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In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints of God, the Lord promised to Abraham that in his seed all the nations would be blessed. All the nations, not just the Israelites. So these Gentile magi, these wise men, are the first fruits of the blessing to the nations, as the Lord makes known his glory, not only to the people of Israel, but to all the people of the world.
It happened, and it’s a strange text, it happened that a star arose in the east when Jesus was born, and these wise men who were waiting for this star, and who knew what this star meant, saw the star in the east, and they rejoiced. They mounted their camels, they crossed the desert, and they came to Jerusalem.
Now who were these wise men? We don’t know. It’s a great mystery. And why were they waiting for the star? We don’t know that either. Here’s my best guess: that these were trained by Daniel. That the Lord had given the prophet Daniel this prophecy, that a star would arise to indicate the birth of the Messiah, the King of the Jews. And this wisdom had been passed down from one generation to another in Babylon, and so in the school of Daniel the prophet, there were those Gentiles waiting for the star, and when they saw it, they went quick to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, after all, was the capital of Israel, so they come into Jerusalem and they ask for the king of the Jews. Now, the acting king of the Jews was Herod, called Herod the Great. He’s great not because of his goodness; he’s probably called Herod the Great because of his accomplishments, some which were wonderful and most which were horrible. Herod was a wicked king, but a great engineer, a great organizer, a great military mind. In fact, when you visit Israel today, the tour guides laugh about it. They say, you see the places where Jesus walked and where Herod slept, because he built so many great and magnificent things.
He rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. He built Masada as a palace and a fortress. He built aqueducts and cities. Everywhere you go, you see the building efforts of Herod. And Herod, who was there in charge of Judea for the Romans, had the name, the King of the Jews. That’s what the Romans called him. That was the title that Herod had in Rome. So you have to wonder, well, I suppose we don’t have to wonder that much, how Herod would react to these wise men from the east asking for the king of the Jews.
When they come into Jerusalem, the text says that Herod was troubled, and not only that, but Jerusalem was troubled with him. Now this leads to one of these questions that we don’t know the answer to, but it’s a debate that comes up every time we study this text, and that is how many wise men were there? We know from the song that there were three. We three kings of Orient are. Now that’s an old tradition, by the way, that there were three kings because each one of the wise men is associated with the gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.
And I suppose I’m very sympathetic to the idea that there were three of them because you’d hate to be the fourth guy who didn’t bring anything with you, right? But certainly they would not have traveled alone. From the prophecy in Isaiah, we saw that the camels covered the promised land, so that they would have come in a large group. Maybe there were three wise men, but they would have been accompanied by dozens and dozens of servants and security guards. You don’t bring gold and frankincense and myrrh across the desert without having a lot of swords to protect it.
So they fill Jerusalem. They fill Jerusalem with their camels, with their strange incense and accents, and they fill Jerusalem with fear. They go to the palace where Herod was, which was right next to the temple, and they asked Herod, “Where is he who was born king of the Jews?” And Herod summons the scribes. And he inquired of the scribes, “Where do the prophets say that Christ is supposed to be born?” And the scribes say, “Oh, we know the answer to that question. It’s in Bethlehem, for so it’s written by the prophet, by Micah. And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.”
So then, having learned that they’re in Judah, Herod summons the wise men secretly. He sends away the scribes, and he says, it says in the text, verse 7, that he secretly ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. We see already in the back of Herod’s mind the plot to make sure this one who would be called the king of the Jews would be killed. That’s nothing new for Herod. He killed most of his own sons. He had a boat with one of his children set on fire. He, Herod’s, do you know this?
Herod was so hated by the people but he wanted them to mourn when he died, so he left instructions that when he died all the important people in Jerusalem were supposed to be rounded up and killed so that Jerusalem would mourn at his death. They didn’t follow through on that instruction, so that they were able to rejoice when Herod died, but you see already in his wicked mind the plot is starting to develop. He wants to know when the star appeared, so he can make sure that everyone born that time or earlier is put to death.
And then He tells them, convincingly, “Go to Bethlehem, search diligently for the child, and when you’ve found Him, bring Me word so that I too may come and worship Him.” Now it’s maybe important or perhaps interesting for us to reflect here that Herod had convinced the wise men that this is true—they had to be told by an angel in a dream not to do that. They would have done that. They would have gone back to Jerusalem to tell Herod where the child was.
So they listen to the king and they go on their way. And then when they leave Jerusalem, now this is an amazing thing, that the star that appeared in the sky—maybe just appeared to be sitting in the sky to indicate that this was the time, so they went to Jerusalem—whenever they leave Jerusalem the star is back in the sky but now it’s acting miraculously and the star leads them to Bethlehem six miles away and not only leads them to Bethlehem but leads them to the house where Jesus was with Mary and Joseph.
Now we remember that Jesus was born in the manger, but we guess that Joseph would have made arrangements pretty quick. You know, the next day he would have gone to find a place, and maybe a place to stay for a while since Mary had just had a child. And so Joseph found a house to rent, and this star moves miraculously to that house to indicate that this is the place where the Messiah was.
It’s an amazing thing to read, even in the English we can see it, but it’s even more emphatic in the Greek when we read it, that as they leave Jerusalem and they see this star, this miraculous star in the sky that’s leading them to the house, they are almost overcome with joy. Look at how it says—it says, after they went away, behold, the star they had seen, when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, verse 10, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. You can’t get more joy in a sentence if you want to.
And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary’s mother, and don’t miss this, they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts: gold for the king of the Jews, frankincense for the high priest who would offer prayers, and myrrh for the one who would die for the sins of the people. And then being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country and returned by another way.
Now what is the benefit of the text for us? I’d like to submit to you—that this always seems to occur to me with this text every year—that this text presents to us the three different ways that people react to Jesus. There’s the reaction of the scribes, which is indifference. There’s the reaction of Herod, which is anger. And there’s the reaction of the wise men, which is faith and worship.
It’s amazing that these wise men come to Jerusalem and Herod calls the scribes, and he says to the scribes, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” And they know. They’ve been thinking about, wondering about, and looking forward to this promised Messiah their whole lives. They were trained in the Scriptures, and they can flip right to the prophecy. Maybe they didn’t flip. Maybe they’d have to unscroll in their scrolls right to the page of Micah where it says that Bethlehem is the place where the Messiah would be born. They had an incredible book knowledge. They knew the prophets and the books of Moses and the Torah and the promises of God in the Old Testament. They knew it, but they couldn’t be bothered.
Think about it—they couldn’t be bothered to say to the wise men, “Well, do you guys mind if we go with you? Just to check it out?” I mean, even if there’s just a small chance that what they have promised is right, wouldn’t it be worth the effort to go down to Jerusalem? It’s like going from here to Round Rock or here to Dripping Springs. It’s not that far; it might even be closer than that. Bethlehem was six miles away. Wouldn’t you want to go look for yourself? No. They are completely indifferent.
I think this is probably the case with most people. They are spiritually indifferent. They just don’t care. They are content. They have everything that they need. They feel safe. They feel secure, and they just can’t be bothered to think about things like death or judgment or God and His commands and His promises, the truth of Jesus, the claims that He makes on us. They just can’t be bothered. They might even know the Bible.
How many of you have met people like this? When you start talking about spiritual things, they’ll say, “Yeah, I remember going to Sunday school class.” They learn the stories. They can tell you about Moses and Noah and David and Jesus and the miracles that He performed. They might even know His death and His resurrection. They might know about these things, but they just can’t be bothered with them.
And then there’s Herod, who sees Jesus as a threat. He’s angry. He’s murderous. Rather than falling down and worshiping him, he’ll do anything he can to put him to death, and we know people like this as well, who are militantly opposed to Jesus, who know, rightly, that Jesus is a threat to their own self-rule, to their own attempts to claim their own righteousness, to sit on their own throne, to rule their own lives. They see Jesus, and they understand Him, and I suppose it’s true to a degree, they see Him as the one who will dethrone the self.
Because Jesus says, “You shall have no other gods,” and they want to exalt themselves above everything else. I think we forget sometimes, and it’s good for us to remember, that there are people who believe in Jesus and hate him. We normally think that either you’re an unbeliever or you’re a Christian. If you believe in God, if you believe in Jesus, then that makes you a Christian.
But we have to remember that there’s a whole crowd of people who believe that God exists, who maybe even believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and they do not have faith in Jesus. They’re angry at Jesus. I think, I could be wrong about this, but I think that’s how most people who describe themselves as atheists are. When you really scratch the surface, you realize it’s not that they don’t believe in God. They believe in God, and they are angry with God. They hate God.
We should remember that in our own conversations and in our own evangelistic efforts. We can’t just assume that people have never heard of God or that people don’t believe in God. There is a whole crowd of Herods out there who are fighting militantly against Jesus.
But then there are the wise men who hear the voice of the prophet Micah and go to Bethlehem, who see the star and rejoice with exceeding joy above all things. And when they find Jesus, they do the craziest thing you could imagine. Seeing the baby in the lap of his mother Mary, they fall down on their faces and they worship Him.
Here’s how Luther said, I’m just giving you a paragraph of Luther’s epiphany sermon, talking about the wise men: “When the wise men had overcome their temptation and were born again by the great joy, they were strong. They took no offense at Christ. They had overcome in the trial. For although they enter a lowly hut and find a poor young wife with a poor little child and find less of royal appearance than the homes that their own servants had, they are not led astray. But in a great, strong, living faith, they remove from their eyes and their minds whatever might attract and influence human nature with its pretense, and they follow the word of the prophet and the sign of the star in all simplicity.
They treat this poor little child as a king, and fall down before him and worship him and offer gifts. This was strong faith indeed, for it casts aside many things which impress our human nature. Perhaps there were some people present who thought, what great fools are these men to worship such a poor child. They must indeed be in some sort of trance to make of him a king.
But these wise men knew that this baby, this child, was the one who would bless the nations. Can you imagine it that night in Bethlehem when all the people come home from work and they can’t get into their driveways because of all the camels blocking the roads? They say, who’s having a party? What are all these people doing here? And they go to check it out and they, what’s going on? And they go and they look through the little window into this little house in Bethlehem and they see that these wise men, decked in all the riches of the world, with their servants and their jewels and their boxes of gold, and what are they doing? They’re falling on their faces in front of this little baby.
What are these fools doing? But this is the wisdom of faith. The wisdom to know that in the flesh of this child is the divine nature in its fullness. In this little baby is hidden the hope of the world. In this body is covered the glory of God. God, in this person, God and man are united. He is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the hope of all the nations, the hope of the wise men, and your hope as well.
I can’t wait, dear saints, to get to the resurrection and ask these wise men how it was. They’ll fill in the details for us. And they will join us in worshiping the child Jesus, worshiping the man crucified, dead, buried, raised, ascended into heaven, worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ. And look, just as the wise men fell down and worshiped Him, so do we. Because the same Lord is with us tonight, His body, His blood for us, to give us the same salvation, the same hope, the same peace, and the same great joy.
May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.