LIFE LESSONS
THE CHRISTMAS STORY: WISE MEN
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW2:1-12
DECEMBER 21, 2003
There are many mysteries in the Bible. One of the great mysteries biblically is the mystery of the wise men. Who were they? Where were they from? What was their number? What were their names? What was the mysterious star that led them to Bethlehem?
Now, we don’t really know the answer for many of these questions but there are many traditions that surround the wise men. One tradition is that there were three wise men. Their names were Gasper, Melchior, and Balthazar. The name gasper means, “white.” It was said that Gasper was the King of India. The name Melchior means “light” and it was said that Melchior was the King of Persia. The name Balthazar means “Lord of the Treasury” and it was said that he was the King of Arabia. But of course, historically, this is all bogus because the wise men had been dead for 500 years before these names even appeared. You see the truth is we don’t know the number of the wise men. The number three has been suggested simply because they opened their treasury and took out three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but we really don’t know their number.
The earliest traditions suggest that there were ten wise men. But again, we don’t know their number. We do not know their names, and they certainly were not kings. They were not kings of India or Persia or Arabia. They were not kings of any nation. The biblical word, the Greek word, for wise men is the word, “magi” and this word does not mean “king.” It never means “king.” In point of fact, there is nothing in the New Testament that would suggest that the wise men were kings. It was Tertullian, the African Latin theologian who died in Carthage in the year 225 who was the man who first suggested that the wise men were kings. He based this not on anything in the New Testament account but rather on Isaiah, chapter 60 in the Old Testament. In Isaiah, chapter 60 there’s the mention; it’s a messianic chapter, of kings of nations bowing to the Christ. But, you see, Isaiah, chapter 60, is not a Christmas chapter. It really doesn’t deal with the first advent of Christ but rather, Isaiah, chapter 60 deals with the Second Advent of Christ, “when He will come in power and great glory and indeed every knee will bow to Him.”
There’s no reason biblically to think that the wise men were kings. They were probably not from the Far East. They were probably from the Near East in the region of Mesopotamia. So, when you sing that Christmas carol, “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” just remember that we don’t know that there were three kings. Secondly, they were not kings and thirdly, they were probably not from the Orient. Other than that, it’s a great song!
We also don’t know what the mysterious star was. Scientists and astronomers have sought to answer that question. Some have suggested Haley’s Comet, which appeared in 7 BC. Some have suggested a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Some have suggested a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. More recently professors at Rutgers and at Princeton University have suggested that it was a star which went supernova in the year 5 BC. They suggest that that star which was called DO Aquilae, that star that went supernova in 5 BC may have been the Star of Bethlehem. U.S. News and World Report has even suggested that now there’s scientific evidence for the nativity story and the visit of the wise men.
But, you see, a star going supernova does not really explain the story of the wise men. If a star went supernova, how would that have told the wise men that the Christ or that a King was born? How would a star going supernova have indicated to these wise men that the King was in Israel? How could a star going supernova lead the wise men to the little village of Bethlehem and to the specific house where the Child was? You see, you really cannot take the wonder out of the Star of Wonder. You can’t take the magic out of Christmas.
There is much we don’t know about the wise men but there’s a little bit we do know. We know they came from the east. We know that they came to worship a divine King, that somehow they had understood that a King was born who was divine and they had come to worship Him. They expressed their worship, we know, by bringing out their treasure and offering Him gifts; gold, frankincense and myrrh. As we look at the wise men, we need to ask ourselves a question. Are we worshipping Christ? Are we worshipping Him? Have we brought out our treasure and are we offering Him gifts? This is really what the story of the wise men is about: worshipping Christ and offering Him your treasure. This morning we have two life lessons. The first life lesson concerns the kingdom of heaven. It concerns the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
In the beginning of the 19th century, Frederick William III ascended the throne of Prussia. Frederick William became the King of Prussia. It was not a good time to be King of Prussia because the national treasury was depleted of funds. The government and the nation were on the brink of bankruptcy. Historians tell us that Frederick William III did something very unusual. He told the people, the citizens of Prussia, that the nation was on the brink of bankruptcy. He said, “Bring your gold.” He told the people that they were a Christian nation and indeed they were nominally Christian. He said this to them. “In the name of Christ, bring your gold to rescue this nation.” He established the Order of the Iron Cross. He said, “If you will come forward and bring your gold to rescue the government and the nation, you will join the Order of the Iron Cross and we will give you an iron cross with an inscription.” It was the first “Christian fund-raising gimmick.” Historians tell us it actually worked. People came by the thousands. They came by the ten thousands. They came by hundreds of thousands and they offered gold to the government. They were each given little iron crosses. Inscribed on those crosses were these simple words, “I gave gold for iron, 1813.”
Well, you see, we all give gold to earthly governments. We all give gold to enable our nation to survive. This is true of nations all over the world. The gold we give is called taxation. We all in this room, at least most of us, pay taxes. Some of us pay more taxes than others, depending on the incomes we make, but we give gold to the government for its survival. We give gold to the federal government, the to the state government and to the local government. We have all the services that those governments provide because we give gold. “We render to Caesar,” in the words of Christ. “We render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”
But we should remember as Christians, as those who believe in Jesus Christ, that we are citizens of a higher kingdom. We are citizens, if we believe in Christ, of the kingdom of heaven and we are citizens of the Kingdom of Christ. For this, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. For this, He came into our world, that the kingdom of heaven might come to earth. And so, we have that beautiful passage in Isaiah, chapter 9, “Unto us a Child is born. Unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders and He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace, and of His kingdom and of its increase, there will be no end.” The Angel Gabriel said to Mary, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son and He shall be great and He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord will give to Him the throne of his father David and He will reign forever and ever.” For this Christ came into the world.
I think as evangelicals, we’ve sometimes operated under the false assumption that earthly governments need gold, but the government of heaven does not. Indeed, everything in the pages of scripture tell us that indeed the kingdom of heaven, to function on earth, needs the people who believe to open up their treasure and give Him gifts.
The wise men, when they departed, Herod, King of Israel, was enraged. He was enraged. Of course, we’re told that the wise men were warned in a dream, after they gave their gifts and opened their treasure, they were warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem because God knew that Herod was in a jealous rage and he wanted to kill the Messiah. He wanted to murder the Christ. He did not want any competition, even religious competition. And so, he, in his warped mind, issued his decree and gave his instructions, angry that the wise men had tricked him and returned to their countries by other roads. He decreed that all babies in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, all male children two years of age and younger were to be killed. That first Christmas was not a good Christmas in Bethlehem, that first season. Of course, many families were in pain.
Joseph and Mary and the child, our Lord Jesus, went to Egypt the Bible tells us. We don’t know a great deal about what happened in Egypt, but there’s a very early tradition that dates from the late 1st century and historians believe that it has a lot of credibility. According to this tradition, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus went to Egypt on the Sinai Road. That is undoubtedly true. The Sinai Road was the road the Hyksos people traveled when they attacked Egypt and defeated the Egyptian pharaohs and established the Hyksos Dynasty in Egypt. The Sinai Road was the road the patriarchs traveled, Jacob and the sons of Jacob including Joseph. They walked the Sinai Road. The Sinai Road was the road the soldiers of Alexander the Great once traveled. It was the road the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes marched on.
So, here Mary and Joseph and Jesus went on that Sinai Road to Egypt. When they arrived at the Nile Delta, Mary and Joseph must have been stunned. They had to be stunned because they would have never in their lives have seen such a fertile lush environment as the Nile Delta exhibited. Perhaps they would have been expected to go to the great city of Alexandria in the Nile Delta, a Hellenized city, one of the greatest cities in the world. But they did not go there, not according to the tradition. According to the tradition, they went to the city of Babylon.
Now, the city of Babylon should not be confused with Babylon, which was the capital of Babylonia. Babylon simply means, “gateway to On.” On was the ancient name of the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, the city of the sun, which approximates modern-day Cairo at the mouth of the Nile Delta. Of course, historians tell us that this too is a strong and likely tradition because they know that the largest Jewish settlement in Egypt was at Babylon, or On, or Heliopolis. That’s where there was a large Jewish community. According to the tradition, Mary and Joseph and Jesus stayed there for awhile and then they had to flee again. They went up the Nile to the region of Luxor in the Valley of the Kings.
We don’t know how long they were in Egypt, but the Bible tells us they did not leave Egypt to return until Herod had died. Herod died in the year 4 BC. You might be thinking, “Well, wait a minute. Wasn’t Jesus born in the year “Zero?” “Don’t we have BC and AD and the birth of Christ is at the center?” The answer is “yes” theoretically but, you see, when our calendar was established they misreckoned the years and so, Jesus was really born around 7 to 4 BC and Herod died in 4 BC.
With the death of Herod, we’re told that Jesus and Mary and Joseph were able to leave Egypt, but you have to ask yourself, “How did they survive in Egypt?” I mean, they were there for months. They may have been there for more than a year. How did they sustain themselves? Of course, the early church believed, and the tradition was that it was all about the gold, the frankincense, the myrrh, the gifts of the wise men. That’s how they lived. Gold, frankincense and myrrh had great value and those gifts were able to sustain the family of Jesus during their time in Egypt. This provided the support financially for their flight to Egypt that they might, as a family, be sustained in that time.
It’s always been this way, that the cause of Christ is supported and sustained by the people of Christ. It’s always been this way, that the cause of Christ is supported and sustained by those who believe, by those who worship Him, and it is that way today. Of course, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Christ is visibly expressed in His church. Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” The church of Christ universal is supported by those who worship Christ, and it’s supported by those who open up their treasure and offer Him gifts. It’s supported by those who believe.
How’s the Christian community in America doing? The answer is, “not very well.” The western Christian world is not very healthy. Recent studies by the Barna Research Group indicate that in the year 2000, those Americans who claim to be born anew, 12% of them tithe to the church. In the year 2001, according to the Barna Research Institute, 14% of those who claim to be born again tithe. In the year 2002, only 6% of those who claim to be born anew tithe to the church. I do not know how the Barna Research Group acquired these statistics, but I do know this. The western Christian world is anemic in the depth of its worship and we do not bring out our treasure and offer Him gifts. I think this invites the judgement of the King. One day we will all stand before Him and give an account.
In this church as we approach the end of our calendar year and as we approach the mid-way point in our fiscal year, we’re not doing so well. We’re $500,000 behind budget. Of course, the money is all used to sustain ministry; from our Sunday School ministries to our outreach ministries, tutoring programs in the inner city, missions work all over the world, ministries right here like Manna Ministries where we seek to help the poor. We support thousands of families at Thanksgiving and Christmas through our outreach and all year around. Manna Ministry is a wonderful ministry led by Maxine Jones offers food and clothing, sometimes haircuts, medical care and all kinds of assistance to the poor. But, you see, it’s every ministry of the church… Maxine Jones would tell you even her ministry can’t happen unless we open up our treasures and we offer Him gifts. That’s the way it is for the ministries of the church of Jesus Christ. That’s the way it is and so, the call of Christ is upon His people. It’s all about the kingdom of heaven and whether or not we worship Him as the wise men did and whether or not we offer Him our best as they did.
This morning we have a second life lesson from the wise men. The second life lesson concerns righteousness. It concerns the subject of righteousness. Of course, the Greek word, the biblical word for righteousness is the word, “dikaiosune.” This word has a variety of meanings but it comes from a root word meaning “right.” Most Greek and Bible scholars believe that the heart of the concept of righteousness is to be in right relationship with God. From a biblical perspective, righteousness means “a right relationship with God.” When the wise men came to Bethlehem to worship and to bring their gifts, were they seeking right relationship with God? We need to understand that for the early church the whole story of the Magi in Matthew, chapter 2, was very, very difficult. Magi did not have a good reputation in the ancient Christian world or in the ancient Jewish world. Magi did not have a good reputation.
According to Herodotus, the Greek historian, Magi were Zoroastrian priests. They were priests of Persia or priests of Medea and they practiced magic, divination. The word Magi is the word we get the word magic from, the English word. Of course, in the biblical world, magic did not refer to sleight of hand. It did not refer to trickery, but magic referred to those who dabbled in the supernatural. So, the Magi were people of magic, people who worked in the world of the supernatural and the world of divination. They were likely Zoroastrian priests from the land of Persia and they would have served in the royal courts there as advisors. They would have used their divination to advise the king.
We know that the Magi in Persia, according to Herodotus, also worked in the affairs of the state and the establishment of laws. But this was very difficult for the early church, very difficult, because, you see, in the New Testament the word Magi is used in only two other places apart from Matthew 2. One is Acts, chapter 8, and the other is Acts 13. In Acts, chapter 8, the word Magi, which is a plural form of magos. In chapter 8 of the book of Acts, the word magos is used as a title for Simon of Samaria. He is called· Simon the Magician or Simon the Sorcerer. This word magi or magos—sorcerer.
In Acts, chapter 13, it’s a reference to Elemis on the Island of Cyprus who confronted the Apostle Paul. He is called Elemis the Sorcerer and again the word is magi or magos. These are the only two places in the New Testament apart from the wise men story where the word magi is used. They’re both very negative. Sorcerers. I can look in the Septuagint, in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, and in every case the word magi is a negative word. It’s associated with astrologers, necromancers, sorcerers, augerers, those who function in divination. In every case of course in the Bible, these practices are condemned so you can understand why for the early church the story of the Magi was a strange story. How could the Magi be heroes in the Christmas story?
In the early church you had Bible scholars who decided that the Magi didn’t bring gifts to the Christ child but instead they offered up the tools of their occultic trade in relinquishment. Scholars in the early church viewed frankincense and myrrh as associated, at times, with divination and sorcery, and so, the view of these early Christian scholars was, “Well, maybe the Magi were coming to worship and in repentance offering the tools of their trade in surrender, saying, “We will no longer practice divination. We will no longer do these things. We come to worship you.” They were seeking, according to the teachings of the early church or some segments of the early church, righteousness, a right relationship with God.
More recently scholars disagree with the view of the early church scholars. I think modern scholars rightly point out that the narrative in Matthew, chapter 2, makes it very clear that the wise men, the Magi, were bringing gifts. The Greek word “dora” which is used in Matthew 2, means “gifts.” It doesn’t refer to the relinquishment of negative things. It refers to the giving of your best. There’s no doubt the Magi were really coming to worship and to offer their best to this child they discerned to be their divine King. They were offering their best, but I think the early church was right in this. The Magi were seeking righteousness. Whenever we worship we are seeking right relationship with God. Whenever we open our treasure and we give Him our best, we are seeking right relationship with God.
How’s it going for you? How’s your worship? How’s your righteousness? Are you in right relationship with God? Do you worship Christ? Have you offered your treasure to Him? I think it must be hard for God as He looks upon His children, His church, and He sees our lack of worship and He sees our selfishness.
Imagine for a second that your parents, some of you… Of course, our parents, it won’t be hard to imagine that… Imagine you have a little 2-year-old child, a 2-year-old little boy. Some of you do have a 2-year-old child, a 2-year-old boy. Others of you certainly who have children can remember when your kids were that age. Imagine you’re taking your 2-year-old little boy to McDonald’s. Maybe you don’t go there a lot but you just thought, “Hey! Let’s go to McDonald’s.” You want your 2-year-old just to have a good time. You buy your 2-year-old boy French fries and a Coke. You get yourself something to eat. You sit down and you’re looking at the French fries that your 2-year-old boy has and you’re thinking they look pretty good. You reach over and you grab one little greasy French fry and your 2-year-old boy says, “Mine! Mine!” He takes the French fry bag and he pulls it away from you.
How do you feel? You know you bought it all. You bought the French fries. You bought the Coke. You carried the French fries and the Coke to the table. Your 2-year-old didn’t. You took the wrapper off the straw. You opened the silly little ketchup bag for the French fries. You did it all. What are you thinking? Are you thinking, “I could eat all of your French fries if I wanted to, if I didn’t love you. Perhaps you’re thinking, “If you love me, you wouldn’t mind me having a few of your French fries. But you probably don’t think all of those things because you realize your child is two. Your child’s not very mature. Your child is immature and your child needs to learn to give and your child needs to learn to share and your child needs to learn generosity.
I sometimes this how does God view us? How does He view His church? How does He view me? How does He view you? Does He view us as 2-year-olds? God knows He owns everything. The Bible says He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. I don’t have anything that doesn’t belong to Him. You don’t have anything that doesn’t belong to Him, and yet are we saying, “Mine! Mine!” How does God view that? Are we in right relationship with Him because that’s what righteousness is all about, right relationship with Him.
I know that many of you have heard of James Whistler. James Abbott Whistler was a famous American artist who spent most of his life in Europe, some of his life in London, England. Of course, James Whistler is most famous for that rendering of his mother, commonly referred to as “Whistler’s Mother.” The actual title of that was “Arrangement in Gray and Black No.1, Portrait of the Artist’s Mother.” I’ve shared with you before that James Whistler did not really love his mother. At least he did not care for her in her old age. It was his brother William or Bill who cared for her, but that’s another story.
I want to tell you something new about James Whistler today. He was in his lifetime renowned as an artist. His work was considered to be masterpieces while he was still alive and that’s very rare in the world of art. He became very wealthy. He had a couple of occasions when he actually had to file for bankruptcy but at other times he was extremely wealthy because he was so famous. He lived an opulent lifestyle and some of his paintings fetched tremendous sums of money.
On one occasion there was an art auction in the city of London. Whistler’s Masterpiece was being auctioned, one of his greatest. He was there to support the auction. Lots of wealthy people were there. When his painting was put up for auction, a very, very wealthy woman bought it and for a great sum. She came up to James Whistler afterwards and she said, “Would you go to my home and show me where it should go in my great room?” Whistler graciously agreed. He went to this woman’s home and it was a mansion. They went into the great room. They tried to put the painting up here and then maybe over here. This was in the year 1872. The room was beautifully decorated. They tried to put the picture up in various places but it never looked right. It didn’t look right to this woman who had purchased the picture, and it didn’t look right to Whistler.
She said, “What do I do? We’ve put it in different places in the great room here and it just doesn’t look right.” He said, “Well, you need to take everything out of the room; the furniture, the artwork, everything and just hang this picture. You’ve called it a masterpiece. You need to hang the picture in the room and then redecorate the whole room, purchasing new furniture, new pieces of art, new everything so that everything you get fits the masterpiece, that the masterpiece is really the center of everything. If you really believe it’s the masterpiece, you need to build the whole room around it and you need to decorate everything around it.
Well, historians tell us she did that very thing. But, you know as Christians, you understand we’ve all asked Jesus into our hearts. I asked Jesus into my heart; you asked Jesus into your heart. He’s the Master and, you know, I think we bring Him into the room of our hearts and we just put Him on the shelf and we just hope that He’ll fit or that somehow He’ll fit in. We don’t want to change anything in the room. When Christ really wants us to clean up the room of our heart, I mean clean it all out and let Christ be the Master and then rebuild your life around Him, rebuild it all around Him, making Him the center of everything, making Him the center of your life, and everything else in your life is in relationship to Him, don’t just make Him secondary. You’ve got to make him primary.
Frankly, that’s what the Gospel is all about. That’s what the Gospel demands. That’s why the Christian western world is waiting for judgement because we have not done that. We’ve just made Christ secondary, a kind of tagalong and add-on, hoping somehow that He’ll fit in with all the rest of our stuff. The truth is He’s the Master. Everything needs to be centered on Him. What the Gospel demands on me is that I clear out the rooms of my heart and make Christ at the center and that’s what the gospel demands of you because He’s the King, the child born in Bethlehem. He’s the King of Kings. Do we worship Him? Do we offer Him our treasure? It’s all about His kingdom and it’s all about righteousness, whether we’re in right relationship with Him. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.