This is a sermon I preached at HopeWhangarei on December 22nd 2019. It a re working of an older message, part of a series called unpacking the nativity scene. here is a link to an audio of the message.
When I was growing up
we had a nativity scene that took pride of place in our lounge it was a way, in
the midst of the tinsel, food, catching up with distant relatives, festivities
and phonetic pace of Christmas, of focusing back on the reason for the season:
Jesus birth. We knew Christmas was coming when the naivety scene would be
unpacked from its box with the blue lid with the plastic window and put in its
place of honour. This advent we’ve been inviting you to join in that family
tradition by unpacking the nativity scene with us. 
No, Not just removing
those figurines from polystyrene packing and tissue paper but looking afresh at
each of the characters that we traditional associate with this scene and see
what they have to say to us as we celebrate Christmas
Today I want to look
at the Magi, these mysterious figures who Matthews tells us came from the east
where they had seen a sign in the heavens that heralded the birth of a special
child, one born to be king of the Jews.
In the orthodox Christian
traditions the coming of the magi is celebrated at Epiphany. In countries where
the orthodox faith is strong Epiphany is the major festival for giving gifts
not Christmas. Epiphany is celebrated twelve days after Christmas usually on
January 6th. That’s where you get the twelve days of Christmas from.
I guess because we
know so little about these men and where they came from that they have become
very much wrapped up in Christian tradition and legend to fill in the void in
our knowledge.
We don’t know
how many of them there were, old traditions talked about twelve, then later it
became three. This number was based on the number of gifts they gave to the
Christ child.
We don’t know what
they looked like or their names, but they have been given persona's in
tradition. The one who gave the Gold is known as Melchior, he was old and had a
grey hair and a long grey beard, Asian in his colouring and appearance. The one
who gave the gift of frankincense is known as Caspar and he was young and
clean-shaven and ruddy in complexion, European type. The third that gave the
gift of myrrh is known as Balthazar, he was dark in his colouring and had a
beard, African perhaps. I Love the Christian art of Chinese artist He Qi
(he chi), because it allows us to see the gospels in (for me as a person from
European decent) a different cultural perspective and the Images we’ve had
behind me are his depiction of the Magi as wise men coming from China and
also in the orthodox understanding of being from different continents.
Well what do we
actually know about these visitors that is helpful to us as we approach
Christmas.
So firstly we do know
that they would have been gentiles and this is the reason why they appear in
Matthew's gospel they are a foreshadow of the amazing truth that in the coming
of Jesus Christ God’s salvation was for all people: That the messiah had not
come just to save his own peculiar people but to save all God’s people, all
humanity all who would seek him. For Matthew writing for his predominantly
Jewish audience it was important to let them know that right from the beginning
the good news of Jesus Christ was not only for the Jews but also for the
Gentiles. Maybe the way in which the major racial types have come to be
represented in the traditions surrounding the magi is a reflection of this fact
that the kingdom of God would become a worldwide revolution of grace. For the
Jewish readers of Matthew it would be shocking to have these men of another
religion and race come, recognise and worship their messiah first. As
revolutionary perhaps as it is for us today to realise in a world where
Christianity in the west is in decline that it is booming in places like
Africa, Asia, Latin America and that china by the year 2030 just maybe the
country with the largest number of Christians. So the average Christian today
is not a white fat cat American man, but rather an unimaginably poor, brown
skinned woman living in a third world mega city. They are our sisters and brothers
in Christ.
Secondly, what we know
about the Magi is that they sought after truth. They saw a new sign in the
heavens and then they went searching for the truth it revealed to them. It
shows us something of the way in which the Holy Spirit is at work even in the
lives of people of other religions to bring them to know the wonderful good
news of Jesus Christ. They are not the enemy they are on a quest for truth. The
Magi didn’t know the full extent of what the sign in the heavens meant they
deduced that there was one born king of the Jews. This was enough to lead them
on a search for that one.
Both the powers of
that day and the indifference of the religious leaders they met along the way
didn’t put them off seeking the truth. Seeking Jesus. Herod’s self
interest and paranoia, his desperate desire to eliminate any threats, could
have led them to just about ruin everything. But open to the voice of the
spirit they are warned in a dream not to go back to him but to go home a different
way. The religious people in Jerusalem knew where the messiah was to be born
but did not seem willing to venture with these people from another religion to
find the messiah they were all waiting for. They were too busy and
too caught up in their temple rituals to look beyond that for the truth. The
magi persevered in their quest for the truth and were rewarded with a chance to
be amongst the first to worship Jesus ‘the way the truth and the life’.
In recent times this quest has turned into a Christian
slogan or clique “Wise men still seek him today…’ That’s true while interest in
organised religion is on the wain in the west people are still fascinated by
Jesus Christ. People who seek spiritual truth from all faiths or no faith are
drawn to Jesus. They are longing for a real personal encounter with a real
spiritual truth. In the western world maybe many of us have become like the
political and religious leaders who met the magi along the way. We have become
more interested in persevering our social status and influence or our rituals
and traditions and have lost the zeal to meet with the person of Jesus Christ
and so people who seek the truth and seek to meet Christ who follow God given
signs often pass us by. Leonard Sweet puts it like this
“Christianity is in decline where faith is being passed on by
churches for whom the real presence has vanished from the world, churches that
no longer have confidence in scriptures or the spirit, churches whose cold
Christ can no longer warm the heart. Christianity is growing where churches are
crazy enough to expect that ‘every day life’ and every day, will be invaded by
the unknown.”
I pray we are crazy enough as to expect to encounter the
Christ of Christmas everyday of the year.
Thirdly we know that
the magi bought gifts through which to pay homage and worship to the king.
People have seen different aspects of Jesus ministry in the gifts that he was
given.
Gold is a gift for a
king, and Jesus was a man born to be king, but in a totally different way than
we would expect as William Barclay says he would reign, not by force but by love;
and he was to rule over people’s hearts not from a throne but from a cross.”
Frankincense was a
gift for a priest; it was used in temple worship and in temple sacrifice. The
function of the priest was to open a way to God for human beings. The Latin
word for priest is pontifex, which means bridge-builder and this,
is what Jesus did for us he opened the only way to God, he built a bridge that
we may enter into the very presence of God.
Myrrh was a gift to
someone who was going to die. Myrrh was used to embalm the bodies of the dead.
Jesus came into this world to die. A picture by the painter Holman Hunt
illustrates this. It shows Jesus as a young man at the door of the carpentry
shop in Nazareth stretching after being bent over the workbench all day. The
setting sun casts his shadow on the wall of the shop and it forms a picture of
the cross. In the background is Mary reacting with horror as she sees it and
remembers the words of Simeon spoke to her in the temple “that a sword will
pierce her soul.” Jesus came to die and through his death to make build A
bridge to life with our heavenly father. The gifts foretell Jesus as the true
king the perfect high priest and in the end the supreme sacrifice and saviour
for us all.
So be on the look out
for Magi this Christmas, they may not fit our picture of someone seeking truth
but we can with the holy spirits guidance help them find the truth and the one
they are looking for. Maybe they are people that the spirit is going
to use to lead us to encounter our messiah in fresh ways and places.
People join the magi
this Christmas and seek Jesus. Seek him to worship him and acknowledge him as
your saviour and king. Don’t just seek to revel in the rituals and traditions
that surround the season they are great and can point the way like the star did
for the magi. Seek Jesus, become quest-ers who are willing to come from a far
to encounter the one born king of the Jews. AS Arch Bishop Welby said in a
speech to the diocesan of Barth and Wells… become captivated again by Jesus
Christ… so you are prepared to leave that place of comfort and familiarity and
go on an epic faith journey. Bring your
gifts to the king in worship and know that the one we are celebrating this
Christmas is good news for all.
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