King of Kings

My second sermon in Advent dealt with the coming of the Magi recorded in Matthew 2:1-11:

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 in the east 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 Christ 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 be the shepherd of 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 make a careful search 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 in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On 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 and of incense and of myrrh.

Most of have (or at least have seen) miniature nativity scenes; a manger, some animals, baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary, an angel, some shepherds and the wise men. This is fine for decoration and providing a focus for this holy event, but it isn't really how it happened. The Wise Men went to a house rather than a manger, and it may have been around two years after that wondrous birth.

Let's look a little closer at this passage of scripture. First of all, we don't really know the number (there were three gifts), they weren't kings (nor are they described as Wise Men -- although they were probably wise; they were Magi. What on earth were Magi? Well, they were a combination of primitive astronomer, astrologer, philosopher and (possibly) a priest. They were certainly not Christian -- since Christ had not died on the cross, and they probably weren't Jews. They were pagan, but God spoke to them. Why? Because they were open to what God was saying and they were looking to see the fulfillment of prophecy. God took the initiative. We don't really know what the Magi saw, even though there are several astronomical possibilities; we just know that God revealed something to the Magi that they believed was the fulfillment of prophecy that a new king was born. The were open, they saw, they believed and they went.

Where did they go? Well, it seems reasonable that they would go to Jerusalem; the capitol of Judea. Who would know more about the birth of a new king than the current king? This king was Herod called the Great. He was allowed by the Romans to be called a king, but he was not independent of Rome. He was a great builder. He was the one who finished the Second Temple in Jerusalem; the first destroyed in 586 BC. He seems to have been cruel and somewhat paranoid. There had been attempts to dethrone him, so he is reported to be proactive and get rid of anyone who might challenge him. For this reason, he was very interested in the report that there might be a "new king" out there. He supplied the Magi with the information that Bethlehem was to be the birth place and asked for a report after the visit of the Magi to the child.

God did his part and led the men to the place where Jesus was. When they saw Jesus, they did the appropriate action; they fell on their faces and worshipped. We must never forget that this child Jesus who would become our savior, our redeemer and friend is the King of Kings and deserves our worship. They gave him gifts. Tradition gives us some significance; gold -- the value of a king; frankincense -- for the anointing of a king; and myrrh -- for embalming his body. The men then disregarded Herod's request and went home another way; they listened to God.

I suppose there are many lessons we could learn from this, but here are a couple:

• Jesus is to be worshipped as King of Kings. Of course he is our friend, our brother, our savior, but we must never forget that he is the King of Kings.
• He deserves our best. He deserves all that is of value; our money, our devotion, our time. Our service to him should be the best, not the left overs.