“Going By a 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 gives us a bit of an indication.
Although we have come to think of the Magi as Kings, the word “magi,” is where we get our word for “magic.”
But the magi weren’t really magicians; they were astrologers who studied the heavens for signs of important events.
Outside of the Bible, a number of other ancient historians of the time report that the magi regularly traveled to visit and search for kings.
It could be said that the magi were authentic “spiritual seekers.”
And we too live in a time of great spiritual unrest.
Our world is filled with people who are searching for meaning in a world that appears to have gone mad!!!
As we begin our journey into 2013, we leave behind a year of carnage and brokenness.
A young man enters a packed movie theater and starts shooting people, at random.
Another young man shoots people in a mall.
And, the most shocking of all, a sleepy, all-American, Upper-Middle Class town is brought to its knees as the unthinkable happens.
Little, helpless, defenseless children are gunned down in their 1st grade classroom.
So much pain; so much sorrow.
Our world is broken, and if anyone did not believe this before they would be in major “denial” not to admit it now.
If we have learned anything from the events of this past year it should be that we need to change direction, take a different route.
We need a Savior.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives.
Whoever seeks, finds.
And to everyone who knocks the door is opened.”
The magi spent nearly two years searching for Jesus.
They did not give up their long search, even though they met a whole bunch of obstacles.
But, it would have been easier for them to just give up.
They could have decided to spend their gifts of “gold, frankincense, and myrrh” on something else.
If they were living in the 21st Century they could have bought a zillion lottery tickets.
They could have invested their money in a pension plan.
They could have purchased real-estate.
You name it!!!
Any of these things would have seemed, by the world’s standards, to make more sense than to follow some star and give these treasures to the toddler Son of a peasant woman and her husband.
But again, these guys were serious in their spiritual quest.
Perhaps they had found that money does not ultimately satisfy.
Maybe they knew how fleeting are the material aspects of this life.
Perhaps their interior longing for a meaningful existence was too great to throw their lives away on junk.
They had seen a “star in the east.”
No doubt, they had read the reports of the prophets of old.
They knew there was a God Who had promised something better than what they could currently see and experience.
Had they seen the in-breaking of something new and promising?
They wanted to know what it meant.
Could it mean that the long sought Messiah had finally arrived?
Could it be that God had finally come into this world of disarray in order to right the wrongs and save the lost?
What better place to go and find out than to the epi-center of religion—Jerusalem?
So they went to the holiest of holy places and asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We’ve seen his star in the east, and we’ve come to honor him.”
But, apparently, the epi-center of religion was being ruled by a very troubled and ill king.
King Herod was not willing to take the chance that he would have to share the spotlight with someone else.
He was out for himself.
He was completely inwardly focused.
He was nervous and insecure.
In his insanity he had ordered the killing of his brother-in-law, his uncle, and then his wife.
He even went on to execute his mother-in-law, a son, and then two more sons.
No wonder we are told in verse 3 that when Herod heard about the birth of Christ, “he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him.”
When madness seems to be winning and instability abounds—everyone becomes a bit troubled.
Just look at the big debates which are taking place over what to do about guns in the wake of an outbreak of mass shootings!!!
People are troubled.
People are searching.
Some are stock piling more weapons in order to fight fire with fire.
Others are calling for a ban on weapons.
Some are looking for an answer to our mental health problems.
Many are allowing these events to cause them to cut their ties with the outside world even more…
…buying more locks, more chains, more metal detectors, and deciding to stay indoors—huddled in fear in front of computer screens and t-vs.
Others are just in a daze.
What are you thinking about these days?
And how about the persons living in the homes surrounding our homes and this church building?
Are they living in fear in insecurity?
Are they seekers who are not quite sure where to look for the answers to the restlessness in their hearts?
The chief priests and the legal experts were able to tell the magi where “the Christ was to be born,” although they did not go in order to find Him themselves.
Instead, they stayed with Herod.
Although they knew the truth, they, in fear and for the sake of holding on to what they had in this world decided to stay where they were.
How many of us know the truth, and yet we have not made the ultimate decision to follow Christ?
Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior does not mean sitting still and staying the same.
It means rising up and following Him.
It involves risk.
It involves death of self and new life in God.
It has at its center—a Cross!!!
But this is not the way of misery and desperation.
It is THE WAY of peace.
It is the highest joy!!!
To take up our Cross and follow Christ is what it means to be Christian.
And it is the road we must take if we are going to be saved, and have lives which are meaningful.
It is the only answer to the broken cries of our world.
Herod “sent [the magi] to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search carefully for the child.
When you’ve found him, report to me so that I may go and honor him.’”
And so the search continued, and we are told that the magi were “filled with joy.
They entered the house and saw the child with Mary his mother.
Falling to their knees, they honored him.”
In a faraway place, after years of searching…
…in a surprising context the magi finally found what they had been looking for in the birth of a child to a young peasant woman!!!
And immediately, a call was put upon their lives to worship Him.
And they were immediately obedient to that call!!!
Like all of us, the first thing they experience is the call to abandon their attachments to this world.
And so, “they opened their treasure chests and presented him with” their “gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
To follow Christ is to let go of the old and take hold of the new!!!
It is to be so transformed that all that we once held so dear pales in comparison to what we have now found!!!
And to follow Christ also means obedience to a new Spirit living inside of our hearts; a new voice showing us the Way.
The magi were “warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country by another route.”
Are we following the leading of the Holy Spirit; forsaking the “easy way” of returning to “Herod” and instead going on the route where Jesus’ footsteps lead us to life and life to the full?
Jesus says, “Go in through the narrow gate.
The gate that leads to destruction is broad and the road wide, so many people enter through it.
But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few find it.”
We are told in verse 16 that “When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry.
He sent soldiers to kill all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger…”
Our Savior and our God, was born with a price on His head.
He was born in a land and at a time of great trouble, tension, violence, heartache and fear.
Before Jesus learned to walk and talk, He was a homeless refuge.
But this is how our God has appeared.
There is no point in arriving in comfort when the world is in misery; no point having an easy life when the world suffers violence and injustice!
If Jesus is going to be Emmanuel, God-with-us, He must be with us where the pain is.
And so He is today.
God is with us as troubled young men shoot helpless young children.
God is with us as our neighborhoods become more violent, desperate and impoverished.
God is with us in the pain of life, and therefore, we can not only endure the pain—but overcome and be victorious!!!
And we are called to be the Light of the world and the salt of the earth.
We are called to go out into the streets surrounding our church building and proclaim the coming of Christ, even as and especially as our neighbors hunker down in fear, darkness and uncertainty.
We are to leave the world’s false security blankets behind and embrace the Cross which is the Only Way to Life.
We are to go by another, a different route.
Amen.
Praise God.
