Finding Your Way to Bethlehem: Joy

When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:10-11 CSB

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” Oscar Wilde popularized this proverb years ago and there is probably a grain of truth in the saying when it comes to Christmas carols. Most better-known carols have been arranged and rearranged to sound almost like the original but with enough difference to sell as a new song. According to music licensing company Music Reports there are 137,315 recorded versions of “Silent Night.” Followed closely by “White Christmas” with 128,276 versions, “Jingle Bells” with 89,681 versions, and “The Christmas Song” with 80,064 versions.

“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” comes in at number 9 with 56,552 versions but most people who hear the song still think about Bing Crosby’s original version. Since 1943 the song has stirred the emotions of many who find themselves not able to get home for Christmas. First sung by Crosby during World War II, the song conveyed the longing and sentiment of military personnel stationed far from home, many for the very first time away from home.

Forty-one years ago, just before Christmas, Connie and I packed our crates and in a couple of weeks would leave for the country of Bophuthatswana to serve with the International Mission Board. It had taken months for us to get ready; resigning jobs, selling furniture and cars, buying things we thought we would need, and then fitting everything into wooden crates. We were now spending the last Christmas in the United States for five years and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” became a new reality for us.

If you have ever moved, even across town, you know the logistical challenges, the struggles to find your way around a new location, and the loss of closeness with friends, neighbors, and family. You can only imagine the struggle that a group of wise men or magi had in getting ready to leave home in search of a king, with nothing more than a star to guide them to the location.

Matthew captured the story of this band of travelers and their journey to Bethlehem. Matthew, normally very meticulous about details, left out a lot of information but what he did write adds to the beautiful story of Jesus’ birth. He felt like we did not need to know the number of wise men, the exact location from where they came, or even their names. We simply needed to know they came!

Luke gives us the story of the shepherds who were societal outcasts and Matthew describes the Wisemen who were ethnic and religious outcasts, but both groups came to worship the true King. You can only imagine the scene when this entourage from a faraway country arrived in Jerusalem, laden with gifts and treasures to honor the new king’s birth. They didn’t sneak in the back door but rode through the main gate of Jerusalem in all their pomp and glory. The political and religious leaders of Jerusalem were thrown into total confusion and panic with the simple question, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?”

King Herod, the ever paranoid, political king was envious of anyone who could claim his title. His power was held through fear, intimation, and political maneuverings. When he was “deeply disturbed” then all of Jerusalem would be deeply disturbed. You can picture the fear and confusion on the faces of the priests and religious leaders when they were summoned to the court of King Herod as he demanded to know “where the Messiah would be born.”

The religious leaders knew all the information about where the king would be born. They quickly quoted Micah’s prophecy. “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” (Micah 5:2) What they had failed to do was to keep watch for the birth like this group of wise men had done. These leaders had grown comfortable in their positions instead of hungering for the things of God.

This group of wise men had started following the star but at some point, I wonder if they quit following the star and simply headed to the logical place where a king would be born. Jerusalem was the political and religious center of the nation and without a doubt the only place a king would be born. What they didn’t know was that God routinely works outside the logical, the normal, and the expected to accomplish his plans.

God used a group of foreigners, who were attentive, to force the very leaders who should have been watching for the coming Messiah to remember God’s promise. Matthew doesn’t tell us if the priests and religious influencers were excited to hear the news but most likely they were not because of how they responded to Jesus in years ahead.

The wise men left the capital and headed for the politically insignificant, commercially unimportant, and geographically isolated Bethlehem. They had learned their lesson and started looking up again. “And there it was—the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.”

These seekers from the East had found the King. Unlike the previous part of the story where they rode into the city with pomp and power, demanding answers, they now came before the true King “falling to their knees, they worshiped him.” Gifts worthy of a king were given – “gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

We are not told anything else about these men except they returned home but not the way they came. I’m thankful Matthew recorded the magi story because the full picture of God’s salvation story is being unveiled until the final chapter when “a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language” will stand before God.

God is great!