Matthew 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
As I was reading Matthew 2 this morning, it struck me that there is no such thing as an insipid Jesus. There is no such thing as a tasteless or harmless Jesus in the sense that He has not enough power to stir either hatred or love in people. He stirs up both, and He has done so from the very beginning.
When you read about the Christ-child in Matthew 2, the thing that is striking is that Herod wished to kill Him and the wise men wished to worship Him. This is something that cannot be said of most anyone else. What was there to hate? What was there to worship? There was a lot, more than met the eye.
Herod wished to kill Jesus. Why? It was because he couldn’t afford to let Jesus grow. A Jesus Who would grow to maturity would be a Jesus Who would be the King of the Jews, and Herod knew this. He did not understand all that this meant, but he knew that this was the case. I suspect that Herod had never imagined the King of the Jews as a child, but when he realized that he had caught this thing early, he realized that the best way to stop this Child from being the King of the Jews was to stop Him from living.
Today, in contrast, most people never see Jesus as anything other than a child. They see Him only as a child because that is the kind of Jesus that does not threaten them. He is a harmless Jesus that can do neither harm nor good. He is no one of consequence to them.
The Bible says that when Herod heard about the Christ-child, he told the wise men who were seeking him, “Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.” Nothing could have been further from Herod’s mind. The Bible tells us that when he heard about this Child “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.”
It strikes me that although both Christmas and Easter are celebrated, Christmas has always seemed to be a bigger celebration. There may be a number of reasons for this, but one reason may be because in some way people feel a little more relaxed with a Christ-child than they do with a risen Christ. When it comes to history, no one really denies that there was a Jesus of Nazareth who was born, lived, and died, but One that rose from the grave and lives and rules today is another matter.
The wise men wished to worship Jesus. Verse 11 says, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” It is amazing that they did this. Herod couldn’t afford to let Jesus grow, but the wise men felt as if they couldn’t let him go. These were not the first to worship the Lord Jesus, nor would they be the last by far, but even when He was in the form of a child, they worshipped Him. This was a great act of faith.
Herod had no idea just how much Jesus represented. This was the Creator of the universe in swaddling clothes. It is mind-blowing! Of course, the wise men knew this, but, in the form of a child, Jesus could neither walk nor talk when this happened. The Creator of the universe had limited Himself for that moment in a human body. He had neither language to the full, nor could He walk around or be as active as He would when He was an adult. But, He was the Christ-child.
All this is to say that Christmas is a tender time for open hearts. We should take advantage of the wonderful good news because of the gracious story of the birth of the Savior, but do not forget Who Jesus is. Do not forget that He is powerful enough to inspire hatred, deserve worship, and save any humble soul.