THE RESPONSE THE MAGI RECEIVED IN JERUSALEM: Their question didn’t bring joy, but instead brought surprise, anger, embarrassment, and fear.
- Matthew 2:1-7.
a. Surprise.
- Matthew 2:3.
- The people are surprised by this news. We know this because of the response. No one has any idea about the birth of the king of the Jews before the Magi get there.
- I expect that the Magi were surprised that no one knew. I figure they came into town expecting everyone to know what they were talking about, but instead it’s a news bulletin to the whole town.
b. Anger.
- Matthew 2:4-6.
- Knowing how religious leaders are, I have no doubt they were either highly embarrassed or vehemently dismissive of this news.
- If they were dismissive, it would have been something like, “What do these foreigners know? We’re the scholars of the Hebrew Scripture! There’s no way that they would know and we wouldn’t. I guarantee you they’re wrong. If you want to know what the prophecies are, we’ll tell you, but you don’t need to worry about anything that these guys are asking about. If we don’t know, it’s not real.”
- Religious people can be very prideful and quick to be offended if someone (especially an outsider) makes a claim to understanding or knowledge that the religious person doesn’t have.
c. Embarrassment.
- Matthew 2:4-6.
- Tying right into the anger possibility is embarrassment.
- This would be because these foreigners come into town asking about the “king of the Jews” and the religious scholars know nothing about it. How could these Magi know something and the big dogs of Old Testament study not know it too?
d. Fear.
- Matthew 2:3.
- We’re told that Herod and all Jerusalem was “disturbed” by the news.
- The potential for war or political conflict would create fear throughout the whole city.
- For Herod, the thought of a rival king would bring fear.
THE RESPONSE THAT OUR ATTEMPT TO FOLLOW JESUS OFTEN BRINGS: It often brings bothers people because they are focused on pursuing their own power, pride, or peace.
a. Power.
- Herod was no doubt disturbed by the idea of someone being born “king of the Jews” because that represented a rival.
- Many people are interested in seeing God’s will done only to the extent that it coincides with their will being done. They are more interested in their personal power than on God’s power or will.
b. Pride.
- The religious leaders wanted to look good and appear smart. The Magi’s question makes them look bad.
- It was a pride issue. They were less interested in the fact that the king of the Jews might have come – which should have been unspeakably good news for them in this time of Roman occupation – and more interested in the fact that they weren’t the ones to announce the news.
c. Peace.
- Of course, in many venues peace is a good thing.
- Sometimes, though, we want peace only in the sense of preserving our comfort zone. It’s not a good and godly peace that we’re interested in, but rather not being upset or bothered.
- Sometimes we’re more focused on what we have to lose than the gains that God intends to bring.
- Examples:
a. A church member is bothered that the church is growing and “the new people are taking over” rather than rejoicing in the fresh move of God.
b. A person doesn’t want to give up a sinful “comfort habit” rather than rejoicing that God is making him into a leader within his home.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET FLACK FOR TRYING TO FOLLOW JESUS: It would be nice if following God always received a positive response, but in truth it requires persistence beyond resistance.
- Matthew 2:9.
- Don’t be surprised that some people look at you funny.
- Don’t be surprised if others don’t know what you’re talking about.
- Don’t expect applause when you’re following God.
- Don’t expect an enthusiastic response to following God.
- Follow God’s leading in your life.
- Even the religious leaders are clueless sometimes.
- It’s stunning that no one responded positively to their news. (At least none that we’re told of.)
- Seek certainty that what you’re doing is God’s will, but then pursue persistence beyond resistance.
- Sometimes when you encounter this kind of resistance, it’s encouraging to be able to come back to the original direction you got from God and know that what you’re pursuing is God’s will.
- Sometimes just one person following God can upset a whole bunch of people.
- They don’t want their consciences convicted over what they’re doing. They don’t want to have light shone into their own hearts.
- The path of following God is not always well-worn, clearly-marked, and highly populated.
- One of the more telling verses on this subject in the New Testament is in Matthew 8:28-34.
- There are a couple demon-possessed men there going crazy. Jesus casts out the demons and the men are in their right minds – an amazing miracle. In casting out the demons, the demons ask to be sent into a nearby herd of pigs, which then run violently down a hill and into the sea. When the townspeople all come out to see what’s going on, their response is not to be amazed at the miracle, but to ask Jesus to leave their region.
- They didn’t want to be bothered and upset, even if it was a power that could cast out demons.
- They would rather be comfortable without God than disturbed with Him.
- Examples:
a. A young woman decides to remain sexually pure until marriage.
- She’s ridiculed and mocked by her friends for being a prude.
b. A man gets a call to ministry.
- His family questions whether he shouldn’t pursue a better-paying job.
c. You forgive someone who hurt you.
- “Don’t you want revenge? How can you do that?”
d. A church seeking God’s face before moving forward.
- “Shouldn’t you be doing something?”
e. Believing the Word on a socially-controversial issue.
- “Who thinks like that?”
f. Limiting video games, TV, and movies for your kids.
- “Mom, everybody’s watching it.”
g. You fast.
- No one else in the church is doing that.
TWO ENCOURAGEMENTS AS WE PUSH FORWARD:
1. If all around you are Christian lives (and Christian churches) of mediocre power, isn’t a powerful move of God going to take something different?
- Often our default setting is to look around and see what everyone else is doing, presume they must know what they’re doing, and do the same.
- In truth, most of them are doing the same thing and what has become “acceptable Christian behavior” is often just the lowest common denominator of what is mindlessly going on.
- We need to pursue God and the Word and see where that leads us. We need to be intentional about pursuing God.
- When we read the Word and what it’s telling us to do is radically different than the Christian lives we’re seeing lived around us, that’s a sign that people around us have settled for mediocrity.
- Do we see power through the lives of the Christians around us? Do we see power through the ministries of the churches around us?
- Well, some, but not much.
- If we want to see God’s power in a dramatic way, we’re going to have to be doing something different than what we see going on around us.
- Just because no one else is saying the same thing or walking in the same way doesn’t mean that you’re wrong.
- Often we make the mistake of presuming that everyone else knows what’s going on when in fact no one does.
- To get somewhere that most people don’t, you’ll have to go somewhere most people don’t.
2. They were the only ones who got to see the king.
- Matthew 2:11.
- We need to remember the end result of the Magi’s journey: they got to see the king, bow before Him, and present their gifts.
- No one else in this story gets to: not Herod, not the religious scholars, not the residents of Jerusalem.
- If we want to see Jesus in a way that others don’t get to, we’ve got to choose a different path than most.
- Yes, we might receive some flack. Yes, it might require walking in a direction not many are walking. Yes, it might require some persistence.
- But to get to the king – surely that’s worth it.
