Wednesday, December 14

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Matthew 2:5-8
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

I have said many times that I do not particularly like going to the dentist. I respect dentists a great deal and I am very glad there are people in our community who have dedicated their lives to dental care – but I just don’t care to visit them! I think it all stems from a traumatic experience with a dentist when I was a child – but that’s a story for a different time!

A number of years ago, when I finally decided I should probably have a check-up, the dentist asked me if I “ground my teeth at night?” I said, “I don’t know, why do you ask?” She said she could see dozens of tiny hairline fractures in my teeth – a sign of grinding. She then said that if I continued to grind my teeth without wearing a “night guard” those tiny cracks would grow and would eventually result in cracked teeth.

I told her I would think about it – but I didn’t purchase the night guard. About two weeks later I was eating a bowl of popcorn at home when I bit down on a kernel and one of my back molars cracked right in half and fell out of my mouth. I went back to my dentist and have worn a night guard ever since!

In a sense, my dentist was performing the role of a prophet in my life. Properly understood, prophecy isn’t so much about predicting the future – like a “palm reader” looking at your hand – but rather prophecy is about the truth of God. A prophet says, “This is what the Lord says…this is what the Lord will do.” My dentist saw the truth about my teeth – and simply told me what would happen if I failed to take action. She was right.

King Herod understood prophecy. He understood that the prophets spoke the truth of God and that God spoke his truth through the prophets. So when the foreigners tell him they are seeking the child born to be “King of the Jews” he decides to do a little research to check out their story.

When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Now Herod’s really got a problem. Now he knows the truth about this child and he knows the truth about himself. And the truth is; the child is King and he is not. He has a problem bigger than competition for what he sees as his kingdom, his position and his power. He has a problem with truth. He has a problem with God.

Herod is like a guy standing on top of his house threatening to jump off because he doesn’t believe gravity applies to him. He’s like a kid sticking his hand in fire thinking he won’t get burned.

But gravity always pulls things to the ground and fire always burns. Truth is like that.

The truth is we all have a problem; you, me, Herod, everyone. Our problem is sin – as in dozens and dozens of nearly invisible cracks in our souls. Cracks called selfishness or greed or immorality; cracks that we try to hide, that we try to ignore, but cracks that grow and grow until they destroy us.

What Herod did not fully realize was that the child he saw as a competitor – the child he tried to kill – actually came to heal the cracks in his own crumbling soul. He should have known – because the truth is right there in the words of the prophet:

“…for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”

The ruler, the shepherd the prophet is talking about is the Messiah – the one who would save his people from their sins. The Messiah came but Herod chose not to surrender to the truth.

Each Christmas, in a sense, Christ comes again into the very center of our culture. Truth that a “Savior is born” is proclaimed in our shopping malls and through loudspeakers on our street corners. May we hear the truth about this child and about ourselves – and may we surrender.

Pastor Brian Coffey