Archive for December 11th, 2008

“1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born…”

-Matthew 2v1-4 TNIV

I had been reflecting on this verse in light of Charlie’s and my conversation about Obama’s possible Department of Peace and Non-Violence. I took one side of the argument, that is, don’t trust the D of P & N but trust Jesus, the author of true peace. I still agree with this, and I think Charlie does, too (?).

I would also like to add another point to the conversation, that is, there have been times in the history of God’s people that the “outsiders” had to remind the “insiders” what they are looking for. During Advent, we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus’ first coming and his second. Perhaps, much like the Magi, who reminded the Jews that they should’ve been looking for the true King of the Jews (where they had trusted other things to save them), we, as Christians, could be reminded that we too should’ve been working for Peace and Non-Violence.

You can almost see the look on the face of the people in Matthew chapter 2. They were disturbed (!) by what they heard. “Uhh…where was that Messiah guy supposed to be born? Oh yes! That’s right - Bethlehem. We forgot.” Perhaps, they were troubled because they forgot? Perhaps, they were troubled because it took these pagan magi to remind them?

Either way, we could learn from them - sometimes it takes our “Gentile magi” (in this case, those proposing the DP&N?) to remind Christians that we should’ve been working for peace and non-violence, but instead, we were too busy looking and placing our trust elsewhere.