Text: Matt 2:1-12
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
“Behold, the Lord, the Ruler has come, and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand.”
Today we are observing the Feast of the Epiphany – closing out the Christmas season, and moving on to the next phase of our Lord’s life. The coming of the wise men is so associated with Christmas that we include the “wise men from the east” in our artwork depicting the nativity of our Lord.
And since art has to depict them somehow, we usually show three of them, wearing crowns, and they are often illustrated as being of different races. Strictly speaking, we don’t know how many of them there were, or that they were each of a different race. And there’s nothing to indicate that they were kings.
Even our translation into English as “wise men” isn’t quite accurate. Sometimes we call them the “magi,” which is based on the Greek word that Matthew uses. It’s where we get the word “magic.” In reality, these visitors were probably Pagan priests who practiced astrology. They came because they “saw His star when it rose.” They made the long journey from Persia or Babylon to Judea because this event – the birth of Jesus – was that important. They knew it was world-changing.
We focus on the expensive gifts that they brought: the gold, frankincense, and myrrh – but it is easy to overlook the most important offering of the wise men: their worship.
“For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”
Word that Pagan priests from the east were looking for a Jewish baby to worship (meaning that they believed that God had been born in human flesh) was troubling to the people of Jerusalem. But what was especially troubling to King Herod (who was really a phony king installed by the Romans), was that the magi also referred to the baby they were looking for as the one “who has been born king of the Jews.”
Herod, who called himself the “king of the Jews” was not born as the king. He wasn’t even actually Jewish. So Herod suddenly became interested in what the Scriptures had to say about the Messiah, the Christ.
So the coming of the wise men was a big deal. It set off a lot of rumors, and maybe even – at least in Herod’s mind – fueled talk of a revolution, of a new king and a new dynasty being installed. And after not really caring about what the Bible had to say, the king ordered the “chief priests and scribes” to blow off the dust from the old scrolls (that it sounds like everyone was ignoring when they were read when the people gathered for worship), and “inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.”
And in the little book of Micah, they found that the Christ was to be born in the little town of Bethlehem. And that the Christ was to be a “ruler” and a “shepherd” of Israel. And far from being excited, Herod was frightened and filled with rage. And like every criminal, he worked “secretly,” holding a meeting with the wise men to find out “what time the star had appeared.” And Herod had a plan. He sent the wise men to Bethlehem to do the work of hunting down the Christ child. He told them to come back and “bring me word” when “you have found Him” so that “I too may come and worship Him.” It’s a pretty good plan, except for God has other plans. And God used Herod and the Scriptures and the star to lead the magi to Jesus.
“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.”
Herod’s plan did not work. We know what his Plan B was: to murder all of the boys born in Bethlehem in the last two years. Herod’s soldiers put all the baby boys to the sword except one: for once again, God thwarted Herod’s plan, and the Holy Family fled to Egypt on the advice of the “angel of the Lord.” The Herod family did not love anything about the nation they ruled. They only loved power. They did not even love their own family, and they would murder each other in order to keep power. But God protected the real King Jesus, and Mary and Joseph, from harm.
The way the wise men are illustrated in art is not biblically accurate in the sense that we don’t know how many there were, or that they were kings, or what they looked like. But again, if you’re going to paint a picture or make a sculpture, you have to picture them somehow. Christian art is a confession. For the wise men are teaching us something – and they are teaching us about the most important subject of all: our Lord Jesus Christ.
In
showing them as kings, we see an image of Jesus that is biblical. For in the Book of Revelation, Jesus is
revealed as “King of kings” and “Lord of lords.” Even kings take off their crowns to bow
before King Jesus. And even the phony
kings of the Jews, like the criminal Herod family, will bow down before King Jesus
and acknowledge Him. They tried to kill Him,
but they will be judged by Him.
And we see three wise men in our art. This is helpful because there are three gifts that they are bringing. But it is also helpful because in former times, mankind was divided into three races. And we often see the wise men shown as these three races: European, African, and Asian. For Jesus has come as not only the one born as the King of the Jews – as the wise men confessed at His birth, and as Pontius Pilate would confess at His death – but as the King of all: Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is even the king of Pagan priests who look into the sky for signs. We don’t know for sure, but it is also likely that the wise men from the east had the Old Testament scrolls, and they were not only guided by the stars, but by the Word of God. For the Jews were exiled in Babylon for seventy years, and the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians.
However they found out, these magi – these Pagan priests, these wise men from the east – made their way to Bethlehem, and were part of God’s plan to reveal the birth of Jesus to the whole world. And interestingly, God used these Gentile foreigners to announce to the Jews and their rulers that the King of the Jews, the Ruler and Shepherd of Israel, had been born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet Micah said He would be. And we see the most powerful men in Jerusalem having no power at all over this baby, His mother, and His stepfather.
But again, dear friends, the most important thing about the wise men, and about the art that we have that depicts them, is that they are bowing to worship Jesus. For Jesus is not only the King of kings and Lord of lords, He is the Lord God, the Word Made Flesh. This was revealed to the magi, and they do, in fact, fall down before Jesus, and they worship Him. It is in this worship that they offer Him their finest treasures.
These foreigners, these Gentiles, these Pagan astrologers, are indeed “wise men,” for the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” They are our teachers, for they teach us who Jesus is, and that we should worship Him as well. We bring Him our gifts. We confess Him as the Christ, the King of the Jews, but also the King of all men, the King of all creation.
And even in this year of our Lord 2025, to say that “Jesus is King” is offensive to some people: the Herods of this world who are invested in their own power, and to Pagans who – unlike the magi – refuse to worship and confess Jesus as Lord. But we are wise to learn from these wise men, to fall down before our Lord Jesus Christ, to search the Scriptures, and to search the world, for where Jesus is to be found, to come into His physical presence, to confess Him as King and to worship Him as Lord.
Wise men “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” the powerful and the lowly, Jews and Gentiles, men, women, and children, do as the magi: they go to where Jesus is present, and they worship Him. For He is not only our King and our God, but also our Savior: the Savior of the Nations who has come to save us, shepherd us, rule us, and ransom us.
“Behold, the Lord, the Ruler has come, and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand.”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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