This past week my wife and I took down our Christmas decorations. We had to
take down our tree, we were beginning to have more needles on the carpet then we had on
the tree. So we went ahead and packed up the lights on the window, the decorations
above the fireplace, the artificial tree we have downstairs that the kids decorate and all the
other little Christmas decorations. We still have our lights on the outside of the house, but
inside it’s pretty much back to normal.
I think that all too often, we have the tendency to do the same when it comes to
the Christ child. We always anticipate the arrival of Christmas. The retailers nowadays
start selling Christmas before Thanksgiving is even here. Many people have their
shopping done in October or before. These people by the way drive me nuts. Christmas
songs fill the air weeks before the 25th and the radio and TV proclaim the coming of
Christmas with Holiday specials, musicals and advertisements. But come December 26th,
very little is heard or seen that would indicate any of the proceeding had even taken place.
If you look at the Christian calendar, The Christmas season doesn’t officially even
start until Dec. 25th. We have been in the advent season prior to this, advent means
“coming”. Yet we put more effort into the coming of Christmas then in the actual season.
5 days ago we celebrated the birth of Jesus, our Savior. And how quickly we have a
tendency to forget and move on with our lives.
In the scripture reading today, we read about the wise men who came to see the
newborn king. We know very little about these scholars, In fact the 1st 12 verses of the
2nd Chapter of Matthew is the only information that is given about their visit. Fortunately
we can draw a good amount of information about them from what is written. We know
that they were some type of scholars or astronomers since they understood the stars and
they also were familiar with the Jewish prophesies for they knew the verse from Numbers
which says, “A star shall come out of Jacob” And they also ask Herod the question
“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews”. They came from the east,
probably from Mesopotamia or what is today Iran and Iraq. We have always assumed that
there were 3 wise men, mainly because of the 3 gifts that were given to the Christ child,
but the bible does mention the actual number of wise men that came, there may have only
been 2 or perhaps as many as 6 or more, we don’t know. What I find intriguing about this
very short story in the scriptures is the dedication of these men. They seem to know more
about what is taking place then the chief priests and teachers of the law. Here the messiah
has been born and they seem to know nothing about what has taken place. Yet these
foreigners, these “heathens” as the Jews considered them, understand the Jewish writings
and the meaning of the star better then they do. The other interesting thing to note is the
time period that all of this takes place. When we read the Christmas story, we have the
tendency to lump everything together in one short time period, the birth the angels and the
shepherds and the wise men. But when we take a closer look at what the bible does tells
us we should note that the wise men had probably spent the better part of a year preparing
for the trip and actually traveling to Bethlehem from their home. So the Christ child was
more than likely at least a year old perhaps almost 2 when they came to visit him. This is
why Herod ordered all male children 2 and under killed. The scriptures read in Matthew
3:16 “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and
he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were 2 years old and
under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the magi. Now this is where
we can learn a lesson from these ancient visitors of the Christ child. They didn’t stop
searching for the Christ child a day or so after the star appeared, they didn’t even stop
after a month or two. They continued with their search for a year or more, perhaps 2
years. And they went on this search for this new king, knowing full well that they would
have almost another years journey back home again. Think of the preparation these Magi
must have had to undertake. Think of all the provisions, clothing, food and other people
that they would have had to prepare, pack up load and travel with in order to reach their
destination. Sounds a little like they had their own advent season before they could
celebrate the birth of the baby.
And then what did these wise men do when they finally found the place where the
star stopped? They were “overjoyed”. The King James bible says “When they saw the
star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” Both these words, rejoiced and joy, come
from the Greek word chairo’ which is the ultimate of happiness, and also relates to the
joy of Gods grace. So this is the ultimate of joy and rejoicing for these men. They have
found the baby the king, and they are filled with the ultimate joy anyone could possibly
have. They next response from these great scholars is one of worship. The King James
bible says they “fell down and worshipped him”.
Now lets stop for a minute and think about all of this. Here we have educated,
apparently wealthy men from a very distant land. They spend a great deal of time and
probably money preparing to undertake a long trek to a distant land. This journey takes
them about a year to accomplish and takes them to a foreign land, a foreign people and
religion. When they first get there, the people who’s king they have come to see don’t
seem to even know what is going on in their own country. And when they finally reach
their destination they are overcome with joy and happiness and they fall to the ground to
worship a 1 or 2 year old child. And then on top of all that they give him expensive gifts of
gold, frankincense and myrrh.
I think we can learn a lot from these 1st worshipers Christ. They understood who
he was and what he represented. They were determined in their efforts to find the King
and present him with their gifts and their adoration. And they didn’t stop. They continued
to follow the start for perhaps 2 years after it first appeared at the birth of Jesus. Their
search and celebration didn’t begin until after the birth of Christ took place. And think of
the joy and celebrating that must have taken place as they travel home after seeing the
Christ child.
Do we as Christians have the same dedication as these men did for the birth of our
savior? Do we continue to search for the King even after His birth? Jesus is born to us!
He is Immanuel, God with us. Not just 2000 years ago but right now. God is with us right
now, right here.
All too often it seems that baby gets pushed aside, or buried under the wrinkled
up wrapping paper, bows and boxes. And when it’s all over, when all the boxes have been
opened we forget what it was we were celebrating.
There is a story about a christening that was to be held many years ago by a very
wealthy European family. Many guests were invited to the home for the occasion and
came in the very latest fashionable garb. Their wraps and coats were carried to a
bedroom and laid upon the beds. After the usual lot of conversation, and commotion, they
were ready for the christening ceremony and someone asked “where’s the baby”. The
nurse was sent upstairs to look and returned in alarmed distress. The baby was nowhere to
be found! After several minutes search someone remembered that the child had last been
seen lying on one of the beds, and after a frantic search the little child was found
smothered under the wraps of the guests. The chief reason why they had come had been
forgotten, neglected and destroyed.
Don’t let the Christ child slip away from you, don’t let the baby get put away with
all the other decorations and trimmings after the holidays.
We have a small nativity set in our front yard that comprises Mary, Joseph and the
baby in a small manger, and each has a little light bulb in them to light the scene up. Last year we had so much snow that about the only thing visible was Mary and
Joseph from about the shoulders up. Yet underneath all that snow, I could still see the
glow from the light inside the Christ child. (pause) That exactly how Jesus is in out lives,
no matter how much God gets buried under the things of this world, no matter how much
we may put Him “away” with the other decorations, not matter how much the world
around us seems to overwhelm us, Gods love continues to shine through. Lets pray that
we, like the wise men so long ago, will continue to follow Christ star. Lets pray that we
too will keep searching for Christ in our world, even if the place where he is foreign to us
and may take a very long time to get there. Let us keep searching until we reach the place
where Christ is waiting for us and then let us fall down and worship our Lord and Savior.
And then give him the gifts that we have to offer Him, the gift of our lives and our love.
Christ’s love is searching for us, will you continue to search for Him and his star?
