The Visit of the Wise Men (Matthew 2)

It is common on Christmas cards to see the wise men and the shepherds visiting the newly born infant lying in a manger. Yet it is very unlikely that the wise men visited Jesus and his parents on that date, or even within a few weeks of his birth. Can we say when Jesus was born? We know that Herod died in 4BC, so Jesus must have been born in about 6BC if we add the two years deduced by Herod since the wise men initially saw the star. What else can we say about this visit?

To try and work out an order of events connected to the birth of Jesus we must compare Matthew’s account with that of Luke. If we do so, we will see that Luke says that Joseph and Mary went to live in Nazareth after they had performed various requirements of the Jewish law. What Luke does not include in his account is why the family went back to Nazareth. Matthew tells us why they went to live in Nazareth. We can work out from the two accounts that the visit of the wise men and the flight to Egypt took place after the period required by the Jewish law for obeying its rituals and before the family went to live in Nazareth. We can add to this detail the information that the wise men visited the family in a house in Bethlehem, which could indicate that the family had decided initially to stay on there.

What else is Matthew doing in this chapter of his Gospel? It is not difficult to see that he is contrasting two kings. One of the kings is Herod and the other king is Jesus. In the Gospel by Matthew, Herod receives a few verses in one chapter whereas the story of Jesus requires the whole book. In this way Matthew is showing how much greater Jesus is. Maybe he is wanting his readers to observe that the rule of Herod involves cruelty and deceit, whereas the reign of Jesus includes blessing and truth. Herod was known as the builder of the temple which disappeared whereas Jesus is known as the builder of the church that will last forever. Herod’s death is not even described (he died shortly after the terrible events he organised in Bethlehem) by Matthew because neither his life or death helped anyone, but it is the opposite with regard to Jesus.

One of the obvious matters detailed in this incident is the way that the coming of Jesus brought blessings to Gentiles. This had been predicted in the Old Testament as one of the things that the Messiah would do. Probably most people would have expected this to happen after the Messiah had commenced serving God as an adult. Matthew wants his readers to know that blessing came to Gentiles from the early days of the life of Jesus. Presumably they told people about the arrival of Jesus when they returned to their homes.

Another detail that Matthew brings to the attention of his readers was the state of organised religion in Israel at that time. Why were the leaders not excited about the birth of the Saviour? They showed no interest despite knowing the fact that travellers had come saying that they had supernatural information about the birth of a special King. Instead of going with the wise men, they stayed where they were and presumably never had another opportunity of meeting Jesus.

The wise men

It has been pointed out that in general the church experiences the truth that Paul says when he writes to the Corinthians that not many wise by human estimation worship Jesus. Yet sometimes there are exceptions and here we have one of them because some wise men came to worship Jesus. You may be interested to know that Chrysostom says there were fourteen of them.

In fact, we do not know how many of them there were, or where they came from, or how old they were. Apparently, the notion that there were three of them comes from Psalm 72:10 which mentions that the kings of Tarshish, and of the Isles, and of Sheba would worship the Messiah. Of course, that interpretation was based on the prior assumption that the wise men were kings, which is not credible.

In ancient times, there were three types of religious leaders: prophets, priests and wise men. We have an example of wise men in the Book of Job and in that book we can see that they had some knowledge of God and his ways. The wise men that came to see Jesus came from the east and so did Job and his friends. Of course, the east covers a big area and some people think that the wise men came from as far away as Persia and were astrologers. This would suggest that they had travelled quite a distance. The point is that we do not know where they came from.

In contrast to our lack of knowledge of where they came from, we can say that we know where they were going to. They were travelling to meet the Messiah. Wherever they came from, they thought that it was essential that they make the journey to see Jesus. What prompted them to come was a special heavenly body, which could indicate that they studied the heavens.

What was the star? Some say a comet, others that it was caused by the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces in the year 7 BC. Some say it was like the pillar of fire that led Israelites through the desert, others that it was like the Shekinah because it could stop over places. Maybe it was invisible to others, otherwise Herod could have followed it. The wise men recognised its significance through, as Calvin says, a secret revelation of the Spirit.

What did they know about Jesus? Their question to Herod indicates that they knew three things: first, they knew he was King of the Jews; second, they knew that he had been born; and third, they knew that he was divine because they wanted to worship him. So we can see that they knew that he was royal, that he was human, and that he was divine, which is an extraordinary set of details for people from such a background to have. Clearly here we have a marvellous example of the incredible way that the Lord can provide illumination in those who are spiritually ignorant.

Jerusalem

It looks as if the arrival of the wise men caused quite a stir, which suggests that they were more than three in number. Probably the people in Jerusalem were concerned about what the Romans might do if they heard that people were speaking about another king, which would be regarded as a threat to their authority.

The response of Herod is strange because he had an interest in the details of the Bible accompanied by no interest in its message. He accepted that the Bible spoke accurately with regard to this prophecy, but he had no love for what it predicted, and indeed imagined that somehow he could overrule God’s revealed plan for the Messiah. Of course, he is not the only one to hold such a contradiction.

The priests and the scribes had a different response. While they knew what the Lord had predicted through Micah about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem, they did not think that he had been born at that time. They may have had different reasons for thinking so, including the assumption that the Messiah would only appear in a glorious manner, and that when he did he would appear to help Jews.

What did the prophecy say about Jesus? First, it was a reminder that the Messiah would come from the line of David, who was connected to Bethlehem. Second, the Messiah would be kind and gracious to God’s people – he would act like a shepherd in providing for them and protecting them from their enemies. Third, the Messiah would bring unity to God’s people – when Micah had given the prediction, they were divided into Judah and Israel. Those details were pointers to how the Messiah would govern his kingdom. They would be fulfilled in ways far beyond what the original listeners would have thought, but they would create an expectation in Matthew’s readers as to how Jesus would do this.

Bethlehem to Egypt

The wise men were guided by the star right to where Jesus was. Its guidance brought them great joy. Matthew stresses that they did not worship Mary, but only worshipped the child Jesus. Three gifts were given, and they indicated the resources of the wise men. Moreover, the gifts were of practical benefit and would help the family in different ways over the next while.

The family of Jesus were not allowed by God to stay any longer in Bethlehem. It looks as if the wise men left that evening, and that God appeared to Joseph in a dream that night with an instruction that he leave immediately because of the threat of Herod. Bethlehem was only six miles from Jerusalem and it would not take Herod long to send his soldiers. So Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

What are we to make of the actions of Herod? They were desperate, depraved and devilish. His murder of the children was an attempt to preserve his place in society. If we knew about his treatment of his family, we would not be surprised at his action. He murdered some of his sons and poisoned one of his wives. Moreover, before he died he arranged for 1,500 people to be executed in order that there would be a sense of sadness at his death. He knew that people would not mourn for him, so he tried to get them to mourn in general. Fortunately, this intention was not carried out after he died.

The family were not in Egypt for long before Herod died. Initially, Joseph thought of returning to Bethlehem, but decided not to go because he was aware of the character of Archelaus, the son of Herod, who also was known for his cruelty. So God guided Joseph to go back to Nazareth and live there.

So as a young child aged about two or three, Jesus was taken to live in Nazareth. We may wonder at the two Old Testament usages that Matthew makes in this connection. The first is to a statement in Hosea that originally applied to Israel when God took them out of Egypt after a long period of trouble. Matthew indicates that there is a similarity between the experience of Israel and of Jesus. But he is saying more – he is also saying that there is an identity between Jesus and his people.

The second is in verse 23 where Matthew says that the prophets predicted that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. What does he mean by that comment because we know that there is not a specific prophecy that says so? First, he says that the name Nazarene is one way of stating what the prophets said in general about Jesus. Second, the name connects him to Nazareth, but in a derogatory way, signifying obscurity. Third, Matthew knows that he can link the term to a word that means branch, which in Isaiah 11:1 balances the dignity of David’s line with him being only a stump, and yet a branch. So Matthew means that Jesus, although he was of the royal line, would grow up in obscurity, which is what the prophets said about him.

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The story in this chapter began with Gentiles travelling to visit Jesus and closes with him travelling to escape from those who would attempt to harm him. Matthew reminds us that the birth of Jesus brought him worship, danger, flight and obscurity. Yet he was still the promised Deliverer and Matthew will go on to show us how that came about.