Matthew 2: 13-23
Oddly, the story starts with the phrase “after they had left…” You might wonder who
“they” are – Mary & Joseph? The Angels? The Shepherds? In fact, it’s talking about
the Wise Men – but in the Church of England, we don’t do that bit of the story –
about the coming of the wise men - until next week. Confusing or what?
Anyway, today’s reading is about two sets of people – one wise one foolish. The
“wise men” traipse half way across the known world to look for this “king of the Jews”
– The foolish man - Herod - stays at home and sends out orders to try and destroy
him. Herod is concerned that Jesus will disturb the status quo – hat things won’t be
the same again. He’s concerned that he won’t be able to be king anymore if this new
‘king of the Jews’ is allowed to stake his claim. Herod enjoys full power to rule his
kingdom himself and he is worried that any other king is going to limit his ability to do
as he pleases.
The massacre of the children in the Bethlehem area is not widely reported in
contemporary sources – surprising? Not really because there would only have been
20-30 children in a small village in a remote corner of Israel, itself in a remote corner
of the Roman Empire. And it’s the sort of thing that Herod did regularly. He killed
his wife, several of his children, half the ruling senate and, when he himself was
dying, all the eminent men in Jerusalem that could be rounded up quickly. So a cruel
man, a scared man – someone with power who just doesn’t want to risk losing it to
anyone else. A foolish man. He had no real power. He was subject to his Roman
masters. He could be removed at a whim by the Roman authorities and indeed his
son was removed. His power was an illusion. He had power, while it suited the real
power, the Romans, to allow him to have it.
The wise men – the Bible doesn’t say there were three of them and it doesn’t say
they were kings. It certainly doesn’t tell us their names! It doesn’t say they took 2
years to get there. By the time Herod realise that they are not coming back and
sends to have the children killed, he asks for all male children under 2 to be killed –
surely he’d err in the side of caution – after all, how many soldiers can tell an 18
month old from a 2 year old? So it probably took them months, but less than a year
to get there – not bad when you consider they probably walked – the Bible also
doesn’t mention camels, by the way. (No reason to suppose that they were rich. If
they had been, they would’ve had fast camels or horses and been there sooner. Just
because they brought expensive gifts doesn’t mean that they were rich. (The Bible
also doesn’t say how much they brought).
Anyway, they came. They put themselves to considerable trouble left their homes,
and travelled to look for Jesus. Travelling was risky and expensive. It was dirty and
tiring and dangerous – yet they did it to search for a baby that they addressed as
“King.” They were very happy to surrender whatever power they had to this king.
Which character are we? It’s very easy to say “a wise man or woman”. But are we
really? The Wise men put themselves to considerable trouble, for Jesus sake.
Herod stayed at home and sent out orders. Are we willing to sacrifice the
comfortable, the known, for a journey into the unknown following Jesus? Do we wait
for Jesus to come to us, or are we prepared to leave our comfort zone and follow into
the unknown with Jesus? This could be in our work, the church we go to or the work
God calls us to do. Are we waiting for God to come to us?
The wise men would have been in danger as they travelled and would have got more
than their hands dirty. They would have suffered considerable hardship. Are we
prepared to get our hands dirty for the kingdom? Are we prepared to put ourselves in
danger for the kingdom? Or do we prefer comfort and safety?
Herod was not prepared to give up the control he had. He wanted to hang on to his
own power. He saw – correctly, that if Jesus really was going to be king, he couldn’t
be as well. His reaction to Jesus demand for allegiance was to cling to what he had.
The wise men’s reaction was to come to where he was and get on their knees and
worship him. They surrendered control of their lives to Jesus – Herod clung to the
power he had.
Are we prepared to surrender our lives in 2014 to Jesus? None of us know what he
will ask of us. We can stay where we are and try to resist. We can resort to more
and more desperate and futile measures to resist the power of God or we can run to
him and worship him.
Will we be wise or foolish in 2014?
John Brierley
December 2013