disturbed

Since I was a little boy, the story of the Magi always raised a cloud of questions. What are Magi? How do you follow a star? How can you tell which house or even town a star is over? What about that star made them come anyway?

As an adult, I still don't have satisfactory answers, but I do have another question. Matthew 2:1-3 reads, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him."

I get why Herod didn't like hearing about a new king, but why was all Jerusalem disturbed with him? Why wouldn't they want a king from David's line instead of a Roman king?

It suggests that Jerusalem was pretty comfortable under Roman rule. The religious elite, those Pharisees and Saducees, may have liked their status as an officially approved religion, and probably liked having Roman troops available to stamp out other sects. The people of Jerusalem might have liked the boost to the economy of having all these Romans in town.

Or maybe they'd lived with Herod long enough that they feared what he might do. Maybe they were used to having to keep their heads down during his tantrums.

It makes me think, though. Have I gotten too comfortable with my life in this world, so much that I wouldn't want Jesus to disturb it? Do I sometimes cringe when faith topics come up because I fear the reaction of the non-believers around me? Like all Jerusalem, I probably sometimes am disturbed at the thought of how disruptive King Jesus can be to this world.

Why wouldn't I long for Jesus to purge and restore my corner of the world? Sometimes, I guess, no change seems the easiest.