This is not one of my favorite Sundays. Maybe I should clarify that a bit. My disfavor has nothing to do with some sort of prejudice against Magi. If anything, the account of Wisemen traveling great distances to celebrate Christmas is what makes this Sunday tolerable for me. The reason I don’t like this Sunday is because today is the day we take down our Christmas decorations. Tree, wreaths, and garland need to be crammed back into the closets they came from and the last surviving poinsettias need to find loving homes to go to.
It is a sad time of year, at least as far as I am concerned. I love Christmas decorations. I love putting lights in my yard and hanging ornaments on my tree and seeing the Lewis family manger scene set up. I always get a little sad when I see people taking down their decorations. But not everyone feels the same way I do. There are some Scrooges and Grinches out there who just can’t wait to, and I quote my wife, “get my house back to normal”. These last few days running through my neighborhood have been depressing. I have witnessed neighbors ripping lights from bushes and joy from my heart. They have deflated their silicone Santas and my holiday happiness. Much to my chagrin even my house has been stripped of the gentle glow of red and green lights… or as my wife would say, and I quote, “a waste of electricity” shining in the night sky. I am almost afraid to ask, but do any of you still have your Christmas decorations up? I know the Harding’s don’t. The candle on Baby Jesus’ birthday cake is still smoking when they purge their house of holiday happiness.
I know that the season of Christmas has come to an end. Today is Epiphany. Next Sunday the 8 pound 10 once baby Jesus who was just sleeping away in a manger will be standing before John the baptizer as a 30-year-old grown man. Clearly the season of Christmas has come to an end. But that does not mean that the celebration of Christmas has ended. That is really what the season of Epiphany is about. Epiphany reminds us that even after all the decorations have been taken down, wise-men and wise-women still come to worship Him.
Today we are reintroduced to some Magi who arrived in Jerusalem and asked “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” We read in Matthew 2:1, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem” In verse 1 we are introduced to the main characters of our lesson for today. Besides Jesus, the first name mentioned is King Herod. Herod is a bad guy. He is a descendant of Esau and not really an Israelite. History refers to him as Herod the Great because he was a capable warrior, accomplished diplomat, and prolific builder for example he is the one that begins to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. But morally Herod was anything but great. Herod was suspicious of any threat to him as king. He had his brother-n-law, the high priest drowned. He killed his mother-n-law, his wife, and three of his sons. He had the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem imprisoned with orders that upon his death they should be killed so that there would be morning in the city at the time of his death instead of rejoicing. Herod is a bad guy.
The second group of characters that is mentioned is the Magi from the east. The Magi are good guys. There is some confusion about the Magi. Some of that confusion comes from the Christmas carol “We Three Kings of Orient Are”. We do not know how many Magi came from the east. We only assume there were three because only three gifts are mentioned. But that doesn’t mean a few guys didn’t pool their money together or that there were gifts given that are not mentioned. We also do not know if they were kings. Typically, Magi were a class of priest and astronomers who advised the king. And finally, we don’t really know that they came from the Orient. The bible does not say how far from the east they came but it is more likely that they came from Babylon. 500 years before, a believer named Daniel not only survived the lion’s den but also was in charge of the Babylonian Magi. From Daniel the Magi would have learned about the promised Messiah who would come to save us from sin.
That explains why the Magi asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” It also explains why in verses 3-4 we read, “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.” What amazes us, and must have amazed the Magi too, is how King Herod and all Jerusalem are in the dark about the Messiah’s birth. They weren’t watching and waiting for the Messiah to come like the Magi were. They had at their disposal the Word of God. Within walking distance from Herod’s palace was the great temple where the Word of God was kept. It must have seemed strange to the Magi that Herod had to ask what the Word of God had to say about this newborn king of the Jews. The Magi undertook a long and dangerous journey to be guided by the Word of God. Herod apparently, up until the time he felt threatened, couldn’t be bothered.
We might be amazed at how uninterested Herod was concerning the Word of God. But is he really that different from you and me? Herod was willing to be involved in churchy stuff - he even built the temple, but he did not actually open his bible. How many of us are willing to do some churchy stuff, you know go to the meetings, help out at various events, bring snacks and wash dishes… but for some reason we never really open our bibles. We come to church but we don’t stay for bible class. We say private prayers but don’t do personal devotions. Think about it! When was the last time you read your Bible? We like to think of ourselves as the good guys and yet like Herod we appear to be amazingly uninterested in what the Word of God has to say.
And yet to people like us God keeps sending His Word. God has made Bibles so affordable and available that anyone can own a copy, He has established this country of religious freedom, He has given men to be pastors and teachers, and He has called and gathered you to this place where every single week his Word is proclaimed. God makes his word so readily accessible to us because he wants us to be like the Wisemen; He wants us to be guided by the Word.
Eventually the Bible was opened and Herod and the Magi learned what it said in Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” The different attitude Herod and the Magi have concerning the Word of God causes different reactions as they behold the Babe of Bethlehem.
In verse 16 of this chapter we are told Herod “was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” Herod’s massacre of the innocence is a horrible event. Thinking about an entire city of babies being murdered is a loathsome thought. But don’t just read this section of Scripture to loath Herod, read it to confess your sins that have made you loathsome before your God. You see this is what happens, this is how people act when they refuse to be guided by God’s Word. I am not saying that everyone who doesn’t read their bible is a baby killer. I’m just saying if you are not guided by the Word of God you are going to end up going the wrong way. But don’t take my word for it. King Solomon; the wisest man who ever lived once warned, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” If you refuse to allow yourself to be guided by God’s Word then you will find that you have a lot in common with a man like Herod.
In contrast, in verse 11 we read, “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.” The Magi go to worship their Lord. We notice that they first bend a knee to the Babe of Bethlehem. They recognize that this helpless baby is almighty God. They understand that he is sacred and they are sinful. They comprehend that they are the created bowing before their creator. Next they open their treasures and present him with gifts. Three gifts are mentioned. The first gift is gold. Gold is a gift that is given to a king and we are not surprised to see this gift given by men who worship the babe of Bethlehem as their king. Gold is a fitting gift for the one who would later say in Matthew 28:18, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” The second gift that is given is incense. Incense was regularly used in worship. As the smoke from the incense rose to heaven it symbolized the God pleasing prayers of the people rising to the throne of God. Incense is a fitting gift for the one who would later say in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And the third gift was Myrrh. Myrrh was an aromatic resin used in the embalming process for the dead. Myrrh is a fitting gift for one for whom Isaiah 53:9 tells us, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” Whether they knew it or not the gifts that the Magi gave to the Babe of Bethlehem are powerful reminders to us of the gift that Jesus has given to you and to me, a gift that cost him his very life, a gift that offers us eternal life.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you spend time in the Word. This is what happens when you treat God’s Word like a wise-man or a wise-woman. This is what happens when the Word of God reveals to you that the Babe of Bethlehem is not just the king of the Jews but the king of your heart, the one who made intercession for your transgression, the one who offered His life as the sacrifice for your sins. This is why I have been encouraging all of you to make a commitment to yourself this year to read through the Bible. I want us to be like the wise-men. I want us to celebrate Christmas all year long, not with trees, wreaths, garland, and poinsettias but with a dogged determination and a burning desire to come and worship the one who was born King of the Jews. I am willing to accept that the season of Christmas is over, but the celebration of Christmas, the celebration has just begun. At least it has for those who are willing to be guided by the Word.
I am ashamed to admit to you that in a moment of weakness I allowed my wife to convince me to take down our Christmas decorations. Lights have been carefully repackaged, ornaments have been removed from the tree, and the manger scene has been carefully packed away. The season of Christmas has come to an end, but I take comfort in the fact that the celebration of Christmas continues to be celebrated by people like you; wise-men and woman who have been guided by the word and still worship their Lord. Amen