INTRODUCTION
In the year 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born. In 1796, he was crossing the Alps to crush the Austrians and Sardinians. Had Dan Rather been living in the year 1809, his newscast would have focused on Austria. The attention of the world was on this man known as Napoleon as he swept across Europe. Emphasis was given to the bloody scenes of tyranny carried out by this dictator of France. While he killed millions of people, he left an indelible impression on the world. The most important thing impact on the world was the fall of Austria in 1809. At the same time, however, babies were being born in Britain and America, but nobody cared. In 1809, a veritable host of thinkers and statesman were born, but they drew the attention of no one. William Gladstone, British statesman and prime minister, was born in Liverpool. Alfred Tennyson began his life in Lincolnshire. Oliver Wendell Holmes, US. Writer, physician, and associate justice, cried out in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Edgar Allen Poe started his brief and tragic life. A physician named Darwin and his wife named their infant son Charles Robert. A rugged log cabin in Hardin County, Kentucky, owned by an illiterate wandering laborer, filled with the screams of a boy named Abraham Lincoln. Though all this happened in 1809, no one cared that much because history was being made in Austria. Today these Austrian campaigns are forgotten for the most part, but the impact of these others is still remembered.
Eighteen centuries before Napoleon Bonaparte came on the scene, the world was watching the splendor of Rome. This empire was vast and vicious. The political intrigue, the racial tension, the increase in immorality, and the enormous military might captured the attention of the world. The land of Palestine was under their control. The Caesar, Augustus, called for a census to determine a measurement to increase taxes.
While the attention of the world was on Rome, a young couple was making an eighty mile trip south from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Who cared about a Jewish child being born in Bethlehem when Rome was making such an impact on the world. Yet the impact of this birth upon the world would be beyond comparison. While Rome was busy making history, God arrived on the scene in the person of Jesus.
Just as the birth of many great individuals was overlooked because Napoleon was making history, so the birth of Jesus was largely overlooked because of the actions of Rome. Many today still overlook the birth of Jesus and its consequences, and yet it was and is the most magnificent birth to ever take place.
In our passage, we see three reactions to the birth of Jesus, and these three reactions have been repeated over and over again throughout history and are still repeated today.
I. HOSTILITY
Herod the king gives us an example of this reaction. Herod was an Idumean who married Mariamne, heiress to the Jewish Hasmonean house. He did this to make himself more acceptable to the Jewish people. He was a clever and capable orator, warrior, and diplomat. When severe economic times came, he gave back some of the tax money to the people. During a famine in 25 BC, he melted down gold objects to buy food for the poor. He built many things and began reconstruction on the Temple in Jerusalem in 19 BC.
At the same time, he was careless and merciless. He was jealous, suspicious, and afraid someone would take his position and power from him. He had his wife’s brother drowned, his wife killed, her mother killed, and finally killed three of his sons. Shortly before his own death, he had the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem imprisoned and ordered them executed the moment he died so there would be mourning when he died. This barbaric act was surpassed only by his slaughter of ’all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under’ in an attempt to kill one the magi said was born king of the Jews. One said, ’any mention of another king of the Jews sent him into a frenzy of fear and anger.’ The appearance of the wise men renewed in Herod a political threat from the east.
Herod was not the only one troubled; for all Jerusalem was too. Perhaps they feared another conquest by the Parthians. While Herod was not a Jew, he was familiar with Jewish beliefs. He may have connected this news of the birth of a King of the Jews with the Messiah. The current messianic expectation by most Jews was for a military and political ruler rather than a Savior. This explains why Herod would react as he did.
Like Herod, some still react with hostility to the birth of Jesus and all Christians proclaim it to mean.
Adherents of the Communist structure have reacted to religion in general with hostility. Marx and Engels, in The Communist Manifesto, said, ’ But communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.’
Voltaire, the noted 18th century French philosopher, said it took centuries to build up Christianity but ’I’ll show how just one Frenchman can destroy it within 50 years,’ and he took up his pen, dipped it into the ink of unbelief, and wrote against God.
Emperor Julian of Rome professed Christianity in his early years of power but later turned savagely against Christians and vowed to exterminate them. One day as a Roman soldier was whipping a Christian, Julian the Apostate, as he became known, said, ’ Where is your Carpenter of Nazareth now?’ The Christian replied; ’He is driving nails into your coffin, O Emperor.’ This seemed an accurate answer, for Julian was mortally wounded in battle. He is reported to have clutched some of his blood, thrown it into the sky, and said; ’Thou has conquered, O Galilean.’
II. INDIFFERENCE
We see this attitude portrayed in the chief priests and scribes. When Herod heard that a king had been born, he gathered these groups to find out where prophecy foretold the Christ to be born. They replied; ’In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet.’
The chief priests included the high priest, the captain of the Temple, the leaders of the daily and weekly course of priests, the temple treasurer, and other temple overseers and officials. For the most part, they were made of Sadducees and by New Testament times were corrupt religiously oriented politicians. From the birth to the crucifixion of Jesus, they were in opposition to the revelation and work of Jesus.
The scribes were primarily Pharisees who were authorities in Jewish law, scriptural and traditional, and often were referred to as lawyers. They were the key scholars of religious Judaism. They too stood in opposition to Jesus.
When Herod called them together to find out where the Messiah was to be born, they showed no interest or belief in the report of the magi. Though they could tell Herod what he wanted to know, they showed no excitement at the announcement of the magi that they had seen a star signaling the birth of the Messiah.
These men did not accept Jesus as Messiah. They did not believe his teachings, and they did not accept his death as payment for sin. These were the enemies of Jesus. These who now ignored him in a few years would cry out for his crucifixion.
Some today still react to the birth of Jesus and all it means with indifference and unconcern.
While attending a university in London, Mahatma Gandhi, Hindu nationalist leader and socialist reformer, was almost convinced that the Christian religion was the one true supernatural religion of the world. After graduation while he was still seeking evidence that would make him a committed Christian, he was employed in East Africa. For seven months he lived in a home with people who were members of an evangelical Christian church. He thought he would surely find the evidence he sought here. As the months passed, he saw their casual attitude toward the cause of God, he heard them complain when called upon to make a sacrifice for the kingdom of God, and he sensed their general religious apathy. His interest in Christianity turned to disappointment. He said, ’ No, it is not the one true, supernatural religion I had hoped to find. A good religion, but just one more of the many religions in the world.’
III. SOME WORSHIP HIM
The magi give an example of this attitude. Leaving their audience with Herod, they go to Bethlehem. The star stood over the place where the child King was living. They rejoiced to see the star. By this time, Joseph and his little family had found a house and were waiting for further directions from God.
When the magi found the one they searched for, they fell down and worshipped him. Charles Wesley captured this scene in a familiar Christian hymn: ’Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate deity; pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.’
In addition to worshipping him, they presented gifts to him. Their giving was an element of their worship. They gave because of their love. They gave gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold was the most precious metal and a universal symbol of material value and wealth. Frankincense was a costly beautiful smelling incense used only for special occasions. Myrrh was also a perfume.
When Queen Victoria ascended the throne, she went, in the custom of Royalty, to hear ’The Messiah.’ She was instructed not to rise when the others did at the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus. She sat with great difficulty as the chorus and singers shouted, ’Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.’ It seemed as if she would rise in spite of the custom of kings and queens. When they came to the part where they proclaim him King of Kings, she rose, bowed her head, as if she would have taken her crown and cast it at his feet.
CONCLUSION
In these verses, we see three reactions individuals have toward the birth of Jesus. Some react with hostility, some with indifference, but some with worship.
In the fall of 1775, the manager of Baltimore’s largest hotel refused lodging to a man dressed as a farmer, fearing the lowly appearance of the man would discredit his inn. The man left and found lodging in another place. Later, the innkeeper discovered he had turned away the vice president of the US, Thomas Jefferson. Immediately he sent a note to the vice president asking him to return as his guest. Jefferson instructed the messenger with these words: ’Tell him I have already engaged a room. I value his good intentions highly, but if he has no place for a dirty American farmer, he has none for the Vice President of the United States.’
