Sermon Notes, Third Sunday of Advent

INTRODUCTION
Modern Christians instinctively spiritualize the story of the gospel. When Jesus is called “King of the Jews,” we think that refers to His “spiritual” kingdom. Herod didn’t think so. Herod knew that Jesus’ birth was a threat to his power.

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?’ . . . .” (Matthew 2:1-23).

NEW EXODUS
According to Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is the true Israel who recapitulates the history of old Israel. Matthew begins with a phrase from Genesis, “the book of the genealogy” (1:1; cf. Genesis 5:1; 10:1; 11:27; etc.). Joseph shares a name with the last patriarch in Genesis. When Herod threatens Jesus, Joseph flees to Egypt, as Israel fled from Pharaoh. In chapter 4, Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness, and in chapter 5 Jesus is a new Moses standing on a mountain delivering the law. At several points, the story of Jesus-Israel reverses that of old Israel. The threat to Jesus doesn’t come from a Gentile king, but from the “King of the Jews.” Herod, not Pharaoh, is slaughtering infants, and Joseph flees from Israel. Ironically, Egypt is a safe-haven. When Matthew quotes Hosea’s “Out of Egypt I called My Son,” he’s saying that Herod’s Israel is the new Egypt. Jesus will lead an exodus out of Israel.

POLITICAL JESUS
First-century Israel was bubbling with messianic expectations in which religion and politics were so closely entwined that they could not be separated at all. Think of the Middle East today, and you’ll have a very close analogy. The main questions had to do with Israel’s relation to Rome and Israel’s future. Some Pharisees wanted to drive the unclean Gentiles from the Holy Land, and engaged in direct-action protest to make their point. The Essenes thought Jews themselves were the main problem, so they withdrew from the land and waited by the Dead Sea for their opportunity to become the true Israel. Sadducees, the priestly and aristocratic class, cozied up to the Romans. Herod had worked hard to befriend the right Romans, and he knew that anyone bearing the title “King of the Jews” would be a political nightmare. Better to kill a few babies than endanger the whole country. During His ministry, Jesus offered a different program for Israel’s future. Instead of resisting Romans, Jesus said Jews should “make friends quickly” and “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:25, 43). When Romans requisitioned supplies and service, Jesus’ disciples were to comply cheerfully (5:38-42).

PERSECUTION
Unbelievers and pagans often understand the political import of Christianity more clearly than Christians. Jews persecuted the early Christians because they threatened to change Jewish customs, and thereby threatened the future of Israel. Romans persecuted Christians because they proclaimed that Jesus, not Caesar, was king. Innumerable modern believers have been slaughtered for the same reason. The gospel isn’t “apolitical.” It simply proclaims a different politics. Jesus called His disciples, as NT Wright puts it, to a “revolutionary way of being revolutionary.”