Find Hope: Matthew 1-4Exemplo

Unexpected Guests

I am not great with unexpected guests. I like people, but I'm naturally an introvert, and so hospitality is easiest for me when I get the chance to prepare. Of course, sometimes guests are unexpected not because I shouldn't have expected them, but because I forget that we've made plans. When that happens, the arrival of my guests tells me something that I should have already known but forgotten.

The arrival of wise men from the east feels unexpected. If you are a Jew who has been waiting for the arrival of the Messiah, the last people you would have expected, or maybe even wanted, to find in the story is a group of foreigners coming to see Jesus.

The deep longing of most Jewish people, and certainly of the Jewish leaders like the Pharisees, was a Messiah who would lead them in a military victory against their Roman occupation and restore Israel to her former glory under kings like David and Solomon. But some of the first people to recognize the arrival of Jesus and come to worship him are from outside Israel.

This shouldn't have been a surprise. God's promise to Abraham was an offspring who would bring God's blessing to the nations (Genesis 12:1-3). The Old Testament promise was that the nations would come to Israel to worship the LORD (Jeremiah 3:17). But somehow Israel had developed an "us and them" mentality when it came to God's saving plan. And so the gospel of Matthew begins with a reminder of what they should've already known—God's salvation is for all who would come and worship the Messiah.

Sometimes we forget that in many ways we are the unexpected guest—unworthy of God's grace and, for most of us, not Jewish. And yet God's plan was always to draw us to himself through his Son. What a glorious gospel message we have been entrusted with—an invitation to even the worst of sinners (including us!) to come and find life in Jesus.

Today, ponder this: Thank God that you are not an unexpected guest to him, but you were loved and chosen before the creation of the world. Ask him to help you see what he sees when you look at those who might feel outside or even beyond God's saving plan.