Notes on Matthew 2.1-12 Epiphany Sunday January 5

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Written by: Dale

Category: Notes on the Gospel readings from Matthew

Created: 30 December 2013

Notes on Matthew 2.1-12  Epiphany Sunday  January 5

Five groups of people feature in this passage.

1.  The Magi: They were astronomers and astrologers from somewhere east of Judah, maybe Persia, or Babylon, we don’t know.  They are very impressed with a new star they see in the sky. They think it is connected with a new king of the Jews. So significant is it that they travel to pay their respects to the new king. They travel to the Jewish capital, ask directions and are told to go to Bethlehem. When they find the child they offer gifts and show their respect by bowing down and giving worship. The gifts are nit symbolic. They are just very good gifts appropriate to a foreign king.

Notice that the star does not provide them with enough information. It just starts them off on their search. They need help from the people in Jerusalem who know the story of the Messiah. The worship of the child is also very elementary. They don’t know much. There is much more to learn about this king. Later others will take the whole story of the King Jesus to their land, and from there it will be taken further east as far as China.

2. Herod the Great: was a great builder. He was also very cruel and ruthless. When he hears that the Magi are looking of a new king of the Jews, he connects this with the Messiah. He asks the scholars about where the Messiah is to be born. He does this privately. He also speak to the Magi privately. He wants them to find the child and tell him. He says he wants to worship the child, but he really wants to kill him (2.16). He is simply opposed to any rule but his own (like all human beings).

3. The Religious Scholars: the chief priests and the teachers of the law are asked where the Messiah is to be born. They know the prophecy of Micah. They also know what the Magi are searching for, because all of Jerusalem knows. But they don’t seem to have any interest in connecting the two things. They don’t seem to be interested in the birth of the Messiah. They seem happily caught up in their own religious world. As though their religious action and knowledge was an end in itself. They may be like the person who thinks, “What we know is all we need to know.”

4. The child Jesus (and Mary his mother): although he doesn’t say anything the child is the centre of the story. He attracts:

• respect and worship from the foreigners
• deadly opposition from Herod the ruler
• passive non- interest from the religious leaders

But according to Micah, he is the ruler who will shepherd God’s people. The Messiah, God’s anointed ruler and saviour.

5. The readers: We are part of this story too.  As we hear the story, we need to decide what we will do about it.  Will we:

• passively ignore it, leave it in its Christmas box
• be hostile to this king, even in a polite way
• pay our respects, but keep our independence
• do what the Magi pointed us to: to worship him with our life

Dale

Worthwhile worship Matthew 2.1-12

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Written by: Dale

Category: Christmas and Epiphany

Created: 29 December 2013

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Worthwhile worship Matthew 2.1-12

Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 29 December 2013

How four different groups responded to the birth of the Messiah child

Do you want a Saviour Messiah Lord? Luke 2.1-14

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Written by: Dale

Category: Christmas and Epiphany

Created: 25 December 2013

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Do you want a Saviour Messiah Lord? Luke 2.1-14

Sermon preached at the Christmas midnight service at Christ the King Willetton 2013

Is this story unbelievable? Is it meant to be unbelievable? Who might believe it?

The Star 29 Dec 13

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Written by: Dale

Category: Weekly Reflections

Created: 22 December 2013

The Star

Around 1600 Johannes Kepler worked out the mathematical mystery of the orbit of the planets.  He thought they rotated around the sun in perfect circles, but his observations led him to the view that they traveled in elliptical orbits. Once he had discovered this he then worked out the mathematical equations that could describe the path of the planets at any time and from any viewpoint on earth.

Kepler was a believer and he started to calculate what planets could have been seen from Mesopotamia at the time of Jesus’ birth. He was hindered because he did not know the exact year of Jesus’ birth.  And his calculations took a long time.

Nowadays with computer programs it is fairly easy to have a picture of the night sky for any night of the year in any place.  And back in about 6 or 7 BC it seems that there were conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn (three times some say) and  Mars joined in too. So astronomers (or astrologers as they probably were) would have sat up and taken notice. Their own theories about these planets may have led them to believe the conjunction  indicated an important ruler was to be born.  But they may also have heard prophecies from the Jewish community which indicated that they were expecting a ruler that their prophecies referred to as a star (Num 24.17).

So was God giving the Magi a secret message?

Read more: The Star 29 Dec 13

Notes on Matthew 2.13-23 Sunday after Christmas 29 December 2013

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Written by: Dale

Category: Notes on the Gospel readings from Matthew

Created: 22 December 2013

Notes on Matthew 2.13-23 Sunday after Christmas   29 December 2013

This story follows the story of the Magi. Unfortunately the Lectionary has changed the order of the stories to fit the Church Calendar. The story of the Magi is connected to the Epiphany.  We will read it next week.

This story shows the danger that Jesus and his parents were in. Herod ordered that all the boys in Bethlehem less than two years old were to be killed. He did not want any rivals to his rule. The grief reminds Matthew of the reference to grief in Jeremiah 31. His readers might also remember what else was said in Jeremiah 31. God made great promises of salvation and rescue in that chapter. Promises that came true in the life of Jesus.

Jesus and his parents fled to Egypt. They stayed there until Herod died. Matthew links this with the time when Israel was in Egypt. In both cases God called his son out of Egypt. Jesus will have his own “exodus” at the cross when he rescues his people from sin and death.

The second part of the passage is about Jesus’ return from Egypt. The family does not want to go back to Judea because of Herod’s son, Archelaus. So they head to Nazareth.  Jesus is therefore known as a “Nazarene”. In this case it has the idea of an unimportant place. An out-of-the-way place. A person who came from there would not be famous. They would be despised.

This fits the whole of these early chapters of Matthew. The Messiah is despised and rejected right form the start.
Dale

The Saviour's Rest Matthew 1

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Written by: Dale

Category: Christmas and Epiphany

Created: 22 December 2013

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The Saviour's Rest  Matthew 1

Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 22 December 2013

Bible Readings: Isaiah 40.9-11; Romans 1.1-7; Matthew 1.18-25; Matthew 11.25-31

God comes to be with ordinary folk, as in the genealogy, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth etc. He comes as the Lord who tends his flock and calls his people to come to him and find rest.