#002 From bad to worse

Matthew 2:1-22

When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem asking for the King of Israel that was born. After hearing this, King Herod and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were worried. You would too, if you were in risk of having to pass the government to another.


What about the government of your life, would you let Jesus do it? Or do you try hard to prevent it? Herod decided he wanted to eliminate Jesus.

Those wise men arrived in Bethlehem with gifts for the baby: gold, frankincense and myrrh, a bitter herb taken from a tree full of thorns. Despite his golden perfection and divine fragrance, Jesus was destined to endure a shameful death. Nailed to a tree like a common criminal.

After they found Jesus, the wise men went back home by another way. No one goes back in the same way after a meeting like this. And no one has a meeting like this unless he listen to the voice of Him who said: "I am the way."

After learning that Herod intended to kill the boy, Joseph fled to Egypt taking Jesus and Mary, and only returned after the death of Herod. In the meanwhile they went to live in Nazareth.

This is why Jesus became known as Jesus of Nazareth, in a time when people used to say that from Nazareth never came anything of value.

Can you understand that? God comes into the world in a corral, spends His first night in a trough for feeding cattle, lives as a refugee in exile and ends up living in a village of people considered as fifth category.

You know what? Only One who went through it all can understand someone who is going through all this. Sadness, contempt, persecution - you know these things, don't you? You can be sure that Jesus did not come here on vacation. It started badly for Him, and ended worse.

Now try to guess the reason why he did all that and for whom. You know the answer.

In the next 3 minutes you will meet a man who eats locusts and honey, and dresses in a very strange way.