The Nations Will Come
Text: Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-13
Pastor Phil Hughes at American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
December 29, 2024
The title of this sermon is “The Nations Will Come.” The subtitle is “Let’s Get Straight About the Magi.” Or you may want to call it, “You Never Know Who Will Come to Jesus.” Listen and you take your pick. I am sure you will spend the rest of your Sunday trying to decide.
As lovely, wondrous, and even romantic as the story of Jesus being born may be, the birth of this child causes a lot of trauma. Matthew tells us what happened after Jesus was born and we learn of two different responses to him: that of King Herod and that of the Magi.
A group of men called the Magi see a star in the east, realize the king of the Jews has been born and want to worship him. The problem is there is already a King over the Jews, whose name is Herod, who is narcissistic and has deep insecurity issues.
It says when King Herod heard that a king had been born he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. All Jerusalem is probably terrified because they have seen this caravan of Magi come to Jerusalem, and when the King is all riled up it can mean all kinds of trouble. Indeed, there was plenty of trauma after Christ’s birth.
There have been many embellishments to the event of the Magi searching for the Christ-child. First of all, they are often traditionally called Wise Men. The King James and older versions of the Bible use this term, but Wise Men is not really accurate. The Greek word in the original biblical text is magoi, hence, Magi. Our English word magician is rooted in this word.
Second, tradition has believed there were three Magi. People deduced this since three gifts are mentioned that were presented to the child: gold, incense, and myrrh. Therefore, someone set us off to imagining there were probably three of these magi. The text doesn’t say this. Perhaps there were five. Maybe there were 10. Why not 100 Magi all presenting gifts and bowing down and worshipping the Christ? What a scene that might have been.
And then, these men were thought to be kings, hence, “We Three Kings of Orient Are” which you will be spared having to sing today. I just can’t bring myself to sing it because it isn’t really accurate. The thought that the Magi were kings was a result of some people’s reading of Isaiah 60:3, “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn….Herds of camels will cover your land…and all from Sheba will come bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.”
And then, at some point these three wise men/kings were given names: Melchior, king of Persia; Gaspar, king of India; and Balthasar, king of Arabia. Someone created a fictional story.
And so the embellishments have grown. But none of these things come from the Gospel text. What we have is Magi from the east, which could be Persia, or Arabia, or Connecticut. Who knows?
When we read the Bible, we have to be careful about putting more in it than is there. It is fine to surmise and deduce, but we have to be disciplined in our reading otherwise we will end up with Christmas cards with three wise men with names.
Who were the Magi? We obviously know they paid attention to the stars and found messages in the heavens. It is thought their religion and philosophy was kind of a mix of both astronomy and astrology.
It’s interesting: On the one hand the Bible affirms that God is the Creator of the heavens, which includes the stars, galaxies and solar systems. He knows the stars by name. The heavens tell of the glory of God. Jesus, when speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem says, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars.”
On the other hand, this doesn’t give license to get into astrology or start living by horoscopes. The Bible condemns divination. The Lord calls out the sorcerers of Babylon when he says in Isaiah 47:13, “Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.”
The word for Magi refers to people who were into divination and sorcery. Israel considered them idolaters. They were despised and part of the nations, or the Gentiles. See, there was the people of Israel. They were the chosen people, whom God had chosen to be his special people. They had the laws and the ceremonies. Everyone else in the world were Gentiles. Gentiles were also known by the term “the nations.” The Greek biblical word is ethnoi. And Israel was quite convinced that the ethnoi were on the outs with God.
Yet, we see the Magi, these outsides, being led by God through their knowledge about stars. And they are the only ones searching for Jesus. No scribes, Pharisees, teachers or priests.
People in other cultures, particularly those who live much more closely to nature than we in the technological, scientific west do, have a keen sensitivity to things we don’t see or even comprehend. The Magi were able to see patterns in the stars.
God is Lord over the solar systems. God can work through anything he wants to because he is the Lord and Creator of heaven and earth, which pretty much includes everything. He might use a book, a song, a movie, a conversation, a beautiful experience, a bad experience. He can use joy or pain, something visible or something invisible. The Magi were led to Jerusalem by a star.
Herod hears these Magi are in town and seeking a king. Herod gets paranoid. He’s the king. But he learns of a prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is from the prophet Micah:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”
Of course, we know that Herod is dishonest. He asks the Magi to tell him where this king is so that he can worship him. What results is a bloodbath from Herod.
The Magi find Christ and his family. Notice, it says, they come to a house. Jesus and Mary and Joseph have moved on from the manger and are now in a better shelter. These events are probably over a matter of weeks and months. It isn’t the day after the birth of Jesus.
When these Magi - Gentiles, ethnoi, outsiders - see the child with his mother Mary, they bow down and worship him. Chapter 2 of Matthew gives us right worship and wrong worship. The Magi are right worship. Obviously, King Herod is wrong worship.
The Magi find the one who has been born king of the Jews, the Messiah. And they don’t congratulate themselves. They aren’t slapping high fives all around. They do not ask questions. Nor do they attempt to get something from him. And they are not put off by this being a child. They bow down and worship him.
As Matthew tells the story of Jesus in his entire Gospel it is interesting to pay attention to who kneels down before Jesus and worships him.
“A man with leprosy came and knelt before Jesus and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’” (8:2) Jesus heals this kneeling man.
A Gentile ruler comes and kneels before Jesus begging that Jesus come and give life back to his daughter who has just died. (9:18) Jesus givers her life back.
In the midst of a storm Jesus comes walking on the water towards his disciples. After Peter does a little walk on the water, but doesn’t have the faith to keep going, Jesus saves him as he sinks. And after they both are safely in the boat we read that “those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” (14:33)
A Canaanite woman, (again, Canaanites were outsiders and even enemies of Israel) comes and kneels before Jesus. She calls him the Son of David and asks the Lord to have mercy on her and to heal her suffering daughter. (15:25) Jesus does this for her.
When the women who have come to Jesus’ burial place in the garden see Jesus alive, they clasp his feet and worship him. (28:9)
When Jesus gathers his disciples on the mountain where he told them to meet him after his resurrection, it says they worshipped him. (28:17)
Those who bow before Jesus and worship him are those who truly recognize who he is. Some of those are people “of the nations.” They are outside the people of Israel. Matthew is telling us in his Gospel that the appropriate response to Jesus Christ is to kneel down before him and worship him.
It’s one thing to be a church member. It is one thing to go through confirmation. It is one thing to say you believe in Jesus. It is one thing to know the Bible. But are we a worshipper of Christ?
Today it can be popular for some people to intentionally not call themselves “Christian” as if “Christian” is a bad word. “Christian” has too many negative associations historically and even today. I mean, who wants to be associated with judgmental, harsh people who call themselves Christians? Who wants to be in line with the Crusades? Who wants to be associated with dry, traditional, Christianity in church buildings? So some people use the term “Christ-follower” as a substitute for “Christian” to distinguish between a real Christian and someone who is something less than that.
I still haven’t given up the term title “Christian.” I understand that it has been hijacked by some who seem very opposite to that.
And while Jesus did call people to follow him, to call oneself a “Christ-follower” can be rather vague. It can mean you are just checking out Christ, reading some of his teachings, hitting a church service once in a while. “Christ-follower” doesn’t suggest any permanent commitment.
And it could be that once it gets inconvenient or it doesn’t fit your style, you will abandon association with him. Which is exactly what happened to many, many people in the Bible who were hanging out with and following Jesus for a while, but once he started setting more serious boundaries and asking for deeper commitment they turned and left him.
But I do like the term “Christ-worshipper”. If you are a Christ-worshipper, it means you have gone beyond merely believing certain faith principles with your mind and are actively orienting your life around Jesus.
To be a “Christ-worshipper” suggests a commitment of life. Whoever and whatever we worship is the center of our life. To be a worshipper of Christ means I am subservient to Christ and have surrendered to him. He is the center. He is the Lord. And I am not. I’ve quit myself and allowed him to be all. To not worship God is to worship ourselves.
The Magi saw something greater. They seek Jesus. Find him. And bow down in worship. And, they don’t report back to Herod.
Who would have guessed that such outsiders – who didn’t go to worship in the Temple, who didn’t know the Hebrew Scriptures, who hadn’t been to Vacation Hebrew School, who were shunned by Judaism – would be the first ones to go and seek and find, and worship the Messiah.
How interesting that the chief priests and the teachers of the law who were learned in the Scriptures, did not recognize or bother to search out the prophecy of Micah and the Christ. They did not act on what they knew. You know, just knowing a lot of Bible isn’t enough. Christ is a person and needs to be known personally. He is to be sought out, encountered and worshipped.
The search of the Magi tells us something about who will respond to the gospel. It tells us that we cannot always predict who will respond to Jesus and who will not. Nor should we assume we know who is seeking him and who isn’t.
Herod and many Jews will eventually seek Jesus’ death. Those, like the Magi, who were least expected to honor and come to Christ did indeed come to him. You just never know who will respond to Christ.
Matthew’s Gospel is famous for ending with the Great Commission. “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (28:19) All nations – ethnoi, Gentiles, outsiders.
God wants to reach all people. It doesn’t matter how insignificant or strange the person or group of people. God desires his love and grace through Jesus Christ to be known by atheists, agnostics, Mormons, straight and gay people, Muslims, Buddhists, intellectuals, scientists, hard-living types, wealthy corporate execs and people surviving on lower incomes, Presbyterians and Lutherans, Magi. He wants all to bow down and worship him. He isn’t looking for perfect people who have it all figured out. He looking for whomever will come to him.
The Gospel that ends with the Great Commission to the nations begins here at Christmas with a surprising invitation of the nations. The Magi represent those nations. Jesus is for all people.
It’s why it says, “God so loved the world.” Not just a certain part of the world. But the whole world. It’s why Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus is Lord. He is the King. So let the nations comes.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, lead us to you. And when we find you give us the grace and humility to bow down and worship you. Never let us limit how you will find us, or whom you will find. For you came for the whole world. Even us. Amen.