Tuesday 9th August - Matthew 2

Today’s chapter is Matthew 2, you can read it here

Tom writes:

It seems strange to me that Herod - the Jew - had so much vested interest in finding out who this King of the Jews was but he couldn’t even be bothered to head down to Bethlehem to check him out for himself. And it also seems strange that God allowed these very wealthy, very foreign, probable astrologers - the Magi - to be some of the first to be overjoyed and overawed by this new baby king. But I guess that is the way with God - the most unlikely people get to play jubilant parts in His redemption narrative if they will just seek after Him. And those who seem best qualified end up bitterly angry and tragically rejected because of their arrogant complacency towards Jesus.

Matthew shows right at the start of this gospel that Jesus runs a dividing line through every community in history... but the dividing line is not between the good and the bad or the qualified and the unqualified or between this race or that race, but between those who are inclined towards the worship of Jesus and those who are inclined towards rejecting him. The good news for you is that if you are reading these notes then you are almost certainly on the ‘inclined towards worship’ side of the dividing line. Will you stay there? The Magi’s journey was neither short nor simple, it wasn’t always clear where it was leading but they held the course. Our pursuit of the presence today is similarly grubby and at times down-right baffling. But awe and joy lie at its end. Will you hold the course and make pursuit your priority? Or will you, like Herod, find more important things to do?

Question for reflection

How do you feel about the fact that Jesus draws a dividing line right across human societies?