Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we hear the story of the wise men visiting Jesus and all the fascinating turns in the story that are associated with it.

What is also intertwined with the story is how much we add to this short story of the wise men’s visit to Jesus.

I thought it might be helpful for us to see the kinds of things we add to the story.

Can anyone tell me what is one of the Christmas and Epiphany songs that we sing about these men?

Right, “We Three Kings of Orient Are”.

In fact we are singing it at the 8am service.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the song.

It is a beautiful song, but the title and first line of the song tell us that there are three of them.

Do a Google search and you will find that all the images that come up have three men with camels in them.

There are arguments for this confusion and it is because when they found Jesus and his parents they offered the family three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Three gifts, three visitors.

In fact, because of this assumption that there were three of them people gave them names even though there is no mention of that in the Bible.

Another confusing point of the story is that in our modern nativity scenes that we have set up in our houses and maybe even outside of our houses shows the wise men as showing up at the manger scene.

I think what happens is we often mash Matthew and Luke’s gospels together when thinking about the birth of Jesus.

In Matthew’s story the way that we find out Jesus is born is from the visit of the wise men, however Matthew tells us that the wise men entered a house to find Jesus and his parents, not a stable.

In Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth is where we see the angels and the shepherds and discover there is no room at the inn.

Mary has the baby in the stable.

So Matthew has wise men and a house, and Luke has angels, shepherds, and a stable.

In the Western churches, in order to celebrate the wise men as Saints of the church, they were given the names Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melcior.

In other churches they were given different names, but they were still given names in order to celebrate them.

The way in which they were given their names was to represent kings from Arabia, Persia, and India, again according to Western church tradition.

The reason why this is so significant is that now we have this common understanding that they were kings or royalty from distant lands.

Which is again why the song “We Three Kings” can be misleading.

Thankfully our Bible translation uses the word wise men which is a more accurate description of these men who came to visit Herod and then eventually Jesus.

One of the notes that the NRSV Bible has when it mentions the wise men is that they were also known as astrologers and the Greek uses the word magi.

If we take a look at the actual Greek the word magi has several different meanings.

It can mean wise men, or it can mean magician, or even sorcerer.

Now I don’t want to push a new false understanding of these men, but when you think of them it would be more accurate to think of them as interpreters of things.

Don’t think so much sorcerer or magician in terms of Harry Potter or Merlin, but more like someone who is into astrology or tarot card readings.

These magi were people who were looking to the stars and other places to understand what events would be happening in the world.

For those of you who are fans of Game of Thrones books or the TV show, then you might recall how everyone tries to interpret the reason for the red comet appearing in the sky.

That is the focus of these magi in our story.

They discover astrological events and interpret their meanings.

The appearing of the star in the sky means that there would be a new king born and these magi wanted to then go and pay homage to him.

Some of you might find this helpful information, and some of you may be wondering why I am sharing all of this with you.

I am not sharing it to crush your vision of these wise men coming from the East and all that we associate with it, but to give us a more accurate and clearer picture of who these men are and why they came to visit Jesus.

The reason I want to do that today is to further help us understand the incredible nature of the birth story.

You see these magi aren’t kings coming to pay homage to another king to get in his good graces or try to form alliances or anything of that nature.

These are simply men who follow and interpret stars for a living.

But for the Israelites these men were foreigners, they were gentiles and they practiced an art that wasn’t acceptable in the Jewish faith.

As I mentioned earlier in Matthew’s birth story there are no shepherds and there is no stable.

Luke has those elements and we already talk about how incredible it is that God chose shepherds to hear about and see the savior being born in the world.

But even as lowly as shepherds were they were still insiders.

They were still a part of the Jewish faith and living in the same town to be able to visit the family that night.

These shepherds were Jews sharing the good news that their Messiah was being born into the world.

Matthew, on the other hand, tells a story of gentiles who practice an art that Jews wouldn’t be ok with.

Magi from the East who have come to visit this newborn king.

In Matthew’s gospel we get a glimpse from the very beginning of Jesus’ life on this earth that God’s plan for Jesus is to rescue all people from their sins.

Jesus didn’t just come to be the savior of a certain people, but to be the savior of the entire world.

Which gives us both a challenge and a blessing.

The challenge we have is to go out into this world and strip away all the misinterpretations and misunderstandings that we have of other people and invite them to witness and experience the grace and love of God as found in Christ Jesus.

We need to go out and find those things that connect people to the the Word of God the way that these magi were connected to the star.

The blessing that we have today and always is that we have already received and experienced the joy that comes from following the star to Bethlehem.

We have received the love from the babe of Bethlehem.

It is through this baby that we know what it is like to have everlasting love and a relationship with the One who created us and all that is in this world.

No matter how many times we misunderstand or misinterpret this world and the people in it, we continually receive the grace and forgiveness that Jesus gave to us on the cross.

God loves this whole world and everyone in it, which includes you and me.

Amen.