Matthew 2:1-23
What strikes me as I read:
WISEMEN
-The wise men came to worship. They were not Jews but through their own
faith and understanding God led them to Jesus.
- They didn’t really know WHO they were worshipping. This
was a huge leap of faith for them. They didn’t know what kind of king this
might be or what kind of ruler. But they came anyway. May that be our faith as
well….not knowing where God may lead or even how exactly God is working, we can
still come in trust. And even risk in
trust.
- The wise men
“rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (v10) when they saw the star that lead to
Jesus. Their long journey was over and their risk rewarded. I am sure that
there were many in their lives that saw them as crazy or saw their journey as
ruinous to their careers or their social standing. But they felt compelled by
the TRUTH of what they saw. They were
convinced by their calculations that a star was leading them to a new king in
Jerusalem so they went to see him. And they were rewarded by a king that is
much better and more expansive than they thought.
They took a huge leap of faith and that is the same kind of
faith that we are called to have. We are
basing our faith and our lives on a book…..the Bible. On the testimony of
people long passed who testified of this king who will take away the sins of
the world. That is our star. May we
follow it to Jesus and have great joy!!
MASSACRE
As a father of a two year old this massacre just really hit
me. How terrible! Just thinking of that happening to my son is something beyond
horrifying, but families around the world deal with exactly that kind of thing
today. They deal with those in power sacrificing their children to protect
their interests, whether from ISIL, or Boko Haram, or other groups around the
world that will sacrifice innocents for their cause. Children are often the ones sacrificed and
they are often the main casualties of humanities sin, greed, fear, avarice,
etc…. Whether it is children drowning while fleeing war in Syria, or street
kids living on scraps, to child soldiers and children sold into slavery, to
children killed on our streets by police, and gang violence, in our homes by neglect and domestic abuse. Children that are forgotten by our parents,
and school systems, and forgotten in foster homes and in the system. Lost children that we give up hope on.
And Christ was such a child.
Christ was born into this kind of environment.
Christ’s parents were refugees, fleeing violence in their
homeland. Christ spend the first five years of his life a refugee and even
after Herod’s death could not return home.
This gives us hope that when Jesus says “come to me all the little
children and do not hinder them” he knows first hand what that means. And he
also will judge those who harm children and deal with them like Herod.
JOSEPH
So often Joseph just fades into the background of the
Biblical story but here we see that Joseph is the leader in protecting his
family. He is the one receiving the angelic visions and he is the one actively
responding and doing what was needed to protect his family. There are many
reasons I am sure why Matthew shows that all the angelic visions were given to
joseph and not Mary,…. And there were many. From the narrative it looks like
Joseph was visited often by an Angel and that he responded quickly and
decisively each time. No doubt. No questioning. No second guessing. He heard
and responded. So no matter why Matthew
emphasized that Joesph received the visions I appreciate how this elevates
Josephs role in the story. We get this picture of a man of faith who is
convinced of his sons mission and committed to his family and his Lord. He is really just as crucial a character as
Mary, especially at this point in the story.
What stood out to you in your reading?
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