I’ve heard the story before. I mean I know it backwards and forwards, I can probably tell it in my sleep. Do I have really have to hear it again, let alone preach on it? Heck, there is even a song about it, “We three kings of orient are; bearing gifts we traverse afar, la la la la la la lalala following yonder star”, but even that sounds like a old Jewish drinking song. Especially the next part, “Oh, Oh (swing your arm like its an old Irish ditty) star of wonder, star of light, star with royal beauty bright, la la la la la la la la, guide us to that perfect light”. It’s a story; it’s in the past. And you know what? The story shows up in only one of the gospels, it can’t be that important then, and I even have some questions about the story. Think about it, men lost asking for directions, highly unlikely. But no matter what I think or know about the story, I’ve already gotten all that I can from it, right? The wise men, magi, kings or whoever they were saw a light in the west and they wanted to see what was happening. I would guess that they probably had some sort of visions too, I mean, why else would they travel, oooppps, I mean traverse afar. So they come to Jerusalem, ask for directions (holding up fingers like quotation marks and winking), then go to Bethlehem, find Jesus, and they go off to live happily ever after. It’s simple; it’s the ole Jesus came to save not just the Jews but also the gentiles. It’s a prediction of Jesus’ ministry; He will be rejected by many of the Jews, but will have an appeal to the gentiles as demonstrated by the wise men recognizing him as a king. That’s the one and only message we can get out of this passage, right?
Well, as much as I hate to admit it, with some embellishment, these are some of the thoughts I had when I found out what Scripture I was going to preach on this morning. I could just see it, a room full of people waiting for a word, a message, something that speaks to them, something fresh, and I’m going to pull out the old reliable Magi story. Not only that, I was going to follow up with the sermon about how Jesus came to save everybody. Not that there is anything wrong with this message, it’s a powerful message, a message that needs to be communicated on a continuous bases but, and I don’t know about anyone else in this room, it’s just that it is the same message I have always heard attached to this Scripture.
So there I was, struggling to put excitement in the same old message. I fooled around with the idea of a reenactment, you know, like Charlie has done so well in some of his sermons. But instead of the three wise men, I came up with the idea of the three tenors coming into Jerusalem. I had them coming to Herod asking, “Where is this child? King of the Jews” (sung in opera voice). O yeah, I envisioned all of you standing at the end and throwing roses at my feet. But by the time I got done, it was 2 ½ hours long and I remembered I had a terrible singing voice.
So, there I was, stuck. I had done all this historical work like I’ve been taught in seminary, I read about 50 commentaries and, I must admit it, I even looked at a sermon that was printed in a book I have. But still, I had no, what my preaching professor would call, “a-ha” moment. So I prayed, put it aside, slept, and prayed some more. I did just about everything but go back to the text. Then I remembered what so many people have told me, “Go back and read with a fresh set of eyes”. Easier said then done sometimes. So I tried to drop all of my current understanding of the text and all of the ideas of where I wanted a sermon to go, I emptied the vessel and gave the Spirit something to work with. Then I went to the text again – Let me share it with you. We are in the second chapter of Matthew, verses 1-12. OOOPPPPs, I forgot, you should probably go ahead and empty yourselves too. Just close your eyes and listen.
Read Text
Did you get it? You know, that fresh new meaning? That “a-ha” moment! Neither did I! But you know what, I took that fresh set of eyes and I went through my study notes again. Then I slapped on an even fresher set of eyes and went through it all again. I repeated the process up until about 5:00 yesterday evening, when all of a sudden there it was. I don’t know if it came from the newest set of eyes I was looking through or the pure fear of realizing that I had to have something to preach this morning but I had my “a-ha” moment.
I looked and I found myself in the text, but not where I expected. I had always put myself in the place of the wise men, an obvious fit in my mind, but this time I found myself in a different position, and the interesting part is that it was the very problem I was having with developing a sermon out of this Scripture that I found in the Scripture itself – “a-ha”. Notice that when Herod hears about the wise men asking where the King of the Jews is to be found, he immediately calls on the chief priests and the scribes. These are the folks that knew the Hebrew Scripture inside and out. They probably didn’t even have to open a scroll or look at any notes to answer Herod’s question, “Where is the Messiah to be born?” No sooner did the question come out and they were answering, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: ‘and you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,’….yada, yada, yada. Their response had no feeling, no emotion, just the hard-core facts. And not only did they know the facts, they thoroughly believed that they knew how the prophecy was to be fulfilled. Not by this current child born in Bethlehem, but through a mighty warrior of the people, a political leader who would rid the “real” Israelites, you know “those who follow Torah”, from the oppression of foreign governments. The Messiah would certainly come to help his “chosen” people and save his favored city, Jerusalem before He would call on some Eastern magicians to come and visit him. To them, that’s what the text said, no ifs, ands or buts. All the I’s are dotted and the t’s crossed. No discussion needed. Herod did not need to concern himself with this problem. We certainly know that the Jewish leaders didn’t follow the wise men, why should they have, if the Messiah had come, surly they would have know, they knew what signs to look for and what the Messiah would look like.
Does this sound familiar to you. It’s exactly what I did when I first looked at this text. I knew what it was all about, I didn’t need to read it again I was ready to move forward to address the message that I knew it contained. After all, I’ve been in church all my life, I’m in Seminary, if anyone should know what the passage is about, I’m a pretty good candidate.
How about all of you? Ever been guilty, or heard someone else do this (taking a piece of Scripture and acting as if we know everything about it)? Say like the second coming for example. I have heard some people talk and say that it has already happened, others have predicted different moments in history, many just say it hasn’t happened but that they will know what it will look like, because its written in the Bible and that’s all they need to know. Well, the prophecy of the Messiah was written in the Hebrew Scriptures too, and most people around at the time didn’t even realize it was happening. And why? Because it didn’t fit their interpretation. If they didn’t see what was happening then, what makes us today think we can predict what God has planned for us, or to know the one and only interpretation of a passage?
When we do exactly like the priests and scribes did so long ago we are guilty of putting boundaries around God. We make Him a predictable God. The problem is that our God is not predictable, He is a God of surprises. Don’t get me wrong, God does make promises and we can count on them being fulfilled but we should never count on how or when He will fulfill them. After all, we are talking about a God who promised a son to a man, a son that was to grow into a great nation, but He did not deliver on His promise until both parents were in their old age – Surprise. A God who takes a stutterer and makes him the spokesman of His people – Surprise. A God who takes the youngest son, a shepherd, and makes him king – Surprise again. A God who sends to the world One that is a King, but sends Him as a shepherd.
We have a God who sent a Messiah not as a mighty warrior, but as an innocent child;
We have a God who sent a Messiah not as one to reclaim land, but one who reclaims souls;
We have a God who sent a Messiah not to save just the “chosen” few, but to save all those who would believe in Him;
We have a God who sent a Messiah not armed with a sword, but armed with unfailing love;
We have a God who sent a Messiah not to win victory through the blood of others, but instead through His own blood.
We have a God who loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die on a cross so that all may live – Surprise.
So how do we move away from making these predictions? How do we move away from having a comfortable confidence in our translation of how things were, are, and shall be? How do we move away from becoming the priests and scribes of days gone by?
I believe the answer lies in the Scripture that we shared together today. In opposition of how the priests and scribes acted, lets look at what the wise men did. Notice that they did not have the benefit of knowing the Hebrew Scripture, or maybe they did know some, who knows? Either way they were made a promise that they would find a king – and for them to traverse so far, this must have had been the king of kings. So they set off looking. No preconceived notions go with them, no expectations. They make a stop in Jerusalem, and this shows the one presumption they did make, they must have been thinking that if a there was to be a new king of the Jews that he would certainly be born in Jerusalem. The leaders in Jerusalem share of their vast knowledge, and maybe they even go on to share their expectations of what the Messiah is to be like, again, we don’t know. But either way, the wise men move on to Bethlehem. On the way they continue to follow the star. The star must have been an assurance that the promise was still to be fulfilled and that they were on the right track. We are told then that the star stopped, and that they were overwhelmed with joy.
Here lies our answer! Unencumbered by misconceptions, the wise men approached Jesus with a sense of awe, a sense of reverence, they were overcome with an overwhelming sense of joy. You can almost feel the goose bumps can’t you? They went into the house and saw the child Jesus and they knelt down and worshiped Him. They were not disappointed because they did not hold up a checklist to see if Jesus met all that was expected. They were promised a king, they were led to Jesus, and they worshipped. Their gifts to Jesus represented their respect for Him. They recognized Jesus as a king, therefore they brought gold. They recognized Jesus as Deity, therefore they brought frankincense (incense was known to be burnt in the temples). And maybe, just maybe they recognized the sacrifice Jesus was to perform, therefore they brought myrrh (which was used in the embalming process).
The wise men were made a promise and they were not disappointed. They came with a sense of awe and they worshiped the child Jesus. God in human flesh was miracle enough for them to give total reverence. If they approached the child Jesus, with awe and reverence, how much more should we today approach the resurrected Jesus in the same manner? Today, however, too many times I believe we get caught up with the image as Jesus as our friend (“Oh what a friend we have in Jesus”, “Jesus is my co-pilot”). It is true that He is our friend, our ultimate friend, but we must remember that he is so much more than that. Sometimes in this friend image we become so comfortable that we believe that we know him inside and out and that we can even speak for Him. In this respect, we sometimes tend not to go back to Scripture because we already know what it says, we already know the meaning, many times we can even quote Scripture by heart. But when we get so comfortable with the story that we never approach it with a new set of eyes, we are approaching Jesus with a comfortable confidence and no longer in awe and reverence and therefore we are not rewarded with overwhelming joy. Therefore also, the message we receive and share with others can become stale.
Should we not leave the Scriptures relating to Jesus open to new and fresh ideas. After all, the promises that come to us through Jesus have not all been realized yet. Should we not learn from the experiences in the Hebrew Bible that we should trust that God’s promises will be fulfilled but that we should set no expectations as to how? If we set expectations, who knows, we may miss out on His next big surprise!
Let us pray, Heavenly God, in this New Year help us to continuously approach you in awe and reverence
