Gifts for God
Matthew 2:1-12
Psychic predicts! As research for today's sermon I went to my local grocery to find out what is going to happen in 2007. “Noted psychics and astologers" laid out their predictions for the year, and, of course, I wanted to know what to expect. Among my favorites...(drum roll please)...K-Fed, Brittany’s ex-husband, will become a T.V. preacher, which doesn't speak too well of preachers. Wait, there's more: Sylvester Stallone will be mugged and beaten, which doesn't speak too well for movie boxers. And, finally, David Letterman will attempt to woo Paris Hilton, which doesn't speak too well for David's taste in girlfriends.
You may be wondering why I'm talking about psychics and astrologers and predictions. Well, let me say up front: I don't buy any of it. I think it is a made-for-media money scam to sell the Star and the Enquirer. Let me also say, however, that Matthew does seem to buy into it. That is, the magi were most likely astrologers and Matthew uses them as evidence to testify that Jesus is the Christ.
Contrary to virtually every nativity scene any of us will ever see, scholars believe no star shone directly on the stable. Rather, the magi, as astrologers, "read" the heavens and discerned the birth of a Jewish King. The reasons scholars believe the magi were astrologers and that no star was shining directly over the stable are that, first, the magi went to the capital, Jerusalem, the logical place to find the Jewish king, yet why go to Jerusalem if a star leads one directly to Bethlehem? Second, Herod and his advisors didn't know where the star was leading and had to search the Scriptures to discover where it was pointing because the star wasn't specific enough in giving its location. Third, the magi's visit was at least a couple of days after Jesus' birth: surely the folk of Bethlehem would have noticed a huge star illuminating a single house for that long a time. So, given all this, it seems most credible to believe that the magi possessed some astrological knowledge and used some investigation to learn what they did not know.
The magi need to be understood in the context of Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story. Matthew seeks to prove, through a variety of evidence, that Jesus is the Christ. Six times in the stories about Jesus' birth Matthew quotes the Old Testament prophets who had written four to eight centuries before Jesus' birth. "This was in fulfillment of..." and, “As it is written by the prophet..." are favorite quotes for Matthew. It is Matthew who tells us certain events occurred in order to fulfill Scripture:
What Matthew is doing is seeking to prove through the Old Testament prophets that Jesus is the Christ.
But Matthew also tells us five times that the Holy Spirit directly intervened in people's lives to protect the baby Jesus and his parents. Listen to how Matthew highlights the miraculous intervention of God in the birth of the Messiah:
What Matthew is doing is seeking to prove through the increased work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is the Christ. And now, in the story of the magi, Matthew tells us that even the stars, the best science of the day, testified that Jesus is the Christ.
The problem with astrology, of course, is that it is notoriously inaccurate. Even ancient thinkers realized astrology wasn't reliable and it was soon abandoned as a science by most rational people. But at the time, astrology was the best science the ancients knew, and it foretold the birth of the Jewish King. Even something as random as astrology gets one right every once in a while. Matthew tells us this is one of those times. Not only the Old Testament prophets, not only the work of the Holy Spirit, but also the Creation itself testifies that Jesus is the Christ.
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The interesting thing about the magi, beyond the fact that they came to Jesus, is what they brought to Jesus. The gifts of the magi, the gifts for God, tell us something about who Jesus is and they tell us something about how we are to respond to Him. The magi's gifts tell us three things about Jesus. They testify about Jesus that He is a King, that He is a Priest, and that He is One Born to Die.
The first of the magi's gifts testifies that Jesus is a King. In much of the ancient world no one could approach a king without a gift. And gold, the king of metals, is the gift fit for a king. But Jesus is not like other kings, for He reigns not by force but by love. He rules over hearts not from a throne but from a Cross. Yet, He is a king and so we can never come to Him seeking equality but as those giving our submission and pledging our obedience.
The second of the magi's gifts testifies that Jesus is a Priest. Frankincense was the perfume burned in Temple worship to symbolize prayers to God. As the incense rose up to the Temple ceiling it was a symbol of the prayers rising up to God as well. In the Temple, the priest represented all the people as he sacrificed on their behalf. In a sense the priest was the mediator, the bridge, between God and the people. No one could know God's forgiveness unless the priest had sacrificed on their behalf. Jesus Christ is the bridge between us and God. It is through Jesus' sacrifice that our sins are forgiven and we are able to enter the Father's presence. Paul has a wonderful passage in Romans chapter 8 in which he asks the question, "Who is in a position to condemn us [for our sins]?" And the answer comes back, "Only Christ. And Christ died for us. Christ rose for us. Christ reigns in power for us. Christ prays for us" (Romans 8:34).
The third gift of the magi testifies that Jesus is One Born to Die. Not only did Jesus sacrifice Himself for our sake, but this is the very reason He was born into this world. Myrrh was used to embalm the bodies of the dead. In the gospel of John, the story is told of Mary, sister of Lazarus, who came to Jesus six days before His death and anointed His feet with myrrh to prepare His body for burial. Sure, Mary's anointing was literally a little early, but John intends for us to understand that the myrrh was used as a sign pointing to the inevitability of Jesus' death. Jesus was born to die that the power of sin in our lives might be broken and that we might live in the power of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the magi tell us who Jesus is: He is a King, a Priest, and One Born to Die.
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Yet, the magi's gifts also tell us how we are to respond to Jesus. From very early in the life of the Church the gifts were understood to represent ways we can respond to God's blessing. Gold represents our treasure. Frankincense represents our prayers. Myrrh represents our devotion. In response to Jesus Christ, in response to who He is, we give our gold, our frankincense, and our myrrh. In this worship service, we will give our treasure during the offering. We have already given our prayers and will do so again. And as we prepare ourselves to go forth into the world as God's people to shine God's light, I encourage us to give our devotion: may we remember and celebrate what God has done in Jesus Christ and in response give our devotion. May we remember that Jesus' blood was poured out as a sacrifice for sin and in response may we pour out our hearts in adoration to Him.
The greatest gift we can give to Jesus is the gift of our self. We are invited by Jesus to give ourselves to him. To give our minds as we study the Scriptures. To give our bodies as we seek to follow the commandments and be moral and ethical in what we do. And to give our hearts. Of all the ways we give ourselves to God, I think the one of which we need to be reminded most often is to give our hearts.
I find that, for many people, we come to church and participate in religious life sincerely and faithfully, but routinely. By this I mean we can come to church and accept certain beliefs about God and commit ourselves to living a moral and ethical lifestyle sincerely and faithfully in the best sense of these words, yet still lack the spark, the freshness of an intimate love of Jesus.
The human analogy for what I am trying to describe can be found in most any marriage. In a marriage we can know our spouse and accept our spouse. We can commit to sharing certain work and to living a common lifestyle. And in the midst of this routine of marriage and the busy-ness of our lives and the multiple commitments upon our time, we can lose touch with our devotion to one another. We can lose touch with that spark of love we have felt from time to time and the intimacy of sharing our hearts with one another. It isn't that we are being unfaithful in our marriage but that one part of our self is being strangled and needs to be renewed. When this happens, we need to take time to focus in on one another. This is why we have anniversaries and weekends away and babysitters. In a similar fashion, we can be faithfully religious and yet lose sight of the vital gift of a relationship with Jesus in which we tell Jesus of our love for him and absorb the assurance of his love for us. When was the last time you prayed and all you did was tell Jesus that you loved him? Prayed and all you did was whisper sweet nothings in his ear? We give our treasure and offer our prayers, but they mean nothing without our devotion.
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I'm no psychic. I can't tell you if K-Fed is going to make a good preacher or how badly Sly is going to get beat up or if Dave and Paris will stick, but I can tell you what will happen as we give our hearts to the Lord. What will happen is that we will find a love the grabs our hearts like they have never been grabbed before. We will find the One whom prophets foretold. We will find the One to whom the Holy Spirit draws us. We will find the One for whom Creation itself sings her song of beauty. We will find the King, the Great High Priest, the One who died for you and for me.
We will find Jesus.
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