The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Jesus Fills to the Full the Hope of Micah:  Mt.2:5 – 6

^2:5 They said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: ⁶ ‘And you, Bethlehem, [in the] land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; for our of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’’

Why Bethlehem?  There is some good discussion about whether Bethlehem was a town or a clan or both.  But in either case, Bethlehem produced great kings for Israel.  It’s like how Abraham Lincoln came from Illinois, and Barack Obama comes from Illinois, so perhaps another great President yet to come will be from Illinois.  Bethlehem has that kind of meaning.  King David was born in Bethlehem the city.  King Hezekiah was also born in Bethlehem.  There must have been a part of Micah that initially hoped that Hezekiah would be this king:  the one who would kick out the Assyrians and be the one to change Israel at last.  But no.  Hezekiah, as good a king as he was, couldn’t solve that problem.  The problem was much bigger and much deeper than what Hezekiah could do.  So Micah looks ahead to someone else, who will also come from Bethlehem.

In order to not be trite, I’m going to look at the political dimension of Jesus’ birth.  In 2009, Barack Obama took the office of President of the United States.  Although not all Americans shared the same stance as Obama did on all issues, it was fair to say that many people hoped that change would come.  For me personally, my hopes were high.  I have never been into reading the news and following politics as much as I’ve been since Obama took office.  And on the whole I still like Obama.  But, he is not the Messiah.  I’ve been disappointed on a few things.  Which things is a question that is not relevant to the point I’m making here, though of course we can talk later about it.  And perhaps Obama is doing the best any human being can do given the circumstances.  But, even if that is so, it drives home even more deeply the point that he is not the Messiah.

For example, in September 2009, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan told the BBC, ‘The [economic] crisis will happen again…They [the financial crises] are all different, but they have one fundamental source.’  Speaking a year after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, and the worldwide financial crisis and global recession, Mr. Greenspan attributed the decisions of the banks to ‘human nature.’  ‘If it were not the problem of these toxic debts, “something sooner or later would have emerged”, Mr. Greenspan said.  “It’s human nature, unless somebody can find a way to change human nature, we will have more crises and none of them will look like this because no two crises have anything in common, except human nature.”’1  As much as I believe we need more financial regulations, and as much as I think that Mr. Greenspan’s refusal to accept personal responsibility for the financial crisis ironically reflects a degree of human nature as well, I find his statement soberly accurate.

Whether or not Obama, or anyone, succeeds in reforming Wall Street is an important but secondary issue.  President Obama cannot change human nature.  He is not the Messiah.  But Jesus is.  Every Christmas, we remember the birth of the One who can change human nature itself.  He already has – once, within himself.  And we remember the mission he shares with us:  to call the world to be transformed by Jesus as we ourselves are being transformed by him.  So our call to make changes in our institutions must also come with an invitation to come to Jesus, to let him change our human nature.  After all, even though Goldman Sachs underwrote Greek debt and suckered the rest of the world into buying it,2 most college students would jump to accept an internship if Goldman Sachs offered it to them.  So let’s not just point the finger at big investment banks, or bad laws, as important as it is to work towards solutions in those fields.  Something in us needs fixing.  We succumb far too easily to temptations and enticements around us.  Education is clearly not the only answer.  Look at how many immoral and illegal things educated people did, and do.

I’d like us to reflect on Micah’s prediction of the birth of the Messiah in Micah 5:2.  This is a famous verse.  Matthew quotes from it in his Gospel when Jesus is born.  Micah’s context was a bit like ours.  A pretty good king – Hezekiah – had taken the throne.  But Israel still faced overwhelming political and social problems.  These were the problems he saw:  the rich monopolized real estate and made people homeless (Micah 2:1 – 2); they exploited the week (2:8 – 9); statesmen were corrupt (3:1 – 3); they abused power and accepted bribes (3:11a); and spiritual leaders were corrupt as well (3:11b).  As a result, the capital city Jerusalem will fall (3:12).  But God will restore the capital when the Messiah comes (4:1 - 7).  In Micah's poetic language, under the Messiah's reign, which will ripple out from Jerusalem, people will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.  They will pursue peace.  And in that day, God will assemble the lame, and gather the outcasts. 

Unfortunately, before that beautiful day comes, Israel will be conquered by Babylon (4:8 – 13).  It will get worse before it gets better.  There will be another crash, because Israel’s human nature hasn’t yet been changed.  But it will get better on the other side.  That is the hope Micah holds out.  It’s in that context that he looks forward to the birth of the true and final king.  Micah saw that King Hezekiah, and whichever of his descendants sits on the throne at the time of Babylon’s invasion, would go into exile.  He said,

^5:1 Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;

They have laid siege against us;

With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.

Then, in the verse Matthew quotes, Micah then looks towards the birth of the true and final king: 

² But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.’
³ Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
⁴ And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God.
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.
 

Micah’s hope for a greater king who comes from Bethlehem has been filled to the full by Jesus.  He solves the underlying problem of human nature.  No one can change human nature but Jesus.  Here is where we get to the meaning of Jesus’ birth.  At his conception and birth, the eternal Son of God took humanity onto himself in order to radically change it. 

Regardless of who is in power and even how good of a job those people do, we must always look to Jesus and we must announce him like Micah does.  Every other way of framing the issue of evil is shallow.  It’s not that evangelism and discipleship will solve all of the world’s problems; it is not triumphalism.  There will always be our own struggle with sin, as well as people who reject Jesus.  But it is real hope.  And we must participate in our own transformation in Jesus, willingly, to beat our swords into plowshares, and so on.  We will see that as Jesus teaches in Mt.5 - 7.  As we go into the world in mission, inviting people into Jesus’ reign around the world, his reign will continue to ripple out from Jerusalem.  God will gather the lame and the outcasts to Jesus and into his new people.  Now, the political world is still important as part of our engagement with the world.  But for those who believe that evil is located outside human beings, as if it were in structures and laws alone, we must say NO.  It is also within us.  That is why Jesus came as a human being, to cleanse his humanity, and give us his new humanity.  That is why he did not come as a set of laws to be implemented.  He came as a human to cleanse that humanity from within and bend human nature back to what it was meant to be:  drenched with the love of God.