Smack into the middle of politics, gossip and convention--some of the leading forces that repel Christians from the church to this day--was born Christ. Immaculate God, messy us: Immanuel.
Another thing: The Bible births a million movies (not only, of course, in Matthew 2). In Verse 7, precisely why did Herod care about the "exact time" that the Magi had seen the star over the east? And whatever happened to the Magi after, in Verse 27, they disobeyed Herod and returned home via some backroads route from visiting the baby? And, if he ever knew, how emotionally heavy did the knowledge of the murders of so many of babies because of his birth (Verse 16) weigh on Jesus, and how did it influence his ministry? To the extent that one believes that the Bible documents everything God wants us to know about the story, the answers to such unaddressed questions don't much matter. But they sure interest me.
And one more thing: Divine instruction come to folks in so many different ways. In Matthew 2, over (verses 13-14) and over (19-21) and over again (22-23), Joseph is moved in dreams and subsequently obeys. (Another question that presumably doesn't matter: How hard of a sell was it for Joseph to get Mary to buy in to the instruction that he had dreamed?) Callings are delivered and manifested in so many different ways, but the common denominators of the successful ones seem to be discernment and obedience.
More Matthew:
-- inadequacy of human language and Matthew 1
-- the eighth lesson of the King's College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and Matthew 2
A giant unaddressed question of Matthew, of course, is what happens in Chapter 2.5. John Prine imagined an answer.
ReplyDeleteAnother, from Chapter 3: How tense was the mood on the church parking lot after this sermon from John? "The ax is already at the root of the trees ..." wow.