What Does the Magi Story Really Tell Us About Jesus?

0:00 - Theme Song

2:05 - What’s Up With the Star?

9:00 - How Many Wise Men?

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17:00 - Why’s this in the Bible?

27:00 - Balaam and the Magi

37:37 - End Credits

Clip: The Magi Didn't Come for a Baby - They Came for a King

Mike: I think many adults, we know the story of the three Magi, the Three Kings, the three Wise Men. But, I don't know, if you kind of pause and really think about it, it's super weird. It's super weird this story is in the gospel. It's only in Matthew, it's not in any of the other ones. Why did Matthew decide to put this story in his gospel?

Kaitlyn: Matthew is really concerned with establishing Jesus's identity. A lot of the first two chapters of Matthew are concerned with fulfilling prophecies, but especially for establishing his royalty in a way that some of the other gospel writers are less interested in. All of them understand Jesus to be the king and to have to be the king in the line of David. But Matthew's really concerned with that. And when you understand that, then some of this emphasis on the Magi makes a little more sense, because one thing that is true of kings is that their births are significant. They might even be - at this time, they were often thought of as - marked in the stars.

So even the Magi going to visit and even talking to Herod and saying, “Hey, we were looking at the stars. A king has been born,” that would've been normal. That would've been - not for Israel. They would not have thought of a king as being born, you know, evidenced by a star. But the peoples around them would've thought, “Yeah, a king, that might be a significant enough event to have the stars show you it.” So the stars show this important birth.

He's visited by these foreign dignitaries, essentially. Some commentators have talked about the fact that this story sounds a little bit like the visit of the Queen of Sheba, who brings all of these gifts to the King of Israel. Some of the gifts she brings are the same gifts that the Magi bring.

There's also references in the Psalms and the prophets to the nations bringing their gifts, sometimes into the New Jerusalem, sometimes to the king of Israel. And there's even, in the historical record, an example of this happening. In AD 66 there were similarly described eastern  Magi who visited Nero and brought similar gifts.

So you have a sense, both in scripture and in history, that sometimes kings are visited by foreign dignitaries given gifts. The Magi bow to Jesus. So there's this sense of, he's in a higher social status than they are.

So I think Matthew is setting all of this up to show us: Jesus is the king. Not just born in a stable, which is really important. And there’s all these prophecies that are fulfilled by that. Yes, he has this lowly birth, but even from the beginning at his birth - not even just later when he does miracles, when he heals people, or even when he rises from the dead - but at the very beginning, he's not only the son of God, he's the king in the line of David. And that is shown not just by God's people; in fact, not even primarily by God's people, but by people outside of the people of God who recognize something that maybe the people of God don't.

Also, the people of God seem to recognize a little bit that this is a king, because Herod, when confronted with this, doesn't say, “Oh, well, that's ridiculous. No king has been born. I'm the king, who even cares?” He's threatened enough by it that he massacres children, which is horrifying. Again, the Christmas story is cute and sweet and also horrifying.

And so you get this sense from the very beginning, whether it’s by people who honor this new king with gifts and their presence, or those who are threatened by this king, that it is a legitimate king that has been born. The heavens recognize it. These foreign dignitaries recognize it. Even the people of God recognize it in the sense that they're threatened by it, which is a story that Matthew will continue to bring up: that the people of God, on some level, understand that this is a significant person, and are threatened by the rule that he is extending.

I think this story, and talking about this story, helps us start out Advent and then our season of Christmas really well, because most of us are gonna spend a lot of the days before Christmas thinking about baby Jesus. You know, we see a lot of images of just Jesus in a manger: helpless, small, vulnerable, and in some ways that's beautiful. In some ways it's actually comfortable for us. Like, that's a God I can control and get my hands around; it's just this little defenseless baby.

And we spend a lot of time in Advent and Christmas thinking about Emmanuel, God with us, which is important, to think about how the creator of the universe became like us. But sometimes, especially because Christmas is in our culture so much more important than any other Christian holiday, and often we celebrate it in very non-Christian ways, sometimes we feel like the whole picture we get of Jesus is small, vulnerable, with us, intimate, “moved into the neighborhood” kind of language. And we forget that none of that actually means anything if we don't start with greatness that became small. If we don't start with not just Jesus as human, but Jesus as God, as king, as creator—who then chooses to be like us, to relate to us, and also, even in being like us and relating to us, also from the very beginning, from his birth, being king.

We celebrate in the church calendar, before Advent, the Sunday before Advent, we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, which for most churches is just sort of like a nod to it. We don't usually make a big deal about Christ the King Sunday. But one of the reasons that holiday is at that point in the calendar is because before we get into Advent, before we think about the small, defenseless baby who came to relate to us, we start with Jesus the king - the king of Israel, which Matthew was really concerned about, but also the king of the whole of creation, who humbled himself to the point of this very simple life and then to a very humiliating death, ultimately.

This story in Matthew's gospel is intended to set up for us who Jesus is: like we said before, his genealogy, but also his rightful kingship, his royalty. He is the king. Kings are visited by foreign dignitaries. Kings are given gifts. Kings' births are significant enough events that the stars might foretell them. Kings threaten lower, smaller, petty kings on this earth.

And I think as we start Advent, and as we begin to celebrate Christmas, this is an opportunity for us to think about our king who continues to rule today and still threatens lesser rulers with his rule, and they lash out. And still today there are unexpected, sometimes strange people who bring their gifts to him—who might not understand the whole story, who might even worship him in the wrong way, but still understand on some level that before them is a king.

And this is also an opportunity, I think, for us to ask ourselves: presented with this king - yes, a baby, but also from the very beginning the king of the universe - presented with that rule, are we threatened by it, or do we seek after it, bring gifts to it? Do we bow before the king, or do we lash out that our own rule is threatened?