Transcript
I’m still getting to know the area, and the other day I was looking for the nearest post office. There happened to be a young boy on the corner, and so I asked him, “Son, can you tell me where the post office is?” He said, “Sure you just go down Lancaster Avenue, turn, left you can’t miss it.” I said, “That is so helpful, thank you so much. You know, I’m the new Vicar at a church called Good Samaritan. You and your family should come by sometime. We’ll show you how to find Jesus.” To which he said, “You don’t even know how to find the post office…”
Now that’s not a true story. But it is true that this church, for almost 150 years, has been showing people how to find Jesus. I am so excited to join with you in that ministry and mission. To know Christ and to make Him know.
This got me thinking, in a roundabout way, about the star, in the Gospel passage that we just heard. Having been a part of many Christmas pageants, you usually have a kid play the star. You give him or her a pole with a star on top. There was a boy at my previous church who did this for three years in a row. Salem, if you are out there, God bless you, brother!
There are no lines for the star.
But the star, it turns out, is the only character in the whole Christmas narrative, whose sole purpose it is to lead people to Jesus.
Christmas is the incarnation of God in the person and life of Jesus Christ. The God of everywhere, showed up somewhere. And he saved.
His birth was for his death. His death was for our birth.
Today we come to the magi. Matthew chapter 2.
Are they kings? No the Bible doesn’t say kings. Are they wisemen? No the Bible doesn’t say wisemen. The Greek gives us magi. Which is in itself a mysterious word. Astronomers, likely from Persia.
But they are wise.
Three reasons. Why they are wise.
1. They understand that their journey is not theirs.
Verse 2. “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
We have seen HIS star. Grammar. That’s the possessive. Not just A star. But HIS star. The magi realize that this whole enterprise is not about them. This journey that they are on, it is not theirs. That’s a good challenge for you and me. This life. It’s not yours. Well it is, and it isn’t. This life… your life.. has been given to you as a gift from God. It is yours to live and to care to for. But it’s not yours to grip.
There is a book called Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller. There is a line in that book which has always stuck with me.
“The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me.”
The magi understand that the journey they are on is not really theirs. Yes they are the ones going, but their purpose is nested within Gods purpose. A challenge for you and me in 2025. Your purpose is nested in Gods purpose.
2. They state their intention.
Again verse 2. We have come to… worship him. It would not have been unusual at that time for foreign dignitaries to pay a visit to a new sovereign. If the relationship was good, they might solidify it. If it were bad, they might repair it. But the magi make no mention of such an endeavor.
Notice what they don’t say. We have come…
a. To seek wisdom? No
b. To solidify an alliance? No
c. To establish s mutually beneficial trade agreement? No
d. We have come to WORSHIP him.
You say, well what about the gifts. True enough they bring gifts. But that comes last. Before they open their treasure chests, they worship him.
This is actually very good news if you, or someone you know, is hurting right now. If you are in a difficult time where you feel like, “I just don’t have a lot of gifts to give right now.” Well, Jesus looks at you, in love, and says, “I want you. I want your life. And I want you to make me,” says Jesus, “the center of your life. And the gifts can come; the gifts will come later.”
Worship comes from the word worth. When we come to church, when we worship in our lives, we say that God is of the ultimate worth. Idolatry is taking something else and making it worth the most in your life. God says, throughout the Bible, and God says to us, “No, make me worth the most.”
The magi, in their own mysterious way, show us the true path.
3. They leave different.
They leave for their own country by another road. This is not merely a geography lesson. They are changed.
When someone encounters the living Christ, he or she is never the same. Even if you reject him. Even if you are not sure. When you meet Jesus, you are never the same.
A quick story. David Suchet. Famous actor. You have probably heard his voice. Hi most famous role was as Inspector Poirot in the long running Agatha Christie series. He became a Christian in a quite surprising way.
He was sitting in a bathtub in a hotel room, and he had the urge to read the Bible. He began reading, especially the book of Romans. He met Jesus in the pages of the Bible, and it led him to a life devoted to Christ. Recently David Suchet completed a great goal which was to record the entire NIV Bible with his voice. If you have a Bible app on your phone and your press the audio version, you are likely to hear his voice.
The gospel is not a promise of self-improvement. The gospel is a promise of transformation.
God loves us so much as to meet us where we are, and he loves us way too much as to leave us there.
Last thing
Last thing. Before the magi worship the Christ child, there is a very important detail. The Greek is specific, it says that they fall down. They prostrate themselves. They lay themselves low. That’s humility, and it’s worship. They fall to the ground and state with their very bodies that Christ is all in all. That he is of ultimate “worth,” that he is fully “worthy.”
What about you and me? How do you know that it’s worth laying yourself low for Jesus? Is he worth it?
Answer: Because He already did the same thing himself. Jesus Christ is worthy, and he is of ultimate worth, and you can trust him, precisely because he already humbled himself, to save.
Matthew 26:39. This is Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died:
“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.””
He fell with his face to the ground. It’s the same Greek word as when the magi fell down before the Christ child.
What’s the point? Here’s the point. You can lay yourself low for Jesus Christ;because Jesus Christ already laid himself low for you. On the cross, in the tomb, and then risen from the dead, a new creation.
And anyone who is in Christ - that’s how the Bible talks about it - will be exalted, in this life and in the life to come. James chapter 4:10 “humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
His birth was for his death. His death was for our birth.
You have seen his star rising in the east and you are come to worship him.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
