What’s a king to do?

Matthew 2:1-3

. . . in the days of Herod the king wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him . . .

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

What [Matthew] tells us is political dynamite. Jesus, Matthew is saying, is the true king of the Jews, and old Herod is the false one, a usurper, an impostor. . . . The arrival of the “Magi” . . . introduces us to something which Matthew wants us to be clear about from the start. If Jesus is in some sense king of the Jews, that doesn’t mean that his rule is limited to the Jewish people. At the heart of many prophecies about the coming king, the Messiah, there were predictions that his rule would bring God’s justice and peace to the whole world (e.g. Psalm 72; Isaiah 11.1-10) (11).

A. Orendorff

The kingship of Jesus, particularly as Matthew presents it at the opening of his story, offers us with a picture of power that is radically different from how power is normally understood in the world. Matthew, as opposed to Luke, does not tell us the story of the shepherds’ midnight trek. Rather he tells us the story of the Magi, “wise men” from the east, who sought by divination the illegitimate son of a Jewish teenager. It is hard to imagine a more shocking and unexpected portrayal of [Jewish] power than Gentile magicians (astrologers) “worshiping” (vv. 2 and 11) and coronating a peasant born in squalor. The juxtaposition of king Herod “troubled” in Jerusalem while surrounded by all the trapping of ease and comfort with king Jesus “worshiped” in Bethlehem surrounded by the all trappings of despair and want is meant to turn the scene sideways. What is power? Who has power? What does it mean to be a “king,” to be a “ruler,” to be a “shepherd” (v. 6)? Matthew’s announcement is clear: Herod’s days are numbered; the kingdom of Jesus has arrived . . . but it’s not coming the way we thought.