The Wise Men

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone. It’s good to see you all rested and smiling on this day after Christmas.

I have a few announcements I’d like to touch upon as we get started.

Some of you may have heard that Danny and Brenda Johnson had a chimney fire on Christmas Eve. There was a bit of damage but everything is okay. Please keep them in your prayers. I think at this point we’re all wanting this year to end just for their sakes.

This is our last Sunday for the Lottie Moon offering, so please give to that as you are led.

We’re still looking for a teaching volunteer for our children’s Sunday school. Please see Jesyka if you would like to help with that.

Our young adults will be meeting on December 29th at Panera Bread in Waynesboro for breakfast and coffee.

And congratulations to Caleb and Ashley Brooks on the birth of their son, James Kenneth Brooks.

Lastly, I’d like to thank you all for the many gifts and cards. I’ve said this many times before and I’ll continue to say it — your prayers and encouragement mean so much, and it’s a joy to be able to stand up here until God tells me to sit back down there with you all every Sunday.

Lastly, we have a birthday to celebrate today. Other than Jesus, that is. Petie, happy birthday. Sue’s going to embarrass you now by leading us all in song.

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening Prayer

Father, we come to worship this morning with a song of thanks. We pray for joy in our hearts, hope in your son, a love to forgive, and peace upon the earth. We pray your blessings on all people. May there be bread for the hungry, love for the unlovable, healing for the sick, protection for our children, and wisdom for us all. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Sermon

Of all the mysteries surrounding Jesus’s birth, it’s hard to top the wise men. Even now, we don’t know who they were, how many there were, or where they came from. We don’t know exactly what star they followed, or when exactly they visited.

What isn’t a mystery, though, is why they made that long journey to find the King. That’s written in the first 11 verses of Matthew chapter 2, and that’s where we turn today.

Strip away all the questions found in this story, what you’ll find is worship in its truest and purest sense. These men came to worship the new king, but what they found wasn’t the king they were expecting.

Follow along with me. Matthew chapter 2, verses 1-11:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And this is God’s word.

“Now after Jesus was born” — that’s how Matthew starts off this chapter. He doesn’t say how long after Jesus was born that these wise men arrive, and he certainly doesn’t say it was on the night night of Jesus’s birth.

The Christmas star appeared that night, but it would have taken at least several weeks for the wise men to travel that far.

Again, Matthew doesn’t say. To him, when or from where the wise men came doesn’t really matter. What matters is their reason for making this trip.

And we know it’s a good reason, because of that word we’re used to seeing all through the story of the Nativity. It’s right here again in verse 1 — “Behold.” Behold, Matthew says, and what he means by that is, “Pay attention to this, because it’s incredible.”

These wise men have been a source of wonder for two thousand years. They’re called Magi in the Greek, a class of priests known as interpreters of dreams. In the second chapter of Daniel, we find Daniel himself became the leader of an order of Magi while in Babylon.

They were astronomers and biologists, chemists and philosophers, students of the secrets of nature. Many believed that they were gifted with magic. Think of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings books — that’s who these men were.

And by divine grace, these men had been led from the knowledge of nature to knowledge of the God of nature.

But the first question we have to ask is, Why does the star lead them to Jerusalem? Why not Bethlehem? Well first, that’s the direction where God placed this star.

Second, and more importantly, these Magi knew that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel under Roman rule, and it was a place of great learning and culture. So of course this new king of Israel would be in Jerusalem, right?

We see this played out time and again through the Bible, and we do the same thing time and again in our own lives. God seldom matches our expectations of Him. And because what He does or doesn’t do doesn’t match up with our expectations of Him, there’s anger on our part. Or resentment. Or depression. Or doubt.

And it all comes down to a statement that seems absurd when we state it, but it’s still an idea that underlies so much of how we fail to live out our faith: we think we know better than Him. We think we know better about how our lives should go, and what should happen to us.

You can even see that here with these men so famous for their wisdom. They never considered that so great and wonderful a king would be found anywhere else but in the capital of a nation, inside the palace of a royal city. Because that makes sense.

But of course the wise men didn’t find the Jesus there. The person they found instead was Herod, who had been placed by Rome as the king of Judea.

And it’s to this cruel and evil king that the wise men ask their question in verse 2: Where is he who has been born the king of the Jews?

The Magi are expressing a feeling that Roman historians tell us had been shared by everyone for a long while. Everywhere in the east, people were looking for the coming of a great king who was to rise from among the Jews.

Notice that’s the phrasing the wise men use. They don’t ask for “our king,” but for the king of the Jews. This shows the magi weren’t Jewish, but Gentile.

Where is he? they ask. These words were spoken to the Jews, to Herod, to Herod’s ministers, to everyone the wise men came across in Jerusalem on the way to the royal palace.

They expected all of Jerusalem to be celebrating. Surely everyone would know this king had come, and what his name was, and where he lived. But that wasn’t what the wise men found at all.

Ironically, the first announcement of the king’s birth would come from themselves. No one, not Herod, not his minsters, not the priests, seemed to know a thing about this happening.

But the wise men were convinced this birth had happened, because they had followed this king’s star.

Scientists have been arguing for thousands of years over what this star was. Some think it was a planet, others a meteor, others a comet.

The most current theory is that the sun, the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn were all aligned in the constellation Aries in the east. For astrologers like the Magi, this sign in the heavens would have meant the birth of a new king in Judea.

Jupiter and the moon together represented the birth of a ruler with a special destiny, while Saturn was the symbol of giving life.

Put those together, and you get a pretty accurate picture of the Messiah. An alignment of this kind is extremely rare. Another one like it won’t be seen again for another 16,000 years.

Amazing, right? But Herod has a much different reaction. It’s a mark of the gospel writers that they have a way of describing a person’s character in a single sentence, sometimes even a single word.

We have this with Matthew describing Herod. In verse 3 we see that Herod is troubled with the news brought by the wise men, and that exactly explains Herod’s character.

The magi are wanting to know where the lawful and hereditary king of Israel is, and that’s not Herod. So of course he’s going to be troubled, isn’t he? The unknown king born to Israel is a threat to his power and his prestige.

Because the “King of the Jews” was his title.

The word troubled is better translated “alarmed.” Herod wasn’t just worried, he was scared. This baby was a danger. Herod’s cruelty had made him hated by his subjects. He’d taken Jerusalem by force and claimed the throne for Rome.

Now he feared he would lose his kingdom, especially since this news of a new king had reached him not in an ordinary way but by supernatural means — a star that shone with such brightness that it convinced the wise men to travel so far just to bow down and worship someone other than him, Herod the Great.

But notice in verse 3 that Herod isn’t the only one who is troubled. Everyone in Jerusalem is troubled as well.

The people knew what sort of man Herod was, and they knew this news would be enough to turn him violent. They were as scared as Herod was about a change of government, because that’s something that never happened in the ancient world without a lot of people dying.

So Herod tries to get ahead of this, starting in verse 4.

He assembles all the chief priests and scribes, and asks them where the Christ was to be born.

The chief priests were the holy ruling class of Judea. The scribes were the interpreters of the law, and for the most part Pharisees. Put them together, and you have the most educated people in the nation. If anyone would have an answer here, it was them.

This meeting that Herod called wasn’t a formal meeting of the Sanhedrin or the Great Council — remember, he had to keep this quiet. It might have only been a committee called together for this special purpose.

And you can bet things were tense. Herod had murdered dozens of members of the Sanhedrin during his rule. But now he has no choice but turn to them for advice.

He has to go to the experts in the law as quietly as possible. It isn’t a historical question that he asks, it’s a theological one: where, according to prophecy, is the Messiah’s birthplace?

But wait: the wise men had said nothing at all about the Messiah, had they? They only asked about a king, or the king of the Jews.

But Herod was always paranoid, and this time his paranoia was right on the money. He’d become convinced that this king that had been born had to be the Messiah that was promised in the Old Testament.

The priests and scribes answer by saying the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea, and what they say in verse 6 is actually a verse taken from Micah 5:2.

What’s interesting, though, is that Matthew doesn’t record that verse from Micah exactly. It’s a sort of paraphrasing of that scripture.

The big difference in what the priests and scribes say to Herod is in the last phrase recorded in Micah, which describes this ruler, the Messiah, as “whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

But the word ruler that’s stated here is a much different rule than the Jews faced under Herod.

Herod’s rule over Israel was marked by bloodshed and persecution. But the form of the word rule used in Micah means to rule as a shepherd does his flock, in faithfulness and tenderness, with love and with mercy.

Again, we run into the problem of expectations here. These smart and educated priests were convinced that the Messiah would be a conquerer of nations instead of hearts, even though Micah says otherwise. They can’t see it. And because of that, many of them miss out on who this child really is.

But none of that matters to Herod, because right now his plan is working. He’s learned the name of the town where this baby is living. But he has something else that he needs to figure out before sending soldiers to Bethlehem to murder this boy, and that is the baby’s age.

For this, he uses the wise men themselves. But he does it secretly, because he doesn’t want the people to know the Messiah has been born and begin to rebel. He needs a plan. We find out what that plan is in Matthew 2:16:

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Herod was a Roman, and Romans loved astrology. He was haunted by the fear of what this strange star meant. So he had to find out what time the star had appeared in order to make a good guess as to how old this baby was.

The translation here is a little off. The end of verse 7 says that Herod wanted to know “what time the star had appeared.” Literally, though, it should be “the time of the star that was appearing,” meaning that the star that had guided the wise men west was still visible in the nighttime sky.

All this while, that star was shining for all to see. But only the wise men had seen that star for what it was and what it meant.

How many times do you think God sends us a sign of his presence so clear and obvious, but we still miss it because we’re too busy looking at things that don’t matter, or we’re too busy looking for only what we want to see? How many times do you think we go about our daily lives without noticing the hand of God?

Herod’s belief was that the star had first appeared when the child had been born. On the one hand, it seems as though Herod wanted to limit the number of children in Bethlehem who would be murdered. But on the other, it’s he had no intention of all of leaving this child alive.

The wise men tell Herod everything they know. And now Herod thinks he’s succeeding, and soon he’ll have this Messiah out of his way, because this star first appeared not so long ago, only a few months or years.

But Herod is cautious. He sends the wise men as his messengers in verse 8 and asks them to return to Jerusalem and tell him exactly where the child was, so that Herod himself could go and worship him.

So in verse 8, Herod sends the wise men to Bethlehem, just where the priests and scribes said the Messiah would be born. And tells them, “Send me word when you’ve found the baby”— let me know this child’s story, who his parents are, where he lives— “so I can go and worship this king as well.”

Which is all a lie, of course. All this might have looked suspicious to the wise men if Herod hadn’t clothed it all in the appearance of religion. That’s why he told them he wanted all this information so he could go worship this boy as well.

There’s some question as to whether at this point he actually believed that the Messiah had truly been born, but he’s heard enough evidence from these wise men and the priests and scribes to be worried.

Herod’s gotten all that he could out of them, so he tells them of the place where the king supposedly is — a little rundown town called Bethlehem, which is only six miles outside of Jerusalem.

It might seem strange that neither any of the Jews, or Herod, or any of his ministers go along with the wise men, especially since it was such a short distance and the birth of such a person was a tremendous event.

But the Jews are more afraid of Herod than they are desiring to worship the true king. They don’t want to go, because that would risk Herod thinking they were going to set up this new king against him and revolt.

And Herod won’t go, because the parents of this king might be afraid and try to hide their child. Whatever the case, you see God’s hand working here to keep the young child Jesus safe.

Since the wise men have already told Herod they’ve come all this way to worship this new king, Herod says that’s his intent too.

He thinks this is the best way to hide his true motive, which is to kill this baby and so secure his own place on the throne.

But Herod has to bide his time. None of the priests and scribes accompany the wise men, none of Herod’s ministers, and he doesn’t send a guard of soldiers with the wise men either.

Herod is cruel but Herod is smart — he won’t kill the child in the presence of the wise men so they could take news of his cruelty with them back home.

So the wise men set out again in verse 9, though this time their journey is only a few miles instead of hundreds.

These men so wise and knowledgeable about the ways of the nature were still either too trusting or too ignorant to know the ways of the sinful heart of the king in front of them. They believed every word Herod said.

It seems according to this verse that they started out in the evening, because they saw the star in the direction of Bethlehem.

And that’s strange, because it seems from this that the star that had guided the wise men to Jerusalem was now gone. The star had shone on the night of the nativity, in the direction of Jerusalem, which was a city the wise men would know. Then it disappeared until the wise men left for Bethlehem.

They’d come with their expectations of God, and all of those expectations had gone unmet. They needed a sign that they were still on the right path. And that’s why God sent the star once more.

That is why in verse 10 we see the joy the wise men felt upon seeing the star again. They rejoiced. They had used all of their own knowledge to find this child and still couldn’t, so now they receive God’s help.

The star didn’t appear this time to show them the way. The way was easy, just a few miles down the road. This was instead God’s grace to them, assuring the wise men of his guidance. By this, the wise men knew that they were being directed by God himself, not an earthly king like Herod, and this was the reason for their joy.

This shows three things:

One is that the birth of Jesus was an event of great importance to the world, worthy of divine help in directing these wise men to find the place of his birth.

Second is that God will always guide those who earnestly seek the Savior. Even if for a time the light is gone, even when those seeking him sometimes feel lost, God will appear again and lead us to Himself.

And third, our being led to Christ should make us rejoice. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Our savior and our friend, our all in all. There is no peace in our hearts until we are guided by him.

That’s what the wise men felt as they left Jerusalem to see the star again over Bethlehem.

All their long journey was coming to an end. Their goal lay just ahead. And this star was their promise that they would now find all they desired in this new king, and more.

And isn’t it ironic to see the reactions of these wise men, Gentiles from far away filled with God’s hope and joy, while those who God calls his own people go about their lives as though nothing ever happened.

There had been time enough for the crowds in Bethlehem for the census to have cleared out. Joseph and Mary may have found a house there to live in. The prophecy that connected Bethlehem with the coming Christ might naturally lead Mary and Joseph to stay there for at least a while.

The star continued to guide them, and then it seemed to stand over the very place where the child was. That brings us to verse 11:

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

The wise men found the child with his mother. Notice there is no mention of Joseph in this part of the story. Again, poor Joseph, right? He’s left out of so much of scripture, his life a mystery, and yet Jesus and Mary both depended upon him for so much.

Maybe he wasn’t there. Maybe he was out working, using his carpenter skills to build a stone wall around someone’s house, or repair a chair or a door. Earning his money so he could take care of his family.

And maybe even the fact that he was busy that day was part of God’s secret directing, so that these wise men who came might see only the mother of this child whose father was God Himself. Had Joseph been there, the wise men may have taken him to be Jesus’s real father.

Whatever expectations the wise men had about this Jewish king when they set out for Jerusalem had been slowly chipped away along their journey. Those expectations must have been shattered completely when they came to this little shack in this little town.

But they were not offended by this in the least, falling down on their faces and giving Jesus honor. They understood the star was a miracle, and so they paid this child and his mother as much respect and dignity as if they would have found them in a palace.

They had brought along treasures from their homeland, and we all know what these treasures were. But what do these gifts mean?

It was customary in those countries for people to offer some present to anyone they visited whom they respected and admired.

It could be that this was all the wise men intended by their offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and we should read little else into it. But the fact is that these gifts would come to represent Christ’s life on earth as a whole.

Gold has always been a symbol of the good things in this life, of wealth, and the means by which we can care for the needs of others. This gift signifies Christ as a king whose kingdom would have no end.

Frankincense is a white resin taken from a tree by making incisions in the bark and collecting the gum. It’s very fragrant when burned and was used in worship, where it was considered a pleasant offering to God.

Myyrh was obtained from a tree in the same way as frankincense. It was mainly used in embalming the dead because it preserved corpses from decay. It was also sometimes mixed with wine to form a bitter drink, and this was the drink given to Christ on the cross.

These gifts were given because they were the most valuable things in the country where the Magi lived. They were tokens of respect which they paid to the newborn King of the Jews and signify the high regard they had for Jesus and their belief that he was to be an illustrious prince.

Verse 11 seems to suggest that these gifts were not small in the least, but large. Taken literally, the phrase “opening their treasures” points to caskets or chests, meaning there was a great amount given to Mary, which would greatly support their family and keep them from poverty, especially since by most accounts, Joseph would die before Jesus was grown.

And these gifts would be especially helpful soon, because Joseph and Mary would soon have to flee Bethlehem for Egypt in order to escape Herod’s murder of all Bethlehem’s young boys. God takes care of us in ways we can’t know or see. We just have to get out of the way sometimes and let Him.

As you can imagine, Herod was furious when he realized the wise men had tricked him.

He killed all the male children in Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time when the wise men had told him they’d first seen the star. The false king hoped in vain that the true king was among those murdered, but he was wrong.

There is so much in this story of the Nativity to teach us. Not just during Christmastime, but all year. So much to learn and to be reminded of.

These wise men remain shrouded in mystery, their true identities hidden from us. But we can still learn from what they did. They left their homeland and traveled far to a foreign country, bringing with them their choicest treasures, just to bow to the king. We should all do the same.

Because if we seek him, we will surely find him. And what we find will be far greater than anything we could expect, something that we can truly rejoice over.

All of us to a certain degree have our own idea of who God is supposed to be, and look like, and what that God is supposed to do in our lives and in the lives of those we love, and even in the lives of those we don’t love at all.

And it’s an important question we have to ask ourselves every day: Do we love God as He is, or do we love a version of God that’s created by our own wants and desires? When we pray, are we praying to the real God, or just our idea of God?

The wise men found their expectations of God stripped away the moment they saw that holy child and rejoiced. Rather than turning away, they worshipped him all the more. And let us have the courage and the faith to do the same whenever God doesn’t seem to make sense in our own lives.

Let’s pray:

Father we thank you so much for this story that we revisit every Christmas season, and we thank You for the lesson these wise men teach us. That we should always seek You, knowing we will find You. That we should understand that You won’t always appear to us in the way we expect or assume, but in a way that speaks closest to our needs. And that our reaction every time upon meeting you is to always rejoice — rejoice in Your love for us, in Your grace and mercy, and in the promise that You will never leave us or forsake us.

Fill our hearts with the spirit of this season, and let every word and deed from us speak of You. For we ask this in Jesus’s name, Amen.

Now May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child. Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit bless you now and forever. Amen.