THE ADVENTURE IN THE ADVENT (MATTHEW 2:1-12)
Three weeks before Christmas, I was tricked by the moderator who wished worshippers with a “Happy Holidays” greeting at the start of worship. I echoed the same in return instead of saying “Merry Christmas!” For many years I was dismayed with the commercialization of Christmas. Beginning from the day after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Black Friday, the barrage of sales and advertisement reaches stratospheric proportions. Increasingly stores are playing Christmas songs and having Christmas sales even before Thanksgiving.
A spokesperson for the United States Postal Service says that on the second-last Monday before Christmas, roughly 1 billion packages, cards and letters are mailed at the post office. (“For Last-minute Shoppers, it’s All about the Shipping,” USA TODAY 12/17/07)
Further, Christmas is no fun for people suffering from the Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) during winter time when the days shorten, the nights lengthen, the temperature drops and the mood suffers.
This year I have a change of heart. The day after Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I heard my first Christmas song while in a store: “Hark the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King!’” Another: “Do you hear what I hear?” and other hymnal classics. I said to myself, “All is not lost. What an unexpected, unusual and unparalleled way to testify to the Lord’s birth.” We can sing our mouths dry and our tongues rot but not do what the hymns do. Saturation of songs is a problem, but not a problem to the Lord, who deserves our praise. When the Pharisees wanted Jesus to silence the rowdy disciples praising Him, Jesus replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:38-40)
The adventure of the magi is as inspiring a story as any for people who are down, disheartened and depressed at this time of the year. Most scholars believe the magi’s visit was much later than the shepherds’, maybe two years after He was born. The magi’s visit completes the angel’s message to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL THE PEOPLE.” (Luke 2:10)
Why do we celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? What are we so joyous about? How do we rightly celebrate Christmas?
Schedule Time to Witness the Savior
2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. (Matt 2:1-4)
I have a lot of relatives whose very lives, like many Chinese people, are chained to, if not paralyzed by, superstitious beliefs. On a trp to Singapore (2006), I noticed my mother buying breakfast without fail for her elderly neighbor suffering from a broken leg. What she said the next day reveals the depth of her blind but firm belief in Chinese folk religions and fengshui. She said all the bad luck started when the neighbors wanted to sell their house for $1 million Singapore dollars. When visitors offered much less due to uncertain economic times, they balked at the offer and decided not to sell. After all, they were just testing the market. The damage, however, was done, according to my mother, because house hunters entering the couple’s home walked up and down the stairs viewing the home, thereby trampling upon their good fortune, resulting in the elderly man breaking his leg not only once, but twice, the second time when his son-in-law tried to pick him up.
I used to live in a corner house on a T-section, exactly on the south-west corner of a “T” junction. Another relative bluntly remarked that it was bad luck, and that’s why I was without a job for six months, the time I resigned from my first church in the States to study for a Doctor of Ministry degree.
Who are the magi? I met a group of Assyrian Christians on a plane once. The patriarch sitting next to me told me the majority of Assyrians today are Christians, which was surprising to me since they were the bad guys in the Bible! He also told me that according to Assyrian legend, the three wise men include a Persian, an Assyrian and an Ethiopian. Matthew Henry says that the Magi among the Persians were their philosophers and their priests. Some traditions suggest three to 14 wise men.
The “magi,” as the word suggests, were simply the “magicians” in their day. What kind of magicians were they? Not those that dabble in fortune telling, palm reading, black magic or tarot cards. They were students of astronomy, not astrology. Astrology (study of stars) and astronomy (law of stars) were historically the same discipline but separated in the 17th century. Astronomy is accepted as a science today and is a widely studied academic discipline for its study of objects and phenomena beyond the earth’s atmosphere. Astrology, on the other hand, uses the apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for psychology, prediction of future events and other esoteric knowledge. The latter is not widely regarded as science and is typically defined as a form of divination. The scientific community considers astrology a pseudoscience or superstition. (Wikipedia)
In a bad sense, a magos is a sorcerer, the word used for Elymas the sorcerer (Acts 13:8). In a good sense, the magi were astronomers, stargazers, thinkers, intellectuals and scientists of their day. The problem with astrology is that the logic in astrology has become magic instead. Matthew did not tell us who the magi were, how many there were or what star they followed. The magi were definitely not psychics or diviners of any sort. They did not know who to ask, where to look, how to start, when to go. Remember they were not there at Jesus’ birth, but much later. For all their wisdom, they almost bungled the job. Matthew informs readers that the magi did not come for the star, but for the Savior: “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Their witness was to Jesus, not to the star. The contrast to “saw his star” is “worship him,” not “worship it.” They did not thank their lucky star(s) and bow to the heavens - sun, moon or stars.
Jesus is the bright Morning Star (Rev 22:16). The morning stars that sang together at earth’s creation (Job 38:7) will no longer shine (Joel 2:10, 3:15) at the coming of the day of our Lord.
Spare Time to Welcome Israel’s Shepherd
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “’But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’“ 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” (Matt 2:5-8)
A site foreman had ten very lazy men working for him, so one day he decided to trick them into doing some work for a change. “I’ve got a really easy job today for the laziest one among you,” he announced. “Will the laziest man please put his hand up?” Nine hands went up. “Why didn’t you put your hand up?” he asked the tenth man. “Too much trouble,” came the reply.
The magi had their adventure cut out for them. Language is a problem. Land is another. Location, lodging and luggage - the kind of challenges that discourages travelers. These wise men from the east rode beasts of burden, trekked hundreds of miles and crossed barren desert roads. Even when they got to Jerusalem, they were told, “Not Jerusalem, but Bethlehem in Judea.” They did not groan and moan. Bethlehem? It is another five to seven miles south of Jerusalem, and elevated 2,460 feet above sea level. Already, the men had surmounted cultural, geographical and rational obstacles, braving the wind, the sun and the wilderness, but the greatest danger awaiting them was not sandstorm, heat and exhaustion but the power, pride and politics of Herod. Known or unknown to them, their lives were at risk. They stumbled upon the most dangerous and hated man in Judea.
Ever the politician, Herod was appointed “tetrarch” of Judaea in 41 BC at about the age of 25 – about 40 years before Christ was born. He was an Edomite - Esau’s descendant by race - and Jewish by religion. His legacy in architecture is equal to his legacy of death. When he reconstructed the ancient Temple of Solomon, the Jews suspected his sinister motive was to possess the public genealogies collected there, especially those relating to the priestly families, hoping to destroy the genealogy of the expected Messiah, lest He should come and usurp his kingdom. (The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary) He had nine wives, but sacrificed Mariamne, his favorite wife and the only person he had ever loved but was a royal relative of the previous regime, his mother-in-law Alexandra, and three sons – two by Mariamne and a stepbrother who plotted against the two. The Jews saw in him only a usurper of the throne of David, the biggest grave robber there was. He did not even spare the grave of King David, robbing it and other cherished national treasures. He was so blood-thirsty that Augustus said, “I would rather be Herod’s hog than his son.” (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia) He died in 4 BC, shortly after he ordered the “massacre of the innocents.”
Another thing the magi had to entertain was the counsel of the chief priests and the teachers of the law. If you contrast Micah’s prophesy with their reply, you will find that they have added their own opinion to humiliate Herod and the magi:
“ruler…of my people Israel.” (Matt 2:6)
“ruler over Israel” (Mic 5:2)
What did they add? My people. Israel’s leaders were not willing to share their Messiah, not with the Edomite king or the Gentile magi. Consider the two words added to spike and poke them. How sad for the magi to hear those words, wise men such as them could not to fail to parse the words or notice the slight.
The chief priests and teachers were frosty as ice and cold as night, bitter and touchy and possessive, even though they have no real interest in who, where and when the Messiah was born. Israel’s Shepherd was born but the sheep was not following, benefiting other sheep that were not of the sheep pen instead. (John 10:16) The chief priests and the teachers of the law quoted Scripture, the place and the Name, but they did not bother to look.
Spend Time to Worship God’s Son
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matt 2:7-12)
A 2007 National Christmas Tree Association poll of 1,001 U.S. households reveals how people spend Christmas:
Religious reflection – 22%
Giving to the poor – 41%
Decorating the house – 61%
Sending Christmas card – 65%
Exchanging gifts – 79% (USA Today 12/17/07)
While exchanging gifts may be popular, many people complain of the fruitcake, re-gifts and other unwanted gifts. The worst Christmas gift I read of was a boyfriend’s gift of a Thigh Master to his girlfriend!
The word Christmas comes from two words, “Christ” and “mas,” the old Latin word the Roman Catholic used to describe their worship. So Christmas is the worship of Jesus Christ. Again, the emphasis in the text is that they were overjoyed (v 10) when they bowed down and worshiped him (v 11). You will not find a more joyous group in the Bible. The first record of the word “joy” in the New Testament is associated with the magi’s joy over Jesus’ birth. Previously, the angel’s announcement to the shepherds was “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10) The angel’s pronouncement of joy was the first “great joy” statement in the Bible, followed by the magi’s “great joy” in Greek, but with more spunk and another word after “joy” and “great” – “exceeding.” The KJV translation is “they rejoiced with exceeding great joy (reverse in Greek: chara megas sphodra)” and NASB is “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Adding the noun “joy” to the verb “rejoice” is rare and unique, the only time ever. The equation of “rejoice with joy” is odd enough, never mind “rejoice with great joy” and “rejoice with exceeding great joy.” JOY, it’s been said, means “Jesus, Others, Yourself.” Joy is the most frequent theme in the Christmas narratives of the first two chapters of Matthew and Luke, rivaling the three times for “peace” (Lk 1:79, 2:14, 2:29) and “glory” (Lk 2:9, 14, 32) with five, three times for the traditonal “chara” (Lk 1:14, 2:10, Mt 2:10) and twice for “agalliasis” (Luke 1:14, 44).
Notice the magi’s Christmas was a joyous one because they desired nothing in return for their gifts. They were not there to ask for a lottery number, a stock tip or a marriage partner. Gold deserves mention and attention because it is universal, the first gift they offered to Jesus. Investing in gold is nothing short of a sure thing. I remember preaching about the magi in the early 90s when gold was $300 an oz and in 2005 when it was about $500. Do you know how much gold is worth in 2007? If I have known my preaching would cause the price of gold to soar, I would have been a millionaire. Gold plunged to $260 in 1999, but surged above $800 an ounce in 2007 and on Nov. 7 briefly touched $845.50 a troy ounce of gold bullion - a 28-year high. The metal’s market price has risen every year since 2000, trouncing the U.S. stock market in that period, rocketing 190%, compared with a 26% total return for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
The magi offered their best, the most expensive and precious gift, the best of the best to the Lord.
Conclusion: Have you lost the joy of Christmas? Are you a selfish and miserly Scrooge to God this time of the year? Is your joy found in and bound to presents, or in the presence, the person and the provision of Christ? Do you take time and make time to renew your commitment to thank Him, worship and serve Him not just for the season but for the whole year through?
Victor Yap
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