Matthew 2:1-12 – The King, Kings, and the King of Kings

A Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 26 Dec 2010, 22 Dec 2024

Translation

2:1. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King, see, Magi from the East came along into Jerusalem, 2. saying, “Where is the One born king of the Jews? For we saw His star in the East and came to worship Him.”

3. Now, after hearing [this], Herod the King was agitated – and all Jerusalem with him,
4. and, gathering together all the people’s high priests and scribes, he was inquiring of them where the Christ is to be born.

5. So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it has been written through the prophet, 6. ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least in the leaders of Judah,
for out of you will come One who leads, who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7. Then after Herod privately called for the Magi, he examined them concerning the timing of the star’s appearing. 8. Then he sent them into Bethlehem saying,
“After you are gone, start researching about the child,
and whenever you happen to make a finding, send a message out to me
so that I might also come worship Him myself.”

9. So after their audience with the king, they went,
and, see, the star which they saw in the East was leading them forward
until it came and stood above where the child was.

10. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exuberantly – great joy!

11. And when they had come into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother,
and when they had dropped [to the ground], they worshipped Him,
and when they had opened their packs, they brought to Him gifts:
gold and frankincense and myrrh.

12. And when they had been informed by a night-vision not to double-back up to Herod, they departed into their country by another route.

Intro

There once were three grown sons who wanted to honor their mother at Christmas by giving her a special gift:

• The first one built a big house for her.

• The second son sent her a Mercedes.

• The third remembered how his mom enjoyed reading the Bible, and noted that she couldn’t see very well anymore. So he sent her a remarkable parrot that had been trained to recite the entire Bible. It took elders in the church 12 years to teach him. You could just name the chapter and verse, and that parrot would recite it.

Soon thereafter, Mom sent out her letters of thanks:

• "Dear Milton," she wrote the first son, "The house you built is too huge. I live in only one room, but I have to keep the whole house clean!"

• "Dear Gerald," she wrote to the next, "I am too old to travel. I stay at home most of the time, so I rarely use the Mercedes."

• "Dearest Donald," she wrote to her third son, "You have the good sense to know what your Mother likes. The chicken was Dee-licious!"

Well, I hope your Christmas gift-giving goes better than it did for those three sons; it is all a matter of knowing who you’re buying for. But I want to make the case that Christianity is a matter of knowing who the King is and showing Him the honor of a king.

• In Matthew 1 (and Luke 3), we see that Jesus’ earthly parents were descendants of the royal line of King David,

• then, later in Matt. 1, we see that Joseph, although initially skeptical, was convinced by power­ful proofs that Jesus was legitimate, so he took Mary as his wife and raised Jesus as his son.

• Now in Matthew 2, we see another testimony concerning the kingship of Jesus: the visit of the Magi, which shows “the reception given by the world to the newborn Messianic King. Homage from afar, hostility at home; foreshadowing the [future of Christianity].” (Alexander Bruce, Expositor’s New Testament)

• Verses 1-2 introduce 3 main characters: King Herod, the Magi, and Jesus. Let’s consider each one in turn.

I. King Herod: vs. 3-7

Who was he?

• “We know from Matthew[’s gospel] that Jesus was born while Herod was king, the Herod sometimes called Herod the Great… He was first Governor of Galilee, but had been king of Judaea since b.c. 40... He was great in sin and in cruelty… Herod, in his rage over his family rivalries and jealousies, put to death the two sons of [his wife] Mariamne..., Mariamne herself, and Antipater, another son and once his heir, besides the brother and mother of Mariamne... and her grandfather John Hyrcanus…” (A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures, p.15 & 17)

• Herod was an Edomite who had worked hard to gain his political power. It took him multiple trips all the way to Rome to finally get the Roman emperor Marc Antony to make him king over Judea. And later, to keep his crown, he had to make another trip out to Rome and lie prostrate on the ground before the next emperor Octavius.

• He worked hard to be worthy of the title of King of the Jews, rebuilding the temple, de­signing a new seaport in Caesarea, turning Masada into a fortress, and doing other magnificent building projects in Israel.

• He stationed his palace right over the temple and kept tight control over the Jewish religious leaders.

  • He had begun his reign with a massacre of the Jewish Sanhedrin which consisted of 72 priests, scribes, and lay elders.

  • He did not allow high priests to stay in power very long, so he regularly replaced them. This accounts for there being more than one high priest in v. 4 when he calls them together – the high priest in office would have been convened along with previous high priests who were still alive. (David Brown of JFB)

What was Herod’s response to the birth of Jesus?

• He was “Agitated/troubled/disturbed” (v.3). Why? Because he wanted to remain king, and he didn’t want any rivals, so it bothered him to hear of a potential contender to his throne.

• At the same time, he apparently believed in the messianic prophecies that God would, at some point, raise up a king to restore David’s dynasty. But Herod didn’t want to give in to God’s timing on this. Let the Messiah interrupt some other king’s reign, but not mine! As a result he may well have been disturbed by the prospect of fighting against God Himself, but he doesn’t let that stop him.

• He has the Jewish scribes research the Old Testament, and he quizzes the Magi to discover as many details as he can about the birth of the Messiah, in order to control the situation and protect his power (vs. 4-8).

• He even tells a lie (v.8), pretending godly piety, “It’s all so that I may worship Him too!” when it was really all about figuring out how to fight against God’s plan and preserve his own kingship. Later we see his hypocritical lie exposed when he commands the slaughter of all the toddlers in Bethlehem in an attempt to murder God’s Anointed One.

• It is easy to despise Herod for such wickedness, but his unwillingness to go with God’s plan and his desperation to keep things under his control are things we all struggle with.

  • What is it that you don’t want to let go of – that triggers sinful actions to protect itself from submitting to God?

  • What is it that makes you anxious? What is it that you will lie about?

  • These questions will identify areas of your life where you still tolerate rebellion against God and where you need to be repent and be sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit.

• Herod never came to terms with God. He died a painful death due to multiple diseases and lost his throne forever.

• The next set of main characters in Matthew 2 is the “wise men” (as the Geneva and King James versions call them).

  • The Greek word is magoi, which is not the Greek word for “wise,” so the NASB and NIV transliterated it into English as “Magi.”

  • Forms of the same word show up in Daniel and in Acts¹, where everybody trans­lates it “magicians,” although even that translation can be misleading because they were national security experts, not witches or entertainers, like we use the word to mean today.

II. Magi/wise men vs. 1-12

Who were they?

• “Wycliffe renders kings, and there is a Roman Catholic tradition that this is the fulfillment of Psalm 72:10 that “the kings of Tarshish, of the Islands, and of Sheba would offer gifts to the Lord, but John Calvin, in his commentary on this passage, scorned that tradition as a “most ridiculous contrivance.”

• All we know from the Bible is that they were “from the East” – perhaps from Persia.

• In his Word Studies of the New Testament, 19^th century Classical Greek expert Marvin Vincent described the Magi as “A priestly caste among the Persians and Medes, which occupied itself principally with the secrets of nature, astrology, and medicine. Daniel became president of such an order in Babylon...”

• And, since Daniel made apocalyptic prophecies from captivity in Babylon about the coming of the Messiah about 550 years previous, it is plausible that there might have been scholars in Babylon who were still looking for the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecies all these years later.

• The Magi were known in history to predict the lives of great men through the arrangement of the stars:

  • Ruth Beechik in her book, Adam and His Kin, suggested that certain constel­lations were known in the ancient world to represent certain countries, and thus a new star or supernova occurring in the constellation of the Lion would have indicated to the Magi the birth of a great person in the country of Israel.

  • This, of course, is speculation, but, although we deny that events on earth are caused by the arrangement of the stars, we do believe that the same God who arranges events on earth does arrange the events of the heavens and can make them coincide if He wants to communicate important information in that way.

• As to what exactly this star was,

  • some scholars have sought for natural explanations, such as a meteorite that streaked through the heavens and burned out over the right house,

  • others have offered more mystical explanations, such as God making a light that only the Magi could see,

  • but it seems most Bible commentators agree that, whatever the phenomenon was, it was probably not something we can scientifically figure out.

The important thing is the Magi’s response to the birth of Jesus.

• They followed the star in faith (v.2&9) – “they got up and went”!

• This despite Daniel’s prophecy that God’s special king would destroy all other empires, including their own! Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (NKJV)

  • Just think about it; these Magi were political leaders from a rival empire, crossing over into Judea, the foreign territory of their rivals – the Roman Empire, in order to get to know and worship a king whom they believed would spell the end of both their empire and Caesar’s.

  • Their willingness to recognize and honor this new king is in sharp contrast to the response of Herod.

• There is also a sharp contrast between the Magi’s attitude toward Jesus and that of the Jewish religious leaders.

“The scribes show… the way, and point out the place where he was to be born; but they allow [the Magi] to depart alone: not one [of the Jewish religious leaders] moves a step [in that direction]. They were afraid, perhaps, of Herod's cruelty: but it displayed wicked ingratitude that, for the sake of the salvation which had been offered to them, they were unwilling to undergo any risk, and cared less about the grace of God than about the frown of a tyrant. The whole nation… was so degenerate, that they chose rather to be oppressed with the yoke of tyranny, than to submit to any inconvenience arising from a change. If God had not fortified the minds of the Magi by his Spirit, they might have been discouraged by this state of things. But the ardor of their zeal is unabated; they set out without a guide. And yet the means of confirming their faith are not wanting; for they hear that the King, who had been pointed out to them by a star, was long ago described, in glowing language, by divine predictions… [Even when they got to Jesus’ house,] Christ was far from having anything of royalty surrounding him... But they are convinced that he is divinely appointed to be a King. This thought alone, deeply rooted in their minds, procures their reverence. They contemplate in the purpose of God his exalted rank, which is still concealed from outward view. Holding it for certain, that he will one day be different from what he now appears, they are not at all ashamed to render to him the honors of royalty.” ~J. Calvin

• So, when they saw Jesus, they “Rejoiced vigorously” (v.10).

  • Not just a casual happiness but a vigorous, wild excitement of joy!

  • Such joy is the result of faith confirmed. It’s not something you experience until you have stepped out in faith to trust and obey God.

  • Remember, it was the same for the shepherds: they heard the angels’ message and, by faith, went on the ridiculous mission of looking into all the barns and stables in Bethlehem for one that had a newborn boy in it. When they finally found it, they “went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.” (Luke 2:20, NASB)

  • There is great joy to be found in trusting and obeying God!

• We also read that the Magi “Dropped to the ground and worshiped” (v.11)

  • This was not just “civil homage” but spiritual worship of one recognized as God (JFB).

  • In my former career in world missions, I developed a friendship with a Christian from a Zoroastrian religious background, who claimed to be related to the Magi. He told me that his people would never bow to a human being; they would only bow to God. I have no way to confirm or deny his claims, but it lends weight to the idea that the Magi were not merely being polite when they bowed before Jesus; they probably did this as an act of worship.

• They also “Offered gifts” (v.11)
  - Tradition has it that since there were three gifts, there must have been three wise men, but Chrysostom, a pastor who lived about a hundred years after Christ (and whose sermon series on the Gospel of Matthew has been preserved to this day) said that there were 14 wise men! The Bible, doesn’t tell us how many there were, however, so it’s not important to know.
  – The Greek verb in v.11 for “offered gifts” also carries overtones of worship; it is “Frequently used in the OT of the oblations presented to God, and in the NT exclusively of religious… offerings to God.” (JFB)
  – The Magi offered the best of their native country’s goods in a symbolic gesture of submitting their entire political order to Him. (Calvin)
  - As for the meaning of their gifts:

  • Gold is money - the royal prerogative of wealth. This gift represented the Political kingship of the Messiah and their tribute to Him as King.

  • Frankincense is a fragrant tree-sap found only in Arabia. God required the Old Testament Jews to import it and burn it, along with their animal sacrifices, on the altars of the temple as an act of worship. In the New Testament, the book of Revelation² explains that incense represents prayers. This gift represented the priestly role of the Messiah, as Jesus became our great high priest who would intercede for His people at the right hand of God’s throne in heaven and reconcile us to God.

  • Myrrh is bitter herb used as an embalming agent, so it symbolizes both death and preservation. Death was part of Jesus’ mission, as He would offer Himself an atoning sacrifice for our sin when He died on the cross. Myrrh’s preservative qualities also hints at the resurrection and eternal life which Jesus experienced and promised to His people as well.

• The Magi’s last act in relation to God is easy to miss. English versions of v.12 typically say that they were “warned in a dream,” but the Greek verb translated “warned” is χρηματισθέντες, and it implies 2-way “dialogue” with God (v.12).

  • God did not merely “warn” them; this verb implies that they had been asking Him for guidance, and that God was responding to their prayers by “answering” them.

  • After worshiping Jesus, they are still relating to God in terms of a covenantal transaction (ATR) of prayer and guidance.

  • This tells us that the events of Matthew 2 were not an isolated religious experi­ence for these Magi; they continued to relate to God through prayer and the Bible after that experience.

  • (Matthew tells us that they at least had access to the prophecy of Micah, and we can guess that they probably had access to the prophecy of Daniel, and if they had that much, they could have obtained more of God’s word). The point is that what God revealed, they believed and they acted on, and they continued on in relationship with God.

• No list of the characters of the story would be complete without the main character:

Jesus:

• Born “king of the Jews” v.2, so what Herod had to work for, Jesus owned by birthright.

• Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Micah 5:1-3, quoted in Matthew 2:6:³

• The Jewish people – or at least their priests – knew that Micah’s prophecy gave the location of the Messiah’s birthplace – Bethlehem, the city where King David had been born. This was the very city to which Joseph & Mary had traveled (Luke 2) on account of the Roman census which had required him to move to his ancestral homeland. So, Jesus was born right where Micah prophesied that the “leader and shepherd of Israel” would be born.

• The Greek word ἡγούμενος translated “leader/ruler/prince” is where we get the English word “hegemony;” it has to do with authority to govern.

• Micah prophesied that this “leader/ruler” would shepherd God’s people. “The whole office of the shepherd included guiding, guarding, folding, as well as feeding…
  - [In classical Greek literature] Homer calls kings ‘the shepherds of the people.’
  - Jesus called Himself the good shepherd (John 10:11).
  - Peter calls him the Shepherd of Souls (1 Pet. 2:25), and the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4);
  - in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 13:20), He is styled the great Shepherd of the sheep.
  - In Rev. ‘the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall be their shepherd (Rev. 7:17).’” ~Vincent, Word Studies

• When these gentile political leaders bowed down to him (v.11), this hegemony is shown to be bigger than just Israel; it is a part of the fulfillment of the Apostle’s⁴ title “King of Kings” for Jesus, that He would be king over all the earth (as indeed the Old Testament prophets also predicted⁵).

• And by the close of this story, King Jesus is already supplanting King Herod.

  • Instead of obeying Herod’s command to come back and inform Herod, the Magi obey the command of the King of Heaven, who told them not to return to Herod.

  • Instead of siding with Herod, the King of the Jews, the Magi side with Jesus, the King of the Jews, so they do not betray Jesus to Herod.

  • Jesus said later on in Matthew 6:24 “No one is able to serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and he will love the other, or he will stand behind one and he will despise the other. You are not able to serve God and Mammon.” We must all choose whether to honor Jesus as our master, like the wise men did, or to acknowledge some other master; you cannot have it both ways.

• This brings us to one final character: you. You are not in the story, but your relation­ship to this story is assumed because it was written to be read (or heard) by you.

You:

Matthew’s purpose in writing this story is to call you to treat the kingship of Jesus seriously.

Herod and the Magi took Him seriously; not to do so is a mistake.

• The chief priests and scribes did not take him seriously (otherwise they would have traveled to welcome the Messiah along with the Magi!), so, as a result, some Galilean fishermen became the leaders of the Messiah’s movement instead of them.

• Mary and Joseph’s neighbors in Bethlehem heard the shepherds, they saw the wise men, but did they take their messages seriously? This is speculation, but it seems to me that if they believed that the Messiah had been born in their town and that foreign political leaders were paying respects to him and that that King Herod had been tipped off about it; wouldn’t they have either gotten as far away as possible or mobilized themselves to defend Him from Herod’s inevitable jealousy?

• Too many people today do not take the kingship of Jesus seriously.

• “God brought the Magi to His Son, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles… for the confirma­tion of our faith, that the wicked and malignant contempt of [others] might not render Him less estimable in our eyes… “ (Calvin)

What does it mean to treat Jesus seriously as King?

• Instead of fighting Him, like Herod did, to keep yourself in control, surrender control to Him and let Him set the agenda. Among other things, pray, “Let thy will be done.”

• Kings must be honored
  Psalm 2:10-12 “So now, O kings, consider wisely. Be disciplined, O judges of earth. Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. [Kiss the Son] Pay homage without hindrance, otherwise He will become angry and y'all will perish in the way... Oh the blessings of all who take refuge in Him!” (NAW)

• Kings must be listened to carefully when they speak
  Matthew 4:4 “...Not upon bread alone will man live, but rather upon every word proceeding through the mouth of God.” (NAW)

• Kings must be obeyed
  James 1:22 “...y'all must become doers of the word, and not just hearers who are deluding themselves.” (NAW)

Let us follow the example of the Magi, who were among the first to worship Jesus:

• Follow Him in faith (v.2&9) – getting up and going into all the world!

• Rejoicing vigorously (v.10) – Rejecting “coolness” and putting everything we’ve got into obeying in faith and worshiping Jesus.

• Bowing in worship, showing Him all the reverence He deserves.

• Offering gifts (v.11) – giving tithes and offerings and putting ourselves and all we have at the disposal of King Jesus.

• Dialoguing with God (v.12) – praying and walking in a covenantal relationship as we continually seek guidance from Him.

Matthew 2:1-12 Side-by-side texts & versions