Going By A Different Route

Going by Different Route

Matthew 2:1-12

We aren’t told how long of a time had passed between when the magi first saw the star and when they arrived in Jerusalem, but Herod’s order—in verse 16—to kill all male children two years and younger in accordance with the time that the star first appeared—gives us a bit of an indication.

Although we have come to think of magi as kings, the word “magi” is where we get our word “magic.”

But the magi weren’t really magicians; they were astrologers who studied the heavens for signs of important events.

It could be said that the magi were authentic “spiritual seekers.”

When I was in high school some friends of mine and I were hanging out in a park drinking beers and smoking weed.

And we started talking about what we were going to do in the future.

One of my friends said, “I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing right now for the rest of my life.”

When he said this, I thought to myself, “Not me. Someday I’m going to be a United Methodist Minister like my Uncle Jack.

I’ve seen his life and how he lives.

I know that there is another, a better way.

And I want that kind of life.

I don’t know how I’m going to do it or how I’m going to get there, but that’s what I’m going to do and be.”

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was a seeker.

I think there are a lot of “seekers” in our world.

There are lots of folks who are looking for another way.

They want to take another road or go by another route, but they aren’t sure how to get there.

Perhaps they have gone down the road of addiction, and found themselves in a mess of trouble, unhappy and headed for destruction.

Maybe they have bought into the lie that the person who dies with the most stuff—wins…

…and so they run after the Almighty Dollar…

…and find that they are unfulfilled, empty and left wanting something more.

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Blaise Pascal is quoted as saying: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each person which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

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When I was a Freshman in college I made friends with a kid named Tim.

The first thing Tim asked me when I met him is: “Are you a Christian?”

To me, that was a very odd question.

No one my age had ever asked me that.

But, since I had been going to church my entire life, I answered: “Yes.”

Tim never questioned my answer.

But as we hung out and spent time together, I started to notice that Tim’s idea of what a Christian was and my idea were quite a bit different.

Tim was actually living what he believed.

He was dedicated to following Jesus Christ.

I had never met anyone my age who was actually living out what they believed and through Tim I saw that it was actually possible.

And as a seeker, I wanted what Tim had.

I gave my life to Christ, and I have never been the same.

The magi saw a light in the sky provided by God.

And though they were Gentiles, they knew enough about Hebrew prophecies to recognize that this pointed to a divine birth among the Jewish people.

So, like captains charting a course by the stars in the middle of the vast ocean, these men set off to “follow” the star.

Their journey brought them to the hillside country of Judea.

Assuming that the star indicated a birth in the house of the ruler, they went first to the king, to Herod’s home.

“Where is the King of the Jews?” they asked.

Now, despite being the earthly “King of the Jews,” Herod did not understand what the magi were asking.

But the fact that they inquired about the birth of a new king among the Jews was deeply troubling to Herod.

So, Herod calls in the scholars to gather further information. “Where is the

Messiah to be born?” Herod asks.

Well, to the chief priests and the legal experts, this was child’s play.

“In Bethlehem of Judea, of course!” they tell Herod.

They had all the information in front

of them, the prophecies of their well-studied Scriptures, and the stars in the skies above them, but it hadn’t yet occurred to these Jewish scholars that their very own Messiah was among them.

It was Gentile astrologers from a far-off land who sought the mystery of what was before them and followed in faith.

Can you imagine being right there in Jerusalem, just five miles from Bethlehem?