Text for the Week: the Star of Grace

Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. ² They asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”

³ When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. ⁴ He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They said, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

⁶ You, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
        by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah,
            because from you will come one who governs,
            who will shepherd my people Israel.”

⁷ Then Herod secretly called for the magi and found out from them the time when the star had first appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you’ve found him, report to me so that I too may go and honor him.” ⁹ When they heard the king, they went; and look, the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were filled with joy. ¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother. Falling to their knees, they honored him. Then they opened their treasure chests and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹² Because they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.

Questions

1. What, if anything, can we know about the Magi and their origins and beliefs, why does Matthew not give us more information about these individuals?
2. What does verse 3 mean that “everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him” why would the people of Jerusalem be troubled?
3. Why does Herod call the magi secretly?

Background

Related Scriptures: Leviticus 24:17, 2 Samuel 5:2, Psalm 72:10, Isaiah 60:1-6, Micah 5:2

It is impossible to identify what the “star” the magi followed might have been. Theories range from an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn to a supernova, a comet, or some miraculous event. Unfortunately, the text does not give us any details for the astronomical event, nor the precise date of Jesus’ birth or the Magi’s arrival so there is no way to determine any historical information from these details.

Magi is the Greek term for magician or sorcerer and though there may have been Jewish astrologers and Magi (see Acts 13) the Magi in Matthew 2 do not seem familiar with Jewish Scriptures and so are likely meant to represent Gentiles.

The Syrian church assumed twelve magi visited Jesus to correlate with the tribes of Israel, rather than the Western tradition’s three (based on the gifts they brought). Even though the term magi would imply a Persian origin the scriptures behind the text (Ps. 72 & Is. 60) reference other regions and traditionally Christians have seen them representing the Gentiles and so cast them from diverse kingdoms.

For more background for the chapter you can watch my video here

Reflection

We do not know anything about the magi, we do not know where they are from, who they are, how many there were, nor even precisely what led them to Jerusalem. The only things we can infer from the passage are the magi were probably not Jewish (though they might have been holdovers from the Babylonian exile) and they were to some degree astrologers (though our modern category is not exactly right). This group of people coming to see Jesus had been spurred by some celestial sign to depart for Jerusalem to find a new “king of the Jews.” Within Matthew’s Gospel the magi function the same way the shepherds do in Luke, their story is meant  to highlight how God is turning the world upside down and the outsiders are the ones God has chosen. They are a group of non-Jews using what many Jews and Christians would consider pagan methods to arrive in Judea in time for Jesus’ birth to pay homage to him. Meanwhile, the ruler of Judea and the people of the Holy City are terrified by the knowledge of Jesus’ birth. The ruler even goes so far as to plot and carry out a plan to kill Jesus. Matthew is showing how God brought the outsiders to Jesus’ birth to shame the powerful and the insiders who should have been there. He is saying that if the magi who knew nothing saw the signs of Jesus’ birth and cared enough to attend then the scholars who told Herod of Micah’s words should have known and all of Jerusalem should have cared enough to follow the magi to the house where Jesus was.

Matthew is most concerned with comparing the magi to Jesus’ own people to show how the people around Jesus should have recognized his coming, but I want to focus more on the magi themselves and how they display God’s grace. There is a consistent theme in the Old Testament of God pledging to bring the nations to Israel to worship. This theme is meant to highlight the fact that God wants to show grace to everyone on earth, that grace is an open invitation to relationship with God. God wants to open the doors of relationship to everyone– this is the meaning of 1 Timothy 2:3-4 that God desires everyone is saved. To give these magi an opportunity to have an encounter with Jesus, God used the magi where they were and with what they knew and took them on a long slow trek to find Jesus. God began with what the magi understand, they knew the stars and had beliefs about those stars, God did not force them to drop this idea but used it to bring the magi from their home to Judea. This is grace, a gift that God would accommodate the magi’s beliefs, that is make room for those beliefs while they journeyed to find Jesus. When the magi arrived in Jerusalem, the place they assumed would be the birthplace of royalty, God met them again with more information, this is the Messiah. No longer are they searching for a newborn member of Herod’s dynasty they are looking for something different. I think about how far God brought these individuals with incomplete and even wrong information and they were still able to continue on the journey to find Jesus. And even when they found people who knew Scripture and provided them with direction, it was not from a desire to seek God but to destroy God’s plan.  And it was only after they encountered Jesus that God spoke to them and gave them direction. God’s grace is on display in this passage as God works with the knowledge and desires of the magi refining their search until they finally reach Jesus and then God gives them a revelation personally. God does not force them to understand everything all at once (or even after the journey is complete), instead God subtlety directs the magi’s path until they are in a place to meet Jesus face-to-face. This is what God’s grace looks like in our lives, subtle guidance steering us to new and deeper encounters with Jesus.

God provides us with the same grace as the magi leading us from ignorance to truth without forcing us to understand too much all at once. Further, because God desires relationship above all else we are given the grace to encounter God at a sustained pace without the need to know everything all at once. The ignorance of the magi’s journey and God’s desire to see them know Jesus can be a great parallel for how we slowly learn who God is and what God is doing in the world.

Takeaway

God began with the magi where they were, in their cultural setting with the knowledge they had and led them through that knowledge to Jesus and after they encountered Jesus began to reach them as the God of Jesus. This is the pattern God uses with each one of us and it is the pattern we should use with one another.