We, are all heirs to the kingdom of God, and to the kingdom of heaven. We have been grafted into the family of God, we have all become part of God’s Chosen People, even though we have not been born into the 12 tribes of Israel. As Paul says, “the fullness of time had come,” meaning, that the completion of God’s saving power, the final act of God’s gift of salvation has entered into the world, has ceased to be merely God’s intention, but has shifted from the infinity of Heaven, into the finiteness of earthly time.
There is no more expectation of salvation yet to come, there is no more waiting for God to intervene from Heaven to save His People, because what the prophets foretold about Emmanuel—about God with us/among us—is now revealed. There is no more mystery, no more expectation of things to come, no more prophesying about how and when God will set His people free from the slavery of sin.
Because of the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, sin came into the world and humans were cursed to labor for their bread and to labor to bring new life into the world. Because of this Fall, God gave commandments, God gave His people a law in which they must adhere too in order to be righteous, and in order to make reparation for sins committed, so that they would set themselves apart from the other people of the world as God’s chosen and holy people.
But God submitted His own Son to be born under the Law, to redeem those under the law, so that all those who die with Christ in Baptism, may share in Jesus Christ’s Sonship, and so that you and I may become adopted sons and daughters of God. Because of this adoption as the children of God, we are now heirs to God’s Kingdom, we are heirs to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to live for eternity free from the slavery to sin, and free from all the pain of sin. As heirs, this is our birthright in Christ.
The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven must have a ruler, and that ruler is Christ the King. Like all people of great or little influence, we are each born into this world in a most vulnerable way-as infants. Infants cannot talk, infants cannot eat solid food or even talk. Yet, 3 wise men from the East traveled a great distance to not only meet this infant Jesus, who they—not being born under the law, not being part of Gods chosen people—recognize this infant as the King of the Jews, as a King of God. When they find this child, this vulnerable infant, they humble themselves before Him, they fall down and worship Him, even though they are wise old men, and He is in swaddling clothes, and they give Him gifts worthy of a man with great power.
It is unclear whether or not these wise men recognize Jesus as just an earthly king, or if they perceive His divinity? Do they see in this vulnerable infant, the One who would heal countless people from illness and birth defects, who would perform countless miracles, who would raise the dead, who would cast out demons from the possessed, who would offer Himself as the final carnal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins-and by doing so, fulfill the law and conquer the power of the Devil forever? Do these wise men see in this infant, the Body and Blood of salvation, a conduit in which mere mortals can partake of God, and become one with Him? These wise men humbled themselves to worship this infant, and we too, humble ourselves to worship the coming of Christ in the flesh. For today, salvation has come to the world.