"Adoration of the Magi" by Rembrandt
A woman who
worked in a children’s day care facility was reading the story of Jesus’ birth
to her children one morning. As usual, she stopped to see if the children
understood….
“What do we call
the three wise men?” the teacher asked.
“The three maggots,”
replied a bright 5-year-old.
“What gift did
the Magi bring baby Jesus?” she asked, gently correcting.
“Gold,
Frankensteins and Smurfs!” the same 5-year-old replied.[1]
Often we get the
story of Christmas confused. Oh, we know that the three wise men were not
maggots. We know that they didn’t bring gifts of Frankensteins and Smurfs. We
get the words right, but often we lose the meaning of Christmas.
The wise men
understood that Christmas is about worship. Let us hear their story again from
Matthew 2:1-12. Listen for God’s word to you….
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been
born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to
pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all
Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of
the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told
him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least
among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my
people Israel.’”
Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from
them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem,
saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him,
bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard
the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had
seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When
they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering
the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and
paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return
to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
I believe we can
learn several things from this passage about worshipping Jesus. First, we learn
what we need to do before we can worship: we need to receive the announcement. The Magi received the announcement of
Jesus’ birth by a star.
We don’t really
know much about the Magi. It is believed by some that the Magi came from Persia
and that they belonged to a tribe of priests. The historian Herodotus says that
the Magi were originally a tribe of Medians who had tried to overthrow the
Persian Empire but had failed. They became a priestly tribe within the empire;
they also became teachers of the Persian kings. Supposedly, they were skilled
in philosophy and science and they had a special interest in astrology. They
studied the stars to see how they might have an effect upon the course of human
history. The Magi were known as holy men, wise men, and interpreters of dreams.
The word “magi” is a Greek transliteration of an Iranian word that means
“great”.
One reason why
we don’t know much about the Magi is that Matthew doesn’t tell us very much.
What Matthew is interested in is the fact that these non-Jews came to worship
the Jewish Messiah. Jesus is the focus of the story.
In his portrayal
of the nativity scene, Rembrandt focused attention almost entirely on the baby
in the manger. He did this by painting a shaft of light so that it falls on the
Christ child. However, the light falling on the babe in the manger almost, in a
way, bounces off him and on to Mary and others who are close-by. Other figures
in the painting, more distant from the Christ child, are shrouded in shadows.
With that shaft of light from heaven, Rembrandt reveals the Messiah as the
focus of the Christmas story, but others close to the Messiah also receive his
reflected light.
Another thing to
notice in Matthew’s story is how God suited the announcement of Jesus’ birth to
the capacity of these Gentile astrologers who lived in a distant land. The Magi
studied the stars and so God revealed to them through a special star that a
unique king was to be born in Palestine.
We have
something better than a star to guide us to the Savior. We have the Scriptures,
which 2 Peter 1:19 calls “a light shining in a dark place”. If we are going to
worship Jesus well, we need to receive the announcement of Scripture about him.
A second thing
we need to do, to worship Jesus well, is that we need to count the cost.
The Magi had to
travel a long distance to worship the Messiah. I am sure they had to calculate
the cost before they made the journey, to see if they had enough resources to
travel to Palestine and back again.
Jesus said,
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and
estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?” Jesus went on
to say, “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has
cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:28,33)
The cost of
following Jesus can be great. So we need to make sure that we count the cost.
After we have
done that, we need to do a third thing that the Magi also did: we need to seek Jesus with all our hearts.
When the Magi
arrived in Jerusalem, they didn’t give up looking for the newborn king; they
kept searching and asking until they found him. The Magi had an all-consuming
drive to find this new king and honor him.
The Lord says to
us in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all
your heart.”
A fourth thing
we need to do if we are to truly worship the Christ is to not let self-interest or apathy or fear get in the way.
Herod let
self-interest get in the way of worshipping Jesus. Herod did not want anyone
else to be the King of the Jews. He alone wanted to be on the throne.
In contrast to
Herod, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem seem to be simply apathetic about the
birth of Jesus. They know the Scriptures. When asked by Herod where the Christ
is to be born, they point to Micah 5:2 and tell Herod that the Messiah will be
born in Bethlehem. They were but a few miles from Bethlehem themselves, yet
they didn’t follow the Scriptures and go to see the Savior. Why? Perhaps they
were simply apathetic. Perhaps they were so familiar with the truth that it
ceased to move them to action. Or maybe they were just afraid of Herod and what
he might do to them if they went to pay homage to the new king.
We need to pay
close attention to our souls and make sure we do not let self-interest, or
apathy, or even fear get in the way of worshipping Jesus.
In addition to telling us how to prepare
for true worship, our text for today also reveals what true worship looks like.
It looks like joy! The
Scripture says that when the Magi saw the star over the house where Jesus was,
they were overjoyed. Do we worship Jesus with joy?
Sherwood Eliot
Wirt once wrote: “Today most worship services in traditional churches are by
their nature solemn. The problem is the pseudo-spiritual smog that we spread
over church life, the unnecessary gravity with which our leadership protects
its dignity, the unnatural churchly posturing that so easily passes into
overbearing arrogance and conceit…. Joy is the gift of grace through the Holy
Spirit. All we have to do is reach out and take it. No one can mourn or weep
for long when Jesus is around. Depressed spirits simply cannot stay depressed
in His Presence.”
David prayed,
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” (Psalm 51:12) I believe if we pray
along the same lines, God will restore our joy in worship if we have lost it.
Another characteristic of true worship we
see here is that the Magi worshipped Jesus with giving hearts. They gave to Jesus: gold, frankincense,
and myrrh.
I have enjoyed a
quote that Lynne von Trapp has shared recently in an email. “Three Wise Women
would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned
the stable, made a casserole, brought practical gifts, and there would be peace
on earth.”
Undoubtedly,
that is true. But we must deal with the story as it is. Why might the wise men
have given the gifts that they gave?
Well, each gift
was appropriate in its way, whether the wise men fully realized that or not.
Gold was appropriate to Jesus’ kingship. Frankincense was appropriate to Jesus’
deity; frankincense was often used in worship of the Lord in the Jewish Temple.
The gift of myrrh was strange indeed. It was used as a spice for embalming dead
bodies. Nicodemus later used one hundred pounds of myrrh in Jesus’ burial.
Myrrh, strange as it may seem, was an appropriate gift, given to one who would
die for our sins.
The wise
men ascribed worth to Jesus, they worshipped him, by bringing gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh. But how can we
give Jesus what he is worth today? What gifts can we bring to him? This is
the question asked by Christina Rossetti in her poem, “In the bleak midwinter”—
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a
lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
Jesus
tells us what we can give him, in Matthew 25:35-40. Jesus says that whenever we
feed the hungry, or
give the thirsty something to drink, or welcome the stranger, or clothe the
naked, or care for the sick, or visit those in prison, whenever we serve “the
least of these” members of his family, we do it unto him. (Matthew 25:35-40)
But there is more. I
believe we can give to Jesus the spiritual gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and
gold. We can give him the gift of myrrh by recognizing his death on the cross
for our sins. We can give him the gift of frankincense by recognizing Jesus’
deity. We can give him the gift of gold by recognizing Jesus’ kingship and
allowing him to reign in our lives.
In short, we can
worship Jesus by giving as much as we know of ourselves to as much as we know
of him. The Magi did not know a lot about Jesus. They did not know as much as
the religious leaders in Jerusalem. They did not know as much as we do.
However, they worshipped Jesus as best they knew with what they had. In the
same way, we do not have to begin with a lot of knowledge about Jesus to
worship him; we need to simply give him our hearts.
Finally, I would not want you to leave here today without
realizing that God gives us grace to worship him. A God-given star and a God-given
Scripture (Micah 5:2) guided the Magi. Even after they paid homage to Jesus,
the wise men were guided by grace; they were warned in a dream not to go back
to Herod, so they returned home by another route. A gracious God superintended
their entire journey. And the same is true for us.
The story is told of a
German pastor who was called away from his little parish in an emergency. Since
there was no time for him to get another pastor to fill his pulpit on the
coming Sunday, he called upon the tutor of a noble family who lived in the
neighborhood.
As it happened, the
tutor was not a Christian. When the pastor called upon him to preach he
replied: “How can I preach what I do not believe?”
“What?” said the pastor
in astonishment. “You believe in God, don’t you?”
“Yes,” replied the tutor.
“I believe in God.”
“And do you not believe
that we should love God?” asked the pastor.
“Yes,” said the tutor
again. “I believe we should love God.”
“Well,” answered the
pastor, “I will give you a text to preach on. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, ‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’”
The tutor agreed to
preach on that text. Therefore, the pastor left to attend to his emergency and
the tutor sat down to study the text and write an outline of his message. He
very rationally wrote out his first point and gave a reason for it. The first
point was: “We must love God.” Second, he wrote: “We must love God with all our
powers; indeed, nothing less can satisfy God.” Third, he wrote: “Do we thus
love God?” The tutor’s conscience forced him to write: “No, we do not thus love
God.”
Later, the tutor wrote
about this experience: “Without any previously formed plan I was brought to add
to my notes: ‘We need a Savior.’” At that point, light broke in upon his soul.
He later said, “I understood that I had not loved God, that I did need a
Savior, that Jesus Christ was that Savior; and then I loved him and I clung to
him at once. On the morrow I preached the sermon, and the third point was the
chief—the need of Jesus and the necessity of trusting such a Savior.”
As I search my soul, I
find I am very much like that tutor. I know I have not loved God with all my
heart, with all my mind, with all my strength. And so I know that I too am in
need of a Savior. In fact, I need Jesus to worship Jesus.
Why should we even want
to worship well? I think C. S. Lewis answers this question well when he says
that God “is that Object to admire which (or, if you like, to appreciate which)
is simply to be awake, to have entered the real world; not to appreciate which
is to have lost the greatest experience, and in the end to have lost all.”[2]
So let us take a moment
now to ask God to make us true worshippers of him, not only at Christmas, but
everyday….
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