FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

 

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

December 23, 2007

 

THE SEARCH FOR JESUS –

HEROD’S DECEPTION AND THE MAGI’S DISCERNMENT

 

Scripture:  Matthew 2:1-15

 

INTRODUCTION

 

During the Advent Season, our sermons have focused on the theme “The Search for Jesus.”  Since early December, we’ve talked together about “Joseph’s Dream,” Mary’s Decision,” “The Angels’ Declaration and The Shepherds’ Discovery” and this morning we turn our attention to “Herod’s Deception and the Magi’s Discernment.”

 

On our Christmas cards, in our Christmas crčches, and prominent among all of the Christmas pageants any of us have ever seen, we find Joseph and Mary, the shepherds and the angels, the wise men and the animals all gathered around the baby Jesus in the manger.

 

But never, over the past 2000 years, has the figure of King Herod appeared in our Christmas cards or crčches or pageants.  Why?  Because Herod the Great, as he called himself, was not one of the good guys.

 

I

 

By way of background, there are five King Herods in the New Testament, all of them from the Hasmonean Dynasty of inter-married Jews and Gentiles who governed Palestine for almost a century under Roman authority –

 

·        Herod the Great, who ruled Judea when Jesus was born

·        Herod Archelaus, mentioned in Matthew 2:22

·        Herod Antipas, who followed his father and will be remembered as the one beheaded John the Baptist (Matthew 14), was called “the fox” by Jesus (Luke 13:32), and collaborated in Jesus’ trial with Pontius Pilate (Luke 23)

·        Herod Agrippa I, who murdered the disciple James, arrested Peter and was slain by an angel (Acts 12) and…

·        Herod Agrippa II, who sat in judgment of the Apostle Paul in Caesarea (Acts 25-26)

 

(From The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “Herod,” pages 585-593)

 

All of which is to say that the Herods in the Bible were not “warm and fuzzy people,” and that was especially true of the King Herod whom we encounter in our scripture lesson today:

 

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?  For we have observed His star at its rising, and have come to pay Him homage.”

 

For the Magi, the wise men, this star and the prophecies they had heard portended good news about a child born to be King of the Jews.  But for Herod, who already held that title, it was the worst news possible.

 

Herod, who was surely paranoid and mentally deranged, had already arranged for the murders of his wife, his mother-in-law, his brother-in-law and two of his sons for fear that they wanted to usurp his throne.  So to hear that a new king was coming troubled Herod, and all of Jerusalem too, because they had already seen what Herod would do to anyone who challenged or threatened him.  And therein lies the reason for Herod’s deception.  He believed that the ancient prophecies (Micah 5:2) and the Magi’s pronouncements were true, so he pretended to be interested in the birth of the baby, requesting that the wise men would “go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found Him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay Him homage” (verse 8).

 

Of course that never happened – the Magi were warned in a dream not to return to Herod in Jerusalem.  The king was so enraged by their betrayal, and so fearful of his soon-to-be-born potential rival, that his deception turned into a search and destroy mission to find Jesus as he killed all of the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and younger.

 

That is a part of the original Christmas story we hardly ever hear about, and understandably so.  But I tell it to you today because Matthew wanted us to know that there was darkness surrounding that first Christmas.  Herod’s deception and destructive actions wreaked havoc, sorrow, suffering and pain among the people in Bethlehem.  And that same kind of darkness still exists in our world today.

 

II

 

Sometimes it’s not so serious.  A young boy named Leroy had been behaving badly, and when he asked his father and mother for a new bicycle at Christmas, they told him that he needed to straighten up and suggested that he write a letter to Jesus.

 

So he sat down in his room and began this way:

 

“Dear Jesus,

I have tried to be good this year, and would appreciate a new bicycle.

Sincerely,

Leroy”

 

Realizing that he wasn’t telling the whole truth, he tore up the first letter and wrote a second one:

 

Dear Jesus,

I have not been good over the past year, but I promise to do better next year.  May I please have a new bicycle?

Your friend,

Leroy”

 

Still not feeling forgiven nor deserving of what he was asking for, Leroy left the house and went around the corner to the Catholic Church where he and his family belonged.  He knelt down at the altar, said his prayers, and as he got up to leave, he noticed a statue of Mary there in the narthex.  Seeing that no one was around, he took the statue, slipped it under his coat, headed back home and up to his room where he hid the statue under his bed.

 

Then he sat down to write one last letter which said:

 

“Dear Jesus,

I’ve got your mother.  If you ever want to see her again, deliver the bicycle on Christmas Day and we’ll make a trade.

Leroy”

 

Sometimes the darkness is not so serious.  But sometimes it is.  Think of the hundreds of thousands of children who are starving and dying in Darfur.  Remember the millions of children around this world who, with their families, have been devastated by earthquakes, tsunamis, famine and drought, and by human-made conflicts and wars that threaten to knock them down and out.

 

And right here in Georgia, let’s never forget the girls and boys in our state and in this city who are homeless, abused and forsaken, and all those trying to survive without proper health care or a decent education.  Our 4:00 Christmas Eve church family offering is designated to reach out to as many of those children as possible, and I hope that you will not only pray but also give generously to help them find a better way of life.

 

The preacher and teacher Dr. Fred Craddock, with whom Trisha Senterfitt now works in their North Georgia ministry largely focused on poor families and children – Dr. Craddock had a friend named Glen Adsett who served as a missionary in China many years ago.

 

During the Communist take-over, the Adsett family were placed under house arrest, and then finally the soldiers came and said “You can return to America, but can only take two hundred pounds with you.”  Well, they had been there for a long time.  Two hundred pounds.

 

So they got the scales and that missionary husband and wife and two children started to weigh their belongings.  “We must have this old vase, and the new typewriter, and all the books, and pots and pans and family silver.”  They put the items on the scale one by one until the total weight came to just less than two hundred pounds.

 

The soldiers asked “Are you ready to go?”  “Yes” said the parents.  “Did you weigh everything?”  “Yes.”  “How about the children?”  “No, we didn’t weigh the children.”  “Weigh them,” said the soldiers, and in a moment, all of their possessions became trash.”  The parents left China with only the clothes on their backs, and the children.  Priceless.

 

In the darkness of that first Christmas, as so many children were slaughtered because of Herod’s deception and destruction, Mary and Joseph were warned by an angel to take their new born Son away to Egypt, where they protected Him and waited until King Herod had died.  Then they returned to Nazareth and raised Jesus in the safety and security of their home.

 

That is what we hope will happen for our own children and for every child on this earth.  The darkness still exists my friends, but the light and the love of our Savior’s birth has the power to overcome it.  The forces and fearful actions of people like Herod still threaten the children of our world in so many ways.  But as women and men of integrity and responsibility we have been called by Christ to watch over and to protect them.

 

Let the children come to Me, said Jesus, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.  May that be our Christmas gift and sacred promise to all those children, everyone and everywhere, whom the Lord has placed under our care.

 

III

 

And that leaves the last word for the Magi, which comes from “Magoi”  Greek, which translates “wise men” – those Zoroastrian astrologers from Persia who visited King Herod in Jerusalem.  Then they followed the star in the sky until it led them to a little town called Bethlehem sometime after the Christ Child was born.

 

Matthew says that they were overwhelmed with joy as they entered the house and found Mary and the little boy named Jesus.  And in His holy presence, the Magi bowed down to offer their gifts from the orient – gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Then Matthew tells us that having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another road – another way (Verses 9-12).

 

James Taylor originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina is one of my favorite singers and has been for a long time.  He wrote a song about them:

 

“Those magic men the Magi

Some people call them wise

Or oriental, even kings

Well anyway, those guys -

They visited with Jesus

They sure enjoyed their stay

Then warned in a dream of King Herod’s scheme

They went home by another way”

 

And that’s exactly what happened!

 

So I ask you in closing: “What do you think the Magi discerned that day as they discovered the little baby in Bethlehem?”  Let me tell you what I think.

 

I think they recognized with their own eyes that this was indeed the child they were searching for – a holy child, born to be King of the Jews.  I think they realized, in their hearts and minds, that this child had been born for their sake too – not only for the Jews but for the Gentiles like them as well.  And I think they knew, from that moment on, that their lives would never be the same again.  Having touched and been touched by God’s only begotten Son, His light and His love had already begun to transform them.

 

So they went home by another way – not only traveling a different road, but they were different people than they had been before – full of joy and grace, hope and peace as they headed back East to tell others what had happened. 

 

Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crosen in their new book “The First Christmas” say that we have a choice to make.  Either we can be paralyzed by Herod’s fear and anger or we can follow the star with the Magi that leads to Christ’s love.

 

CONCLUSION

 

And so it can be for you and for me as we leave this place today – we can go home by a different way, believing that our lives will never be the same again because of what happened long ago in Bethlehem and what has happened to us here at the corner of 16th and Peachtree. 

 

This morning at 6:30 they started to come - homeless men, women and even some children from all over this city to our breakfast and then to receive the stockings that so many of you had prepared for them.  Our children offered the gifts, assisted by teenagers and adults, and the interaction between each of those children and every one of those homeless men and women and children was transforming, not only for the homeless guests but for us.

 

It reminded me of the Christmas card that I received from my dear friend Jonathan Jarrells who is incarcerated in Jackson prison.  It came this week,  and it pictures Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus right in the center of the manger scene, with the wise men bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and this is what the words say inside the card:

 

“The Wise Men came and laid their gifts

Before the Child that day.

But greater than the gifts they gave were those they took away:

So may it be, as you today adore your King anew

That you receive more gifts than you can give

To bless and comfort you!”

 

They went home by another way and so can we, my friends - right here, right now, today.

 

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

 

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