Untitled Sermon (51)

I think I’ve shared this with you before…and you might have wondered even looking at our nativity scene out there…where are the wise men? Well, those who decorated decided to follow my lead...

For the last several years when we would go to my grandmother’s for Christmas I had developed a bit of a tradition. I’d take the wise men from her nativity set and move them a couple years to the East.

I did this because I’m a theology nerd. And I don’t intend to mess up your Christmas this morning, but I want us to look at this story of the wise men.

What’s the typical story about the wise men?

Let’s see there are three of them. They are dressed up like kings. You’ve maybe even heard their names, Caspar, Melchior (Melk Your) and Balthazar. They’ve been riding their camels and following this star for quite some time and on the night when Jesus is born they show up, star hanging over the nativity scene, and they offer this baby—born to be king—valuable gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We three kings of Orient are...

O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect Light. But are all of these details in the text in Matthew? Listen in and see what’s there and what isn’t.

Matthew 2:1–12 ESV

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 being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Do you remember the show Everybody Loves Raymond? One of the characters—big dude, brother Robert, has this quirky habit of touching chin to his food before he would eat. Everybody just thinks he’s being a weirdo, and it’s something that he’s just always done.

But in one episode they try to dig a little deeper. One of the whole plots of the show is that Raymond is the favorite child, they place all the focus on him. And in this particular episode they learn that when Raymond was born, his mother—Marie—shifted all of her attention to Raymond and away from Robert.

This left Robert to fend for himself emotionally. When Ray was a baby, Marie would touch the spoon to his chin to get dripping food or something, and so Robert started doing it to 'self sooth' since he felt replaced by Ray.

It’s a sad story really, and if I’m remembering the episode correctly they all started to get really uncomfortable because when they found the source it was so sad they just couldn’t dig in there. But I really think it’s a picture of our human condition.

FIG LEAF UNDERPANTS

We live outside of Eden. That means there are things that are broken. It means people sin against us. And we sin. It means there are times when we are neglected, times when we are cared for the wrong way, etc. And there are even times when we interpret the world wrongly—much like our first parents did—and we assume that God cannot be trusted.

And so we do what Robert did. It might not be a physical spoon that we touch to our chin…but we learn a lesson. I have to take care of myself. I will have to protect myself, find comfort on my own, etc. We can even change history to try to make ourselves more comfortable.

Maybe that explains why these wisemen even appear in the Christmas story. There is nothing in the text that says they are kings. They are magi—astrologers—probably Zoroastrian wise men from Persia serving the king there.

We don’t know their names. We don’t know for certain where they came from—only from the East. We do not know that there are three. We’ve supplied that because there are three gifts which are given.

We don’t know what they were wearing. We don’t know that they were riding on camels.

What is the impulse for us to put them there? I think some of it is just from church history and how the story has grown over the years. We’ve inherited tradition here too.

And I think there is something where we want to not only have shepherds and the poor and really nobody of import there in the nativity scene. He’s a king. We want to make it a glorious occasion.

That’s kind of an impulse we have isn’t it. Who is in charge? Who is leading this thing? It’s comforting in some reason to have these three kings there, offering their gifts, bowing a knee to Jesus.

King of kings, Lord of lords. It’s more comfortable for us to have at least somebody important acknowledging that Jesus is a king at his birth. But the text doesn’t allow that. It’s all the lowly people in society. Shepherds. A poor couple. Birth in a stable. That’s the story we have. And it’s beautiful.

Because I think it’s a picture of this thread that runs throughout the whole Bible.

But it wont’ make sense unless we go all the way back to the beginning and learn that humanity was made to rule the earth. You and I were made to rule. Work and keep the garden. You were created for this. Created to have purpose and meaning. You know this, just look inward for 5 seconds and you can see it. You want to matter.

Yet, rather than ruling as we were supposed to—we made shipwreck of that. The first couple attempted to rule on their own— “Take and eat”. And we see that thread run throughout the whole Bible. Humanity, for some really ridiculous reason, fails to trust God. We trust ourselves instead. We put a spoon to our mouth and self-soothe.

You’ll notice a few things here in this passage. We’ve come to worship him.....and they come to Jerusalem. Why would they go to Jerusalem? Well, that’s the capital. That’s where kings are born. The wise men are assuming what everybody else assumes in this story—rulers are born to rule, to conquer, to take charge, to bring about their redemption and victory through conquest…where is this great leader?!?!?

Herod hears this and starts to be agitated. He knows that he is an imposter king. Rome isn’t supposed to be in charge here and Herod knows it. He knows the Jewish story. But his being agitated doesn’t stay with him…he’s a leader and so it impacts the people as well.

Ever been in a home like this, or had a relationship like this? It’s not healthy. But his emotional temperature is what is ruling everything. If Herod is mad then it means bad things for them. So, “Mr Ranger isn’t going to like this Yogi”.

So what does he do…he gets all the religious leaders together and says, “what do we make of this?” Your books, your religion, is going to speak of this more so than what these wise men are saying. Give me some details.

Bethelehem of Judea…and then he quotes Micah 5:2. And that’s significant too because this is David’s place. And so it stirs up even more feelings of…uh oh..this could be the rightful king.

Herod wants to find the baby so he can kill him. But he pretends like he wants to worship him.

But if we go back to Micah 5, we’re going to pick up that same thread. People ruling on their own, doing what they think it means for them to be successful, selfishly ruling, etc. It’s that same thread that appears throughout the Bible. Humanity self-atoning.

And if we even span out a little and see the setting in Jersualem at the time we see the same thing. Humanity trusting in itself to bring about redemption. To fix things. To rule. To reign. It’s up to us to bring this about…up to us to bring Messiah…prepare the way for the Lord. He’s not going to come unless we get all our ducks in a row...

But they ended up being just like the people in Micah’s day. Cannibalizing…destroying themselves…ruling with self at the center...

And we certainly see this in Herod. That’s why he wants to kill baby Jesus. And why he kills all those who are two and under. It’s about ruling. God can’t be trusted—I have to do things myself.

You can see 4 responses to the kingship of Jesus in this passage. Anger, Anxiety, Apathy, Adoration

Anger—Herod. I want to be king

Anxiety—leader is upset, can’t leave the system, and so they are anxious about what this might all mean for them. Can’t things just stay the same?

Apathy—why aren’t people camped out in Bethlehem?

Adoration—the wise men worship.

What about us today?

Addictions...

Grief...

Nostalgia...