'Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod
the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
2. Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have
seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him. 3. When
Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all
Jerusalem with him. 4. And when he had gathered all the chief
priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them
where Christ should be born. 5. And they said unto him, In
Bethlehem of Judæa: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6. And
thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the
princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall
rule my people Israel. 7. Then Herod, when he had privily called
the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star
appeared. 8. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search
diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring
me word again, that I may come and worship Him also. 9. When they
had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they
saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over
where the young child was. 10. When they saw the star, they
rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11. And when they were come into
the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell
down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures,
they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
31. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return
to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.'--MATT.
ii. 1-12.
Matthew's Gospel is the gospel of the King. It has a distinctly Jewish
colouring. All the more remarkable, therefore, is this narrative, which
we should rather have looked for in Luke, the evangelist who delights to
emphasise the universality of Christ's work. But the gathering of the
Gentiles to the light of Israel was an essential part of true Judaism,
and could not but be represented in the Gospel which set forth the
glories of the King. There is something extremely striking and
stimulating to the imagination in the vagueness of the description of
these Eastern pilgrims. Where they came from, how long they had been in
travelling, how many they were, what was their rank, whither they
went,--all these questions are left unsolved. They glide into the story,
present their silent adoration, and as silently steal away.' The
tasteless mediæval tradition knows all about them: they were three; they
were kings. It knows their names; and, if we choose to pay the fee, we
can see their bones to-day in the shrine behind the high altar in
Cologne Cathedral. How much more impressive is the indefiniteness of our
narrative! How much more the half sometimes is than the whole!
I. We see here heathen wisdom led by God to the cradle of Christ. It is
futile to attempt to determine the nationality of the wise men. Possibly
they were Persian magi, whose astronomy was half astrology and wholly
observation, or they may have travelled from some place even deeper in
the mysterious East; but, in any case, they were led by God through
their science, such as it was. The great lesson which they teach remains
the same, however subordinate questions about the nature of the star and
the like may be settled. The sign in the heavens and its explanation
were both of God, whether the one was a natural astronomical phenomenon
or a supernatural light, and the other the conclusions of their science
or the inbreathing of His wisdom. So they stand as representatives of
the great truth, that, outside the limits of the people of revelation,
God moved on hearts and led seeking souls to the light in divers
manners. These silent strangers at the cradle carry on the line of
recipients of divine messages outside of Israel which is headed by the
mysterious Melchizedek, and includes that seer who saw a star arise out
of Jacob, and which, in a wider sense, includes many a 'poet of their
own' and many a patient seeker after truth. Human wisdom, as it is
called, is God's gift. In itself, it is incomplete. It raises more
questions than it solves. Its highest function is to lead to Jesus. He
is Lord of the sciences, as of all that belongs to man; and
notwithstanding all the appearances to the contrary at present, we may
be sure that the true scope of all knowledge, and its certain end, is to
lead to the recognition of Him.
May we not see in these Magi, too, a type of the inmost meaning of
heathen religions? These faiths have in them points of contact with
Christianity. Besides their falsehoods and abhorrent dark cruelties and
lustfulnesses, they enshrine confessions of wants which the King in the
cradle alone can supply. Modern unbelieving teachers tell us that
Christianity and they are alike products of man's own religious faculty.
But the truth is that they are confessions of need, and Christianity is
the supply of the need. At bottom, their language is the question of the
wise men, 'Where is He?' Their sacrifices proclaim man's need of
reconciliation. Their stories of the gods coming down in the likeness of
men, speak of his longing for a manifestation of God in the flesh. The
cradle and the cross are Heaven's answer to their sad questions.
II. The contrast of these Gentiles' joyful eagerness to worship the King
of Israel, with the alarm of his own people at the whisper of his name,
is a prelude of the tragedy of his rejection, and the passing over of
the kingdom to the Gentiles. Notice the bitter and scornful emphasis of
that 'Herod the _king_' coming twice in the story in immediate
connection with the mention of the true King. He was a usurper,
caricaturing the true Monarch. Like most kings who have had 'great'
tacked to their names, his greatness consisted mainly in supreme
wickedness. Fierce, lustful, cunning, he had ruled without mercy; and
now he was passing through the last stages of an old age without love,
and ringed round by the fears born of his misdeeds. He trembles for his
throne, as well he may, when he hears of these strangers. Probably he
does not suppose them mixed up with any attempt to unseat him, or he
would have made short work of them; unless, indeed, his craft led him to
dissemble until he had sucked them dry and had used them to lead him to
the infant rival, after which he may have meant to murder them too. But
he recognises in their question the familiar tones of the Messianic
hope, which he knew was ever lying like glowing embers in the breast of
the nation, ready to be blown into a flame. His creatures in the capital
might disown it, but he knew in his secret heart that he was a usurper,
and that at any moment that smouldering hatred and hope might burn up
him and his upstart monarchy. An evil conscience is full of fears, and
shrinks from the good news that the King of all is at hand. His coming
should be joy, as is that of the bursting spring or the rosy dawn; but
our own sin makes the day of the Lord darkness and not light, and sends
us cowering into our corners to escape these searching eyes.
Nor less tragic and perverted is the trouble which 'all Jerusalem'
shared with Herod. The Magi had naturally made straight for the capital,
expecting to find the new-born King there, and His city jubilant at His
birth. But they traverse its streets only to meet none who know anything
about Him. They must have felt like men who see, gleaming from far on
some hill-side, a brightness which has all vanished when they reach the
spot, or like some of our mission converts brought to our 'Christian
country,' and seeing how little our people care for the Christ whom they
have learned to know. Their question indicates utter bewilderment at the
contrast between what they had seen in the East and what they found in
Jerusalem. They must have been still more perplexed if they observed the
effect of their question. Nobody in Jerusalem knew anything about their
King. That was strange enough. But nobody wanted Him. That was stranger
still. A prophet had long ago called on 'Zion' to 'rejoice greatly'
because 'thy King cometh'; but now anxiety and terror cloud all faces.
It was partly because self-interest bound many to Herod, and partly
because they all feared that any outburst of Messianic hopes would lead
to fresh cruelties inflicted by the relentless, trembling tyrant. So the
Magi, who represented the eagerness of Gentile hearts grasping the new
hopes, and claiming some share in Israel's Messiah, saw His own people
careless, and, if moved from their apathy, alarmed at the unwelcome
tidings that the promise which had shone as a great light through dreary
centuries was at last on the eve of fulfilment. So the first page on the
gospel history anticipates the sad issue: 'They shall come from the
east, and from the west,' and you yourselves shall be thrust out.
III. Then followed the council of the theologians, with its solemn
illustration of the difference between orthodoxy and life, and of the
utter hollowness of mere knowledge, however accurate, of the letter of
Scripture. The questions as to the composition of this gathering of
authorities, and of the variations between the quotation of Micah in the
text and its form in the Hebrew, do not concern us now. We may remark on
the evident purpose of God to draw forth the distinct testimony of the
ecclesiastical rulers to the place of Messiah's birth, and on the fact
that this, the most ancient interpretation of the prophecy, is vouched
to us by existing Jewish sources as having been the traditional one
until the exigencies of controversy with Christians pushed it aside
Notice the different conduct of Herod, the Magi, and the scribes. The
first is entangled in a ludicrous contradiction. He believes that
Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, and yet he determines to set himself
against the carrying out of what he must, in some sense, believe to be
God's purpose. 'If this infant is God's Messiah, I will kill Him,' is
surely as strange a piece of policy gone mad as ever the world heard
of. But it is perhaps not more insane than much of our own action, when
we set ourselves against what we know to be God's will, and consciously
seek to thwart it. A child trying to stop a train by pushing against the
locomotive has as much chance of success. The scribes, again, are quite
sure where Messiah is to be born; but they do not care to go and see if
He is born. These strangers, to whom the hope of Israel is new, may rush
away, in their enthusiasm, to Bethlehem; but they, to whom it had lost
all gloss, and become a commonplace, would take no such trouble. Does
not familiarity with the gospel produce much the same effect on many of
us? Might not the joy and the devotion, however ignorant if compared
with our better knowledge of the letter, which mark converts from
heathenism, shame the tepid zeal and unruffled composure of us, who have
heard all about Christ, till it has become wearisome? Here on the very
threshold of the gospel story is the first instance of the lesson taught
over and over again in it, namely, the worthlessness of head knowledge,
and the constant temptation of substituting it for that submission of
the will and that trust of the heart, which alone make religion. The
most impenetrable armour against the gospel is the familiar and lifelong
knowledge of the gospel.
The Magi, on their part, accept with implici confidence the information.
They have followed the star; they have now a more sure word, and they
will follow that. They were led by their science to contact with the
true guide. He that is faithful in his use of the dimmest light will
find his light brighten. The office of science is not to lead to Christ
by a road discovered by itself, but to lead to the Word of God which
guides to Him. Not by accident, nor without profound meaning, did both
methods of direction unite to point these earnest seekers, who were
ready to follow every form of guidance, to the Monarch whom they sought.
IV. Herod's crafty counsel need not detain us. We have already remarked
on its absurdity. If the child were not Messiah, he need not have been
alarmed; if it were, his efforts were fruitless. But he does not see
this, and so plots and works underground in the approved fashion of
kingcraft. His reason for questioning the Magi as to the time was, of
course, to get an approximate age of the infant, that he might know how
widely to fling his net. He did it privately, so as to keep any inkling
of his plot secret till he had secured the further information which he
hoped to delude them into bringing. Like other students and recluses fed
upon great thoughts, the Magi were very easily deceived. Good, simple
people, they were no match for Herod, and told him all without
suspicion, and set off to look for the child, quite convinced of his
good faith; while he, no doubt, breathed more freely when he had got
them out of Jerusalem, and congratulated himself on having done a good
stroke of business in making them his spies. He was probably within a
few months of his death. The world was already beginning to slip from
him. But before he passed to his account, he too was brought within
sight of the Christ, and summoned to yield his usurped dominion to the
true King How different this old man's reception of the tidings of the
nativity from Simeon's! His hostility, in its cruelty, its blundering
cunning and its impotence, is a type of the relations of the world-power
to Christ. 'The rulers take counsel together, ... against His anointed.
... He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.'
V. We have next the discovery of the King. The reappearing star becomes
the guide to the humble house. It cannot have been an ordinary star, for
no such could have pointed the precise house among all the homes of
Bethlehem. The burst of joy at its reappearance vividly suggests the
perplexity of the recent days, and the support given by its welcome beam
to the faith which had accepted, not perhaps without some misgivings
caused by the indifference of the teachers, the teaching of the
prophecy. Surely that faith would be more than ever tried by the humble
poverty in which they found the King. The great paradox of Christianity,
the manifestation of divinest power in uttermost weakness, was forced
upon them in its most startling form. 'This child on His mother's lap,
with none to do Him homage, and in poverty which makes our costly gifts
seem out of place,--this is the King, whose coming set stars ablaze and
drew us hither. Is this all?' Their Eastern religions were not
unfamiliar with the idea of incarnation. Their Eastern monarchies were
splendid. They must have felt a shock at the contrast between what they
expected and what they found. They learned the lesson which all have to
learn, that Christ disappoints as well as fulfils the expectations of
men, that the mightiest power is robed in lowliness, and the highest
manifestation of God begins with a helpless infant on His mother's knee.
These wise men were not repelled. Our modern 'wise men are not all as
wise as they.
VI. Adoration and offering follow discovery. The 'worship' of the Magi
cannot have been adoration in the strict sense. We attribute too much to
them if we suppose them aware of Christ's divinity. But it was clearly
more than mere reverence for an earthly King. It hovered on the
border-line, and meant an indefinite submission and homage to a
partially discerned superiority, in which the presence of God was in
some sort special. The old mediæval interpretation of the offered gold
as signifying recognition of His kingship, the frankincense of His
deity, and the myrrh of His death, is so beautiful that one would fain
wish it true. But it cannot pretend to be more than a fancy. We are on
surer ground when we see in the gifts the choicest products of the land
of the Magi, and learn the lesson that the true recognition of Christ
will ever be attended by the spontaneous surrender to Him of our best.
These gifts would not be of much use to Mary. If there had been a
'practical man' among the Magi, he might have said, 'What is the use of
giving such things to such a household?' And it would have been
difficult to have answered. But love does not calculate, and the impulse
which leads to consecrate the best we have to Him is acceptable in His
sight.
This earliest page in the gospel history is a prophecy of the latest.
These are the first-fruits of the Gentiles unto Christ. They bear 'in
their hands a glass which showeth many more,' who at last will come like
them to the King of the whole earth. 'They shall bring gold and incense;
and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.' There were Gentiles
at the cradle and at the cross. The Magi learned the lessons which the
East especially needed, of power in weakness, royalty in lowliness.
Incarnation not in monstrous forms or with destructive attributes, but
in feeble infancy which passes through the ordinary stages of
development. The Greeks who sought to see Jesus when near the hour of
His death, learned the lesson for want of which their nation's culture
rotted away, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone' So these two groups, one at the beginning, the other at
the end, one from the mysterious East, the other from the progressive
and cultured West, received each a half of the completed truth, the
gospel of Incarnation and Sacrifice, and witness to the sufficiency of
Christ for all human needs, and to the coming of the time when all the
races of men shall gather round the throne to which cradle and cross
have exalted Him, and shall recognise in Him the Prince of all the kings
of the earth, and the Lamb slain for the sins of the world.