Mining Grace

I’m preaching my first “Christmas” sermon tonight at our Christmas Eve sermon.  I decided to focus on the wise men.

You would be surprised at how little we know about these guys.  For example,

1. There weren’t necessarily three. They offered three gifts but there could have been 20 of them as much as there could have been two.
2. They weren’t kings. Apparently the song, “We three kings of Orient are” assumed they were kings because of their portrayed dress in early Christian paintings.  They were definitely religio-philosophers of the star gazing sort.
3. We really don’t know what country they were from. They may have been Medes, Persians, or Chaldeans.  All we know is that they came from the East.
4. We don’t know how they heard the Jewish messianic prophecy that brought them to Jerusalem.
5. We don’t know what the “star” exactly was. It could have been a star, a planet, a comet, or something else.
6. From all apparent Biblical accounts they probably weren’t at the manger the night Jesus was born. Context leads us to believe they showed up a few weeks later before Jesus’s family left Bethlehem.  Sorry to spoil your manger scene.

But what we do know about them — little that it is — points us to the fundamentals of the gospel.

1. They were Gentiles. It is amazing that these non-Jews were the chosen delegation to great the arrival of king Jesus.  The gospel is for  people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.
2. They weren’t offended. They walked into Jesus’s humility and poverty.  They didn’t think they had the wrong house.  The humble servant of the Lord didn’t offend them in the least. The gospel is about a Savior who though he was rich became poor that we in his poverty might become rich.
3. They worshiped. You find in the Magi of Matthew 2 arguably the most intense worship of Jesus that side of his resurrection.  They saw him, fell prostrate before him, and worshiped.
4. They showed Christ exalting generosity. They gave him gifts.  Gold for a king.  Frankincense — commonly used in temple worship — for someone in close relationship with God.  Myrrh — used for preparing dead bodies — or a man who would one day face the grave.

The little we know about these wise men points directly to the truth of the gospel.  Christmas  myth tends to cloud the gospel clearly presented in the birth of our incarnate Lord.

May you this Christmas take the advice of the song “O  Holy Night”, and “fall on your knees and here the Savior calling, for Christ is born.”