Word of Salvation - Vol.50 No.45 - December 2005

The Wise Men Who Missed the Saviour

A Short Christmas Sermon by Rev John De Hoog on Matthew 2:4-6

 Scripture Reading:  Matthew 2:1-18

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The coming of the Magi from the east to worship the infant Jesus is an account full of mystery. There is so much we don't know about these wise men or about the events surrounding their visit.

A huge tradition of myth and legend has developed around this visit of the Magi. It is said that there were three of them. Their names are said to have been Melchior, Balthasar and Caspar. Some people say that one came from India, one from Egypt and one from Greece; that later on they were all baptised by Thomas; that a certain St Helena unearthed their bones and deposited them in the church of St Sophia in Constantinople; and that eventually their bones found their way to the great cathedral of Cologne. But for all of this there is no sure historical evidence, most of it is probably just myth. We don't even know how many wise men there were. Three, more, less? We don't know!

Neither do we know where they came from. The Bible says they came from the East - perhaps they were Babylonians, or maybe Persians. But we don't know.

And what about the star? What was it? A real star of extraordinary brilliance? The planet Jupiter, often associated with kings? A comet acting erratically? Some kind of bright object, hanging low in the sky? The wise men say they saw the rising of the star in the east. Then after leaving Herod they saw it again, this time going ahead of them and stopping over the place where the child was! What kind of object was it?

Further, how did the Magi connect it with the birth of the king of the Jews? Were they astrologers? Had they heard a prophecy connected with a star? Had God spoken directly to them? Again, we do not know! The theories about what happened that night fill up countless books on countless library shelves. But in the end, we are left in the dark.

So is Matthew a bad historian? Why did he leave so many details out?

Do you see that this is exactly God's purpose! Nothing in God's Word is accidental, he inspired this record to be this way. Everything else is left out of focus, out of the picture, in shadow, so that the full emphasis might fall on just the one thing: "We have come to worship him." These wise men, whoever they were, wherever they came from, however they made the connection of the star with the infant Jesus, had come to worship him. That means they had come with nothing else in mind than to fall down before the new king of the Jews in humble adoration! These men, who were not Jews, had somehow been given to understand the truth about this baby born in Bethlehem - that he was to be worshipped and adored!

Now the question is: Why? Why should this baby born in Bethlehem be worshipped? And the answer is breath-taking. It was right that this baby be worshipped, because this baby was God himself. That's what Christmas is all about. God himself, coming to earth in the form of a little baby, born of a normal woman. Why would God himself, the Creator of all, come to earth in this way? In order to save his people, to bring his people into a right relationship with himself. That's what Christmas is about. It's about God who loves his people, who loves them so much that he comes to earth to save us from our sins.

[Pause]

Picture the scene. These Magi from the east arrive in Jerusalem. And they begin to ask around. "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." They are quite a sight in Jerusalem, with their treasure chests on their pack animals, and their question is even more amazing. They are asking right around Jerusalem, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?"

They cause quite an uproar in Jerusalem. So much so that Herod in the royal palace comes to hear of it. And Herod is not pleased. Verse 3, "When Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him." It says that Herod was "disturbed". It means he was stirred up, frightened, terrified.

In Herod's case, we can even say he was paranoid with fear. History tells us that Herod was an utterly evil bloodthirsty tyrant, who lived in constant fear of losing his throne. Shortly after gaining the throne he had his wife's brother killed because he saw him as a threat to the throne. Next to go was his uncle, and then his wife's grandfather. Then he suspected his wife and mother-in-law of plotting against him, and he had them killed. Even this was not enough - he had his two sons slaughtered also, because he was afraid they might usurp him. Finally, only five days before he himself died at age seventy, he had yet another of his sons killed. Such was the blood lust of King Herod, whose paranoia surely must have verged on insanity.

And now, only a year or so before the end of his own life, Magi from the East arrive in Jerusalem asking the whereabouts of the new king of the Jews! No wonder Herod is disturbed! His great fear, that someone will usurp his throne and take away his authority, seems about to be realised!

So Herod, afraid of the words of these wise men from the east, calls his own wise men together. Verses 4-8, "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. 'In Bethlehem in Judea,' they replied, 'for this is what the prophet has written: "But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel".' Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him'."

The wise men proceed to Bethlehem. They find the baby there, and worship him and present him with gifts. They are warned in a dream not to give Herod the information he really wants - the information which Herod will use to kill this latest usurper to his throne! So they avoid Herod. Herod realises he has been outsmarted. He declares war on Bethlehem. Instead of using the fine point of a scalpel to kill one little boy, he uses the broad sweep of a hundred swords to kill all the little boys in Bethlehem! What a bloodthirsty devil he was! But the baby Jesus is preserved - it's not yet time for him to die. And God's plan of saving his people goes ahead.

But now, let's consider just one thing from this account. I want to point you to the wise men who missed the Saviour.

Who were these wise men who missed the Saviour? These men Herod called upon to advise him? Herod wasn't actually a Jew himself, but he knew enough about Judaism to know that somewhere in the Old Testament some predictions had been made about the Christ, the Messiah. So in verse 4, he called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law and he asked them where the Christ was to be born. All the people's chief priests and teachers of the law. These were the ones he called. The religious experts. The theologians of his day. The ones who knew the Old Testament backwards.

You would think, wouldn't you, that they would be the first to hasten off to Bethlehem, at the slightest rumour that the Saviour had been born. But it wasn't so. A few strangers from a distant country, from the east, they came searching for the new king, and they found him! But the leaders of God's own people Israel did not believe or receive him. John 1:11, "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him."

Think of what these chief priests and teachers of the law knew. They knew the place all right - Bethlehem, only five kilometres away! But they didn't believe the Lord had come. They knew the Scriptures all right - chapter and verse - Micah 5:2, they could put their finger right on it! But they didn't find the Saviour! They knew that the Christ would rule - he would be a ruler who would shepherd Israel, they told Herod. But they didn't let him rule them. They knew it all, and yet they knew nothing!

You see, they were experts, but they refused to understand and accept Jesus Christ. Their head knowledge did them no good, for their hearts were not turned towards Christ.

Do you see the picture? Wise men from far away, who knew very little, who had only a small part of the picture, found the Saviour and worshipped him. Other wise men, Israelites, who knew it all, who had the whole picture - or so they thought - missed the Saviour and refused to acknowledge him.

Here is a picture to think of this Christmas. You see, being included in God's plans of love and salvation doesn't have much to do with being in the right place - being in Israel, being in Jerusalem, being in Herod's court; or today, being in the church. Experiencing God's love and mercy has little to do with knowing lots about theology, or even being an expert on the Christmas story, being able to explain all its mysteries and prophecies. Rather, it has everything to do with knowing Jesus, with recognising that he is God become man, God come to earth to save his people from their sins.

This Christmas, recognise the Saviour. Don't be like the wise men in Herod's court, knowing it all but refusing to believe. Instead, come and worship him, who has been born King of the Jews, and who now reigns, King of the universe.

Amen.