Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Well, good morning everyone!

My name is Dan Osborn and I serve as the Pastor for Park - Forest Glen! I’m really grateful to be here…I also want to give a shout out to those of you who are watching online right now with the live stream!

We’re continuing in our Advent series this morning [EXPAND]

Go ahead and grab a bible…if you need one you can grab one from the seat in front of you…and let’s turn to Matthew 2. Matthew Chapter 2. If you’ve got one of the house bibles, it’s on page ***.

Introduction

As a pastor, I reserve the right to unapologetically make controversial comments that may or may not be received as offensive comments by those who hear them.

Today is one of those moments.

Just because a movie takes place at Christmas time, does not therefor make it a ‘Christmas movie.’

Last year, I shared some thoughts about a very popular movie this time of year…and I know that I made some controversial statements about this beloved tradition in revealing to you that I do not think ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a Christmas movie.

And I got quite a bit of push back on that…now I will concede that it is indeed a movie.

That much is true.

And a brief couple of moments in this movie happen to be set during the month of December.

And our movies have gotten steadily worse from that time on…notable exceptions include: Charlie Brown (obviously) and A Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

Today, our stories around Christmas have devolved into the same tropes over and over again that are constantly remade and retold…a girl, probably a lawyer who made left her home town to make it big in the city…returns to her home town for some originally unwanted reason…only to find she’s not above the town, but falls somehow falls in love with the town, Christmas, and a ruggedly handsome man who lives in a cabin, wears flannel, and has at least one dog.

Somehow, in the sequence of events…she discovers the true meaning of Christmas.

Gag me.

Boring.

We are watching the wrong movies this time of year.

You see, as the New Testament presents the Christmas, it does so with this rich language and imagery that shows us this is a tale of kings.

Yes, there are things in there that we recognize and see every year…angles, shepherds, a baby in a manger…but what what’s hiding just beneath the surface is a clash of empires…an unlikely hero from an unlikely place that emerges to subvert a global superpower.

It’s the story of a liberator who frees his people from an oppressive regime.

And it that way, something like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings is much closer to the theme of the biblical Christmas story than of the stuff out there!

Claymation is cute…I get it.

Lord of the Rings is awesome.

What I want to do today, in the few moments we have is to strip away some of the details of the biblical Christmas story that many of are familiar with—and in doing that, I’m not trying to ruin it for you…but I want us to see this story from an angle that is almost entirely missing in our modern conceptions of Christmas.

I want us to see this for the powerful…beautiful…story that it really is.

I want to see it as more than a story…but as the story…our story…one that we very much find ourselves right in the middle of.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me to Matthew 2…and we’ll be looking at v. 1-11 this morning.

Matthew 2:1-11.

I’ll read the passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

PRAY

A Tale of Two Kings

Alright let’s get started.

The Magi - Setting the Scene

I said this story is a tale of two kings.

What do I mean by that?

Well let’s look that characters here and we’ll start to see this.

The first part of chapter 2 takes place in Jerusalem.

It’s a familiar part of the nativity scenes…but there’s a lot about this we don’t actually know.

We do know there are wise men, or some of your translations might say magi…but we don’t know exactly what that means.

The word here for Magi in the original language is magos…it’s where we get the english word Magician from…but that also doesn’t conjure up the right image.

These were individuals who were likely royal astrologers…watching the signs of the stars and looking for meaning within astrologiical changes—which was a common practice in the ancient world.

We don’t know exactly where they came from—only that it was from somewhere out East.

Probably from the Persian empire.

Let me show you a picture just so you get an idea of where this all is.

That said…what we’ll see in moment is that where exactly they’re from is not nearly as important as where they are NOT from…Israel.

They are not Jewish…they are gentiles…or from the non-Jewish nations of the world.

They see a star, and like in most cultures that place a high value on astrology, they associate this new start with the birth of king or consequential person in the region over which that start hangs.

So they follow the star…a journey that would have taken quite a while…meaning…they did not show up on the night of Jesus birth…and instead of the star leading them to Bethlehem, they arrive in Jerusalem.

Herod, the (imposter) king

Look with me at v. 1, this is where we meet the first king.

We’re told Jesus was born during the reign of Herod, the King…also known as Herod the Great.

We know quite a bit about him from sources outside the New Testament.

Herod was a Jewish, but his family had been part of a political class loyal to the Roman authorities who ruled over the region.

What we do know about him is that he had a keen architectural eye…he was responsible for the massive renovation of the Temple in Jerusalem…it was the Temple as Jesus would have been familiar with it.

He built a massive sea port—that while in ruin now, you can still visit today in Caesarea.

He built forts, palaces, and a bunch of other structures.

But more than this, we also know that Herod the great had a strong reputation for paranoia.

In fact, ancient historians understand that most of his building projects where nothing more than political stunts to keep the people under his control in good favor…he was always worried about an over throw of his power.

Like many of the political leaders of the day, he was an empire man.

His loyalty was too the Roman empire and his goal was to expand the Roman empire…and for him to remain in power within the Roman empire.

He was a king who would not hesitate to have a political rival murdered, even if it was one of his own children, and he did so several times…on nothing more than suspicion of disloyalty or the possibility of betrayal.

And all of this is consistent with the way he was portrayed in the New Testament.

In fact, if we were to keep reading in Matthew 2, you’ll see that in response to the birth of Jesus, Herod, in a horrific attempt to preserve his place, sends soldiers to Bethlehem and the entire region around it to kill all the male children under 2 years old.

I’m not going to say he was like Darth Vader, but now that I’ve brought it up, I won’t correct it either.

He was evil.

And in Jerusalem, he was the very representation, not just of some rogue political figure, but of the Roman empire itself…he was, in a sense, the empire incarnate…in the flesh.

And as Matthew is telling this story, he is holding up one king to another, and forcing us to compare.

And it’s very interesting how he does this because much of this comparison is done beneath the surface of the story…to see it, you have to read between the lines with me.

Jesus the (true) king

Look at v. 2…this is when we’re introduced to the second king.

And Matthew throws in a few key details that don’t just highlight the fact that Jesus is also a king, but these all bring out the fact that this new king is in conflict with the old one.

There’s a clash…a battle to be fought.

The Title

Here’s the first detail: The Magi talk about Jesus as the real king.

You’ve got to imagine this with me for a moment.

The Magi approach, Herod…the great, paranoid, king in the Jerusalem…and they ask pretty bold question.

“Where is who has been born king of the Jews?” Think about it…they walk up the one who is currently in charge and ask, where’s the king?” That’s a bold question…right?

This is a question that could have reasonably got them killed…especially based on what we know Herod is capable of...

But more than that, scholars look at the wording in their question and point out the grammatical structuring of how this is written puts the emphasis on the word ‘Born’.

“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” meaning the Magi are not just asking where the new king is, but the are asking where the one who is king by virtue of his birth…in other words, where is the true king?

Where is the legitimate king?

Not just one who happens to be sitting on a throne…where is the one born king?

The Magi are the first to call Jesus, the king of the Jews.

And it’s interesting, in the Gospel of Matthew, that title won’t get used again until this same empire, in what appears to be a crushing blow, condemns Jesus to death and mocking calls him ‘King of the Jews’—but more on that later.

Look at Herod’s response:

There true king, the righ king, the real king has come.

And Herod is terrified.

The Prophecy

Here’s the second detail about Jesus as king: Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament longing for the true king to come to rescue his people!

In other words…if you to take the Bible you have in your hands…and start reading through the story…what you find is that from the very beginning, there are whispers, rumors, and hints that one day, there would be one who would come to set the world right again…to remake it the way it was supposed to be!

And when you read through the prophets of the Old Testament, that longing takes on more shape…the prophets talk more about what that person will be like…what he would do and what the world will be look like when he comes!

The story of the Old Testament is pointing forward to a king who is a rescuer, a liberator.

Look at v. 4 (Matthew 2:4).

Matthew 2:4 (ESV)

and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he (Herod) inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

Herod called together the religious leaders.

He was familiar enough with the Old Testament to ask where the Christ, or Messiah would be born… That’s the king the Old Testament is talking about—and the religious leaders point to the prophet Micah.

This happens often in the New Testament where part of a verse is quoted…but the expectation is that you interpret the quote through it’s original context.