Wisdom from Wisemen

I figured I would round out this week of looking at the Christmas story by talking about the wisemen. The wisemen appear in almost every nativity you see, there are always three of them, and they are always at the manger with the shepherds and angels. To be honest the first time someone explained to me how the wisemen weren’t there and that there weren’t just three of them, I thought surely they must be wrong.

I’ve heard the story my entire life and I was in my late twenties when I was being told that. I naturally investigated myself and was shocked to see that they were correct. I still don’t understand why the wisemen needed to be lumped into the nativity scene, why we couldn’t have just left them out and talked about them after Christmas, but that’s not the focus of today messages. Let’s take a look at their scripture.

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After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “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.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah 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 shepherd 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 search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.  When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. in coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Matthew 2: 1 - 12

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While I have banished the wisemen from being inside the stable, (see picture above) I do feel like their story has a lot of wisdom to offer. I kinda love that when they show up, they show up at the palace. I like to imagine how King Herod tried to mask his alarm upon hearing why they were there.

I think it’s quite telling that the wisemen didn’t go to a little no nothing town to find the King of the Jews, but to the palace. I think that lets us know they expected him be like all the other kings before him.

When I think about the wisemen I think their actions to come and worship someone they have never met shows us how great God is. How much he deserves to be worshiped and also how important it is to check our assumptions about who we think he is. They expected to find him in a palace, we expect a lot from Jesus too. We have no reason to believe that the wisemen were Jewish believers, yet they sought Jesus out. They traveled a great distance to worship him, to bring him gifts.

Friends we know who Jesus is. We know who he grew up to be and the sacrifice he made for us. We know that he loves and forgives us more than we can understand. And yet …

When was the last time we sought him out like the wisemen?

When was the last time we offered sincere gifts to our King?

They say, Wisemen still seek him.

May your heart be filled with a desire to seek him and to follow his leading, today and always.

To Everything There Is A Season…

Kiley Ann