Christmas Eve 2024

I love a good “origin story”—especially when it’s about characters in a book or movie that I’ve grown up loving and when it’s written well. Back stories, or origin stories, tell the history or the background of a character—how they became who they are—that you previously didn’t know. I grew up LOVING the original Star Wars movies—then in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, George Lucas decided to make three more movies to tell the origin story of Darth Vader. Kristy and Emma went to go see Wicked the other day—the book-turned musical-turned movie that tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

In the story of Jesus’s birth, we are introduced to a whole cast of characters—Mary, Joseph, the angel Gabriel, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, King Herod, the shepherds, and a group of men bearing an assortment of unique gifts that followed a star to find the “newborn King of the Jews.” These men—who we commonly call “wise men”, or “magi” (in the Greek)—are foreigners…and they just kind of show up in Jerusalem out of nowhere asking questions.

Matthew tells us, in chapter two of his Gospel, that…

Matthew 2:1–6 (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.’ ”

As we read the Christmas story, there’s a danger in our becoming too familiar with it. We need to pay attention to the details…ask questions…and see where God is working.

A couple of the big questions to be asked is “who are these men?” “where did they come from?” How on earth would a group of men from Persia (the far east)—and non-Jews—know about a Jewish Messiah being born in Palestine? How would they know the Old Testament scriptures—particularly Micah whom they quote?

Well, to understand their origin story, we’ve got to go back to the Old Testament—specifically, the book of Daniel.

Over 600 years before the birth of Jesus, King Nebuchadnezzar and his armies from Babylon—the most powerful force on earth—invaded Jerusalem and took captives from Jerusalem back to Babylon. But…Nebuchadnezzar didn’t just take PEOPLE. The author of Daniel says…

Daniel 1:2 ESV

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.

“some of the vessels of the house of God.” — this would have included utensils used by the priests in worship. It would have possibly included things like the table of shewbread, the golden basins, incense vessels…and scrolls of OT scripture.

This was a slap in the face…“your God is dead or doesn’t care.”

There is so much devastation/destruction/death…it’s one of the darkest moments in the history of God’s people.

In Daniel chapter two, king Nebuchadnezzar has a very frightening dream and he calls in this group of “wise men” or “magi” comprised of the kingdom’s magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers. None of them could interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream

It was Daniel—whom God had spared from death at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and allowed to be taken into captivity…who God gave great wisdom and insight to…who remained faithful and obedient to God…it was THIS DANIEL who was placed by the sovereign hand of God over this group of “wise men.”

As the book of Daniel continues, Daniel is used by God and promoted to higher places of authority and influence…and by the end of the book, a new world power has emerged that invades and conquers Babylon—the kingdom of the Medes and Persians….with Daniel still holding the position of “chief prefect” of the magi.

Now…fast forward 600 years. It’s Jerusalem and this caravan of Persian magi ride into town quoting OT scripture and looking for the Jewish Messiah. How did they know these things?

Long before, during Judah’s darkest hour, in the midst of devastation and destruction, God was working in the details. God was allowing His word to be taken to a pagan nation, to be preserved—along with a man named Daniel—for such a time as this…to bring the nations to the Savior of the world.

God is working in the darkness.

God is working in the details.

God is working in the distance.