Matthew 2:1-12
·
A familiar story of the Christmas holiday
·
Familiar take (use the congregation to highlight these points, have them tell you the story)
o
3 kings (Even though the scripture doesn’t
identify how many men, only how many gifts)
o
Followed a star in the sky and came from
the East
o
Brought gifts to the Christ child
§ Gold
= for a king
§ Frankincense
and Myrrh = embalming spices and oils, which foreshadow his death.
o
This familiar story asks us, “what do we
bring to the Christ child? What gifts of
our own will we offer? How we will
recognize his kingship? And the
importance of his sacrificial death?
·
Less common take
o
“Magi” not kings. Magi could have been wise men, but more
commonly probably would have been astrologers.
So we have these zoroastrianists from the East who are assumed to be
gentiles. And yet they recognized this
special sign and came to greet the King of the Jews.
o
That may sound like no big deal to us,
but we need to remember that we are reading from the Gospel of Matthew and
Matthew is a fairly traditional Jewish writer who writes to a Jewish
audience. He quotes and points to Jewish
scripture far more than any other gospel writer.
o
And here, at the forefront of his gospel,
steeped in Jewish tradition is a story of gentile astrologers coming a very
long distance to honor and bless the King of the Jews.
o
That’s highly unorthodox. In Jewish perspective, the Messiah, God’s
chosen and anointed one, was sent for them,
to lead them, to deliver them. There weren’t strong notions of a
deliverer of the world of a Savior for other peoples. The savior they awaited
was to save the Israelites.
o
And yet, somehow, in the middle of their
story, these magi from the East show up.
And they aren’t there by chance.
They didn’t just happen to be passing by—they traveled explicitly for
this purpose—to pay homage to the Christ child—to the king of the Jews. And they came with gifts—expensive gifts
loaded with value and loaded with meaning.
Who were these men to greet the Messiah?
Who were they to anticipate a Jewish baby? They were outsiders. And they were outsiders who
*got it* long before most anyone else.
o
And to me, that’s a funny little irony
that suggests this whole story is going to turn what we know and what we expect
right on its head.
o
Even in the midst of the tradition tied
up with Jewish prophecies and all that God promised to do and be is something unexpected.
§ And
maybe it’s enough just to know that God did that—that the Magi were a strange
and unexpected guest and that that in itself flips things on their head for the
Jews. But it’s rarely enough to leave
things in the 1st century. It’s
insufficient to say that’s their story, not ours. At least when it comes to the Bible. Part of
the reason the Bible is so powerful is because it relates to people of all
ages, races, and notions from every century.
And it does that through the Holy Spirit keeping the stories relevant
for us.
o
So, we are challenged to ask “how does
this apply to me?”
§ What
traditional expectations are we holding onto?
§ Where
have we become rigid in our beliefs?
§ Who
have we decided are insiders and who are the outsiders?
§ And
how have we read our tradition to mean that they won’t be able to make it
in? That who they are or what they’ve
done excludes them from God’s grace or forgiveness or our acceptance and
hospitality?
·
What we see from very early on in Matthew’s
gospel, is that the Christ child will influence and affect more than those located
within the tradition. People will come to
him, will see him and honor him even if they haven’t heard the prophecies, even
if they haven’t been expecting him for generations. People who don’t fit our notions of acceptable
will offer him the best of what they have to offer. They will be lead to him by a variety of roads
and paths. And while none of that fits our
expectations, it fits God’s purpose and becomes ours to cherish and appreciate.
·
And on this day when we celebrate Holy Communion,
let us remember that though we have all come on different roads for different reasons,
we are welcome here. The Christ child was
sent for each of us! Praise God!
