Welcome to Advent 2025! Each Sunday, we’ll explore the verses of Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55 until we reach its crescendo on Christmas Eve. From 11/30 to 12/27, we’ll read biblical passages that prompt Mary’s praise and prepare us to enter the pageant of the birth of our Savior.
Advent Passage: Matthew 2
Today’s passage reminds us that the Israelites were not the only ones searching for a sign from God. The Magi were Gentile astrologers who looked to the sky to predict future events. For the Magi, new or falling stars or comets signaled the rise and fall of rulers.
So, when the Magi beheld a new light over the Jewish town of Bethlehem, they went looking for a new ruler. They searched first in the royal city of Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 3:2).
King Herod currently held this title as Rome’s provincial leader of Judea. He naturally launched his own investigation into the Magi’s quest for a newborn King of the Jews. When he inquired of the Jewish rulers, they quoted the Bethlehem prophecy we studied earlier from Micah 5:2. Therefore, Herod secretly sent the Magi to Bethlehem to find his potential rival and report back.
The Magi continued following the star and found Jesus in Bethlehem. They presented gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh, and worshipped Him as the next King of the Jews.
They were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod, so they returned home another way. The Magi’s change of plans protected Jesus for a time, but Matthew 2:13 tells us that it fueled Herod’s paranoia. Therefore, an angel warned Joseph to escape to Egypt.
Herod indeed ordered a massacre of all boys under the age of two, so the angel’s warning saved Jesus from Herod’s wrath. Shortly after that, Herod succumbed to illness and died in 4 B.C. After Herod’s death, Jesus’s family returned and settled in Nazareth.
Jesus, the Eternal King, came to us in the posture of a shepherd and began His life as a refugee. From the beginning, Jesus revealed His purpose to lift up the humble by first humbling Himself and then overcoming all of it, because He loves us. There is no place of exile or a point of pain that we might endure that Jesus does not understand.
The Magi rightly honored Jesus as King, but they could not grasp the extent of His Kingdom. Jesus came for the sake of the Jews, but also for every shepherd, refugee, outcast, and humble human. Mary’s Song became Jesus’ Story so that we might grasp God’s mercy in all our stories.
© 2025 Lori Myers Berry
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