Matthew 2.1-12

Read this section of scripture:

¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east^[b] and have come to worship him.” ³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ^[c] was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
 ⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
   are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
   who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’^[d]”
 ⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
 ⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east^[e] went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

This section of scripture is all about three kings. Now, just to set the record straight, I'm not talking about the three wise men that come to worship Jesus. No that is just some myth that is not true. Wise men did come to worship Jesus, but we do not know how many there were. There were three gifts but a group of wise men. So when I say this passage is about three kings, what am I talking about?

I am talking about three kings, specifically a comparison between Herod, the false king of the Jews, the wise men, kings of other nations, and Jesus the true king of all. And Matthew's goal is to compare Herod and Jesus, the wise men and Herod, and Jesus vs. all of them. 

First, Herod vs. Jesus. After the Jews came back from exile and began to rebuild their nation, there were numbers of people that tried to be King of the Jews. And when Rome came and took over the Jews, they kind of determined who would be king, and they would use these kings as their own puppets. King Herod was a weasel of a man that always seems to worm his way into political success with the Romans.  At first he got power by becoming friends with Julius Caeser. After he was assassinated, Herod had to pick between Brutus and Cassius and Mark Antony and Octavian who he would try to befriend. He picked wrong. He made alliances with Brutus and Cassius who then were defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. So Herod was in trouble. He went to Rome to what he thought was his death, and somehow they had mercy on him and gave him more power than he had before. When Mark Antony and Octavian went into battle with each other, again Herod was in trouble because he sided with Mark Antony who lost and Octavian was Emperor. So again Herod went to Rome to what he thought was his death, and yet somehow, Octavian had mercy on him and gave him even more power. So Herod was a weasel of a man. And his personal life was even worse than his political life. 

Herod was married to a woman named Mariamne. And they were kind of like Italian lovers. They fought all the time and would be hating each other, then next thing you know they were all over each other. Well Herod was an extremely jealous man, and if he died, he didn't want Mariamne to marry some other man. So each time Herod traveled to Rome to face the Emperor who before he had sided against, he would put Mariamne under the control of a family member with the orders that if he were to die, then they would have to kill Mariamne as well. Each time when he came back alive, Mariamne found out and got very upset with him. So he would then kill the family member that ratted him out. He ended up killing his wife, Mariamne, his mother, his mother-in-law, his brother-in-law and at least two of his sons. He was a very mean man. Yet he was called Herod the Great, mostly by himself, but historians still refer to him as this because of all the great buildings he built during his reign. But the people hated him. And he knew they hated him. He was so hated that when he was getting ready to die, he ordered that several hundred Jewish leaders be executed on the day of his death so that someone would mourn at his funeral. 

And this was the King of the Jews at the time of Jesus' birth. Yet, when you compare Jesus and Herod, you see that Herod tried to control his kingdom by fear and force, whereas Jesus' kingdom is an entirely different kind of kingdom. Just looking at how they are both presented in this section of scripture, Jesus is a baby, yet he causes not only a grown man, but also a King to go on a crazy killing rampage because three weird guys from the east said some baby was born and he is supposed to be King. Herod was not the savior for the Jews, he was not the King they were waiting for, he was just a jealous, insecure puppet  of the Roman government and he was not the true King of the Jews. He was only even half Jewish. 

And so we come to our next comparison of kings, now that Herod is seen to definitely not be the king of the Jews, we see the comparison between Herod and the Wise men, the magi, the kings from the east. When Herod and all his scribes and teachers of the Law heard from these wise men from the east about the king of the Jews, they responded unlike a true Jew should respond. These guys have been waiting for the Messiah for 400 years!!!! And what do they try to do when he comes? Herod tried to kill him and some were indifferent and even apathetic towards him. The leaders of the Jews didn't respond correctly to Jesus. Yet, the outsiders, the gentiles, the kings that came from the far east, they came and worshipped him. 

Those who should've responded correctly didn't, and those that probably shouldn't have responded correctly did. Again, we see that sometimes the people we think are the insiders are really the outsiders and those we think are the outsiders are really the insiders. 

And now we have to look at the third king. The first "King" was Herod and he was a mad man. The second "King" was the group of kings from the east and they came and worshipped someone else, very unlike a king. The third king was a baby. And this king was not only sought after to be killed, but was sought after to be worshipped. He wasn't just the king of the Jews but also of the entire nations. 

So at the end of this story we really have just one true king, the king of the entire universe. And we have two "earthly" kings responding to the one true king. What is your response to King Jesus? Either you seek after him to persecute him and his followers like Herod, or you are indifferent and apathetic towards him like the Jewish leaders, or you seek after him to worship him like the magi from the east. 

Jesus is King, how will you respond to him?