Imagine if God had waited 2,000 more
years to send Jesus to earth. Who, among the royalty on our planet in 2014,
would come to see the baby Jesus? Would any of them come to see a newborn king?
Would they send a representative? Prince Harry? One of the Saudi princes? Would
they even notice?
Seeking and worshiping a king
It’s really quite amazing that the
mysterious Magi from the east made the journey to find the newborn king of the
Jews. Following “his star at its rising,” they made the trip to Jerusalem to
pay him homage. We don’t know how many Magi came to see Jesus. Three gifts
suggest three men, but there could have been more than that in the group that
made the trek from the east. Many commentators believe these men were
astrologers — perhaps from Persia or Arabia or Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) —
and, as such, would have been advisers to their king.
In the course of their duties, they
saw something out of the ordinary in the night sky. Using whatever calculations
and interpretations were available to them, they determined that an important
royal birth had taken place in Palestine, calling for a “state visit.” “Matthew
clearly saw this as an acceptable Gentile response to genuine revelation,” says
one commentator.1
It’s ironic that when these men
arrived in Jerusalem to inquire, there seemed to be little interest among the
religious leaders there that the king of the Jews had been born. Indeed, the
arrival and questions of the wise men were, in effect, “an announcement to all
Jews that their king had been born and is worthy of worship.”2 Yet the
Jerusalem religious leaders do nothing (not even going to Bethlehem with the
wise men). The long-awaited king and Savior is in their midst and it is a group
of Gentiles that shows the most
interest; perhaps they sensed that this new king would have universal
significance. Matthew will close his gospel with reference to that universal
significance as he tells of Jesus’ command to the disciples to “Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations ....”3
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