Out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel

 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."  When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.'"

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also."

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.   And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.  And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him:  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

- Matthew 2:1-12

On Saturday, we began readings for the Christmas season in Matthew's Gospel.  It begins as the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:  Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his bothers.  Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.  Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.  Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.  Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rebhoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa.  Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joam, and Joram begot Uzziah.  Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah.  Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah.  Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.  And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakin, and Eliakin begot Azor.  Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Eliud.  Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob.  And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.  So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.  Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:  After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.  Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.  But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:  "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God is with us."  Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.  And he called His name JESUS.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem . . .  My study bible explains that these wise men, or magi, who have come from the East (most likely Persia), were the scholars of their time.  It says that in the Old Testament, Balaam (Numbers 23; 24) was one of their predecessors.  He was a Gentile who anticipated the Messiah.  These foreigners prefigure the Church, in which membership isn't determined by ethnic origin, but by faith.

 . . . saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him."  My study bible says, "The star proclaims the extraordinary birth of Christ.  To ancient pagans, a star signified a god, a deified king (Numbers 24:17).  Christ being born under this star fulfills the prophecy in Psalm 109:3 and shows all of creation participating in the Incarnation."  In the translation used by my study bible  this verse reads:  With you is the beginning in the day of Your power, In the brightness of Your saints; "I have begotten You from the womb before the morning star."  (It corresponds to Psalm 110 in the King James Version, and also the Douay-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate.)   See also Psalms 18:2 and 148:3 for other examples. 

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.  So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:  'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'  Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also."   My study bible tells us that Herod had to summon the Jewish leaders because he knew little about the Jewish Messiah (not being born a Jew himself), and he feared losing his throne to the newborn king.  The chief priests, it says, were the political and religious leaders of the Jews, and the scribes were high cabinet officers.  They knew where the Messiah was to be born.  But in spite of all of the signs being in place, they had no idea that He had come (see 16:3).

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.   And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.  And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him:  gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.  My study bible points out that Luke tells us the shepherds worshiped the Savior in the cave on the day He was born (a cave is where the manger was, the place for animals by Near East tradition -- see the reading for Thursday, Christmas day), the Gentile magi came to worship Him some time later.  By this time, suggests my study bible, Joseph and Mary had found a house in which to dwell.  It says, "This indicates that Christ first came to the Jews and then afterward was worshiped by the Gentiles.  The significance of the Magi's gifts is revealed in a hymn sung at Compline of the Nativity:  'Gold is for the King of ages.  Frankincense is for the God of all.  Myrrh is offered to the Immortal One, who shall be three days dead.'"

As we observed in the earlier readings for the Christmas season, from the beginning two chapters of Luke and also chapter 1 of Matthew, there is so much activity viewed in the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, the activity that surrounds the event of the Christ being born Incarnate into the world.  Again, we refer to the prophecy of Joel:  "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28).  All is surrounded in these stories of the birth of Christ by visions, prophecy, dreams.  The appearance of angels (messengers of God) accompany every event.  Here in today's reading, the "wise men" come from the East.  They are scholars learned in the knowledge of the time; we imagine this particularly includes astronomy.  Their great wealth they bring with them as gifts indicates rather exalted positions in the place where they are from.  Gold we know has always had value, but the trade of resins used for incense in courts and temples was an extremely lucrative one; the earliest trade routes we know from the historical Middle and Near East were originally made for the trade of the best rare incenses; that is, resins such as Frankincense and Myrrh.  These are gifts made for a king.  As my study bible points out, here we are given a story of Gentiles coming to worship this king, who is not just a king in the ordinary sense, but one who is anointed, proclaimed by the heavens in the star.  He is the Christ.  Others from far away know this, but all the wisdom entrusted to the Jewish leadership in the temple has not produced men of this generation in their high positions who know this.  Matthew's Gospel, written for a Jewish audience, proclaims the wisdom of the outsiders, these men from the East.  And there we have to look -- again -- at the whole participation of creation in this birth.  The star teaches something to the men from the East, who come to worship this king with great gifts, but we have already read of the glory of the Lord shining round the shepherds in the field, and the work of the Spirit that has been present through so many people made aware of this great event.  And then there is Herod.  Herod the Great, a ferocious builder of wondrous projects known to all the world (such as the restoration of the temple), and a ferociously ruthless leader, known also as someone who murders his family members for power, comes into this story.  He's the king of Judea who is not really a Jew and has been imposed by the ruling Romans.  He brings with him the image of the Gentiles who "lord it over one another" in ways that are appalling to the Jewish spiritual tradition, but in the most bloodthirsty fashion, considered extreme even among other rulers of the time.  And this is somehow part of the plan, that Jesus is born at this place and in this time.  There are yet obstacles to be considered.  But dreams come, and dreams come.  Those with ears to hear and eyes to see can receive such dreams, and Joseph, we will see, is also one of those people who can receive the word of angels.  But today we have the image of the wise men of the East, those who know, who somehow through their own systems of knowledge receive word of this king born who is to be worshiped.  They know.  And to the early Church Gentiles who had all come from pagan backgrounds, it made perfect sense that this revelation of the Christ should be the fulfillment of all traditions that bear truth, wisdom, and true knowledge in the highest esteem.  For the early doctors of the Church, the most renown of which were schooled in the highest education the classical world could offer in mathematics and especially philosophy, this made sense; if we worship the Person who is Truth ("I am the way, the truth, and the life"), then all that serves truth, beauty, and goodness (to use a phrase from the ancient Greek philosophers) must also serve Christ.  He was the fullness of revelation coming to all that had come before, including the best in the Gentile world, reaching to Him.  This is the way our earlier ancestors who took up the faith viewed Christ, just as the magi could come from their own traditions and recognize this king coming into the world.  Let us remember the light is everywhere, and the glory of the Lord participates through all of Creation to teach us, to help us reach the place where we ought to be going.  What's your journey like?  Do you have ears to hear and eyes to see?  These pagan Gentiles know that the Babe born here in Bethlehem is the king worth seeking from far away, for a long journey into the unknown, even to the country of a ruthless ruler.   They go to Him offering the most precious gifts they can give.  They have faith.  Let us take their example and let it teach us about Christ and God's work in the world.