Matthew 2 and The Beauty of a Small Gospel

I was reading Matthew 2 for the first time in a while. It's interesting to see that the people who are most eager to worship Jesus are the 'fortune-tellers' from the East. The gospels are constantly pointing to the overlooked (the Samaritan, the poor widow, the woman at the well) as the ones who get it, and the established religious order as the ones who don't.

Herod called together "all the chief priests and teachers of the law," people who reaffirmed what he already feared: Jesus was born from the true line of the expected Messiah-King. That meant Herod's rule might be exposed as a fraud. Herod's insecurity and fear of losing power caused him to order the death of Jesus. But one thing I'd looked over: he made this proclamation only after he called together the most prominent religious leaders of the day, who "had aligned themselves politically with Herod. If his power base were threatened, so was theirs" (NIV Archaeological Study Bible).

From this, two things stick out to me: the good news Jesus brings is often most truly understood and lived by those we don't think deserve it. And second, what a beautiful example that Jesus sets for a gospel that doesn't seek to be big, powerful, or aligned with the right religious group, but rather unexpectedly subversive, using the weak or the insignificant to bring truth. In this small instance, the gifts given to Jesus by the Magi fortune-tellers sustained Mary and Joseph when they fled to Egypt; and a boy born in a forgotten town saved the world.