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“BEHOLD!”
Text: Matthew 2:1-12 – EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD
Sunday January4, 2025
Trinity - Creston
Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Our text for this 2nd Sunday of Christmas (Epiphany observed) is the Gospel Lesson from Matthew 2 that was just proclaimed.
Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us to see and hear you where you always promise to be in your Word, our Baptism and your Supper, not just for the children of the bloodline of Abraham but all of us! Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:
There’s one word in the Gospel for today that demands our attention. One word that Matthew uses to focus us on the hope that comes to us in the Son of God being born into our world. One word that directs us to God keeping his promises to send a Savior, a Messiah, to all mankind: Behold!
This one word, with the pinpoint accuracy of the Epiphany star, focuses us on the Gentile Magi. God has revealed to them, through the star, their Savior from sin, death, and the devil.
Idou (ἰδού) in the Greek, “behold” in our text, is directing us to pay attention to something wonderful and completely unexpected.
Our Epiphany Gospel has been called Christmas for the Gentiles. Behold! Look here, dear child of God!
Behold! Look Here and See How God Reveals Salvation to All of Us Not Born of the Bloodline of Abraham.
The Epiphany Gospel shows us clearly that Jesus did not come to save only kings and princes. He came for us. Noble and common. Jew and Gentile alike. By the love and mercy of God, he revealed our salvation and Savior to all.
I.
He did it in an unexpected way. A star that did not follow the natural order of stars in the heavens appeared to the Magi. After they had traveled to the capital, Jerusalem, and talked to King Herod, “behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was” (v 9b, emphasis added). This light from heaven led them to the exact spot where they would see their Savior. God revealed salvation to them.
These Magi were not kings or noblemen. They were not scholars of the Torah who were on a philosophical journey seeking the truth. They were Gentiles, just like us. They were servants of rulers who oppressed God’s people, Israel.
They were trained in the magic arts and supernatural powers. That is, they looked to the stars and planets for signs of how they should advise their employers, those pagan kings. They were sinners, just like us, dead in their sins and trespasses and needing hope and salvation (Eph 2:1).
We confess clearly what Dr. Luther wrote as he explained the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.”
I believe that I cannot believe, so without God intervening in my life and revealing his promises to me, I would look for hope and salvation on my own.
It’s so easy for us—you might even say natural for our old Adam—to be like the Magi, to “Look here!” to the heavens for signs in the stars or wonders in the supernatural and develop our own god and our own gospel.
It’s so easy for us to “Look here!” at our good works, thinking that because I’m not as bad as some or more pious than others, God will reward me with eternal life.
It’s so easy for us to “Look here!” at the heart, at my desires and happiness, and then justify defying God’s natural law. Instead of living as male and female, created by God to marry and have children, we decide what’s right, and when it’s right for us.
It’s so easy for us to “Look here!” to the wisdom of our rulers and their congenial words or to the wisdom of the world that seeks complete autonomy and independence, even from God.
Apart from the Gospel being revealed to us through faith, we would surely die by the hand of our own idols. Apart from Jesus breaking into our world and into our sin and revealing to us the mercy of God sending our Savior, we would be left with an empty hope that might give comfort for today but has no forgiveness and certainly no hope for eternity.
II.
Dr. Luther wrote, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him.” But he didn’t stop there. He revealed hope by driving us back to the work of the Holy Spirit. “But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”
God our loving and merciful Father has broken into our world of sin and death and revealed to us the Gospel!
For the Gentiles, he used a star to bring them to the feet of the Son of God. At his feet, they bowed in reverence. They brought gifts fit for a King. But they received the greatest gift: salvation. Hope, forgiveness of sins, and eternal promises were given to them.
God is always revealing hope and promise to his people. When Adam and Eve sinned, the promise of their Savior was revealed to them. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).
Hope and forgiveness were revealed to them. Even in their struggle with a broken world, they would struggle in joy and hope that what God revealed would soon be a reality.
Seven hundred years before the Magi would be led by the star, Micah would reveal the unexpected way God would bring our salvation into the world. Not in the capital city, but in the small and seemingly unimportant city of Bethlehem. “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” (v 6).
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes to lead his wandering and wavering sheep into green pastures and still water.
Isaiah would reveal a light that the darkness of sin and death cannot overcome. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (Is 60:1–2).
Even evil King Herod, trying to stay in control by killing the babies that might be the age of this newly born King of kings and Lord of lords, could not put out the light of life and hope born into our world.
The angel revealed to Joseph that God was working through his wife, Mary. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21).
And now, the Magi had seen his star in the east and had come to worship him. “And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was” (v 9, emphasis added).
God revealed hope and forgiveness to the Magi, both so that they would be saved and so that we would clearly see that forgiveness of sins and peace with God is a reality for all people.
III.
Idou! Behold! Look, dear child of God, and see how God has revealed his promise to you. When Peter would later confess, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), this was not his own insightfulness; it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. And so to us, God reveals salvation by the working of the Holy Spirit through his means.
When the water was poured upon your head “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” saving faith was given to you. You were connected to Christ and his cross. The forgiveness that Jesus accomplished there for all was gifted to you.
When we gather here for the Holy Supper, in, with, and under ordinary bread and wine is the same Jesus to whom the Magi bowed down and worshiped. Here he gives his blood-bought gifts to you. He forgives you through his precious blood shed for you on the cross. He strengthens your faith. He sends you back to your homes with his peace.
Idou! Behold! Look and hear, dear child of God, what Jesus’ death on the cross has done for you. You stand justified, holy, and righteous because of what the Son of God has done for you.
When you hear your pastor absolve you of all your sins, it is as though Jesus himself, risen from the dead, says to you, “You are forgiven of it all!” Because of your revealed and risen Savior, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).
Look here and hear, dear child of God, as you are sent back home like the Magi with peace. Your salvation has been revealed and delivered to you! Forgiveness, eternal life, and peace with God has been given to you. Amen
The Peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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