What benefit to the Wise Men?

Epiphany sermon preached at All Saints Jakarta on January 1, 2006

Bible readings: Isaiah 60.1-6; Ephesians 3.1-12; Matthew 2.1-12

This sermon is also available in MP3 format here.

It is a strange story, this visit of the magi. They come and go but don't seem to gain anything from the visit. They are not really welcomed by Herod, and the prophecy from Micah which redirects them to Bethlehem clearly excludes them. The King they have come to worship is to be "the ruler of my people, Israel."

But they come and show the child honour and worship and give various gifts, and then go home. The story does not suggest that they have been welcomed or included, in fact there is a hint of them being rejected. The story does not give us many clues to interpret this event. So what does it mean?

Or to say it another way, Why did God call them? We can appreciate that God was behind whatever they saw in the sky. We don't have to agree with, or even understand, how they came to the conclusion that a major event had occurred involving a new King of the Jews. But we can see that God brought them to Bethlehem. But why?

Perhaps God was lifting the lid on something. Perhaps he was giving a glimpse, a teaser, of his hidden plan. Because he had a plan, which he had made a very long time before, to include people like the Magi in his people. Far beyond any fears Herod may have had about a rival King, God's plan was to include people like the Magi as heirs together with Israel of the promises made to Abraham; to make them all members of one body; to share together in the blessings of Israel.

Perhaps what the Magi were acting out was something they did not fully grasp, but which later found its full expression in the African from the south who came to Jerusalem to worship the same King 30 years later and who heard from Philip about the meaning of the King's death from Isaiah 53. What the Magi were doing found a fuller expression in the Italian who found his way to Judea with the Roman Army and who heard the good news about Jesus from Peter (Acts 10). Or the Greeks who lived in Antioch (Acts 11) and who heard about the same King and believed in him.

About 30 years or so after the Magi visited the baby, a radical change happened among some of the people of Israel. It was a reversal of thought that brought people with an ethnocentric view of their religion to include Gentiles in their group. How did this happen?

Paul says it was by a revelation God gave to the apostles and prophets (Eph 3.5). God opened up the secret of his plan. He made it plain that the Gentiles were heirs together with Israel and were able to share in the same promises. He explains it in Ephesians 2.13 and onwards. Such an amazing plan is made possible because Gentiles have been brought near to God (and to Israel) through the blood of Christ. In fact it is not Israel but rather Jesus who is centre of this change. Christ has become a new human and has included in himself both Jew and Gentile. He has reconciled them together, and in his one body he has reconciled them to God. It was he who preached peace with God to both Jew and Gentile. And now all those who are included in the one body of Christ have access to the same Father by the same Spirit (Eph 2.15-18).

No wonder this new human, this body which includes people from all races, is on display to the spiritual rulers in the heavenly world. This body, ie the church, shows God's wonderfully varied wisdom (Eph 3.10).

So the Magi are like a trailer, an advance screening, of a future in which they are able to be included as subjects of the King. Within 30 or so years, people like the Magi were included equally in God's people as a result of the death and resurrection of this child they worshipped.

So if you had the same information as the Magi had, would you have made that trip with that baggage to worship that child? A hypothetical question of course.

But now that you have the information you do have, do you worship him? Do you give him gifts (actually he doesn't want gifts - he wants us to give our lives to him as a sacrifice - full of life and set apart for him alone [Rom 12.1-3]). And would you travel all that distance (or even a very short distance) with the full story in order to tell others about the uncovered plan - so that they too can be included?

Dale Appleby