Advent - Two Kinds Of Opposition To Jesus

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all  Jerusalem with him.  (Matthew 2:3)

Jesus is troubling to people who do not want to worship him,  and he brings out opposition for those who do. This is probably  not a main point in the mind of Matthew, but it is inescapable  as the story goes on.

In this story, there are two kinds of people who do not want  to worship Jesus, the Messiah.

The first kind is the people who simply do nothing about  Jesus. He is a nonentity in their lives. This group is represented  by the chief priests and scribes. Verse 4: “Gathering together  all the chief priests and scribes of the people, [Herod] inquired  of them where the Messiah was to be born.” Well, they told  him, and that was that: back to business as usual. The sheer silence and inactivity of the leaders is overwhelming in view of  the magnitude of what was happening.

And notice, verse 3 says, “When Herod the king heard this,  he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” In other words, the rumor was going around that someone thought the Messiah was born. The inactivity on the part of chief priests is staggering—why not go with the magi? They are not interested. They do not want to worship the true God.

The second kind of people who do not want to worship Jesus  is the kind who is deeply threatened by him. That is Herod in this story. He is really afraid. So much so that he schemes and lies and then commits mass murder just to get rid of Jesus.

So today these two kinds of opposition will come against Christ and his worshipers: indifference and hostility. Are you in one of those groups?

Let this Christmas be the time when you reconsider the Messiah and ponder what it is to worship him.


(From "Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent 2012", by John Piper)