These two verses summarize who, when, where and what of today’s focal passage. The personalities were Jesus, the Wise Men, and Herod. The human focus is on the wise men or Magi, but Jesus is the main person even though He was a small child at the time. The wise men, who did not know Jesus, were seeking the King of the Jews.

Who were these wise men? Tradition calls them kings. Some traditions even give them the names of Melchior, Caspar, and Belthasar. The idea that they were kings probably came from Ps. 72:10-11. Actually, they were a combination of priests and astrologers or astronomers. In the East they were from a class highly regarded by kings as counselors and predictors of future events. They came from the East, probably from Persia or Babylon.

Actually, we don’t know who they were, where they came from or even how many of them there were. Why not? Why doesn’t Matthew tell us any of this information? I’m not sure I know with certainty, but I’d suggest that all of this detail is left out of the picture in order that the full emphasis may be placed on the one thing that is central to this story, namely their statement, ‘We have come to worship." And as we look at what Matthew tells us about these men, although they may have been strange, they really were wise men.

And the challenge for us today, is whether we will be wise men and women. I believe that wise men still seek Him. Wise men still serve Him and wise men still worship Him. The Greek word translated "worship" means to pay homage to a person worthy of respect. Worshipping Jesus is appropriate because He is God. Matthew stressed that Jesus came to save all people who would believe on Him.

We don’t know how far they traveled, but it is likely that they came from 500 to 1000 miles away. It was a long and difficult trip across the desert. Give these men credit. They really wanted to come and worship Jesus. They were serious seekers.

They assumed that Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jewish people, was the right place to come to gather information. They did not realize how threatened the current king, Herod the Great, would feel by news of a potential rival.

Now contrast the Magi with the chief priests and teachers of the law. They were not the least bit interested. They didn’t care about the star. And they wouldn’t travel 6 little miles down the road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to check out what was happening. They knew the right answers. They just weren’t willing to make the effort to see if what they had heard was true.

So we find today people in this world, where churches are open to go to with out cost or fear that are indifferent to the message of Christmas. There were many that celebrated Christmas without any mention or thought of Christ. Many schools have outlawed the Christmas story. For many Christmas was only a day of eating and watching T.V. Though many churches in our community had special Christmas services they were not packed to the full with people.

Japanese folklore tells of a rice farmer whose land overlooked the village where his friends lived. While working in his rice paddies one day, he felt a quake and saw the distant ocean swiftly withdraw from the shoreline. He knew there would soon be a devastating tidal wave. In the valley below, he saw his neighbors working fields that soon would be flooded. They would have to run to his hilltop or die. His rice barns were dry as tinder. To get the people quickly to higher ground, the farmer set fire to his barns and then rang the fire gong. His neighbors saw the smoke and rushed up the hill to help him. When they looked back from their place of safety, they saw the tidal wave wash over the fields they had just left. Instantly they understood. The farmer had made a great sacrifice that they might be saved.

God made even a greater sacrifice for our eternal salvation. At the news of Jesus’ birth Herod was troubled and the religious leaders were unresponsive but there were wise men who traveled afar to worship Him. John Fiegel pointed out that the reason they wore red suspenders and were called firemen was because they had just come from "afar."

Let me give you a little background about this gospel at this point. Matthew is writing this gospel to Jewish people who are living away from Israel. His purpose is to convince them that Jesus is the Christ predicted in the O.T. That’s why he makes so many references to it. And what he is saying to these people to who he is writing is that they should be like the magi, not like the Jewish religious leaders. Wise men still seek Him. Check Him out. Do what ever it takes to convince your self that Jesus really was born King of the Jews, to be our personal Savior. Wise men and women still seek Him.

The coming of the wise men had deep, long-range significance. They were the first Gentiles to seek and worship the new King. Thus they were the first in a vast harvest of Gentiles to worship Jesus. They were from the upper class of well-educated people of their land. Thus they complement the worship of the lowly Jewish shepherds who were the first to see the newborn king. Thus both poor Jewish shepherds and educated pagan Gentiles came to worship Jesus.

Yet some still react to the birth of Jesus and all it means with indifference and concern, even as did the chief priests and scribes.

While attending a university in London, Mahatma Gandhi, Hindu nationalist leader, and socialist reformer, was almost convinced that the Christian religion was the true supernatural religion of the world. After graduation while he was still seeking evidence that would make him a committed Christian, he was employed in East Africa. For seven months he lived in a home with people who wee members of an evangelical Christian church. He thought he would surely find the evidence he sought here.

As the months passed, he saw their casual attitude toward the cause of God, he heard them complain when called upon to make a sacrifice for the kingdom of God, and he sensed their general religious apathy. His interest in Christianity turned to disappointment. He said,
"No, it is just one more of the many religions of the world."

In our next passage, we see three reactions to the birth of Jesus, and these three reactions have been repeated over and over again throughout history and are still repeated today.

Herod the king gives us an example of the reaction of "hostility." The chief priests and scribes portrayed the attitude of "indifference", and the magi give an example of the attitude of worship.

King Herod considered himself to be the only ruler over the Jews. When he heard about the Magi’s looking for a new king, he was very disturbed. In fact, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were troubled over the sudden appearance of these foreigners. Apparently Herod was familiar with the Jewish hope of a promised Messiah, so he called a meeting of experts—the chief priests and teachers of the law. Herod asked them for information regarding the birthplace of the Christ. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah.

These students of the O.T. wee familiar with the prophesy of Micah 5:2 that identifies Bethlehem as the Messiah’s birthplace. According to Micah, the Messiah would be a ruler who would lead His people like a shepherd. That is, He would guide, protect, and nurture—be a servant ruler. Later, Jesus would describe Himself in John 10:11,15 as the Good Shepherd who came to lay down His life for the sheep. Such a reign would be quite the opposite of King Herod’s. He was a cruel, ruthless, self-serving tyrant.

Herod had been king of the Jews for 33 years. During his ruthless reign, he was constantly on guard against anyone taking his power from him. He became so paranoid that he killed anyone even suspected of having part in a plot against him. He had some of his own sons executed. His ruthlessness was known far and wide. Caesar Augustus quipped that he had rather be Herod’s pig than his son. The people of Jerusalem feared another blood bath growing out of Herod’s fears.

Herod feared someone else taking over his universe over which he had ruled. He need not have feared Jesus because Jesus did not aspire to be a political ruler. In fact, Jesus came to save sinners. If Herod had accepted this before he went out into eternity, he could have been saved.

Herod perceived that this new king could threaten his security as ruler over the Jews, so he quickly devised a plan to eliminate this potential rival. He arranged to meet secretly with the Magi, to find out the exact time the star had appeared to them. From their response he calculated how old this child-king would be and later in Matt. 2:16 ordered a mass slaughter of all male infants in Bethlehem and the surrounding area who were "two years old and under." This fact has led many students to conclude that Jesus was at least a year old when the Magi came.

Herod believed the religious leaders and assumed Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Christ, just as Micah had predicted. Herod immediately sent the Magi to make a careful search for the child. His deceitful instructions to the Magi were to report the location of this infant so he might go and worship him. Of course, as subsequent actions proved, this wicked ruler planned to destroy Jesus, not worship Him. Such blatant hypocrisy reveals the wickedness of this jealous ruler. Unfortunately, Herod was not the first or the last of those who use religion as a means for selfish ambitions.

Persons today who, like Herod, pretend to be sincere seekers after God but use their pretense as a cover for personal gain are in grave danger of God’s judgment. We must avoid all pretenses regarding our relationship with God. After all, He has perfect knowledge of our motives: we can never deceive Him. Therefore, our worship of Him must be sincere—in spirit and in truth.

Why did the wise men not see through Herod’s pretense? They apparently did not know his murderous reputation. They were honest, trusting men; they assumed Herod was the same kind of person. If he said he wanted to worship the new King, they believed him. Of course Herod had a long history of lies and deceit: therefore, he found it easy to trick these foreigners. He no doubt spoke the words of Vs. 8 with apparent sincerity. However, we know he was lying. He is an example of people who violently oppose the cause of Christ, and he is also an example of the kind of pretense to avoid in worship. The sincerity of the wise men stands in stark contrast to the evil motives of Herod.

Notice that even though the religious leaders correctly interpreted Micah’s prophecy regarding the location of the birthplace of the Christ, they did not join the Magi in seeking to find Him. How sad that these who were so familiar with the Scriptures missed the fulfillment of the very promises they taught to others. He is a warning to all teachers of the Word. There is always the possibility of knowing the facts of the Bible but missing the application of those facts.

Students of the Word must also be doers of the Word. The chief priests and teachers of the law were well know for their knowledge of God’s truth, but their hearts were so insensitive to God’s Spirit that they failed to recognize His activity among them. They are typical of those who know about Christ and the need to worship Him, but they do nothing with this knowledge.

Many mysteries remain about the star and its movements. Did it first appear on the day of the birth of the King of the Jews? Did it move or stand still? Did it first lead the wise men to Jerusalem? Did it disappear or remain over Jerusalem? Vs. 9 is the first time the star is actually said to move. The text leaves open the question of whether or not it had moved previously. If it had not, this would explain why the Magi had managed to get only as far as Jerusalem. They may have seen the star above Israel and assumed that its ruler would be born in the capital. But regardless of how much the star had traveled, its motion here seems to require a supernatural event. What we do know is that the star went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.