Sermon – Matthew 2:1-12 – Coming to Jesus

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Matthew 2:1-12 – Coming to Jesus
Makemie Presbyterian Church
January 3, 2009

Listen to this sermon.

Most of us have put the Christmas decorations away, taken down the lights, exchanged the gifts, and are ready to go back to work for yet another new year. But for many Christians around the world Christmas is still here. Where we start our Christmas celebration on Thanksgiving, or earlier, and end it on Christmas morning with the opening of presents and a great feast, most Christians start Christmas on the 25th and celebrate for twelve days, giving and receiving gifts, and culminating with the great feast on January 6th called Epiphany. Epiphany is the day when the church remembers the light of God coming into the world. At creation God said “Let there be light” and there was light. The light of the world was incarnate in Jesus Christ. And of course the wise men followed the light of that star. So today let’s celebrate the great festival of Epiphany and begin with prayer.

Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen. (John Calvin)

Matthew 2:1-12 NRS Matthew 2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 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." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 6 '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.'" 7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 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." 9 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. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 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. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

This story of the wise men following a star is a familiar one for us. It is one of our favorite Christmas texts. We can remember Christmas pageants and displays with shepherds, angels, Mary and Joseph, the three kings, camels, the star and of course the baby Jesus.

Our understanding of this text from Matthew is heavily influenced by two thousand years of Christian interpretation. Early theologians surmised that the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh where so extravagant the wise men must have been kings. Other theologians speculated that there were three wise men because there were three gifts. And still other theologians have suggested the since the wise men came from the east they must be Asian. You can see how all of this influenced the theologian, pastor and song writer, John Henry Hopkins, when, in 1857, he wrote our opening hymn, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

But in Matthew’s text there were no kings just wise men, we have no idea how many there were, and all we know about their origin is that they came from the east. So let’s ignore all of these historical Christian interpretations and take a close look at exactly what Matthew said. And what he said, to his original audience, was scandalous.

Let’s begin by asking, who were these wise men who came from the east to worship Jesus? Matthew calls them, in Greek, ma,goi. The Greek word ma,goi is the root of our English word “magic”. According to scripture the ma,goi were dream interpreters and astrologers. We first meet them in the book of the prophet Daniel. In chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has had a dream and calls in the ma,goi to interpret it. But the king does not trust the ma,goi so he insists that they not only interpret the dream but first they must also tell him what he had dreamed. The ma,goi insisted that this was impossible; no one could know what someone else had dreamed. But Daniel knew that the king’s dream had come from God. So with God’s help Daniel was able to tell the king what he dreamed and what it meant thus embarrassing the ma,goi. We also see ma,goi in the Book of Acts. These ma,goi are always giving false prophecies which the Apostle Paul has to correct. It is clear from this that the Bible considers ma,goi to be charlatans whose prophecies from astrology and dream interpretation are useless. And now you can see the scandal in Matthew’s story: the hapless, incompetent, non-Jewish ma,goi were the ones that come to worship Jesus.

The setting for Matthew’s story is in Jerusalem, during the reign of Herod the Great, after the birth of Jesus, around years 4-6 BC. A group of ma,goi coming from the east, probably Babylon or Persia, arrived in Jerusalem and had an audience with the king. They had seen something in the sky which they thought indicated the birth of a King of the Jews. So they had come to Jerusalem to worship the new prince.

This made Herod suspicious. He always feared that someone would try to take his throne. And if someone was born who was to be King of the Jews this was not good. So he convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin and asked the High Priests and Scribes from where the anointed one, the messiah would come. The searched the prophets and found that the messiah would come from Bethlehem. So Herod told the ma,goi to search for this new King of the Jews in Bethlehem and report back to him with their findings.

When the ma,goi arrived in Bethlehem they looked in the heavens and confirmed their findings indicating the birth of a king. And when they found Jesus they were overwhelmed with great joy. The promise of scripture is that anyone, no matter who, even the lowly ma,goi will experience great joy when they come to worship Jesus. Let me tell you some stories of the most unlikely people who have also experienced overwhelming joy by coming to Jesus.

Michiko was an international student from Japan. At an English language school she met
some Korean students who brought her to an international student ministry I was running with my wife, Grace, as an intern for Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Michiko had very limited English skills and had never been in a church before, but she was interested in talking with me when she found out that I had married a Korean woman. I led an ESL, English as a Second Language Bible study, and helped Michiko to understand the basics of the faith. Her Korean friends wanted to take Michiko to church on Sunday morning, but they knew that she could not understand Korean. So they all, Japanese and Korean students, started to attend the English worship as Pasadena Pres. Eventually Michiko asked me what she had to do to become a Christian. I told her about our sacrament of baptism, and I began to teach stories to the group from Acts about baptism. Michiko flew back to Japan to talk with her mother about becoming a Christian. Her mother said “no” because Michiko’s name had been written on a tile used for the roof of a Buddhist temple. But when Michiko returned to Pasadena she decided to be baptized and pledged her allegiance to Christ because like the ma,goi before her, Michiko had experienced the overwhelming joy of coming to Jesus.

Star was a drug addict living in East Los Angeles. Her boyfriend was in prison. Four of her children were in foster care. She and her new baby lived with her mother who brought her to Faith United Presbyterian Church where my wife, Grace, served as an intern. The church did everything they could to care for Star during her pregnancy. We invited Star to help as a volunteer for a Friday evening evangelism program. As Star served the church she began to experience to joy of coming to Jesus. She asked us if her baby could be baptized in the church. We told her that before a baby is baptized the church has to be assured that the baby’s parent is a believer. So we invited Star to join the church. And after a new members class we baptized both mother and baby into the faith. Star had found, like the ma,goi and Michiko before her, the overwhelming joy of coming to Jesus.

Sharon was a homeless woman. She came to a Sunday dinner we held at Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church where I served as pastor, and she told me her story. Sharon had been taking care of her mother with Alzheimer’s disease, but when her mother had to enter a nursing home Sharon had to move out of the apartment. She moved in with a boyfriend, but he got sick too and his apartment was lost. So Sharon decided to temporarily live in her car until she could figure out what to do, but one day her brakes failed and her car rolled into a Taco Bell. This got Sharon on television. But she lost her car and had to move into an abandoned house with boarded up windows with some other homeless folks. That’s when she began to attend our dinner on Sunday nights because she was hungry and needed a meal. Her $200 per month of General Relief and some food stamps didn’t go very far. Sharon wanted to be as “normal” as possible so she cleaned up as best she could and attended our Sunday morning worship service. Then she asked me if she could join the church. After conducting a new member’s class I baptized Sharon, one of three homeless people I baptized while pastoring the Eagle Rock church. Sharon had found, with the ma,goi, Michiko, and Star before her, the overwhelming joy of coming to Jesus Christ.

Our mission as the church of Jesus Christ is to lead people to Jesus where they too will experience this overwhelming joy. We are called by God to invite to church even the ma,goi, the alien, the addicted and poor in our community. So I challenge Makemie Presbyterian Church and the visitors from Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam churches to go out into your communities and invite everyone you find to come to church and experience the overwhelming joy that you have found in coming to Jesus.

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the light of God, the Epiphany that has come into the world. We have come with overwhelming joy into your presence to worship you. Equip us in our mission to bring others to you to experience this joy. We pray this in your name, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.