Psalm 2; Matthew 2:13-21:
Christmas and the Fall of This World’s Kings
Introduction
This is the last lesson in our (abbreviated) Advent series this year. Over the last two weeks we have examined several passages that highlight the way in which Christ’s coming challenged the gods and false religion of this world and has decisively defeated them. Specifically we have seen that Christmas is fatal to any theory of neutrality or naturalism. Christmas proves that neutrality is a myth and that the system of naturalism fails at every point. The world is not neutral, secular space because Jesus has come, and he is Lord over all. Neither can naturalism be entertained. The world is not a closed, mechanical system. Human beings believe in morality and magic. Christmas is true, and unbelievers who hate and oppose its celebration show their fear of it.
Today we come to two passages that set forth clearly this antithesis between Christ and the world system. The King of all Kings is hated and opposed by the petty, tyrant-kings who presently rule in the City of Man. But they will not prevail. Yahweh has enthroned his Anointed One on Mt. Zion, and there is nothing the rulers of men who oppose it can do about it. The first coming of the Lord announced the end of their rule was at hand. His second coming will close the chapter finally.
Psalm 2 may seem a strange psalm to use during the Christmas season. In some ways it is better suited to Easter since it is a hymn of the resurrection. The apostle Paul gives an inspired interpretation of the text in his synagogue sermon at Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13. There he makes it plain that the phrase “today I have begotten You” speaks not of what happened at Bethlehem and Christmas but of what happened at Joseph’s tomb on the third day (Ac. 13:32-33). This begetting is God’s declaration in space and time and by an act of divine power that Jesus truly is the divine Son of God (cf. Rom. 1:4). The resurrection of Jesus is the definitive sign of who he is. It is not the manger but the empty tomb that ultimately convinces us he is the Son of God.
Yet as a resurrection hymn, Psalm 2 is appropriate on every Lord’s Day, and it is especially appropriate on the Lord’s Day nearest to the Church’s historic celebration of the Incarnation. Today two great remembrances of the Church are joined: that the Son of God came and that after he died for sins he arose. The Lord’s Day is a weekly celebration of the resurrection, but there could be no resurrection unless Jesus died, and he could not die unless he was truly incarnated (enfleshed), i.e. made man (John 1:14). Everything in the gospel downstream of Jesus’ birth presupposes it. There is no ministry, no miracles, no parables, no exorcisms, no sacraments, no serving, no suffering, no salvation at all unless Jesus had truly come as a Man. This, not incidentally but as an aside, is why our tradition of rejecting the medieval Church’s calendar and affirming that the Lord’s Day is the one day the Lord appointed for his Church to observe is so valuable. There is an important sense in which we do not have Christmas hymns, Easter hymns, or Pentecost hymns, and we firmly reject hymns to Mary or any other saint. We have Christian hymns, biblical hymns, Scripture songs, and they are appropriate on every day of worship when God’s people gather.
I want to examine these two texts side by side. Psalm 2 liturgically affirms the principle. Matthew 2 shows it to us in history. Psalm 2 gives us the theology, and Matthew shows one aspect of it in Jesus’ life. Remember the psalms are the “songs of Jesus.” We benefit tremendously from them and can relate personally to most of them at some point in our lives. But they preeminently point to Christ. He is the righteous man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly and can dwell on God’s holy hill. Psalm 2 is explicitly Messianic, one of the few that can only refer to Christ. Most of the psalms have an application for the psalmist and for saints who join in prayer and praise as well as a larger, eschatological application in relation to the Messiah. But Psalm 2 is all about Jesus, the Savior who is both the Anointed One and the Lord. He is the King born in Bethlehem whom Herod feared and world leaders hate; he is God’s King on the holy hill of Zion.
Christ’s Coming was Feared, Hated, and Violently Opposed
What would cause a king to order the slaughter of babies in one of his towns? Rage? That was not the case here. Hatred? Again, not the issue. Madness? Undoubtedly, but even madness has some reason for the order, however demented. Herod’s actions can only be understood in relation to fear. Herod was afraid of the appearance of the Messiah and what it would mean for his throne.
Fear, of course, is a powerful motivator and has often been the reason for violence against others. We fear what we do not understand. People often fear what they perceive as different. And we fear what threatens to take away the things that we love and the idols in which we trust.
Herod did not order the slaughter of the Bethlehem infants because he had good reason to think the Messiah would be like Stalin or Hitler or Mao Tse-tung, as immoral, wicked, and gross as even that would be. No, Herod ordered the slaughter of the children because he knew that if the Messiah arrived he would become king and then Herod could not be. He was not opposed to the Messiah’s rule on moral grounds. He was opposed to anyone who might rule other than himself.
You probably have sent or received Christmas cards this year with Luke 2:14 printed on it: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” I still want someone to create a Christmas card with Matthew 10:34-36 on it:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’”
Jesus came to establish peace between God and his people, the new human race, the citizens of Zion. But his coming was and continues to be met with fear, hatred, and violent opposition. If you believe in and follow Jesus Christ, you will be persecuted. Not may be. Not probably will be. “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2Tim. 3:12). And that persecution will sometimes come from your family or your own brethren. Jesus said so. So do not be surprised.
But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” … For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1Pet. 3:14, 17)
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. (1Pet. 4:12-16)
Christ Came as King to Rule Over His Enemies
Why do people react violently and spitefully against Christ and those who follow him? Didn’t he come to save men, to establish peace, to bestow divine blessing? Yes, but he does so as the Sovereign Lord, Master and Commander, Maker and Judge. If he came only to save and then promised to leave everyone alone, perhaps more people would be willing to receive his work of grace. Who doesn’t like free stuff? I am being facetious to make a point. No unregenerate person will receive Christ no matter the offer. But don’t miss the point: Jesus’ gift of grace and work as Savior is inextricably linked to his authority and rule as Lord of all. You cannot have Christ as your Savior while rejecting him as Lord. He is both Savior and Lord, objectively, and those who reject his authority as King, like those in Psalm 2, will not enjoy the benefits of his work as Savior.
Many evangelicals think of Jesus’ role as a position we grant to him by our decision. Some of you have heard the expression: “God votes for you, Satan votes against you, and you cast the deciding vote.” Stuff and nonsense. What you see in Psalm 2 is that Jesus is King whether you choose him or not. He will rule regardless of man’s cooperation. Some of the same believers who say you must make Jesus Lord of your life will acknowledge this globally while denying it on the personal level. You see this, for example, in the notion of the carnal Christian, the idea that you can have Jesus as Savior but not as Lord, that you can be saved while remaining in unrepentance and disobedience. This is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus is Savior and he is Lord, and man’s denial of either role has no material affect on his position and power. He is, objectively, Lord of all, and the psalm says explicitly he rules over his enemies.
“Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” (vv.8-9)
What if those nations don’t want Christ to rule over them? It doesn’t matter. What if I prefer my autonomy and want to govern my own life? He is still Lord and King. You do not place Jesus on the throne, not of your life, not of anything. He is on the throne already. He is Lord of all lords. He is Ruler over your life, and you will acknowledge that now or later, but you will acknowledge it. God’s Word says: “Every knee shall bow… and every tongue shall confess” that Jesus Christ is Lord (cf. Rom. 14:11; Php. 2:9-11).
The Lord rules over all creation, in heaven and on earth, not only his redeemed sons and daughters but also his enemies. For the latter, he uses a rod of iron, and for the former, a shepherd’s staff. His is an everlasting and invincible kingdom that shall outlast and overrule all kingdoms of this present world. Ancient Israel was not that kingdom, and neither is the modern state of Israel. The United States is not that kingdom anymore than was the Roman, Greek, or Neo-Babylonian Empires. We must beware of kingdom confusion; though we are citizens of temporal and political nations, our true allegiance is to the King of Glory and his everlasting dominion. We are part of that kingdom right now having been delivered from the “power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son” (Col. 1:13), but we still await its consummation. We seek “an entrance… into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2Pet. 1:11) which we will see on the day when the kingdoms of this world are brought into subjection to the true King. The enemies will be shattered like pottery, and the farthest ends of the earth will be ruled by Messiah.
The Lord Laughs with Scorn for His Enemies and Joy for His Sons
Only an invincible kingdom could begin as meanly and vulnerably as Christ’s coming into this world. He was not born as a prince into a noble family. Sure, his lineage was kingly--he was a descendant of David! But no one looking at Joseph and Mary would have associated them with royalty or political power. He was born into poverty and obscurity and worked with his hands as a carpenter until his public ministry began (cf. Mark 6:3). He was hunted by Herod, hated by the religious establishment, and finally executed by the government authorities. And all of these were preparatory to the successful, inevitable, unconquerable inauguration of his kingdom rule.
Herod’s opposition, like the resistance of rulers described in Psalm 2, was not only evil and despicable; it was desperate, pathetic, and futile. He hoped to kill the child born to be king and so secure his own hold on the throne. But all he accomplished was increasing his own condemnation. He was already an evil man; now he became a murderer of children. But he could not stop Christ. He could not prevent or impede the kingdom of God in any way. The reign of the Messiah was inevitable. Herod’s days were numbered. He had two choices: submit to Christ or perish.
How does the Lord respond to the wicked, violent rebellion of his foes? He laughs. This is surprising to some people who are not accustomed to such a picture of God, but Psalm 2 says he laughs at the wicked. He is not laughing with amusement. He is not laughing as we might when we see the adorable but futile wrestlings of a baby or a puppy. He is laughing with scorn. He holds the wicked in derision. He despises their violent attempts to overthrow his authority, but he does not fear them. We may. We look at the world and are tempted to wring our hands. “What is going to happen?!” But the Lord does not wonder. He knows. He ordained the end from the beginning. And nothing this world’s rulers or rebels ever do or even can do can ever change the authority and sovereignty of Christ over all creation. Submit to Christ, or perish. Those are their only options.
Christ Entered the House of Bondage to Deliver God’s People
One of the great ironies in Matthew 2 and the Christmas story is Joseph and Mary’s flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s attempts to kill the Child. Egypt was the house of bondage, the historic site of Israel’s original captivity, and a metaphor for the judgment of God’s people in the prophets. But Jesus goes there, of all places, to escape danger in the promised land. If you suspect there is something more going on, you are correct.
The flight into Egypt and subsequent return to the land is a picture of Christ’s first advent in miniature. The Son of God descended into the house of slavery in order to bring the sons of God up from there once again. Christ’s ministry is the new and true exodus, the deliverance the first exodus could only foreshadow. He came into a world full of sin where men were bound by the power of darkness. He entered that house willingly because we needed a deliverer, and Christ, as the new and greater Moses, brought God’s people out of Egypt forever.
There is more to see here--more in fact than we have time to unpack today--including the paradox of God’s salvation. He saves in unexpected and impossible ways. The foolishness of preaching in contrast to the wisdom of man. Saviors born to barren women. Victory given to the weak and few over the strong and many. “Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called” because “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise” and mighty and things the world admires and adores (1Cor. 1:26-27).
Joseph goes to Egypt as a slave and becomes savior of his family there. Moses is born in Egypt as a slave, leaves, but willingly returns in order to deliver the Israelites. Now Jesus follows their footsteps to do what their lives only anticipated. He finds refuge in the house of bondage, but he is not there to hide. Like David who sought refuge among the Philistines, the Lord is positioned in plain sight of his target. He is not there to pass the time. God’s heroes go to Egypt to plunder it.
Christmas and the Fall of This World’s Kings
Herod’s violent opposition to the birth of Christ both historically enacts the rebellion in Psalm 2 and serves as the prototype for all unregenerate, reprobate rulers. The kings of this world have fought Christmas from the very beginning because they know that the birth of the King will be the end of their rule. “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:15) Regardless of your eschatological view, you have to reckon with that passage and many others like it. The “glory and honor of the nations” are brought into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:26). All nations, all earthly kingdoms, all rulers and authorities, will one day pay tribute to the true King of the universe: Jesus Christ.
This is not to say the kingdom of Christ is an earthly or political institution like the nations of this world. Jesus made clear to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). He said to the Pharisees’ question of when the kingdom would come: “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). This is a spiritual, otherworldly kingdom. It is not claiming a particular piece of land, building a capital, mustering an army, and marching out to conquer the nations of the world as any of them might do. But that does not mean the kingdom of Christ is theoretical or merely ethereal. It has an earthly manifestation and practical, temporal implications for the City of Man which will be increasingly obvious as Christ exercises his rule over all.
Do you want a Christian nation? Well it depends on what you mean. If you mean do I want only Presbyterians to be allowed to hold office, all atheists executed, and all Roman Catholics and credo-baptists jailed, then no, as a matter of fact, I do not. What some have sought or expected as a “Christian” nation turns out not to be very Christian or biblical or realistic at all. But that does not make the advocacy of a secular state the preferred or proper solution. There are ditches on both sides of the road. And if some views of a Christian nation are much too sectarian, some views of politics held by believers in the present age are simply pagan. No, that’s not true and it’s unfair to pagans. At least pagans believed the gods were involved in their national affairs and so their city leaders offered public prayers and sacrifices accordingly. Christian secularists won’t allow that.
Every kingdom is religious. Every single one. Stalinist Russia was religious. Their religion was secularism and atheism, but it was practiced religiously as a religion nonetheless. Have you heard of the Cult of Reason which developed during the French Revolution? Human beings are religious by nature, and if we refuse to be religious, then we will be religious about our irreligiosity. The question is not whether we will worship a god; the question is which god we will worship. Every kingdom is a theocracy, and the most tyrannical are states that insist they are not theocratic. The god of the state rules the kingdom. His word and values become the law, and they must be obeyed on pain of death. Do you doubt it? Consider what tolerance and diversity looks like in our present social context. We must make room for all views, except any view that departs from the new norm. How quickly we went from admitting abortion as “safe, legal, and rare” to hashtags like Shout Your Abortion and public celebration on the steps of the Supreme Court for the slaughter of children. Just over twenty years ago our society was challenged to reject what was term homophobic hatred and violence. Today we have hate crimes legislation which punishes crimes more severely if they are committed with a bad motivation--as opposed to all of those crimes that arise from good and wholesome motivations--and which now threatens to penalize, silence, or otherwise subjugate opinions, beliefs, and language that offends the new morality. “Silence is violence,” but words are also deemed “violence,” as when someone refuses to participate in the normalization of mental illness by using preferred pronouns contrary to a person’s biological sex.
Theocracy is inevitable, and if it isn’t the true God then it will be Zeus or Ra or Marduk or Tash. Lest you think I am suggesting we ought to have a Christian theocracy in order to beat them at their own game, I am arguing there is no game at all because Jesus has come and he is Lord! We are not trying to engineer or politically maneuver the kingdom into power. He already has it. He has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). What authority does he lack? Where is he not King? Not all of his subjects recognize his authority. Not all of them are obedient to him. But don’t get too worked up about that. He is a great King, and he knows how to defend his throne.
Kiss the Son. We think of kissing in the context of romance. This is a kiss in the context of monarchy. It is kissing the ring or kissing the feet, a sign of submission, but not grudging, fearful submission to a tyrant, but the willing, joyful submission of a slave who has been redeemed and delivered and then adopted as a son. Jesus came into this world and shed his blood so that his enemies might be awakened from the sleep of death and made his friends. Rather than merely vanquishing us as foes, he has vanquished us as a lover wins his beloved, by wooing the heart. The bride gladly submits to her husband, because he won her submission by love, service, and self-sacrifice. Jesus is King, and his hand must be kissed because he is Lord of all. If he is Lord, then I am not. But there is a kind of romance in it after all. Not the erotic kind of romance, but the covenantal romance of a Bride won by the love and sacrifice of her Savior.
Jesus did not merely show up, proclaim himself King, and order everyone to worship him. He could have done so. Instead he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He gave himself, repeatedly and fully, so that his foes might be conquered, not by power but by grace. The iron rod which will destroy all his enemies first fell on the King himself, as he laid down his life for the sins of God’s chosen ones. We worship Christ because he is God, we obey Him because he is King, but we love him because he is good. We love him because he first loved us (1Jn. 4:19). And what a love that is, beyond comprehension!
Conclusion
In this series we’ve examined some of what makes Christmas so offensive. It is because Christmas was the eschatological equivalent of D-Day in a spiritual, but very visible, war. Christ’s Advent confronted, combated, and has conquered the gods of this world. The idea of neutrality? Everywhere is sacred space, because Jesus has sanctified it by his presence, and he is Lord of all of it. The system of naturalism? The Creator stepped into the world, became a creature. He did what was impossible for the creature in order to save the world. This is not a closed system; it is a terrarium full of magic and creatures that contemplate morality. The kings and kingdoms of this world? They are all under the authority of the King of all Kings, the Ruler of the everlasting kingdom. Those earthly kingdoms are becoming the one kingdom of our Lord and Savior. His kingdom will stand forever. None of the kingdoms of this world can or will.
No one is particularly offended by a baby in a manger. That is why the world has tried to strip Christmas of all theological substance in its sanitized celebration of the “winter holidays.” Even the Church has been complicit in this mistake. The Lord was a baby in a manger, but he is not anymore. It’s not so much that the things we say this time of year are wrong--some of them are, but mostly it is an issue of what is not being said and where the emphasis is being laid. But regardless of the world’s hostility and the hatred and opposition of civil magistrates, regardless of the Church’s lack of theological discernment and the misplaced emphasis on “the little Lord Jesus” --who unlike every other newborn in the history of the world evidently never cried--no matter the sanitized and de-theologized Christmas many people may celebrate, the truth still breaks through and will prevail. Jesus is Savior and Lord. He is a mighty King, the Deliverer of his people, and Sovereign, enthroned on Mt. Zion, the One before whom all earthly kings must inevitably bow or fall. Rejoice the Lord is King. O come, let us adore him. Merry Christmas. Amen.
