It’s a seemingly minor detail in the story of the magi, but it a significant part in the story. It also foreshadows the ending of the gospel and communicates a spiritual truth we tend to ignore.
“When Herod heard this (news about a newborn king), he was frightened and all Jerusalem with him,” Matthew 2:3.
The magi – probably astrologers who studied the movements of the stars – had come to Jerusalem looking for a newborn king of the Jews. Their study of the stars indicated that a royal child had been born in the land of the Jews. Naturally, they went to the capital city and to the palace to find the child. They assumed the child belonged to the royal family of Herod.
What the magi viewed as good news was received as bad news to Herod the king. A newborn king would be a rival who could displace him. He was a threat to Herod and his world – his throne, his power, his prestige, his wealth. The news the magi brought was disturbing and disruptive . . . and not just for Herod. All of Jerusalem was anxious. Fear flowed like electricity throughout the city, leaping from one to another as they repeated the news.
Herod’s fear-driven response was predictable. He began to scheme about how to locate this child so he could be eliminated. His scheme caused Joseph – warned in a dream – to flee to Egypt to protect the child and his mother from Herod’s attempt to kill him. When Herod’s scheme didn’t work – the magi didn’t play along – his fear turned to paranoia. He killed every boy in the area who was below the age of two. (BTW: this detail about the age of the victims indicates the magi were not at the manger scene in Bethlehem as our Christmas pageants normally portray. Luke’s story and Matthew’s story are two separate stories with two separate messages. But I digress.)
The story foreshadows the end of the gospel. In the end, this one whom the magi sought would be pursued by the religious authorities of Jerusalem with the intent to kill him. Before the gospel ends, he would be arrested by members of the religious establishment (the Sanhedrin) and handed over to the Romans to be crucified as an insurrectionist – as one who rebelled against and disrupted the Roman world.
The story also presents a spiritual truth we tend to gloss over – if we don’t outright miss it – in our recounting of the Christmas story. The coming of this one sent by God – Emmanuel, God with us – disturbs and disrupts our carefully constructed world. He undermines the very premises upon which we build our lives and which we use to establish our sense of identity. The world he sought (seeks) to build was built on grace, not merit and deserving. He rejected the hierarchy of merit-based relating, viewing and valuing, accepting and embracing everyone as a beloved child of God. How he treated others was not based upon the position they held in social hierarchies. He rejected the us-them, better than-less than attitudes that merit-based thinking produces. He dealt with human imperfection, including what was labeled as sin, with forgiveness, not condemnation, judgment, and rejection. He used power to address the needs of others, not to protect his own position and the advantages it provided. He used power to serve others, not down against others for his own benefit. He valued people over material wealth. In short, what he taught and the way he lived disturbed and disrupted the social-relational world as we know it.
Perhaps Herod and all Jerusalem with him were more perceptive than we are. They recognized that this one whom the magi sought would disrupt and disturb their world. In fact, he would turn their world upside down. No wonder they were afraid.
On the other hand, perhaps we are more like Herod than I thought. Maybe we, like Herod, do perceive what this newborn king came to do to our status-oriented world. Maybe that’s why we ignore this part of the story. This one who was born as the king of the Jews disrupts and disturbs the world we have created with our merit-based thinking. He turns it on its head.
In this new year, may we be like the magi, seeking the one who has come into our world as Emmanuel, God with us. May we joyfully embrace, not fear, the ways of God he taught and lived.
Have a blessed New Year!
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