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 who do. This is probably
not am main point in the mind of Matthew, but it is inescapable as the story
goes on.
In this story there are two types 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. 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.
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 the chief priests is staggering. – [You
see that today amongst many leaders] – 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 lies and then commits mass murder just to
get rid of Jesus. [Look familiar?]
So, today these two kinds of opposition
will come against Jesus 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.
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