It is almost Christmas! Who is excited?

Well, this morning I am going to start my message with something that at first glance has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. But stay with me, because I promise that it actually does.

I want to tell you about the Battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C.

It all started because a man named Marcus Licinius Crassus, an ally of Julius Caesar, wanted glory, riches, and power.

So Crassus decided to invade the Parthian Empire, essentially the Persians of his day. He thought the Roman army was invincible, so he marched seven legions (around 40,000 soldiers) into the flat desert of Syria… Where they were demolished.

[Images: Carrhae 1-2] The Parthian horse archers were far too mobile for the Roman heavy infantry, and they just picked them off one by one. In the end, 20,000 Romans were killed and 10,000 were captured.

[Images: Carrhae 3-5] Most humiliatingly of all, many of their battle standards - the infamous legionary eagles - were captured as well. It was one of the greatest Roman defeats of all time, and the loss of the eagles was a massive national shame for decades.

The End. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Just kidding. What in the world does that have to do with anything?

SERIES RECAP

Well, I’ll explain. First, I’ll say welcome back to “Gifts for a King,” our series exploring the “Magi from the east” who visited baby Jesus.

As we’ve seen, this story in the gospel of Matthew is working on many different layers. In week one, we saw how these magi were the very first Gentiles to worship Christ as king - the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies like Isaiah 60.

Last week, if we hadn’t canceled services due to the weather, Amy would have helped us explore how King Herod’s massacre of babies in Bethlehem and Mary and Joseph’s flight to Egypt set the stage for a second Exodus, which Matthew builds on through the rest of the gospel.

Today, we are going to explore a very different layer of the story (and one that gets me so fired up): how Matthew uses the visit of the Magi to undermine (and even mock) the Roman propaganda of his day. We’re going to look at three details in the story which accomplish this:

The Star

The Spice

The Scene

As we’ll see, in each of these elements, Matthew is setting the stage for his readers to understand that the values of the kingdom of God are very, very different from the values of our world.

So, grab a Bible and turn with me again to Matthew 2, Page ______. While you’re turning there, I’ll open us in prayer.

[PRAY]

THE STAR

We’ll start with the star. Let’s read again what Matthew tells us about it:

Matthew 2:1-2

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

A few verses later, we read:

Matthew 2:9-10

The star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!

So what’s the deal with this star? According to Matthew, it guided the magi to Jerusalem and then stopped over Bethlehem. Or maybe even over their house. What was it?

Well, we can start with this: The word for “star” in Greek is

astēr - star

It’s the root of our words “asteroid,” “astronaut,” and “astronomy.”

In the ancient world, stars were thought of as divine beings up in the heavens. But of course, we know, as Pumba put it in the Lion King, they’re really “balls of gas burning millions of miles away.”

So what was this star? Well, scholars are all over the map about it. There are a lot of different theories.

One theory is that it was a Comet. Halley’s comet came in 12 B.C., so that was too early. But there could have been another one.

Since comets move through the sky, perhaps this explains the whole movement thing. But then again, comets don’t stop over houses.

Perhaps it was a Supernova - an exploding star. Chinese astronomers recorded a nova visible for 70 days around 4 B.C. Great timing, but again, novas don’t move around.

Another theory is that it was a Planetary Conjunction, where planets and stars align just right. We know that in 7 B.C. Jupiter (the royal star) and Saturn (the star of the west) were situated in the constellation Pisces (which represented the “last days”).

Some scholars make the case that to eastern astrologers this gave the message “There will appear in the west in this year the ruler of the last days…”

The last theory is that maybe it was simply a supernatural appearance of The Glory of the Lord. Like the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the wilderness in Exodus. That could stop over a house, but would they call it a “star”?

Bottom line, we just don’t know what it was.

However, we do know that this was not some innocent detail of the story to Matthew’s first readers at the height of the Roman Empire.

You see, after Julius Caesar was murdered, his adopted son Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus), held massive funeral games in Caesar’s honor - gladiator fights, chariot racing, the whole 9 yards.

Well, during those games, [Image: Star of Caesar 1] a comet appeared over Rome. Everyone knew what it meant. Julius Caesar had become a god. This was him ascending to the heavens.

Which was really convenient for Augustus, because he now had a new title to throw around: “The son of a god” or “The Son of God…” Doesn’t that sound familiar?

To keep this in front of everybody, Augustus had the “Star of Caesar” depicted everywhere. [Image: Star of Caesar 2] Coins, temples, shields… It became a symbol of his divine right to rule the world.

And so, when Matthew depicts a very different star heralding the birth of Jesus, the message is clear.

There is a new king in town, and he really is the Son of God.

THE SPICE

Let’s move on to the spice. Although not quite as explicit as the star, the gifts brought by the magi tell a similar story.

Matthew 2:11

They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Now, there are some really deep theological meanings behind each of these specific gifts, which we’ll talk about on Christmas Eve. But again, Matthew is writing on many different levels, so it’s worth taking note of each of them.

Frankincense and Myrrh were extremely valuable spices in Ancient Rome. They were burned a part of worshipping the gods, including, by the way, worshipping the Roman Emperors as gods.

But these spices were rare and hard to get your hands on. In 26 B.C. Emperor Augustus ordered an invasion of southern Arabia to acquire Frankincense and Myrrh. He wasn’t successful, though, and these spices remained extremely hard to get.

But not for baby Jesus. In Matthew 2, these magi from the east are willingly gifting him these extravagant spices. There’s no invasion. There’s no conquering. They are opening their treasure chests from hearts of eager abundance and worship.

Again, the message is pretty clear: There’s a new king in town, and the nations give him their wealth freely.

THE SCENE

So, we’ve talked about the star. We’ve talked about the spice. Now let’s talk about the scene itself. Of these magi from the east bowing to baby Jesus.

The Greek word that Matthew uses in verse 11 is

proskyneō - to do reverence or homage by prostration

In other words, they lowered themselves and bowed in submission. They offered Jesus these gifts on bended knee.

Get that image fixed in your mind, because this brings us back to the battle of Carrhae. That humiliating Roman defeat at the hands of the Parthians (where they lost their eagles).

Well, as I said, this was an embarrassing state of affairs for the Romans. How can you claim to rule the world if your battle standards are in Persia? This is why Caesar Augustus was determined to make things right.

In 19 B.C., after some diplomatic wrangling and a bit of saber rattling, Augustus was able to get those captured eagles returned.

And even though it didn’t actually require any fighting, Roman propaganda made it seem like this was some kind of major military victory.

They put the returned eagles on display in the temple of Mars the Avenger. The god of war.

[Image: arch] They made a triumphal arch in the Roman forum depicting the Parthians giving the eagles back to Augustus who was riding in a triumphal chariot.

And then they got to work putting this motif everywhere.

[Images: Parthian 1-3] On coins minted throughout the empire they depicted a Parthian soldier bowing in submission holding up the surrendered battle standards.

[Images: Augustus 1-2] On famous statues of Augustus, at the center of his breastplate we see a Parthian offering the eagles back to Roma, the goddess of Rome.

These images of submissive Parthians gave a very clear message to anyone who saw them: Caesar Augustus, the son of god, the savior - has brought peace on earth and goodwill towards men. Why else would a Parthian bow?

So now imagine you are one of Matthew’s first readers. Your world is awash in this type of imagery.

And you read that the birth of Jesus was attended by a miraculous star. That he was freely given extravagant gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and that these gifts came from eastern magi, who bowed (proskyneō) not out of coercion or propaganda, but out of their deep desire to worship the true Son of God.

The message would be crystal clear: There’s a new king in town, and he really is the Savior of the world.

AN UPSIDE-DOWN KINGDOM

Now, is Matthew’s inversion of - or even mocking of - Roman propaganda the primary meaning of this passage? No. It is just one of many layers to this story.

But it does prepare us, as readers, for the provocative things that are still to come in the gospel. For the way that Jesus consistently upends the values of our broken world.

It starts right here. Because these eastern magi are not bowing to a victorious general. They’re not bowing to an emperor. They are bowing to a baby in an animal’s food trough born to an impoverished peasant family in the middle of Nowheresville, Judea!

And yet this baby is the true king of the world. There’s a new king in town.

And he doesn’t rule like the others. All throughout Matthew’s gospel he depicts human rulers as corrupt and illegitimate.

King Herod is a weak, paranoid little man who slaughters infants to protect his throne. His son, Herod Antipas, is a bloodthirsty tyrant who executes John the Baptist for no reason.

The Roman governor of Judea, Pontus Pilate, turns out to be a spineless coward who abdicates his responsibility when the pressure’s on.

And even Caesar himself, who wields crucifixion as the ultimate weapon over his subjects, is revealed to be ultimately powerless because of Christ’s resurrection. Not even death can conquer the true king.

Here’s how Jesus describes this new state of affairs later in the gospel:

Matthew 20:25-28

You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Again and again in Matthew we see that the values of Christ’s kingdom look nothing like the values of Rome.

Roman society was a scramble to the top. The kingdom of God is a race to the bottom. The last are first and the first are last. The meek shall inherit the earth. We don’t dominate our enemies; we love them.

Roman culture was built on brutal slavery and economic inequality. In the kingdom of God, the poor are blessed and slaves are family.

Roman writers mocked and excluded women, children, and people with disabilities. In the kingdom of God, these “little ones” are given leading roles.

In a world run by glory, riches, and power - the same values which led Crassus to invade Parthia in the first place and lose those eagles - In a world ruled by those values, The kingdom of God is upside-down.

It’s all throughout the gospel of Matthew and it starts at the very beginning.

As a glorious star leads magi to little ol’ Bethlehem. As they freely give extravagant Arabian spices to the newborn king. And as these men from the east willingly bow before the true Savior of the World.

BOWING TO THE KING

So what do we take away from this layer of the story? How do we apply this to our faith today?

Well, as we’ve said many times, Matthew is a discipleship manual. And I believe this story of the magi is an invitation for us to consider our own values. To ask ourselves a very important question:

As the magi bow to the infant Jesus, who or what am I bowing to?

What receives the extravagant gifts of you life? Your time, your talents, your treasure… What do you offer the best of yourself to?

Are you bowing the cause of your own glory? Your own status or success or fame?

What about riches? Is your devotion focused on money? On stuff?

Maybe it’s power. Do you worship whatever cause or group or leader will defeat your enemies and make you a winner?

Are you bowing to the values of this world, or are you bowing to Christ - the king of an upside-down kingdom? Letting his values define you?

I want to give you space to reflect on this and to practice worshipping the true king of the world by taking a literal posture of reverence. proskyneō

I’ll give you three options depending on however you are able or willing.

True to today’s theme, these postures are inspired by Roman Propaganda. Except this time we’re not bowing to Caesar. We’re bowing to Christ.

Option one is to simply bow your head. To humble yourself like the magi did before Jesus.

Option two is to extend your arms in the ancient pose of supplication. [Image: arch] This is what we see the Parthians doing on the arch of Augustus. Simply lift one or both arms up to Christ as a way of saying, “I can’t do this on my own.”

Finally, option three, for those of you with good knees, is to actually bow. [Image: Parthian 3] Take a knee like those ancient coins and submit yourself to the true king of the world.

Bow your head, extend your arms, or take a knee. Or, if you’re really bold, do all three.

As you bow to Christ, remember: his kingdom is not for the powerful or successful. For those who have it all together. His kingdom is for the last, the lost, and the least. That’s why he came as one of them.

He loved us enough to be born as a nobody, and he willingly gave his life for sinful people like you and me. That is the kind of king worthy of all the worship in the world…