering that to everyone. Every single one of our neighbors is offered this full abundant life in Jesus Christ. And we are invited to share that just like the wise men.
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And God is going to do whatever it takes to give you and to give your friends and family and neighbors that good abundant life.(…) He is chasing them down.
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And you are invited like the wise men to be that unexpected bearer of good news,
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to be the one who is unexpected, the unexpected heathen to come in and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.
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Because if he can use star worshipers, he can certainly use you.
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If he can use people who are far away and far off to proclaim the good news, he can use you to do that as well.
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God is completing his mission to make all things new. And he’s starting with us.(…) He’s starting with our hearts and our minds.(…) He’s renewing us and making us new. And we are invited to join him in his mission by proclaiming that to others.
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Amen.