Sermon notes, Fourth Sunday of Advent

INTRODUCTION
While Herod and Jerusalem fear the news of the birth of Jesus, the Magi worship Him and rejoice (2:10). Here is another inversion of the original exodus story, and a preview of the gospel story: Jews reject their deliverer, but the Gentiles embrace Him.

THE TEXT
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’ . . . ” (Matthew 2:1-23).

ABRAHAMIC PROMISE
The coming of the Magi fulfills Yahweh’s original promise to Abraham. God called Abraham to be the agent for the salvation to the Gentiles who had fallen at Babel (Genesis 12:1-3). During the time of Solomon, this promise began to be fulfilled, as the nations traveled to hear the wisdom of Israel’s king (1 Kings 4:34; 10:1-10). Similarly, the Magi come from among the Gentiles with tribute for the greater Solomon.

The typology of the passage actually goes deeper. From Genesis 3, West-to-East movement is always movement away from God’s presence and His house (cf. Genesis 3:24), but East-to-West movement is movement back toward God. Traveling from Persia to Israel, the magi are moving back to the garden, following the footsteps of Abraham (Ur to the promised land), Joshua (entering land from Moab), Israel returning from exile. The Magi are moving back toward Paradise, incarnate in Bethlehem.

PROPHETIC PROMISE
Great as Israel’s stature was under Solomon, the prophets said that the Abrahamic promise would be fulfilled even more dramatically in the future. Someday, the Lord would raise up Zion as the chief mountain and the nations would stream to it (Isaiah 2:1-4). Israel will eat the wealth of the nations (61:6) and will be famous among the Gentiles (61:9). The glory of the nations will flow to Jerusalem (66:12) and all nations will see Yahweh’s glory (66:18-19). Jerusalem will become the “Throne of Yahweh” and the nations will gather to her (Jeremiah 3:17) and the Gentiles will bless themselves by the name of Israel’s God (4:2). The gold, silver, and garments of the nations will go to Israel (Zechariah 14:14) and all the nations will go up every year to worship in Zion.

THE WEAKNESS OF GOD
Though the Magi fulfill these promises, the fulfillment is odd. The Queen of Sheba traveled to an impressive court to visit Solomon, and the prophets envision the nations on pilgrimage to a Jerusalem rebuilt with precious stones (Isaiah 54:12). But the Magi don’t find the king of the Jews in Jerusalem or the king’s court. They find him in the small town of Bethlehem, the child of humble parents. How will the nations be attracted to this? No wonder the Jews stumbled over Jesus.

But a deeper reading of the Old Testament shows that this is how God has always worked. God brings Gentiles to salvation not when Israel is strong but when she is weak. Pharaoh seeks a blessing from Jacob after Jacob recounts the difficulties of his life (Genesis 47:7-10). Ruth the Moabitess attaches herself to Naomi when Naomi has nothing (Ruth 1:15-18). Namaan seeks out Elisha because of the testimony of a Israelite slave girl (2 Kings 5). Israel is most evangelistically effective during the exile, when they have lost king, temple, land. Paul was not thinking only of the New Testament when he said, “God has chosen the weak things of this world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). That’s the story of Israel.

CONCLUSION
We sometimes think that our work for God’s kingdom will be effective if we can get our act together, establish impressive institutions, build large churches, impress the world with our success. That has never been God’s way. There is nothing wrong with cathedrals, but Rome turned to Jesus while the church was still in the catacombs. The message of Christmas is that God uses “things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29). The story of the Magi shows that God displays His strength in our weakness, His glory in our humility, His wisdom in our folly, to make it clear that everything comes from Him and not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:7).