Matthew 2:1 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, 2 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.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Everyone knows about the Three Wise Men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and how they saw a mysterious sign in the sky which led them to believe that the King of the Jews was about to be born in Judea. They gathered their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, and set off on their journey to Bethlehem where they joined the shepherds at the stable and presented their gifts to the baby Jesus who was lying in his manger.
Of course, most of what we think we know about the Wise Men is tradition, not Biblical truth. Wise Men from the east did visit the baby Jesus to worship and honor him, but the Bible does not tell us how many there were. We do not know their names. And, according to the Bible, they did not kneel before Jesus in the stable, but arrived as much as a year or two after he was born when he was a toddler, and his parent had moved from the stable into a house in Bethlehem.
Even though the details of the Wise Men’s visit to Jesus are very sketchy, their story has been preserved in the Scripture for two reasons: 1.) this story teaches us that, from the beginning of Jesus’ life, his presence on earth was intended to bring salvation, not just to the people of Israel, but to men and women all over the world who believe in him, and 2.) this story shows us what true belief looks like.
You may never have thought about it before, but there is such a thing as true belief that leads to the forgiveness of sin and everlasting life, and false belief which may be sincere and even passionate, but which does not lead to life. The Wise Men are examples of true belief. The other character in this passage today is a great example of the second kind of belief.
Among all the many characters of the Bible, few are more vile than King Herod the Great. At the time of Jesus’ birth and the appearance of the Wise Men, Herod was Rome’s puppet king of Judea, placed on the throne by a vote of the Roman senate. He had no legitimate claim to the title “King of the Jews” because he was not descended from David. In fact, Herod was only half Jewish on his father’s side, and most of his own subjects refused to accept him as an authentic Jew.
From the beginning of his career as a young man to his death at the age of 73 a few years after Jesus was born, Herod was a reprehensible human being. He was deceitful, treacherous and violent. He had no qualms about doing whatever he had to do to accomplish his goals, up to and including murder. Over the years he killed many members of his own family, among them a mother-in-law, a wife, step-children, and two of his own sons after he became suspicious of their loyalty to him. His reputation for violence was so notorious that when the Emperor Augustus signed the death warrant for one of Herod’s sons, he remarked that he would rather be Herod’s pig than his child. As Herod approached the end of his life he added a clause to his will stipulating that hostages were to be taken from among the leading families of Judea, and when he died they were to be executed – that way his death would prompt at least some public display of grief.
Herod knew that he was despised by his subjects, so he devoted much of his reign to grand public works projects which he hoped would improve his standing in the polls. The most extravagant project of all was a complete rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Thousands of workers labored for decades to make the Temple one of the wonders of the ancient world, and the work was still not finished when Jerusalem and the Temple were both destroyed by the Romans 70 years after Herod died.
With all of this as background, you might be surprised to learn that Herod sincerely believed God’s Word. When the Wise Men arrived in Judea, they went to the capitol city of Jerusalem and began asking questions about the birth of a particular baby: “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.” When the news of their presence came to Herod he summoned them to his palace so he could question them, and his interview with the Wise Men shows us four features of his belief in the Word of God.
1.) Herod believed that a Redeemer would come to save his people and deal with evil, just as the Word of God promised all the way at the beginning when the Lord spoke about a descendent of Eve who would crush the head of the Evil One, while receiving an injury in the process (Genesis 3:14, 15).
2.) Herod believed that when the Redeemer came he would be a descendant of King David, and therefore the rightful King of the Jews, fulfilling the Lord’s promise to David in 1 Chronicles: “When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever” (1 Chronicles 17:11-14).
3.) Herod believed that the Redeemer would be born in Bethlehem, David’s hometown, as foreseen by the prophet Micah: “and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”’”
4.) Finally, Herod did not just believe the Word of God in an abstract, theoretical way, he was moved to action by the Word of God: “Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.’”
So then, Herod knew the Word of God, he understood the Word of God, he acknowledged the truth of the Word of God, and he was moved to action by the Word of God. Herod was a believer. But does this mean that Herod was saved? After the Resurrection in the life of the age to come, will we see King Herod walking the streets of the new heaven and earth? Most likely not.
As I said, there is true belief which leads to everlasting life. Then there is a form of belief which can be held in all sincerity and even with passion, but which does not lead to life.
Satan and his angels also know the Word of God, and understand the Word of God, and acknowledge the truth of the Word of God, and are moved to action by the Word of God (James 2:19b). In addition, Satan and his angels have first-hand experience of the glorious presence and power of Christ. But with all of this knowledge and first-hand experience the fallen ones will never enter into the kingdom. They will perish because they, and Herod, and people like Herod, lack true belief.
So what does true belief look like? Of course, true belief knows the Word of God, understands the Word, acknowledges the truth of the Word, and is moved to action by the Word. But true belief goes farther than that.
1.) True belief humbly allows the Word of God to speak to me. This means that when we hear the Apostle Paul say: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a), we do not switch on denial or self-justification or evasion or excuses or indignation. Instead we accept the fact that we, too, have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.
2.) True belief trusts that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The Scripture talks about this total inability to please God in terms of death. The physically dead have no power to help themselves do anything. By the same token, the spiritually dead also have no power in themselves to enter into a saving relationship with God. But through His Son Jesus, God has done what the dead cannot do. “The wages of sin is death” but: “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23b).
To put it another way: “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-7).
3.) True belief bears good fruit in terms of a person’s behavior. That is, true belief will change the way a person acts.
Herod believed what the Word of God said about the Redeemer to come, but that belief did not change his behavior. He responded to the birth of the Redeemer the same way that he responded to every other potential threat to his power over the course of his long career: “Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’” Deceit, treachery, ruthlessness, wrath, murder and aggressive violence are not among the fruits of genuine belief.
Jesus said: “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:17-23). Even though Herod was a believer, the fruit of his behavior reveals that his belief got him nowhere.
What, then, are some of the good fruits of true belief? “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:22-24). Again: “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3). Again: “But as for you, O man of God [. . .] Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11).
On this first Sunday of a brand new year, it is appropriate for us to examine ourselves in the light of our behavior during the year that has now ended. As you examine your behavior in 2008, would you say that true belief in Jesus the Redeemer is bearing some of the fruit that I just mentioned? Or is their a disconnect between your belief – however sincere and even passionate – and the way you actually live?
If there is a disconnect between your belief and your actual behavior, then, in this new year, I encourage to you to bow before the Lord Jesus in humble confession and repentance, and to enter the struggle of living as an adopted child of God who loves the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and who loves your neighbor as yourself.
If your faith in Jesus is bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit in your behavior – to a greater or lesser extent – then rejoice and know that your small corner of the world is a better place for it, and also that you are on a road which leads to eternal life.