A visitor in a small Southern town comes across a beautiful Nativity scene. It was obvious that great skill and talent had gone into creating it. One small feature bothers the man - the three wise men are wearing firefighters helmets. Unable to come up with a reason or an explanation, the visitor gets in his car and heads out of town. At a Quik Stop on the edge of town, he stops and asks the lady behind
the counter about the helmets. She flies into a rage and yells at the visitor, "You darn Yankees never do read the Bible!" The man assures her that he does, but simply can’t recall anything in the Bible. She jerks her Bible from behind the counter and ruffles through the pages, and finally jabs her finger at a passage. Sticking it in his face she says, "See, it says right here, ’The three wise men came from afar.’"
Here we are one week closer to Bethlehem and we
have just read one of my favorite passages in the Christmas story. Here we meet three men who were in awe of the birth of what they knew was going to be a great man. When I was in seminary I learned that some of the "great" theologians of our day are now doubting whether or not these wise men ever even existed. Actually there is no concrete evidence that they did exist, but the story is contained in the word of God and so it is worthy of our attention and oh, does it have some things to teach us.
Actually, there’s a great deal of Internet research and
revisionist thinking going on about these characters in the Christmas story. Some of have suggested that things would have been considerably different if these wise men had actually instead been wise women. And things sure would have been different. If it had been ‘Wise Women’ instead of ‘Wise Men’, they would have probably asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts including diapers, baby wipes, bibs and formula. But that’s an entirely different story…
Actually, there are several main characters in this story and we can relate to each of them at some point in our lives, I am sure. We have the wise men of course who sought to pay homage to the newborn king. And of course, we have Herod, who was fearful that his reign was about to be threatened politically. As we learn later, Herod was motivated by greed and fear so great that he would order the
massacre of as many as several hundred young boys to
ensure that his reign would not be threatened.
But, what is so Great about Bethlehem anyway? We know that it is a small town with little or no importance at the time of the birth of Christ, so why was Christ born there instead of one of the more important centers of commerce or government. Have you ever realized why Bethlehem was known as the city of David? I guess, I never really cared to ask myself that question until just a few years ago and it was only then that I realized that King David, perhaps the greatest and most respected King to ever rule any nation in the history of mankind was born in Bethlehem too. Isn’t that amazing that the most beloved king in Israel was born in the same little village as the king of our hearts today. A side lesson here: don’t ever say, I’m just from a small town. Wear it like a badge of honor. Jesus Christ was a small town boy and the world would never be the same after this small town boy
was born.
In fact, I think that this is what impresses me the most about this story. We have these three wise men from the east. Probably, Babylonian astronomers, who travelled many miles across the desert to follow a star to the little town of Bethlehem. The entire known world at that time, was let in on the birth of the Messiah. That, I think is the most powerful message in this story. That Jesus Christ was born in Judea to bring salvation to the nation of Israel, but even these foreigners were allowed to have a part in the salvation that Comes from Jesus Christ. Some people are concerned by the fact that the wise men found out about the birth of Jesus as the result of astronomy. My main understanding from this story though is that they quit following the star and started following the Savior!
Take special note in this story of the contrasts between King Herod and the birth of Jesus Christ. Herod was living in the lap of luxury, Jesus was born in a stable. Herod lived in Jerusalem perhaps the most exciting and glamorous city in the world. Jesus was born in the lowly town of Bethlehem.
Herod was surrounded by people of influence and power,
Jesus was born to a teenage mother and a carpenter and the first visitors to his side were shepherds and common people. Herod had influence and power, Jesus was a helpless baby. Herod used his power to cruel and self serving ends, Jesus made compassion the order of the day and brought salvation to the entire world. Herod had all of Jerusalem on his side, Jesus didn’t even have someone to let him in out of the cold.
You know what, I don’t even care if the story happened this way or not, Jesus Christ doesn’t need fancy stories to place him on the throne of our hearts. Jesus takes these stories and by his own power makes them worthy of our attention. Maybe the star didn’t even appear, but in speaking of a star in the sky, we realize that the heavens were filled with light at the birth of the one who would bring salvation to the entire world.
The sign, whether it was a star or not was set out of our reach in a place where only God could do it. However, he did it, God called all people to himself. That is what this story says to me. Even though Jesus was a Jew, there were people of all walks of life drawn towards Bethlehem and this is why we still speak of it today.
Fast forwarding two thousand years can we draw any parallels to this story for our lives? I know that we can! There are still people of influence and power who try to manipulate our ways of living in the world. There are those in government and political power who would probably not stop short of murder to get their own agendas met. We all witnessed that on September 11! Yet, Jesus Christ still comes to us in a meek and lowly fashion and quietly knocks at our heart’s door asking quietly for us to open our heart and let him in.
Our need today, is still not for power, position, or prestige. But rather, our greatest need remains unchanged we need salvation today as much as the house of Israel needed it then. The need is wider than any one person or group of people, it is the entire world who hungers for the salvation that can only come through Jesus Christ. Isn’t it truly amazing that the world is really no different today than it was in the time of Christ? People may be more sophisticated today but the greatest need of the human soul can still only be satisfied by the fact that God comes to us and makes himself known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
God still works in the same way today that he worked in the story that we have read today. God still lifts up signs calling people to himself and some people are responsive to that call of God. I guess when all is said and done, that is perhaps the most amazing thing about this story. God set the star in the sky and only three people decided that it was
worthy of attention. The word of God is proclaimed today and few people give it a second look. That is what this is all about. These wise men represent all of us. They were astronomers, looking to the sky for answers to the mysteries of life. They saw a star in the sky or something that seemed to them to be worthy of further investigation and so they went off on a journey seeking to encounter the reason for this strange event. Seeking, that is what all people do, the story isn’t really about men following a star, it’s a story about people seeking answers to life’s pain, frustration, loneliness, and brokenness. So they went on a journey. We are each called to go on a journey of sorts today. A journey from the place where we are in life to the place where we too will meet Jesus Christ. For these wise men it led them to a stable in Bethlehem. For us it leads to eternal communion with God.
Several years ago I was reading the Sunday Chicago Tribune in the office at the Church in Park Forest. O.K. I wasn’t reading the paper, I was reading the comic strips, but it was there that I came across one of the most profound writings of my life. I cut the comic strip out of the paper, but somewhere in the intervening years, I have lost that piece of
paper. Anyway, there in the Comic strip B.C. I witnessed the "secular" world acknowledging that there is more to the Christmas story that merely a myth. It showed two men talking about seeing a star in the sky, but then they noticed a shadow on the ground in the shape of the star. They were commenting that that would be impossible unless there were something brighter behind the star than the star itself. One
man said that the brighter light would have to come from a Sun... The other man said it would have to come from a Son. I stared in disbelief that I would read something like that in the Chicago Tribune. I noticed after a while that the star shaped shadow on the ground in this simple drawing was also sort of in the shape of a Cross. That is when it hit me. It is true that even though the star that is referred to in this
story cannot be seen in the sky today, it still casts it’s shadow on our hearts today. It is also the Cross that stands on the time-line of history and casts a shadow on our hearts as well.
Maybe they aren’t as literally visible to our eyes as a star in the sky, but the sign is still being lifted up by God to call each one of us to a journey of faith.
What made these men "wise" is that they chose to respond to the sign and step out on a journey. And the same is true today...Wise men, and women too, still seek Jesus Christ as the only real and lasting answer to life’s greatest questions!
