Christmas Journeys: The Magi
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Christmas, Epiphany, Sermons
Matthew 2:1-12 (NRSV)
1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we have observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:
6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
This is the last of our series on the theme of Faces at the Manger. We started with Joseph, remember, and we continued with the angels, the shepherds, and Mary, the mother of our Lord. And now we conclude with the wise men, or the magi, as they are sometimes called. Technically, they did not appear at the manger. We often picture them there, along with the shepherds, among the sheep and oxen, but Matthew says that it was “on entering the house” – not the stable – that “they saw the child with Mary his mother” (v. 11). So, it is likely that they arrived in Bethlehem some time after that first Christmas. But, with your permission, we’re going to include the faces of these magi among those that we know were at the manger.
Even as we do, we’re not sure just how many faces there were. I mean, we don’t know how many wise men came “from the East.” We usually think there were three of them, but Matthew doesn’t tell us that. He simply says, “Wise men…came to Jerusalem.” He doesn’t give us the number. There could have been two. There could have been twenty. And, of course, there could actually have been three. I suppose we think there were three of them because Matthew mentions three gifts: gold and frankincense, and myrrh. But we really don’t know. We don’t know their names either, although they have been given names. You won’t find their names in the Bible, but, according to tradition, they were called Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. So, there’s a lot we don’t know about these mysterious figures, but one thing we do know is this: they were not Jews; they were Gentiles. They were from the nations. And that is an important detail.
One of the ways we can break down the story of the magi is to divide it into four episodes. If we do that, we might call the first episode The Search. These wise men – however many of them there were; for simplicity’s sake, let’s say there were three – these three wise men came looking for Jesus. They searched for him.
They were watchers of the night sky – astronomers, perhaps. And they had noticed a star in the heavens, a star they had never seen before. And they took it, as they should, as a sign that a king had been born. And they were compelled to follow the star and to search out the new king so that they could acknowledge him.
We can imagine how long and perhaps how arduous their journey was. We are not told of any hardships they may have faced – or any sacrifices they may have made – to keep this appointment with destiny. But we can be sure that their travels were not without difficulty.
It’s not surprising that they went to Jerusalem. It was the location of Herod’s palace, and, of course, where would you go if you wanted to find a newborn king? You would go to a palace, right? So, that’s what they did.
And that brings us to the second episode in this account: The Inquiry. Verse 2 says that they arrived, “asking” – that is, making inquiry – and the question they asked was: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?”
As you might guess, this question raised suspicion in the mind of Herod. In fact, Matthew says that he “was frightened.” And what was he frightened of? He was frightened at the prospect of a royal birth. The truth is: he wasn’t himself a bona fide king – not at all. He had no noble blood running through his veins. He certainly was no descendant of David. He had gained his throne by buying it. And the only power he had was the power Rome allowed him to have, and he could be king only so long as he could convince Rome that it was to their benefit to back him.
So, you see: If a true king actually had been born, this new king might seize the throne – shove Herod right off it and take it – for himself. So, all Herod could see in this news of a newborn king was…what? the peril he was in. And with the arrival of the magi and their report of a star, he put two and two together and concluded that the newborn king might very well have been born by divine appointment, that he might be the long-awaited Messiah.
So, he asked his advisers, men who knew the Bible, and they told him that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. They cited the prophet Micah – gave it to him chapter and verse – and that gave Herod all the information he needed. As we will see, in his hubris, he plotted to manipulate history to avert the plan of God. He told the wise men that Bethlehem was the place where they would likely find the child they were looking for. In exchange for the information, they were to locate the child, then return to him and tell him where he might find him, and he himself would go and worship him. Sure, he would!
With that, we come to the end of the second episode. We might call the third episode The Discovery, and I say that because the wise men went to Bethlehem and discovered there the reason they had journeyed so far and so long. They found “the child with Mary his mother,” and they knelt before him in worship and brought their gifts: gold, as we noted before, and, with it, frankincense and myrrh.
Then comes the fourth episode, and it is what I have called The Aftermath, a foreboding title but a fitting one. In the aftermath, the wise men were warned not to return to Herod but to go home by another way. Of course, when they never showed up back at the palace, Herod felt betrayed. So, what did he do? What he had planned to do all along. Only now it would be a bit messier. He sent his soldiers to kill all the male children two years old and under, “according to the time,” Matthew tells us, “that he had learned from the wise men” (v. 17). This horrible act was a desperate measure, and it exposed Herod’s evil heart. And it showed just how afraid this man was of losing his throne.
All of this, of course, is very familiar to us. We know this story through and through. And, since we do, I want to use it to make three observations.
The first observation has to do with who the true giver was. The wise men, of course, brought gifts – which may be one of the reasons we give gifts at Christmas. But their gifts were actually a response to a far greater gift. They weren’t the true givers here. The true giver was God, the God who, as Scripture says, “gave his only Son” (John 3:16). The apostle Paul confirms this when he says in 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.”
But the fact is, some people don’t know how to receive a gift. And that’s the second observation. Herod did not see how Jesus’ birth could be any advantage to him. In fact, he was threatened by it. And that’s putting it mildly. And it was his fear that caused him to react so violently. Of course, it’s highly unlikely that anyone here today will ever do the evil things that Herod did, but everyone of us has a little bit of Herod in us. We have a tendency to look at the claims of Christ, and we see them as a threat. If he is to sit on the throne of my life, if he is to rule in my heart, that means that I cannot. It means in effect that I will be deposed. And for some that is a frightening prospect, and they resist it.
But look! Herod’s not the only king in this story. There were three others – or two or twenty or however many wise men there were. “Three kings of orient,” we call them in one of our Christmas carols. And they weren’t threatened by the birth of a new king. No, in fact, while Herod sought him out to destroy him, they sought him out to worship him – and they did so at great expense to themselves, and not a little trouble. They journeyed a long way to kneel before King Jesus.
And that’s the third observation I want to make. While some people do not know how to receive God’s greatest gift, there are others who do. And they come “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) – which means that you and I can be among them. It’s interesting to me that Matthew’s Gospel begins with the nations coming to Christ, and it ends with the message of Christ going to the nations. The very last verses of Matthew are what we call the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). And this charge to “go…and make disciples” is premised on…what? It’s based on Jesus’ authority, his right to command us to do his bidding. In fact, the Great Commission begins with the words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (v. 18). Only a King can say that. And Jesus truly is a King. He is, just to lay it right out there, the King of kings.
And since he is, we ought to take our cue – not from Herod, who rejected God’s gift of Jesus – but from the wise men, who received it with glad and thankful hearts. What made them wise, I think, is that, unlike Herod, who could never be sure of keeping his throne, they actually knew how to possess theirs, and it was to yield it to Christ.
If we are wise, you know what we will do? We will respond to God’s gift of Jesus by giving God a gift in return – just like the magi did. But our gift will not be gold or frankincense or myrrh. It will be nothing less than our very selves.
Photo Credit: 10 Magis by Magis 2011
