RCL Year A: Epiphany of the Lord, Matthew 2:1-2

Revised Common Lectionary: Year A Epiphany of the Lord

January 6, 2023

Lectionary Texts

Highlighted Text: Matthew 2:1-12

Summary of the Text

Preaching Angle: Irony

When we discover a bit of irony in life, we feel like we’ve struck gold. When we stumble upon a bit of irony in Scripture, it’s holy gold! Maybe you read this sentence and didn’t notice it right away: “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” (Matthew 2:1 ESV). Did you notice the irony this time? Herod is the king who “rules over” Israel, but is that the true King of Israel?

No!

Read the very next verse. “saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2 ESV). To whom where these wise men asking their question? Matthew doesn’t tell us, but in verse three, Matthew writes, “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled” (2:3 ESV). In effect, the wise men came to Herod (a certain type of king) and asked him, “Where’s the King? No, the real king.” That’s rich irony! The presence and question of the wise men were troubling to Herod, for he knew that his grip and rule over God’s people was being challenged. But by whom was Herod being challenged? A baby!

That’s almost laughable. If Herod would have felt the need to garner assistance from someone above him within the Roman hierarchy, would he have said, “There was a baby born whom some traveling wise men called, ‘the King of the Jews’. I need your help”? What God was doing was foolishness to the Gentiles, but God’s work through the birth of His Son was still a challenge to those who used their authority for oppression, and they knew it.

Preaching Angle: Sovereign King meets Corrupt Earthly King

The thrust of the overall passage is the sovereign plan of God coming to fruition—in other words, God’s Kingdom is coming on earth as it is in heaven. We can see this through Matthew’s incorporation of Jesus’ birth during the reign of King Herod, coupled with the fulfillment of the prophecy from Micah 5:2. God is fulfilling His great plan of redemption by bringing onto the scene major and unique characters: King Herod, Wise men from the East, prophets from of old, God’s people in Jerusalem, and more. And it’s through these important characters, or rather, to these important characters, that God sends His Son. He send His Son to them (in the incarnation) and them to His Son, for they come to Jerusalem, looking for the King of the Jews in order to worship Him (2:2).

Preaching Angle: Super-duper Joy Leads to Worship

After being consulted by the corrupt King Herod, the wise men depart for Bethlehem, and they encounter once more the star which had previously started them on their journey to the true King of the Jews. Matthew writes, “When [the wise men] saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (ESV; GK: echarēsan charan megalēn sphodra). If Matthew simply wanted to say that they rejoiced, he could have said “they rejoiced” (chairēsan), but he added three intensifiers to express their exceeding joy, which could be paraphrased as “they really super-duper hugely rejoiced!” Now, that’s non-technical, but let the reader understand that the wise men had likely experienced a joy that they had never experienced before. And what was the consequence of their joy? Their joy led them to worship their true King.

Matthew writes in 2:11-12 that the wise men come to the Christ child, they worship him, and they give Him their treasures. The experience of the wise men shows us a Gospel rhythm: we encounter Christ, we are filled with joy, we worship, and out of our great joy, we give Him our treasures. We recognize that it’s Christ Himself who is our greatest treasure. When we worship Christ, we are filled with joy, and rather than horde the good things that He Himself has given us, we return them to Him. When Christ gives us faith, He also gives us the greatest joy we have ever experienced; and that joy leads us to worship Him, which is what we were created for all along.

Dustin grew up in Springfield, MO later graduating from Evangel University and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, studying Biblical Hebrew and Greek, Theology, and ancient history.

He and his wife, Debbie, married in 2009 and have three children: Abigail, Judah, and Ezra. Dustin still rides BMX bikes, listens to hardcore music, loves research and writing, and enjoys helping his family seek and savor King Jesus.

Sermon Resources

Key Quotes

Are you wise enough to find Jesus in the Bible? The wise men had to travel a long distance to find him, but no one has to travel a long distance today. The Bible says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming” (Rom. 10:6–8). Jesus is present in the gospel, and whoever calls on him will be saved.

James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001; vol 1, p. 34.

and

The gifts [that the wise men brought to Jesus] are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ like this, it’s a way of saying, “The joy that I pursue (verse 10!) is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things, in the hope of enjoying you more, not things. By giving to you what you do not need, and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, ‘You are my treasure, not these things.’ ” I think that’s what it means to worship God with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999); “We Have Come to Worship Him,” (December 21, 1997). Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2007.

Key Illustration

“Little” Details

Have you ever thought about the fact that the Bible records some of the most important events in the history of the world? Think about these events: Creation; the Flood; the Exodus; the rise and fall of Babylon, Assyria, and Persia, the Exile; Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, Pentecost, and many more. If you were to write about these history making, world changing events, how would you describe them? Take a close look at how Matthew describes Jesus’ birth; it may surprise you. He writes in Matthew 1:25, “but [Joseph] knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus” (ESV). Matthew doesn’t even write a full verse about Jesus’ birth; it’s just tacked onto the end of a sentence, almost like an afterthought. Does that strike you as strange? Now, I’m not criticizing Matthew, and I’m definitely not criticizing God whose word this is. It just strikes me (and maybe you) as an unexpected way of describing the birth of the world’s Savior.

I find it striking, and I think this is part of Matthew’s point, is that the bare fact of Jesus’ birth (although clearly important) is shown less in a description of his birth and more aptly in its consequences. In other words, Jesus didn’t come to the world just to be here; He came to bring His Kingdom to earth and accomplish His purposes in our lives. This is what we see taking place in Matthew 2 (and the rest of Matthew’s gospel). When Jesus is born, wise men take notice! When Jesus is born, Kings, like Herod, take notice. Herod is a person of great importance, and he takes notice because he knows, deep down, that Jesus is a different sort of person, and Jesus might be a danger to his power.

But lowly people take notice of Jesus’ birth, too, because it affects them, too. Luke records the shepherds’ response to the notice that Jesus has been born (Luke 2:8-21). Shepherds were regular, lowly folk, like most of the people in Jesus’ day, but it was to them that the angel made the greatest announcement anyone had ever received. And when they hear and later reflect on the announcement, they’re filled with joy and awe.

So Matthew doesn’t describe to us what our curios minds might wonder, but he does go into great detail about how Jesus changed lives—both great and small, both powerful and lowly—and we are supposed to enter the story and seek the Savior who would change our lives as well.

—submitted by Dustin Ray

and

Rejoice in Hope

Paul says in Romans 12:12 and 5:2, “Rejoice in hope.” Christian joy flows from this hope. Or you could say, Christian joy is directed toward this hope. You might think: This is too limiting. Shouldn’t we rejoice in some good things now? Is all our joy a rejoicing in hope? I think there are two ways to answer that question. A shepherd way and a wise man way. The Shepherds had little or nothing. The wise men had gold, frankincense, and myrrh. There is a way to rejoice in hope when you have nothing. There is a way to rejoice in hope when you have much.

The shepherd way is this: if tribulation is normal, then Paul needs to stress that joy will flow from hope not present good times. The present is hard. And again I say, if you don’t think this is true, you will someday. And if life is hard, we can either give up on joy or we can get it from hope. Paul would not give up on joy. He commanded it over and over. “Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Rejoice in hope echoes Paul’s conviction that life is hard. Tribulations are normal. But a glory is coming that will make it all worth it.

The other way to explain this phrase—“Rejoice in hope”—the wise man way, is to say that even in those seasons when pleasures abound, they all point to the Creator and goal of pleasure, Christ himself. Christ will be experienced most fully in the future. We enjoy his fellowship now in measure. But then face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). All future joy will be found in Christ. And all present joy points to that future of fullness in Christ. If it doesn’t, it is an idol. So I say with the apostle Paul, whether in pain or in pleasure “Rejoice in hope”—the hope of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Now finally link the last three elements: patient endurance, love, and prayer to each other and to rejoicing in hope. Romans 12:12 says, “Be patient [have endurance] in tribulation.” Hebrews 12:2 shows how this relates to hope and joy and love. “[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy [there’s the joy!] that was set before him [there’s the hope] endured the cross [there’s the love]. The greatest act of love that ever was—the death of Jesus for sinners like us—was endured by future-sustained joy, that is, by rejoicing in hope. “For the joy set before him he endured the cross.”

John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014); “Happy in Hope, Patient in Pain, Constant in Prayer (December 19, 2004)”. Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2014.

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