The Star Still Shines
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 7
Matthew 2:1-23; Luke 2:31-32
When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.”
Matthew 2:13 (CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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The story of the magi, or wise men, makes a beautiful addition to any Christmas play or nativity. The problem is that these men from the east were never at the manger. More importantly, when we cut off the story at verse twelve to fit neatly into a single Christmas story, we completely miss Matthew’s point in bringing up these wise men in the first place.
The magi are not just another group of people like the shepherds who show up to Jesus birthday party and just happen to be able to afford nicer gifts. Matthew uses them as a means to draw attention to another perhaps more important character in the story who is almost always overlooked… King Herod.
Keeping Herod in the Christmas story is crucial to understanding who Jesus is and what his ministry is all about. When we move past the sentimentalized story in Matthew 2:1-12, we find a dark scene of the Holy family fleeing as refugees to Egypt to protect the baby Jesus from an extreme authoritarian ruler who is willing to kill every child in town to rid himself of the threat of a potential new king. On one hand, this should not be surprising given Herod’s history of killing his own child out of paranoia in order to protect his throne. On the other hand, there is no historical evidence that such a mass slaughter of infants in Bethlehem ever occurred.
Biblical writers are writing theology, not literal history. Matthew is retelling a familiar story in Israel’s history, the story of an Egyptian Pharoah who seeks to kill all the male Hebrew children in order to prevent his slaves from becoming too strong and potentially rising up against him. When we get caught up trying to fit Luke’s and Matthew’s stories together historically, we completely miss the point. Jesus is the new Moses. Jesus is the one who comes to set the people free. Jesus, like Moses, is a potential threat to the powers and authorities of the empire, whether in Egypt, Rome, or any other nation throughout history including our own. And finally, those who hold onto power by force will do almost anything, even sacrificing children, in order to protect their status and authority.
Somehow the writers of “We Three Kings” and every other Christmas carol missed this part of the story. Or more likely, they left it out intentionally. It’s so much easier to add a few good “Kings of Orient” to the Luke narrative alongside the shepherds and the lowing cattle, even if they are not from the Orient and not really kings at all. By elevating these astrologers or star-gazers to royal status and featuring them bowing before the baby in a manger, we naively assume that Jesus’ position as King of Kings is easily established even at his birth. It’s a beautiful story, but it’s simply not reality, for Jesus and his parents or for us today.
Power and wealth still rule the day, and powerful people like Herod don’t give up easily. Jesus, like Moses, shows us a very different kind of power, the power of humility and love.
The question we must keep asking is whether we prefer a king who will kill for us, or a king who will die for us?
Sadly, even among followers of Jesus, most would still rather kill like Herod than be killed like Jesus.
If we’re truly honest, what kind of king do we really prefer?