Alba 1-8-2023
THE WORSHIP OF THE WISEMEN
Matthew 2:1-12
Three small boys were in a Christmas play. They were the three wise men, and they had to give their gifts to Jesus. The first boy stepped forward, held out the gift in his hands and said, “Gold.”
The second boy stepped forward, held out his gift and said, “Myrrh.”
The third boy stepped forward, held out his gift and said, “Frank sent this.”
The biblical story has it a little different. It also tells us the reason the gifts were given. Those wise men who gave those gifts had come to worship the one who had been born king of the Jews.
The account is found in Matthew 2:1-12. Here is what it says:
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
5 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
7 Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”
9 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
I realize that we are already past the Christmas season, but the action of the wise men and their desire to worship our Lord Jesus should be an example to us as we begin this new year.
It is interesting that if you look up “worship” on the internet, most articles are about music, or how and what we sing in church. There is discussion about the “worship wars” that have gone on for some time. And about the positives and negatives of various modes of “worship”.
But it is also interesting that when we look at this account of the wise men in Matthew chapter two, that there is no mention of music. Those men did not come to sing to Jesus, they came to worship.
That is not to say the one cannot worship while singing. To lift up our voices and sing praise to the Lord is indeed worship. But worship is much more.
Worship requires something of us. Jesus, when talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, said that what God wants is for us to worship, “in spirit and in truth”. It is deep and meaningful. It comes from the heart.
The wise men showed their hearts were in the right place as they were willing to give of themselves to offer worship to our Lord. They came prepared to worship.
After they saw the star and realized the significance it had, they began to make the preparations for the journey to Jerusalem.
We need to understand that for the wise men to set out in this journey was no small undertaking. It was not like running down to Walmart, or even taking a road trip to visit grandparents three states away. The journey was long and dangerous.
Seeing the star, doing the research, preparing for the trip and making the trip certainly would require great expense and quite a bit of time, not arriving until a year after the birth of Christ, possibly longer.
Have any of us made the same effort when it comes to offering worship to our Lord? Too often it is too easy and lacks heart.
If we truly want to offer worship to the Lord we need to prepare ourselves to do so. First, we need to allow the Lord to look to see if there is anything in us that would get in the way of real worship.
That was the prayer of David, the shepherd boy / king, It is found in Psalm 139:23-24 where he opens himself to the Lord and says: Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (KJV)
Once we have allowed that search of our hearts we can be more prepared for worship. And then we need to make another search as well.
The wise men were seeking the One whose star it was. But they could not find Him on their own. They needed to know what scripture says. And so do we, if we want to find the Lord and worship Him.
They had studied about astronomy and astrology. It seems possible that they even had some idea about what that special star implied.
Perhaps it was because among the wise men in the past who were from their area was Daniel who had been taken to Babylon when the Jews were taken captive.
Could it be that years later these wise men from the east were influence by him? Would he have left behind scriptures that they may have examined?
Because Numbers 24:17 offers this prophesy, “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.”
Even Daniel had prophesied, in Daniel 9:25...
“Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.”
There, Daniel even gave the time frame for the Messiah, the prince, to show up. But the Jewish scholars never understood it, perhaps the wise men did. Whatever it was, it became a compelling desire among the wise men to check it out.
With their knowledge and their effort it brought the wise men to Jerusalem. Logic predicted that a king would live in the Capital, so why not start the search there. It was logical. It made sense. But it was wrong. They were close, but not quite there.
So their search needed to go deeper. So does ours. We sometimes allow our search for the Lord to just be a surface search. You know, come to church, sing some songs, hear some words and go home.
If it is more than that, it may be a few verses of scripture now and then, an occasional prayer, or the reading of a devotional. How deep does our desire to worship the Lord go?
The first thing the wise men do when they get to Jerusalem is to go to the top. If anyone should know about the birth of a king, it should be the current king himself.
But that king, Herod, historians tell us was a cruel, power-hungry ruler who destroyed anyone who he feared was threatening his power by trying to topple him from his throne. He even went as far as killing members of his own family because he thought they were plotting against him, even his own sons.
When the wise men asked, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”, it was a threat to Herod. This paranoid king would have felt supremely threatened by this child that people near and far might be calling King of the Jews. That was his title, and he would guard it ruthlessly.
He would have to know where this child was, not so he could worship with the wise men, but so he could eliminate his competition.
So verse four says, “when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.”
Herod was an Edomite and not really Jewish. He acted as a practicing Jew, meaning that he observed their rituals. But he was not really familiar with the Old Testament. So he had to rely on someone else to tell him what it said.
The priests and the scribes tell Herod that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and quote to him the words of Micah 5:2 found here in verse six. These words would lead the wise men to Jesus.
It comes down to this: What is needed in our search to find the Lord so that we may properly worship Him is… Scripture. It is the Bible.
In the same way that God’s Word, the words of the prophet Micah, gave the wise men what was needed in order to accomplish their purpose to worship the one born king, we will not truly find the Lord to worship as we should without a knowledge of scripture!
It was the scriptures that made it possible for them to come face to face with the Christ. Today it is the same. Something may get us going in the right direction, but it will take God’s Word to bring our journey to Him.
The focus of Scripture is to show us Jesus Christ, to introduce us to Him personally, to allow us to reach Him and worship Him.
When their logic did not succeed, they followed the Word of God which brought them to Jesus. Today it is the same, if someone is sincere in their search for Jesus, the Word of God will bring them there.
The narrative indicates that Jesus was no longer a baby because the word used in the text is “Child” meaning a toddler. And for the holy family, what ever the conditions were at the birth of Jesus, they were now in a house in Bethlehem.
When these wise men arrived in Bethlehem and found the child Jesus, the very first thing they did was to “fall down and worship him” (Verse 11). It was not some careless, perfunctory worship.
It was the kind of worship that Jesus spoke about to the Samaritan woman, a “worship in spirit and in truth”.
The Greek word translated “worship” appears in Verses 2, 8 and 11 and was commonly used to describe the custom of prostrating oneself at the feet of a king.
For these wise men, their purpose for following the star was to fall at the feet of the king to whom it would lead them and worship Him.
These men were seekers of truth, and that truth led them to the Lord. Those who seek real truth can find God, only those who say there is no God can’t seem to find Him in anything.
They journeyed not to bring gifts; but to declare their loyalty and reverence. Only after their act of worship, only after giving of themselves completely, and recognizing Jesus as King, do they present their material gifts.
And what gifts they were! Expensive and meaningful gifts. The gifts that the wise men brought the baby Jesus are very significant in what they represent:
Gold they bring in honor of a King. And Jesus is the King of all kings. Incense to the priest they bring. And Jesus is our Great High Priest who makes intercession for us.
Myrrh they bring, something with a special purpose. It is said that myrrh can be used to help decrease swelling, inflammation and kill bacteria. But it was also used when preparing a body for burial. It was a gift that looked to the future.
Jesus was crucified on the cross, He died and was buried. But it didn’t end there. He conquered death and rose on the third day.
Those wise men were truly wise, they had their priorities straight: First worship, first giving of themselves utterly and completely to Jesus; THEN, offering their gifts.
They bow down and worship as the first thing not the last thing. If we get caught up in the gifts, we miss how important the moment of worship is, and we miss the whole point of their coming.
Their goal was not to gain more knowledge, but to find the Savior. Before the treasures of their purses were opened, they gave of the treasures of their hearts. Before they give Jesus their material things they present themselves in worship.
And though we may give to God from our finest material blessings, it will not fulfill us as much as when those gifts are preceded by worship; “worship in spirit and in truth.”
May this new year give us opportunities that we will take to get to know our Savior better. May we search for Him and find Him as did the shepherds and the wise men so that we may worship Him.
After all, they say, “Wise men still seek Him!”
CLOSE:
Rodney Buchanan, a retired Methodist minister told the following story:
My son-in-law was looking for Advent candles in a Christian bookstore. They use the Advent candles for family worship during this season so their hearts will be tuned to the true spirit and meaning of Christmas.
As he brought the package of candles to the counter he asked the sales clerk if they had a Christ candle.
There were three purple candles and a pink one, but no white one – the Christ candle, which they light on Christmas morning, after Scripture reading and prayer, before they open gifts.
The clerk at the Christian bookstore gave him a look like she really didn’t understand the question, and said they did not have a Christ candle.
He jokingly said to her, “Well, I guess I’ll have to go to Walmart to get Jesus.” She was not amused.
And he did go to Walmart and got a white candle for the Christ candle. Sometimes you find Jesus in some unexpected places.
But you won't find Him if you don't know scripture. That is what points us to Jesus, our Savior and Lord.
