“I had a church background, but the emphasis was on your sinfulness and your need to improve yourself. It was heavy-handed. It felt impossible and really didn’t offer any hope.”
A recent graduate was telling me how her life was impacted by a Bible study she joined with friends. “For the first time I was hearing about God’s grace. I saw in the Bible that God isn’t waiting for us to measure up. He loved us so much he gave his life to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.”
She helps plan monthly events for international students because, she said, “What people did for us was so valuable, I wanted to keep it going.” For her, grace isn’t a mere concept. It’s the gift of God that motivates her to share it with others.
Her experience reflects the contrast of two “kings of the Jews.” Matthew writes that a delegation of Magi entered Jerusalem from the east and went to the ruthless King Herod to find the whereabout of the newborn king.
Incongruously, Herod calls in the religious leaders and asks where the Messiah was to be born. They quote Micah’s prophecy that he was to be born in Bethlehem. He sends the Magi there, telling them to return and inform him once they have found the child. We later learn that Herod’s intent was to kill Jesus. He proved it my slaughtering children in Bethlehem.
Herod had a long record of destroying anyone who might rival his control. He vividly represents those who seek power through deceit and violence. He sees foreign diplomats as pawns to use for his power-lusting ends. He uses religion in the same way, completely missing the Lord’s message in Scripture.
What a contrast is the Jesus who builds his Kingdom by grace. Instead of seeing people as pawns, he sees them as lost sheep in need of a shepherd. Instead of manipulating through deceit, he reveals the truth. Instead of gaining influence through violence, he touches lives through healing, feeding, and cultivating new life. Instead of destroying, he lays down his life.
Matthew’s whole Gospel shows that Jesus, in contrast to Herod, is the true King, the Lord of their history, the Savior for eternity.
But Jesus speaks his heavenly message in a world accustomed to Herod’s way of doing things. As Joseph takes Mary and Jesus and flees to Egypt, it looks as if the Herods are always the winners, and the way of Jesus stands no chance.
When Matthew quotes the prophecy, “Out of Egypt I called my son,” he is reminding us that the LORD—not Pharaohs, not the gods of nations, not Herods, but the LORD alone—is the true Sovereign and Savior of his people.
(Copyright 2021 by David K Shelley, jackofalltribes.org, and International Students, Inc. All rights reserved)