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Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.
Fellow redeemed: We know the story. The wise men saw the star in the east and came to Jerusalem. I want you to see the picture in your mind’s eye, of the magi and Herod, there in the throne room of the palace in Jerusalem. Now I want you to understand what the Scripture is telling you. None of those men had a right to be there. The magi, these were no followers of the one true God. They were scholars of many things, but they did not know God’s Word. They were not sons of Israel. No promise had been given them. And Herod, to whom the magi had come seeking the one who has been born King of the Jews? He did not qualify, for he had not been born to the throne he occupied. Over two thousand years before, God had promised Abraham that the world would be blessed through His line. A thousand years before Herod, the Lord God had sworn to David the son of Jesse that the king of the people of God would always be of his house and royal line. For a thousand years, through good times and through the many bad times too, it had been so; until now. Herod was not of the house of David. Herod wasn’t even a son of father Abraham. He occupied the throne because he had usurped it by gaining the favor of the pagan emperors of far pagan Rome far away.
Herod was king over the Jews, but no king of the Jews, no son of Abraham, no descendent of the royal line and house of David. Though he lived in the house, and sat on the throne, Herod had no right. God had promised father Abraham. God had promised his shepherd-king David. Herod was sitting in a seat which belonged to Another. And God always keeps His promise.
Herod had no right to the throne of David. The magi had no right to seek the true King. They had no right– but they had been invited. And beckoned by a star, by that angelic messenger shining before them, who had appeared to them two years before, they, unworthy though even the great men of the world are, they followed. They could not have known, they could not have come, but for the invitation. How could they have known, how could they have come, but for the bright, shining herald of the Lord?
Great men though the magi were, in the eyes of other men, before the God who is, they were lowlier even than the shepherds who at His birth had also been beckoned by a bright shining host in their night sky, made invited witnesses to come and worship the virgin-born Son of Mary, God’s only-begotten One, full of grace and truth, as He lay in a manger. So it had been that in the fulness of time the Good News of Jesus had first come to the humble shepherd Jews, and now in turn the nations from afar were beckoned, and the magi of the east, gentiles without any other right or claim were also gladdened by the beckoning herald shining and leading in their eastern sky. First to the Jew, then the Gentile, first to those through whom the Promise of salvation had been given, then to all mankind. Here in the early days of the Incarnation, Jesus is revealed to the nations of the east. And near the time when in the fulness of time Jesus would be lifted up in redemption for us on the cross, men would come from the west too.
They had no right but for the gracious invitation of the heralds of the Good News. The bright shining star the magi followed, what was it? I cannot say, for the Scripture only calls it by the name given to all bright things in the heavens, the word is ‘astare’ from which we get ‘star’, but our understanding of stars is too narrow a definition. What is this, but what the shepherds, earlier had beheld in their own heavens, the angelic herald of God. And what is an angel but a messenger? And what message is heralded here in the story of Christmas, and now of the shining, magi leading herald of Epiphany, but the great good news that there is now, at just the right moment, born to you in King David’s home city, the Savior, the One truly born King of the Jews, for He is by His human nature David’s royal son, and of all creation, for by His divinity He is the eternal King, Lord God, Creator of us all, Jesus!
And these heralds were by no means the last, for Jesus would call men, set them apart, and send them out, heralds of His Good News. There is born to us dying the Living One, God Himself who has reconciled us to Himself by His own perfect obedience to His Law which condemns us sinners, and by His death in our place, perfectly and forevermore fulfilling the penalty of our sin, and destroying the power of death over us, that we live in Him now and forever. What good news!
But how should the nations hear this good news unless one is sent? So it is that like sparks from a campfire the heralds have gushed forth, to Jerusalem and Judea and even to the ends of the earth. Till we too have been made a part of this story. As the shepherds watching their flocks in the field by night once saw a great sight, as magi far in the east beheld a star to lead them to Jesus, so now to every tribe and nation, to every tongue and ethnicity of mankind the angelic good news is heralded and we too are made glad by it.
Hearing it, the shepherds said one to another, let us go up to Bethlehem to see this great thing. Seeing it, the magi followed till with great joy they saw how in Bethlehem the star stood at last over the house where Mary and the Child were. Hearing the herald’s glad cry, what now shall you do?
Here a choice is given. For many follow Herod’s leading. He knew he was a fraud and without true right to the house of David. So he sought only to destroy and tear down and murder the Christ, and any who might ever bring such news. He sent to Bethlehem men who would present to the City of David’s sons gifts of sharp-edged steel, to murder and silence them. Many today hear the Good News of Jesus, but fearing that they are found out in their sin, do whatever they may to silence, to strike down, to choke off, the slightest whisper of the Gospel of Jesus. If not by destroying the pulpits and preachers, then by silencing the voice to their own ears.
But for every Herod, afraid to be revealed in his sin and fraud, there is a shepherd, who knows he has nothing to lose but his filth; and there is a wise man, who knows for all his silken robes and wondrous possessions he is a beggar still before the Creator, and they come, for the beckoning brings them, the words of the invitation of the Good News of Jesus quicken them to rise and follow and behold the Savior and receive the Good Things He gives, for Jesus comes with healing in His wings, bringing His own perfect obedience, His own perfect, all-atoning death, His own eternal Life, forgiving us, and where there is forgiveness there is also life and salvation. And broken hearts made new, and sadness given over to joy, and tears at last and for all, wiped away.
The shepherds, beholding Jesus, as the heralds had told them, went out proclaiming the Good News with great joy. The magi, coming in before the great Savior King of us all, worshipped and adored Jesus, and beggars though they knew themselves to be, they presented whatever had been placed in their hands, and they opened their treasures to Jesus, giving kingly gold, priestly frankincense, and prophetic myrrh. So do we, having received the herald borne invitation, having come into His house with singing and gladness, have met our Savior through His Word and Sacrament, and beggars though we are, we too open our treasures and bring such gifts as we have been given.
And with the magi, ’til the time we as they are beckoned on to our heavenly home, we abide in His presence. With the shepherds, having spread the Good News to all who would in our daily lives hear it, we return, again, and again. We open our little treasures as we are made able, but moreso, infinitely moreso we receive great Gifts from our Lord and Savior, the true Son of David, the fulfillment of the promise of Abraham, the blessing of all the nations, and our blessing too, even Jesus, our Savior-King. He meets us, and we are forgiven, and ever made new, and ever loved.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Amen.
