Sunday
Matthew 4:12-17 on the lands of Zeubulun and Napthali seeing the light of Christ
Orthodox Sunday Bible Commentary

The term Galilee of the Gentiles indicates that many non-Jews lived in the region. Having a mixed population, it was not considered a genuinely Jewish land, even though many Gentile residents had converted to Judaism during the Maccabean period. Because many of the Jews there had been influenced by the Greek culture and its customs, they were generally considered second-class citizens by the Jews of Judea. Darkness means ungodliness. Here it represents the Gentiles’ unawareness of God and the Jews being under the shadow of the Old Covenant. To sit in darkness means to be overcome by spiritual ignorance. The great light is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Monday

Bloodthirsty Herod, in deciding to exterminate the Newborn — regarding Him as his antagonist — summoned all his high priests and scribes and directly poses to them the question as to the place of birth of the Messiah, King of the Jews: “Where is Christ to be born?” The scribes immediately pointed out to him Micah’s well-known prophecy (5:2), not citing it literally but its meaning that the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem means “house of bread” and Euphratus, “fertile field,” a name that characterizes the exceptional fertility of the soil.   It is striking that in Micah’s original prophecy there is the statement that the Messiah will only “come” from Bethlehem but will not live there and that His true origins “are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

Tuesday

In order to execute his bloody intentions with certainty, Herod also wanted to know the time of birth of the Judean King. He summons the Magi so as to interrogate them clandestinely as to the time of the appearance of the star and then sends them to Bethlehem so that when they return they can relate all they found out about the Newborn. When the Magi set out toward Bethlehem, the star that they saw in the East traveled before them, showing the accurate route until it stopped where the Newborn Infant was located.  What sort of star was it? There are varied thoughts on this issue. Saint John Chrysostom and the Blessed Theothilactus thought that it was a certain Divine and Angelic force, appearing in the form of a star. In relation to the star that was seen in the East, many defined it as a real star, inasmuch as some type of sign of a perceivable nature preceded many great events in a moral world.

Wednesday

The marvelous meaning of the Wise Men’s arrival from a distant land is explained excellently by Saint John Chrysostom: “Because the Judeans, listening ceaselessly to the prophets’ proclamations on the coming of Christ, did not pay any particular attention, the Lord instilled into the barbarians the need to come from a distant land, inquire about the King that was born among them, and the Judeans first recognize from the Persians that which they did not want to learn from the prophets.”

Naturally, the star that showed the way to the wise men from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, “till it came and stood over where the young Child was,” was now a real star — not a planet but a completely special and miraculous manifestation. When they saw the star, the wise men “rejoiced with exceedingly great joy,” because undoubtedly, they saw in it a new strengthening of their faith in the authenticity of the birth of this extraordinary Infant. It is said further about the Magi that they came to a house and there “fell down and worshipped” the Newborn. Consequently, the Magi did not come to the cave where Christ was born; by that time, the Infant and His mother could have resettled into an ordinary house. “And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Having received a Divine warning in a dream not to return to Herod, who had designs to kill the God-Infant, the Magi returned to their homeland along a different route, not through Jerusalem but probably to the south from Bethlehem.

Thursday

After the wise men’s departure, the Lord’s Angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and directed him to take the Infant and His mother and flee to Egypt, what he did at night. Egypt was located southwest of Judea, requiring a journey of some 100 miles to its border. At the time, it was also a Roman province where many Jews lived; they had their own synagogues and as Herod’s authority did not extend there, the Holy Family, having stopped at one of their compatriot’s houses, could feel themselves out of danger. To the question as to why Christ did not save Himself from Herod’s executioners, St. Chrysostom responds: “If the Lord started to work wonders in His initial years, then He would not have been acknowledged as a Human” (Discourse on Matthew 7). Many wonderful traditions have been preserved regarding the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. One of them proclaims that when Joseph, God-Infant and His Mother entered an idolater’s temple that contained 365 idols, those idols fell and shattered on the ground: thus the prophecy about them came true: “Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud (on the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary), and cometh unto Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence” (Isaiah 19:1). In the fact that Child-Jesus had to flee specifically to Egypt and return from there, St. Evangelist sees the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy: “…called My Son out of Egypt” (11:1).

Friday

When the wise men failed to return to Jerusalem, Herod became angry, felt “mocked of” and ridiculed by them. This produced greater wrath in him. Having learned from the Magi that the star appeared to them over a year ago, he concluded that even if the Infant is more than 12 months old, He would be less than 2 years old. Therefore he issued the brutal decree to slay all the infants “from 2 years old and under” in Bethlehem and all the coasts thereof, reckoning that among them will be Jesus Christ. According to the legend, there were 14,000 infants slain, who are commemorated, as of the martyrs for Christ, by our Church on the 29th of December. The similar savagery was absolutely typical of Herod, about whom according to the testimony of the Jewish historian Joseph Flavius; it is well known that because of the groundless suspicion, he ordered his wife to be strangled and his 3 sons to be put to death.

Saturday

Up to this day, people are shown the grottos on the suburbs of Bethlehem, where mothers with the infants in their arms, attempting to avoid Herod’s soldiers, were killed together with their children. In the slaying of the children, the Evangelist sees the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping” (Jer. 31:15). In these words, the Prophet Jeremiah describes the calamity and grief of the Jewish people, led to the Babylonian captivity and previously gathered in Ramah, a small town of Benjamin tribe, to the north of Jerusalem). A witness of this event, Prophet Jeremiah depicts it like the weeping of Rachel about her children, who were led away to death. Saint Matthew sees in this a symbol of the true loss of Rachel’s children, who are buried close to Bethlehem.