We just finished the Christmas season. A well-known passage associated with that holiday is Matt 2:1-6. Wise men came from the East saying that they’d seen the star of the newborn King of the Jews and had come to Jerusalem to worship Him. 

One would think this would be exciting news. These men had come from the area in which Daniel had prophesied over 500 years earlier (605 BC to 538 BC). Daniel spoke of the coming Christ and provided a timeline for His arrival (Dan 9:24-27). That time was near. 

The people in Jerusalem should have been excited because, 1400 years earlier, another prophet, Moses, had written that God promised to bless Gentiles through Abraham’s Descendant, the coming Christ (Gen 12:3). Now, a group of Gentiles had come to worship the Christ of Israel. 

These were not ordinary men. They were wealthy and well-educated Gentiles. They were experts in the study of the stars. They knew something different had happened in the night sky and claimed that it signaled the birth of the One whose coming Daniel had predicted.  

But instead of being excited, Matthew wrote that all of Jerusalem was troubled (Matt 2:3). They were worried about how their king, Herod, would react. Statements such as the one made by these men from the East might make the lives of people around Jerusalem miserable. 

Matthew added another sad note. Herod asked the religious leaders where the Christ was to be born. We might wonder whether these experts in the Scriptures considered Daniel and the promise to Abraham when they heard about the visiting wise men, but there is no question as to whether they knew that the Scriptures said the Christ was coming. They even knew where He was supposed to be born. They told Herod that Micah—another prophet, who had lived around 700 years earlier—had predicted it (Micah 5:2; Matt 2:4-6). They recited the prophecy saying that He would be born in Bethlehem. 

Wouldn’t you expect these religious leaders to run the short distance (six miles) to Bethlehem and encourage their fellow Jews to do the same? Sadly, they didn’t. 

Why not? Some will say that all these Jews were unbelievers. They didn’t believe what God had said to Abraham, Daniel, and Micah. No doubt, there were many unbelievers in Jerusalem. 

But there were also some believers. I suppose there were even a few believers among the religious experts. Why didn’t they go to Bethlehem when it appeared that Scripture was being fulfilled right before their eyes?    

As mentioned above, they were afraid. But there was another reason. They had become spiritually complacent. It had been fourteen centuries since the Gen 12:3 prophecy. Daniel had lived six centuries earlier. Micah had lived 700 years earlier. The excitement of their promises had worn off. 

The Jews in Jerusalem were happy with the status quo. The chief priests, especially, were living comfortable lives. Even if one was a believer, he was content with how things were. 

We can be like that. We can become spiritually complacent and enjoy the status quo. Most of us live comfortable lives. We are content. Christ has promised to come for us, to take us to Himself (1 Thess 4:13-18). But that was 2,000 years ago. Over time, we can lose the excitement of even a promise like that (Matt 24:45-51; 2 Pet 3:3-4). There is a reason the Lord told us to keep watching (Matt 24:42-44; 25:13). It is easy to forget that He is coming again, just as the Jews had forgotten that He was coming to them when He came the first time. 

Matthew 2:1-6 is a depressing passage. The Jews in Jerusalem were given the most exciting news of their lives. Those who were believers should have been celebrating and running to Bethlehem.ⁱ Instead, they were troubled. 

Our Lord is coming again. May we ask Him to make us excited about the prospect. May we not be content with our present lives, no matter how comfortable they are. Let’s not become spiritually complacent. 

ⁱ Editor’s note: The famous line from Fiddler on the Roof: “Oh that Messiah would come!” (cut from the original Broadway play but included in the movie) shows the Messianic expectation of many Jews around 1905 in Russia. That same expectation was present in Israel in the first century for many Jews (cf. Matt 21:9; John 6:15; 12: 12-19). But since the Lord Jesus ultimately did not match their expectations of what the Messiah should be like, most of the nation rejected Him (John 1:11).