The story goes an angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.
"Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, "Say something."
The dean looks at them and says, "I should have taken the money."
Tonight we read the story of the wise men and their journey to Bethlehem to visit the young child Jesus.
We’ve gotten ahead of Christmas just a little. As we read in the story, we see that the wise men found Mary and Jesus in a house, not still in the stable. Matthew refers to Jesus as a child, not as a baby.
These words indicate to us that it was some time following the birth of Jesus these wise men actually paid their homage to him, not the night of his birth which is what we are led to assume in nativity scenes, Christmas cards, videos, and films.
When the wise men do not return to Herod as they had been warned in a dream, Herod orders all of the baby boys two years old and under to be killed. This information has led to speculation that Jesus may have been as old as two years old when the wise men concluded their journey in Bethlehem.
Truthfully, we don’t know exactly how old he was, but it has been tradition to signify this passing of time between Jesus’ birth and the visit of the wise men by the passing of time on the calendar.
Epiphany, the discovery the wise men made in Jesus, is celebrate two weeks after Christmas on January 6th each year.
So we are in some respect putting the “cart before the horse” to be reflecting on their visit to the Christ child when we haven’t gotten to December 25th yet.
But if you’ve been with us here much on Monday nights, you know I have a bad habit of preaching different holiday material at the wrong time of year on a regular basis. I’m afraid you’ll just have to bear with me.
Looking through all the holiday stuff that has been out in sales flyers and catalogs in recent days, there have been a myriad of Christmas items I have come across, with a slogan on it that has been bothering me lately.
It’s not new. I’m sure you’ve heard it before. Some form or another of Christmas decorations carries a picture of three Arab gentlemen on camels with a large star in the background. Somewhere will be imprinted -the phrase:
“Wise men still seek him.”
I’ve seen this slogan around for ages but for some reason its really been bugging me lately. Now although it makes perfect since to me why it bothers me, I’m not sure I can explain it to you ... but I’m going to give it a try.
There are two words in that phrase I have trouble with, and really, they are kind of “opposite sides of the same coin.” From either way you approach it, it has the same implication to me.
You may be thinking one of the words that bothers me is “men,” but that’s not it. Though its use might suggest that only men are wise enough to seek Jesus, or that only men are worthy enough to seek Jesus,
the literature lover in me is understands and is attracted to the play on words. I realize that to say, “Wise people still seek him,” loses something in the metaphor process.
No, the two words I have problems with are “wise” and “still.” Let’s take “wise” first. It implies something about the wise men in the Bible that’s not even meant by Matthew. It implies that these seekers who were gentiles - non-Jewish types - were smart enough to catch on to something Jesus’ own countrymen didn’t get. It suggests they recognized & acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. But that’s not the case.
Another way to translate wise men is to use the word magi, which some versions of the Bible do. They were astrologers, magicians, sorcerers, pagan priests, occultist.
They came from places like Babylon & Persia (modern day Iraq & Iran)
They put a lot of stalk in the stars. The stars were signs of great events to come. Pagan beliefs associated the birth of new rulers with astral phenomena. The stars were great forecasts and fortune tellers of the future. The magi believed the truth was in the stars and the people from their countries revered these men as knowledgable priests.
They were ancient people with primitive beliefs. The stars hold the truth - now how wise is that? It was a very simplistic way of understanding.
Perhaps your mind drifts the way mine does. When I speak of seeing the future in the stars, maybe you begin to think of horoscopes, astronomers, pyschics and Miss Cleo.
Yes, there are people today who seek truth from these sources. I don’t think its exactly the same sort of thing as the understanding the wise men in our story had. I tend to place them more in the same category as those who believed the world was flat and the universe revolved around the earth...just a primitive kind of knowledge base.
Of course when you are drawing wrong conclusions, it really doesn’t matter who you associate with or where you draw your knowledge from. Its still wrong conclusions. They did not understand who Jesus truly was from the star they followed, and we are wrong to assume from the statement, “Wise men still seek him,” that these gentlemen had some sort of understanding of Jesus as the Savior of the world.
For very similar reasons, the word “still” bothers me. It suggests these ancient men had a comprehension of Jesus and the kingdom he was born for that they just didn’t have.
In fact in a way, it suggests that down through time people through wisdom have been able to understand and comprehend Christ, and I don’t see it that way at all.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, in fact, that God traps the wise in their own cleverness. Paul calls for us to become fools by earthly standards in order to be truly wise, because what humanity typically perceives as wisdom and correct understanding in nonsense in the eyes of God.
Take a look at the characters in our Bible story. Each acting in ways they perceive as wise, yet they just don’t seem to get it.
We’ve already mentioned the wise men - the magi - seeking truth in a star. But their search for truth is missing something. They don’t have the benefit of Scripture. They take action on what they see, but they have not heard the word of God.
Are there people like this today? Have we ever tried to be Christians without regular reading of and reflection on the Bible? Have we ever tried to discern what difficult decisions we should make without praying for God’s help and guidance first?
Do we ever try to carry our burdens around, handle things ourselves, attempting to solve our own problems and those of the world rather than giving them to God?
Sure we do.
And I would bet our result is often the same as the wise men’s. Our hope is misplaced, misguided, and we misunderstand.
Then there is the religious leaders - the ones Herod consults about the birth of the Messiah. They know everything. They know the Scriptures backwards and forwards. They can spit out the answer Herod wants just like that. They’ve got it all figured out. They’ve been studying ancient Jewish tradition, the law, and the word of God their whole lives. They could tell these wise men who don’t know where the Messiah would be born.
Only trouble is, they don’t do anything about it. They just know, they don’t seek the Messiah out. Now how wise are they? They’ve got the opposite problem of the wise men.
There situation reminds me of a story book I read when I was a child about a goose named Petunia. Petunia loved books. She knew books and what was in them is what set the farmer’s family apart from the barnyard animals. Only Petunia was a little mistaken. She use to go around saying, “He who owns books is wise.” Of course Petunia couldn’t read, and her inability to read coupled with her assumed wisdom from possession of a book ended in a catastrophe. Petunia changed her expression. Now she says, “He who owns books and reads them is wise.”
Are there people like this today? Have we ever come to church and gone home, leaving everything that needs to be done to some one else? Have we ever heard of or seen a need, felt the call to respond, and ignored it until the feeling went away? Have we ever been too busy, too self-absorbed to help out?
Sure we have. We’ve read our Bibles, heard our share of sermons, sang our share of hymns, and still missed the birth of the Messiah just as the religious leaders did.
Then there was Herod. Perhaps of all the characters in our story this evening, we are most like Herod. I believe its in our nature to be most like Herod.
Herod is consumed with his own little world. He’s minding his own business. He’s doing his own thing. He’s not seeking the Messiah as the wise men are. It doesn’t appear that he’s given any thought to the Messiah until these wise men show up on his doorstep.
Once they bring it to his attention, he has to turn to the religious leaders to discover the answer to the question they have asked:
“Where will the Messiah be born?”
He doesn’t know the Scriptures well enough to tell them.
They have raised to a level of consciousness something Herod has never thought of before. This Messiah is to be born to be king of the Jews. The long awaited Messiah, who was suppose to make the country strong again, who was suppose to rid their land of these oppressive foreigners, the one everyone in all of Judeah had been waiting for - promised by God, was born to take Herod’s place. He didn’t like that too much. In fact he was quite troubled about it. Suddenly, he didn’t like God’s plan. How wise is Herod? The Messiah was going to be imposing on his life. The Messiah was going to take away his kingdom.
But, of course, Jesus didn’t want Herod’s crown. He wanted much more than that. He wanted Herod’s heart and devotion. He wanted Herod’s loyalty and love. Herod represents for us our unfailing resistance to the divine kingship of Jesus. Herod represents our resistance not only to inviting Christ into our life, but our tendency to place limitations to exactly what that means.
Are there people like this today? Have we ever resisted Christ and his involvement in our life? Have we ever heard God speak to us, aim us in a particular direction and said, “No thank you?” In fact have we ever turned as if to hide what was in our heart to do what we wanted to do, no matter how much we might really know it was the wrong thing to do, no matter whether we knew we were hurting other people or not, when we were more concerned about ourselves than how it affected others, when we knew it was something that was taking us in the opposite direction from being the best person we could be - the person God created us to be, when it was taking us away from God’s presence - “leaving home,” so to speak?
You bet we have. I believe we fail at this one daily. Yes, we are definitely resemble Herod most of all.
The good news is God’s grace came into the world in spite of those who searched for Christ in unbiblical ways,
in spite of those who knew the Scriptures well but didn’t search at all,
in spite of self-centered egotistical kings fearful of losing their wealth and title.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem just the same, and these unlikely characters were heralds of the good news whether they knew it or not, even though they are not the ideal proclaimers of God’s glad tidings.
Christ is born.
“Wise men still seek him.”
I know what it means to say.
In its simplest understanding there is truth.
I would like to believe that as the wise men journeyed away from Bethlehem, it was with a different understanding they had of Jesus than when they had come. I don’t know if it is true.
What about us? How do we come away from Christ’s birth? Who are those who are truly wise?
It is the ones who seek Christ in the Bible first and then act - striving to imitate him.
It is the ones who seek the means to the journey, not the end of the journey. For the one seeking the means seeks a relationship with Jesus. Its the journey that matters, and if you focus your attention there, you will always be led to the right place.
It is the ones who seek God’s revelation in their lives, not their own will. It takes great effort to give over your life to God and bow to God’s sovereignty, but the gift you receive is greater than anything you could ever possibly give away. Unfortunately, I can’t demonstrate this truth to you. Its something we each have to believe and experience for ourselves.
Such individuals are truly wise.
“Wise people still seek him.”
What about us?
Are we truly wise?
Are we seeking Christ still?
In Jesus name, Amen.
