Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Video: The Dilemma of Obedience, The Wise Men

Tension

One of the most most recognizable dilemmas ever articulated is by a William Shakespeare character named Hamlet when he said the iconic phrase: “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

And the Wise Men, or Kings or Magi of “The Christmas Story” faced a dilemma very similar…they would have to just add a letter “O” and the letter “Y” before and after the “be”.

“To Obey or not to Obey, that was their question”.

That was their Dilemma.

Obedience is defined as “Submitting to the authority of another” or “to comply with the command, direction, or request of a person or a law.”

But the question of obedience is rarely just a black and white, yes or no question.

To “obey or not obey” is never asked in a vacuum.

There are always consequences in our choice to obey any of the many different authorities present in our lives.

This is where the dilemmas come in, when obedience to one authority means disobedience to another because they are requiring you to do two different things.

That is the Dilemma that the Wise Men found themselves in shortly after they saw the Christ child with their own eyes.

For some time they had been obeying the directions of the Stars,

But then they were faced with the authority of an earthly King,

But after they laid their eyes on the Christ Child, they recieved those instructions “from a different order”.

They could not obey the instructions they received from all these authorities because to obey one was to disobey the other.

That is the Christmas Dilemma that we are going to look at this morning.

The Dilemma of Obedience.

Would you pray with me, and then we will dive into the “Dilemma of Obedience” that the Wise men faced and see what there is from their story to learn about our own.

Truth

So I could sit down for coffee with any of the characters of the Christmas Story I would probably choose to sit down with one of these Wise Men.

It might seem like a strange choice against the significance of many of the other characters of the Christmas story, but I would choose a Wise man because there is so much mystery surrounding the details of their part of the story.

Things like:

How many of you were there?

Here in the West, we typically think three but the Bible never says that - it’s just mentions three gifts.

Eastern tradition says that here was probably at least 7 and so go as far as 12.

What we can be certain of is that they didn’t ride alone on three lonely camels across the dessert like in all pictures.

It would have been a dangerous journey in a barbaric time so they probably traveled with an armed escort in a large caravan because no one traveled alone (unless they were time-traveling ninja’s…I would definitely have to ask if they were time traveling ninja’s)

And then if they didn’t get up and leave...I would ask them “Where exactly did you come came from?”.

All we really know is that they came from the “East”.

Because of how the Bible refers to them, we typically think that they came from Persia, because there was a class of leaders in the Persian culture called “Magi”.

This would have been probably somewhere around ancient Babylon but we don’t really know.

Then I would ask them “How did you know what the star meant” Many Scholars have postulated that if they were from Babylon then maybe these men studied the teachings of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who served the King of Babylon and then Persia.

That could be how they knew about the star that “shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter” that “shall rise out of Isreal”.

from Numbers 24.

I may even ask them, “Why did you choose the gifts you did?”

A lot has been made of the symbolic nature of their gifts, but did they really think through all that or was that just the most expensive things on that Mary and Joseph registered for.

Finally I would ask them “What are your names anyway?”

Around the Middle ages three names popped up that we often ascribe to the Wise men, but there is no evidence that they were actually called Gaspar Melchior, Balthazar even those those are pretty cool names.

There is just a lot mystery around these characters called the Wise Men that I would love to know more about their story...but Scripture does not tell us.

But there is a lot that Scripture does tell us, and some of that might be just as surprising to us.

For example, Matthew makes it clear that this dilemma the wisemen were faced with happened, ...after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Matthew 2:1 (ESV)

So even though we often see pictures of the Wise Men laying their gifts next to Jesus in the manger - He wasn’t still in the manger when the Wise Men arrived.

He probably had a “big boy” bed by now because he was anywhere from several months to a couple of years old when the Wise Men finally arrived.

We know this because of what we read in verse 11 where it says: “And going into the house, (not the barn with the manger) they saw the child (not the baby) with Mary his mother,…(Matthew 2:11a) Careful reading of the text helps to clarify this part of the story.

Growing up my family had these huge 3 feet tall light up plastic figures of Mary and Joseph that we would put with baby Jesus on one of the two porches of our house.

(I told you, my family and I love Christmas) But then on the other porch a good 25 feet over we would put the three wise men, facing them as if they were heading there but had not yet arrived.

It was a fun way to remember that the Christmas Story didn’t all happen in just one night…and so our celebration of Christmas doesn’t have to be limited to one day either…something to think about as you are preparing for your Christmas traditions.

The other thing that Matthew makes very clear is that these men recognized the presence of a new star and they have come in response to this event.

Obedience is to recognize and respond to authority (Matthew 2:1-2)

Matthew 2:1–2 (ESV)

1 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, 2 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.”

Again we don’t know exactly where these “Wise Men” were from, but much of the world and certainly the people of the Persian Empire believed that an understanding of the past, present and future events of the universe could be found in the stars.

So when something significant changed in the patterns of the stars in the heavens that meant that something significant has happened down in the world of men.

In this case, it was so significant that these men invested great time and resources into finding this one who is “born King of the Jews”.

The presence of this new star told them that they needed to find this King so that they could bow down to him.

Of course our hope is that Gaspar, Melchior, Balthazar and or Bob, Lenny and Rico were believers in the one true God Jehovah but there is little to point to that conclusion…at least not on the onset of their journey.

The word used in this verse for “worship” is the word προσκυνέω (proskeneo) and literally means to bow down before.

So these men, being subject to the command of the stars and believing in a system of many different gods were compelled to seek out this King and humbly show honor and appreciation to the one born “King of the Jews”.

Of course we hope that meeting the Christ Child changed all this but that is really just another mystery.

But even before they met Jesus in Bethlehem, they crossed paths with another “authority” the powerful and maniacal King Herod who was concerned about their quest for the one “Born King of the Jews” because he knew that this did not describe Him…the current King of the Jews.

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

Matthew 2:3–4 (ESV)

Long story short, when this King ain’t happen, ain’t nobody happy!

You see the right to be King was established by hereditary lineage.

In other words, you had to be from the Line of King David to be King.

That is what Matthew Chapter 1 is all about.

It establishes Jesus’ lineage that goes all the way back and even through King David.

But the one currently occupying the throne in Jerusalem was not from the line of David.

Herod was not even fully Jewish, as the ancient historian Josephus called Herod a “a half-Jew”.

Instead Herod came to power by convinced the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus of his loyalty to Rome and then was appointed “King of the Jews” with the full backing of the Roman military.

And while Herod did build many impressive buildings to show Rome the breadth of his power, including the second Temple, History reports how he was a conniving, power-hungry and paranoid ruler.

In several cases he elevated his family members to positions of great power to “keep it in the family” only to later have them all executed because he had a “gut-feeling” that they were about to betray him.

And speaking of “gut-feelings” History records that Herod suffered from some kind of internal illness that was eating him from the inside out so that the older he got the more angry, paranoid and explosive he was.

The big idea is that even though Herod thought of himself as the “King of the Jews”, he knew that most Jews silently rejected his authority.

He knew that his claim to the thrown was based on brute force alone and so he was constantly looking for anything or anyone that even sniffed of a threat to his power…so you can image what a man like this would do to get his hands on a baby that “Wise Men” traveled a very long way to find.

Matthew 2:3–6 (ESV)

3 ... he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “ ‘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.’

”

So now that he knew where this “ruler” was to come from, the little town of Bethehem, Herod figured he could put a stop to this.

But since he did not want word to get out a new “King of the Jews” he secretly enlisted the help of the wisemen to pinpoint the place of this threat to his rule.

Matthew 2:7–8 (ESV)

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

8 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.”

Nothing good happens when it is veiled in this kind of “secret meeting” it just has an air of smoke-filled back room deals, doesn’t it?

But neither Herod’s “secret meeting” nor his true intent for this child would be hidden for long.

It is comforting to me to know that this one “born King of the Jews” will later in Matthew say about evil men like Herod:

Matthew 10:26–28 (ESV)

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Herod forever was working behind closed doors to position and posture himself to remain in power.

He thought he could control his destiny.

So once he got the information he needed from the wisemen, he sent them out with specific instructions to return to him and report the location of the child.

This leads us to our second theme:

The Dilemma of Obedience is in choosing which authority to obey and when (Matthew 2:9-12)

Matthew 2:9–10 (ESV)