“The Adoration of the Magi”
Matthew 2:1-12
Robert Warren
January 18th, 2009
Last week I introduced our Great Commission Mission and if you remember the very first and most important part of that mission was to Adore God. Loving God is the first and greatest of all the commandments; in fact, every other commandment hinges on our command to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. Today I wanted to get us back to our verse by verse study of the Book of Matthew when Lo and Behold, we get one of history’s greatest examples of adoration of God: the visit of the Magi.
I’m going to examine the Magi in greater depth and I imagine that there is much about these guys that we didn’t know, but even the little bit we do know reveals to us a group of people who truly adored God in the form of Jesus and certainly put their money where their mouth is. They were looking for a Messiah to come and when they saw his star appearing in the east they loaded up their greatest treasures and headed out to find him, traveling over field and fountain, moor and mountain as the carol tells us, though I’m not sure why they travelled through fountains. Upon arriving in the house where May and the infant Jesus where they didn’t just check things out for their records, they bowed down and worshiped him, which as we will see in a bit, was very significant.
Now, this is a great story and we tell it every year as a part of our Christmas celebrations, but I wonder if we have ever really considered the implications of what was going on here. After all, there had to be a reason for Matthew—guided as he was by the Holy Spirit—to include this story in his Gospel. Matthew was a very organized writer and he wasn’t just writing a story, he was writing a systematic description of who Jesus was, and one of the descriptions that he gives us of Jesus is that he was a King; in fact, he was the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So, we would do well to scratch below the surface of this account and ask ourselves what significance there is to this account of a group of mysterious men who arrived from the east to worship Jesus. Matthew didn’t just write about this because it was an unusual story, as though here were the first century equivalent of the National Enquirer. He wasn’t just bragging about the fact that Jesus had such distinguished visitors at what amounted to the first baby shower. There was a specific significance of their visit that when we see it should astound and inspire us.
I’ll admit: before I started to prepare for this sermon there was much about the magi that I did not understand. But once I found out the background of these guys I was truly astounded. So, let’s start out with what most of us know—and what most of us think we know. We know very little from the reading here in Matthew: we know that some guys who are called Magi from the east come to Jerusalem seeking “the one who has been born the King of the Jews”. They show what would appear to be an astounding lack of political awareness by coming to the current King of the Jews to find out where he was, given the fact that Herod was the King of the Jews and he was a paranoid and homicidal king who killed two of his sons for fear that they would take power from him. After checking with the scholars of Israel they find that the Messiah was to be born in the City of David, otherwise known as Bethlehem, since that was the town where David, the chosen king of Israel was from. So, they go to Bethlehem and finding Jesus and Mary in a house they give him gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and gold and bow down to worship him. Then, having been warned in a dream not to go back to the murderous Herod (though you don’t think they would need a dream to tell them that… here’s your sign!) they return by another route.
That’s what we know about them from the bible. Here’s a few of the things that we think we know about them that is not grounded in the bible. They were not kings. In fact, they were just the opposite, these were the guys who chose kings. We don’t know if there were three of them; we have usually assumed that because they brought three gifts, but as we will see later, there is a significance to what they brought that has nothing to do with their number. There could have been any number of magi, it’s just that they brought those three items. Also, we don’t know their names: history says that their names were Caspar, Belthizar and Melchoir, but that is just legend. Finally, and I hate to ruin your nativity scene, but they probably didn’t ride camels or come by themselves, historically it’s more likely that they rode Persian horses and were accompanied by Persian cavalry. Oh, and one more thing that will ruin your Nativity scene: they most assuredly did not arrive in the stable where Jesus was born on the night he was born… the shepherds and the magi probably didn’t meet. The bible is very clear that the Wise Men came to a house, not a stable, and given the fact that Herod killed all the children under two it’s possible that Jesus was as old as two years old. If you remember, Mary and Joseph offered up a dove to dedicate Jesus, which was the offering that poor people gave. They wouldn’t have given that kind of offering if they were carrying gold, incense and myrrh; a fortune in those times. So, next year you can put the magi out with your nativity scene, but take off their crowns, put them on horses, and put them far away from the shepherds and the stable!
But, as interesting as all this might be for those into history, there is an important lesson that we can learn from these mysterious magi. Let’s begin by looking at who they were and what they were doing traveling all the way from Persia to bow before a toddler.
First, who were these guys? They are correctly called Magi in the NIV, though the note says that they are traditionally called Wise Men. Wise Men is not a bad name for them, but they were certainly not kings. The best name for them, though, is Magi; which is their actual name, not the description of who they are. The Magi were a tribe of eastern people who go way back into antiquity. They were the tribe that was given the task of being the religious leaders; it was their job to study the holy books, study the stars (for back then people thought that the stars gave answers… what we call astrology), interpret dreams, and advise the kings. When you think back to the life of Moses, you might remember that the Egyptian court had people like that too. Do you remember in Exodus 7 when Aaron threw his staff down and it became a snake? What did Pharaoh do in response? Verse 11, “Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts.” Most of the cultures back then had people who were priests: people who were adept in the religions and superstitions of their culture. The Egyptians had their wise men and sorcerers, and the eastern people had their magi. In fact, you might notice that the word magi sounds a lot like magician, and that’s exactly where that word comes from, but they were so much more than magicians, they were more like priests and advisers to the kings. The Magi were a tribe of people who were set aside to tend to the religion of the eastern people.
A tribe of people who were set aside to take care of the religious matters of a culture. That ought to sound like something you are familiar with from your knowledge of the bible. That’s right, in a lot of ways the magi were a lot like the Levites of the Old Testament. Their job was to study the holy works, discern the signs, and advise the leaders with their wisdom. In fact, they even had ways of casting lots to make decisions like the priests did with their Ummim and Thummim. Granted, they were pagans who did not faithfully worship the one true God, but they were seekers of truth (and historians suggest that they did believe that there was only one god, though they did not recognize him as the God of the bible).
Now, here is where it gets interesting and makes Matthew 2 make a whole lot more sense. As I’ve told you, the magi were a tribe of priests who lived in the east and were responsible for tending to the religious affairs of their culture. Racially, they were from a tribe of people called the Medes. I don’t want to get into a lot of history, but the Medes lived in the area that we now call Iraq and Iran. They were a very ancient race of people, going all the way back to the time when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans to come to the Promised Land. The very first major world empire was the Babylonian empire and the Medes were people in that empire, the Magi serving as the religious tribe to that culture. Watch how this works out in God’s plan. Remember, it was the Babylonians who came and conquered Israel, taking many Jews away into captivity to their land in—wait for it—the east, including a young man that we know as Daniel. Later, another empire overthrew the Babylonians. That empire was known as the Medo-Persian Empire, and you can see the name “Mede” in the Medo-Persian Empire. While the Jews were in Babylonian captivity the Medo-Persian Empire came to power, so Daniel ended up serving in a Medo-Persian court. In that court were Medes who were a part of ruling religious tribe known as the Magi.
What I’m getting at is this: Daniel had contact with the Magi way back over 500 years before Christ was born. But it gets even more exciting. Daniel had more than a passing acquaintance with the magi. We read in the book of Daniel that he was chosen to serve in the king’s court. In Daniel 4 we read of a time when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that terrified him. As we know from the bible, dreams were often used by God to give people a message: Joseph was famous for interpreting dreams, for example and God spoke to Joseph in a dream when he told him about the birth of Jesus. Anyway, the Babylonian king had a dream that bothered him. Remember, it was the job of the Magi to interpret dreams, so he called them all in. Daniel 2:2 says, “So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed.” These were the magi that he called forth, the ones who were supposed to interpret dreams for the king. But, he did something strange this time: instead of telling the dream to them for them to interpret he upped the ante; he told them that they had to tell him the dream and then interpret it. Obviously, they cried out in outrage. That wasn’t the way it was done, in fact they said that it was impossible for a magician to both tell the dream and interpret it.
Listen to what the magi said: Daniel 2: 10 The astrologers answered the king, "There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men."
The king didn’t like this, so this is what he ordered: 12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.
Now here is the part I want you to see: 13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. Did you catch that? The king ordered all the wise men—the magi—to be put to deaths, so the men went to look for Daniel and his friends. That’s right, Daniel had been made one of the wise men of the Babylonian court. Of course, as a result he was about to be put to death. But, Daniel prayed to God and told the chief of the guards that he could interpret the dream. So, verse 25, The chief of the guard took Daniel to the king and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.” Long story short, Daniel told the king what he dreamed and then he interpreted it for him, giving all the glory for the interpretation to God. The King then made Daniel the chief magi, the head of all the wise men in Babylon. In chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar has another dream and he calls Daniel to him and says this: “Belteshazzar (which was Daniel’s Babylonian name), chief of the magicians, I now that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you.” Not only was he a magi, a wise man, but he was the chief of the magicians. Obviously, he was a well-respected and honored man with great influence over the court. In fact, the Babylonian and Persian kings in the book of Daniel often give God praise because of the example of Daniel.
Now, here is the point of me telling you all this, and it involves a little bit of logical conjecture. Daniel was an exile from Judah, he was Jewish. He was selected to be put into the company of the wise men and because of God’s powerful working he becomes the chief of the magi. The magi were men who studied holy writings and were looking for answers to the deep questions of the world: who was the true God and what was his plan for the world? We know without a doubt that Daniel told these magi about God—we know this because it is recorded in the book of Daniel that he always gave glory to God. We can also imagine that because all of the holy articles in God’s Temple were carried away to Babylon that they had access to the Old Testament, which Daniel no doubt translated and explained to them. Consequently, the Magi would have known about God and his promises to send a Messiah, one who would be King of the Jews. Therefore, for 500 years the Magi would have been looking to see how the God of Daniel, the one true God who had proved himself so dramatically—not only by interpreting dreams but by saving Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the lions’ den—would send the Messiah. We have no way of knowing, but it’s entirely likely that they had copies of the Old Testament and were studying it with the same intensity that the Jewish scribes and scholars should have been doing. Remember, these guys were not just fortune-tellers and tricksters, they were scholars of religious matters and God had made quite an impact on them through the example of Daniel.
Now, before I get back to Matthew, I want to share one more thing about these Magi. These guys were VERY powerful. They were basically the “king-makers” of their time. No ruler was selected among the empires of the East if they were not first approved of by the Magi. Since rule was supposed to be determined by the gods they turned to their priests to decide who was to be a king: if the magi were not behind a guy, it was not likely that he would be the king. They played this role for many centuries and were a real force to be reckoned with their prestige and influence. Keep this in mind.
Now, I hope that I have set the stage for you to understand what was going on here. There’s a reason I give you all this history and background. I want you to be totally amazed at the way that God was working even through history to prepare the way for Jesus to come into the world. Through the tragedy of the exile he prepared a people to await the Messiah. You might think it a tragedy for Daniel to be enslaved in the court of the Babylonian king, but like Joseph he was in a position to reveal the glory of God and the coming Messiah. God did all this work behind the scenes so that when the Messiah did come there would be people there awaiting him. All of this should just astound you when you consider the way that God worked through time and history to prepare the way of Jesus’ arrival. Those magi did not just appear in Jerusalem, they were prepared to be there over 500 years before Jesus was even born.
You sometimes hear people describe the Magi as being little more than astrologers. The description is that these guys were staring up at the sky and one day they saw something incredible in the sky, something unusual and out of the ordinary. There are lots of explanations about what the star of Jesus could have been: a supernova, which is an exploding star which shows up as a new, very bright star. Others have suggested that it could have been a comet or a meteor. One theory even holds that the star was actually the conjunction of Saturn, Venus and Jupiter, which is when all three planets line up to make what appears to be one very bright star. Naturally, if these guys believed in superstitious signs and were astrologers accustomed to looking at the sky they would have been very curious to find out what this new sight in the sky was and would go to check it out. But, that makes them out to be little more than curious bystanders.
Knowing what we now know about them, I think it is far more likely that they had been looking towards the land of Judah for centuries for the Messiah King that they had learned about in the time of Daniel, the Jewish Magi. Remember, the Jews were looking for a king, too. No doubt the Magi thought, like the Jews, that God was going to send a king who would unify the Jewish people and no doubt overthrow the Romans who were oppressing the people of the East just as much as the Jews.
So, having learned about the Messiah from Daniel, and having lived in expectation of a King of the Jews for centuries, at last they saw his star in the east. What was this star? Here is what I think they saw, and it might surprise you. Remember, they did not get to the stable on the night that Jesus was born, they were hundreds of miles away in the east when he was born. So, what could they have possibly seen? Let me read something to you that may give us a clue: you remember the story of the shepherds who heard of Jesus’ birth on the night he was born. They were out in the fields when who appeared to them? Luke 2:9, “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…” I never really thought of this before, but what do think the glory of the Lord looks like? All throughout the Old Testament we read about the glory of the Lord appearing, which is called the Shekinah Glory of God. I don’t think I have to elaborate much for you to remember what the Glory of God looks like when it comes: it was like a pillar of fire and cloud to the Israelites, and when the Glory of God appeared to Moses he couldn’t not even look on it fully. After the Glory of God appeared to Moses his face glowed for the rest of his life. Suffice to say it’s a VERY bright light.
The word for star here in Matthew is aster, which can mean star, but it can also mean ‘shining’. I wonder if what the Magi was seeing was the Glory of God which came down when Jesus was born and which led them to where Jesus was, since it’s hard to see how a literal star could lead you anywhere, especially as specifically as over one house. In fact, I think it’s very likely that this glory was only seen by the magi since they were the only ones looking for it. We read that it led them to the exact house where Jesus was, which means it was not a literal star and since Herod was trying to find this new king, it’s likely that he couldn’t see it. This was most likely a supernatural phenomenon which was specifically leading the magi to this house. In any case, they were looking for God to send a Messiah and they saw a shining, the star of Jesus, and they came to see what God was doing. But note this: they did not just come out of curiosity to see what was going on. They knew that God was sending a Messiah King, so they said, “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.”
And here’s the point: they knew that God was going to send a Messiah and they were looking for him to come. When they saw the glory of God shining over Israel they had only one response: to go find this king and to worship him. To adore him and pay him proper honor. They set off on a long and dangerous journey because there was only one reaction to what the God of the Israelites was doing: that reaction was to bow down and worship him. They brought the finest gifts that they had in that culture: gold, incense, and myrrh, a costly ointment. If you remember the little jar of nard that the woman poured out on Jesus’ feet, it was said to be worth more than a year’s wages; this was what they were bring to Jesus, the king.
But notice the reactions of the other players in this drama, reactions that are more surprising than that of the Magi. We can understand that these Gentile wise men, who had been looking for the Messiah for over 500 years, would want to come and worship the new King who had come from heaven. What is surprising is not that these men would make such a treacherous journey to bring such elaborate gifts to the King of another land; what is surprising is what the people of Israel did; or rather, what they didn’t do.
First, notice the reaction of Herod. I don’t have time to go into all the details, but Herod was a ruthless king. He basically had gone to the Romans and had been given the title “King of the Jews.” The Romans wanted someone in Israel who would keep the peace in this rebellious warlike territory. And keeping the peace was something that Herod did well. He kept the peace by crushing any rebellion and killing any rival to his power, including his own children and his own mother. The Romans said that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than his son; he wouldn’t eat pork, but he would kill his own son.
Remember, I said that the Magi were king-makers; they were often the ones who would announce that a new king had been chosen. No matter how powerful they were, it didn’t really matter what the Romans said, if God had revealed to the Magi that there was a new king then the people would know that a new king was going to arrive. The people then understood that it was God who was ultimately in charge of who would rule. So, the Magi, these powerful, wise, influential king-makers arrived in Jerusalem looking for the king. Why did they come to Jerusalem when Jesus was born in Bethlehem? They assumed that the new king of the Jews would be found in Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the Jews. They showed up and no doubt they figured that all the people would be rejoicing that God had finally sent them the Messiah that they had been expecting. Matthew 2:2 says that they were asking, “Where is the one who been born king of the Jews?” Essentially they were on the streets asking the people for information about the Messiah, but none of the people had any idea what they were talking about. They had not heard of any new king… they had enough trouble with the king they had.
Now, notice what Herod’s reaction is. Rather than reacting with joy to the sight of these wise men, no doubt on fine horses and accompanied by Persian cavalry, we read instead that Herod was disturbed. And why was he disturbed? Because if God was sending a new King of the Jews that meant that he was about to lose his position of power and prestige. Remember, this was the guy who killed his own son because he thought that his son might try to take his power… what would his reaction be to the thought of a divinely appointed challenger to his throne? Well, we know his reaction, he tried to have Jesus killed by killing all the children under two in Bethlehem. It is sad that this earthly king of the Jews did not seek Jesus, the true King of the Jews in order to worship him. Instead, he tried to have him killed for fear that Jesus would upset the life that he loved so much.
But, he was not the only one who did not want to worship God because of the disruption that a Messiah would make in his life. We read in verse 3 that not only was Herod disturbed, but “all Jerusalem with him.” They had good reason to be disturbed. If there was going to be a new king, a challenger to Herod, then there was a very good likelihood that there would be a civil war. Their homes could be besieged, burned down, and destroyed. They might lose their lives or be forced to flee to the countryside. Instead of rejoicing that God was sending them a Messiah they feared the political repercussions that this new king might bring. Essentially Herod and all Jerusalem with him did not adore the Messiah because they did not want their lives to be disrupted.
There is another strange reaction that we find here too. These wise Magi, who had heard of a coming Messiah and who were eager to worship God’s king of the Jews came to Jerusalem expecting that people would also be celebrating this new Messiah. Instead, when they came they found that nobody seemed to even know what they were talking about.
What’s worse is that the wise men of Israel, the Jewish scholars, the chief priests and teachers of the Law, were unaware of the coming of the Messiah. You would have thought that these guys would have been the first to know of the coming of Jesus: after all, they had had over a thousand years to be looking for him. The Messiah was the hope of Israel, he was the ultimate culmination of all that the Old Testament had been promising. They should have been studying the scripture and looking for the coming of the Lord more than anyone. But we know from the life of Jesus that it was the very ones who should have been looking for Jesus, the religious leaders of Israel, that were the most clueless of his arrival and the most antagonistic towards his Gospel.
Sadly, they had lost sight of what they should have been looking for. Instead of looking and praying for the Messiah to come they were arguing about how many steps a person could take on the Sabbath and how big their prayer boxes should be. They were majoring in the minors, as the saying goes.
In fact, Herod had to call them together to find out where the Messiah was to be born. To their credit, they did know the prophecy found in the Old Testament book of Micah 5:2, 2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." So, they knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Then Herod called the Magi and asked them when they had seen the glory of the Lord shining. Now, to me, this is sad. It’s sad that it took Gentiles to notice when the star of Jesus first appeared. You would think that the wise men of Israel would have been spiritually prepared to be awaiting the coming of Jesus; they should have been the first to see the star and the first to arrive to worship Jesus, but they had no clue. They were so caught up in their own world that they totally missed the coming of the Messiah.
We know the rest of the story. Herod called the Magi and told them that they would find the Messiah in Bethlehem, so they headed to the house where Mary and Joseph and Jesus were living. Herod told them to return and tell him where the new king was so he could “worship him.” Of course, his desire was to murder the new king to preserve his seat of power. The magi went to Bethlehem and led by the shining of Jesus’ star they found the house where he was.
What they did next is so awe-inspiring. These Gentile wise men, who had been looking for the coming Messiah since the time of Daniel, saw the child with his mother and Matthew says, “…they bowed down and worshiped him. “Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”
Here’s my challenge to you, the challenge that we get from reading this, and perhaps even the challenge that Matthew intended. You see, one of the major themes of Matthew’s Gospel is that Jesus is the King of Kings who is worthy to be worshiped and adored. In this passage he shows us that if these noble, wise, powerful and scholarly magi thought it worthwhile to seek Jesus for over 500 years and then make a treacherous journey in order to worship and adore Jesus, then we should do the same. He shows us that God was working through the centuries to prepare these men to come and give Jesus the worship and adoration that he deserves.
So, my invitation for you today is to be a wise man or woman, to see God’s working in the world and in your life and come with the only reasonable response: to come worship and adore him.
Sadly, there are a lot of people in our world who are more like Herod. They don’t like the fact that Jesus will disrupt their life, so they will not bow and worship him. You see, for Herod to bow down and worship Jesus he would have had to leave his throne and acknowledge that Jesus is the true King of the Jews, a title that Herod himself now had. We are no different. If we acknowledge the Jesus is the Lord of our life it means that we have to climb down from our throne. Before I was saved I was the King of Robert, but when I made Jesus my lord I had to admit the Jesus was the true King of Robert. That’s not easy to do, we have to be broken and humbled before we can do that. Folks don’t normally give up the control and power of their life without a fight. We don’t like the disruption that will come if Jesus is our king: it means that we have to give up the sins that we love, we have to give up the pride which drives us, and we have to give up the control of our life that we think we have.
Today you might be like Herod, unwilling to give Jesus the Kingship of your life that he demands. My invitation to you today is to recognize that Jesus is the King, the one and only king, and that he alone deserves the position of Lord of your life. Humble yourself before God, repent of your sins and let Jesus be your Lord.
Or maybe you are like the other group of people who missed the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish scholars would have told you that they were looking for the Messiah to come; that was supposedly the thing they were most looking for. If there was anyone in the whole world who should have been expecting the Messiah it should have been the scholars and priests of Israel. Yet they totally missed him. They missed him because they were distracted by the things that don’t matter; religious things that didn’t matter. They were arguing over interpretations and nuances of the law and missed the Messiah.
I think that describes a lot of us in the church. We who claim to be Christians should be the most aware of what God is doing in the world and what he wants to do in our life. Yet, we religious people can sometimes fail to worship and adore Jesus because we are too busy with the things that hardly matter. We are focused on nonessential doctrine, worship wars, and silly nuances and yet miss out on the truly important things: worshiping God and living our life in total adoration of him.
If this describes you—someone who is very religious yet who is missing out on God, then I encourage you to do what the magi did: come and worship God anew.
Both types of people: those who refuse to be humbled like Herod and those religious people who miss out on God because they are distracted need to take a lesson from the magi. The only proper response to Jesus is not to resist him or to miss him, but to drop everything and make a journey of faith to give him the best we have and worship and adore him.
How about you: is the adoration of God the first and foremost thing in your life?
