What to Do With a Messiah?

In the church, we talk a lot about the gospel, the euangelion, the "good news." And rightfully so. The gospel is at the core of the Christian message. The wonderful thing about Christianity isn't that we're not going out to tell people that they're hopeless sinners destined to eternal punishment, but that we have good news in Christ. So we sing "Go Tell It on the Mountain," celebrating that fact that we have good news to share.

But is the coming of a messiah good news?

Depends who you are.

When you read the birth narratives in the gospels, you find a lot of people who are excited about the birth of the messiah. His mother Mary sings a song about how God "has looked on the humble estate of his servant" (Lk. 1:46-55). Zechariah speaks of how God "has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David" (Lk. 1:67-79). The angels tell the shepherds, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk. 2:10-11). Simeon praises God, saying, "For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples" (Lk. 2:29-32). Anna the prophetess gives thanks to God for the coming redemption (Lk. 2:38). And the magi travel to Palestine looking for this new messiah, who had born king of the Jews (Mt. 2:1-2).

A messiah is a king, and there were a lot of people who anticipated the coming of this new king. News of the messiah's arrival evoked rejoicing and awe among the common people who had been oppressed. These people were looking for redemption, and they were ready to welcome their new ruler with open arms. For them, the messiah really was good news.

But not everyone reacted with such exuberance.

When the magi first arrived in Judea, they went to Jerusalem, knowing that if there were a new king, that's probably where he would be. They go to Herod and ask where this new king of the Jews is. But when Herod hears this, he doesn't jump with joy and rush out into the streets to spread this good news of a messiah. The text says that "he was troubled" (Mt. 2:3), and eventually this leads him to having all of the infants in Bethlehem killed (Mt. 2:16). His reaction to the messiah is certainly different from that of the angels, Simeon, or the magi.

So what's the difference between Herod and all of these other people? Why was Herod not too hyped about there being a new king in Israel?

It's because Herod was already the king! The birth of a new king is never good news to the guy sitting on the throne.

I'm afraid that many of us are more like Herod than we might realize. We like to play king. We want to be in charge of our own lives. We want to be sovereign over ourselves. We want to be our own bosses, we want to call the shots, we want to remain independent of any outside control. But Jesus confronts us as a new king. He demands our allegiance. He calls us to bow the knee to him. And that means climbing off our thrones and letting him take his rightful place.

Our response, then, is to keep Jesus but try to make him something other than a messiah. We might reinterpret "messiah" to mean something other than "king." So we'll think of a messiah as nothing more than a divine savior from sin. We like that because it doesn't demand anything from us. But it's a twisting of the words. A messiah is a king, and we can't get around that. We can't reshape Jesus into something less than what he is. Yes, he is a savior from sin, but he's more than that. He's the king over the universe, and is thus the authority over our lives.

Let's not cling to our thrones like Herod.

Let's lay our gifts at the messiah's feet, like the magi.