Christ Polarizes

Matthew 2:1-12

Intro to reading the gospels:

      Matthew traveled with Jesus, saw his miracles, heard his teaching, ate with Jesus, camped out with Jesus and months at a time was with Jesus 24/7.  Then about 20 or 30 years after Jesus’ ascension, Matthew felt compelled to write his gospel. 
    There were a lot of people in addition to Matthew who knew Jesus and everyone had a story to tell.  For the first couple of decades people relied on a pretty trustworthy oral tradition.  But eventually bogus stuff started getting added to the mix.  That plus the Jewish expectations of what the Messiah would be like and what he did, raised the possibility that the truth would be distorted and in the end no one would have the faintest idea who the Messiah was or what he was like.  So God chose Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as men uniquely gifted and prepared to preserve a true picture of Jesus.
    Matthew may have been living in Antioch, Syria at the time he wrote his gospel.  He listens to Jewish and Gentile believers there, he tunes into points of confusion and is aware of all the misconceptions.  He also monitors how people respond to Jesus when they first hear about him.
   
      Then out of all the material available to him: his own memory, stories circulating by word of mouth and a couple of written accounts, Matthew has to decide what to use and what not to use in his gospel. 
Mark, Luke and John had to do the same thing.  As a result each gospel is different.  The differences aren’t contradictions.  They mean the four men had different purposes, different emphases, different objectives.  All four present unique but accurate and true accounts.
It works like this.  Suppose there’s a fatal car accident and four journalists report on the same accident:
1. One might report that a neighborhood group had been trying to get the town to put in a stoplight.
2. Another might ignore that and report on the damage caused by the larger vehicle.
3. A third might zero in on insurance issues.
4. And a fourth might lead with the statistics on alcohol related fatalities.

All the accounts would be true and by reading them you might even guess who the journalist was working for or what she hoped to accomplish by reporting the story.  Matthew doesn’t answer those questions but sometimes by comparing what he wrote with one or all three of the other gospel writers, you can see what he may have been up to.

Message

On Friday Cousin Fergy called and said he’d been to the opera and he loved it. Did you ever have this experience?  You’re out with a friend who is usually laid back and suddenly she’s hyper.  Or you have a friend over for dinner who’s usually picky and suddenly he’s eating everything.  And to either one of them you say, “Do I know you?”
Matthew is saying, “Everyone draw a picture showing who you think Jesus is.  Get that Jesus fixed in your mind and then take a look at my portrait of Jesus.  When we see what he’s really like; we’re might say, “Do I know you?”
What are the chances that we have Jesus pegged 100% accurately?  Or look at it this way, how well do we know Jesus in comparison to our best friend or closest relative? 
Matthew invites us to take a fresh look at Jesus.  This is our opportunity to scrap the fuzzy black and white and get high resolution color glossy.  He’s the only New Testament writer who tells us about the Magi.  For some reason they fit his purposes but not those of Mark, Luke and John.  So let’s take a look.

Matthew 2
 1 Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem  2 and asked, “Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him.” 

3 When King Herod heard about this, he was very upset, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem.  4 He called together all the chief priests and the teachers of the Law and asked them, “Where will the Messiah be born?”  5 “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea,” they answered. “For this is what the prophet wrote:  6 ‘Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least of the leading cities of Judah; for from you will come a leader who will guide my people Israel.’” 

7 So Herod called the visitors from the East to a secret meeting and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.  8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem with these instructions: “Go and make a careful search for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him.” 

9 [+10] And so they left, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 11 They went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him.  12 Then they returned to their country by another road, since God had warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod.
 In chapter one, Matthew introduced us to the Messiah, Jesus, who is called Christ (16).  After 42 generations of waiting for him, the long promised Messiah had finally come.  You would think the welcome mat would be out, but Matthew picks the story of the Magi to show three diverse and surprising responses to the Messiah. 
The three responses come from:
1. The Magi
2. Herod
3. The Jewish leaders and the people of Jerusalem.

Let’s take them one at a time.
The Magi - were astrologers probably from Babylon or Persia.  They were not Jewish or Christian. But they probably consulted all kinds of literature including the Jewish Old Testament.  Somehow God allowed their false religion to lead them in the right direction. In combination with their curiosity to learn, they were able to deduce from their study of the skies and ancient writings that a special child was to be born King of the Jews.  Then for some unexplained reason they made the sacrifice to travel long and far to find him.  When they did, they worshipped him and gave him gifts and went home.  Their relentless search for the truth and their willingness to give up their preconceived ideas and their worldview led to this first response to the Messiah.
Herod – he was called Herod the Great. One of his many titles was King of the Jews.   He was not the same Herod who beheaded John the Baptist and also met with Jesus before his crucifixion. This Herod did anything within his power to protect his power including the murder of some of his own wives (and he had twelve) and his own sons.  He was a political genius, a good administrator and builder.  He claimed to be Jewish but was never really accepted as one.  He even rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem to gain favor with the Jewish establishment. This Herod heard about Jesus from the Magi. When the Magi said there was another King of the Jews, Herod wanted him dead. He didn’t go to find Jesus so he could worship him. He didn’t want to get off the throne to make room for Jesus.  He wanted to hold onto his power. If he’d thought about it, he would have realized that the Messiah’s power would dwarf his own and maybe a little caution was in order. But he loved Sinatra’s song too much to let go.  He kept singing I’ll Do It My Way.  His selfishness and pride prompted this second response to the Messiah.
 All the people in Jerusalem and their chief priests and teachers of the law, also heard that the King of the Jews had been born.  They were disturbed along with Herod.  Of course, they would have been disturbed by the simple fact that Herod was disturbed.  An upset Herod was an upset hornets’ nest.  But did any of them make the trip to Bethlehem to check it out?  It was only fives miles away.  Not one person tagged along with the Magi just in case the Messiah had come.  It’s hard to explain such indifference unless their fear of Herod outweighed their hope for the Messiah.  Or maybe like everyone else in the world they were just preoccupied with their own survival. But their indifference was the third response to the Messiah.
What can we learn from these responses?
First, people still respond in the same way.  Some worship.  Some oppose.  Some are indifferent.  When we do mission we can expect the same variety.
Second.  The Messiah does not bring peaches and cream. Matthew already showed us that with the genealogy and the problems for Joseph and Mary faced. Here we see it in Jerusalem being disturbed, Herod’s secret meeting for evil purposes and a dream warning the Magi about Him. When we do mission we can’t promise peaches and cream.  We can only promise that there is a legitimate king to worship.
Third: Remember Matthew is writing to new Christians both Jewish and Gentile which may explain in part why Matthew chose this story when the other gospel writers chose not to include it.  The first responders were not Jewish.  They were Gentile astrologers.   These outsiders using inferior tools to the Jewish leaders – relying on stars and not the scriptures - were the ones who had discovered that the Messiah had been born.  These gentiles who practiced a false religion traveled a long distance looking for the Messiah and when they found him they worshipped him. God had entrusted the Jews with the Holy Scriptures and with all the promises about the Messiah but they weren’t willing to travel five miles to see him.  There are a lot of people in church just like them. When we do mission, it may be the person or family we least expect, who will travel any distance to worship Jesus. It may not be the church person.
Last: All three responses are part of our personal repertoire. On any given day we might worship him and be like the Magi.  On another day we may oppose what we know Jesus wants of us and be like Herod.  Or we may be disturbed but otherwise indifferent like the citizens of Jerusalem.
I don’t know what color polarizing is, but that’s a color you should add to your picture of the Messiah.

Prayer

Prayer taken from ancient Antiochian liturgy.
     Holy God, holy Strong One, holy Immortal One, who was crucified for us, have mercy on us.
O beneficent King eternal, and Creator of the universe, receive your Church, coming unto you through your Christ: fulfill to each what is profitable; lead all to perfection, and make us perfectly worthy of the grace of your sanctification, gathering us together within your holy Church, which you have purchased by the precious blood of your only-begotten Son, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
O compassionate and merciful, long-suffering, and very gracious and true God, look from your prepared dwelling-place, and hear us your suppliants, and deliver us from every temptation of the devil and of man; withhold not your aid from us, nor bring on us chastisements too heavy for our strength: for we are unable to overcome what is opposed to us; but you are able, Lord, to save us from everything that is against us. Save us, O God, from the difficulties of this world, according to your goodness.
Bless all who worship you, from the rising of the sun, unto the going down of the same. Of your goodness, give us. With your love, inspire us. By your Spirit, guide us. By your power, protect us. In your mercy, receive us now and always. We pray for a world lost in turmoil and sin, we pray for our brothers in sisters in Christ in Antioch and wherever they may be gathered for worship and we pray for the person next to us in silent prayer.

    In Sunday School you learn about God through stories from the Bible.  The Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.  All these stories divide people into two groups.
    For example: you could say there are two kinds of people: girls and boys.  Or you could say there are two kinds of people: Old and young. In the Old Testament the Bible talked about two kinds of people: Jewish people who believed in God and Gentiles who didn’t.
    Then in the New Testament the Jewish people who believed in Jesus became Christians and the Gentile people who believed in Jesus became Christians.  But not all the Jewish people believed in Jesus and not all the Gentile people believed in Jesus.  So this square divided into four squares shows the four kinds of people.  Everyone to the left is Jewish and everyone to the right is Gentile.  Everyone above the line is non-Christian and everyone below the line is Christian.  So it goes like this:
Upper Left Square: Jewish but not Christian
Upper Right Square: Gentile and not Christian
Lower Left Square: Jewish and Christian
Lower Right Square: Gentile and Christian

    God invites everyone be a Christian but not everyone accepts the invitation.  Let’s see which square you are in.  Are you Jewish?  No so you are in either of these squares.  You are all Gentiles so you’re somewhere over here on the right.  Do you believe in Jesus?  If you do, you’re in this square.  Jesus came and died on the cross so everyone could be in this square and be with him forever.