Matthew 2:1-12 - What Does This Mean? - January 5, 2020

Out there in the world, Christmas is history. No more Christmas music on the radio; the trees are on the curb; the stockings are down; many stores already have their Valentine’s Day displays up. Baby Jesus is safely packed away until next Thanksgiving when he’ll be let out for another month or so. But in the Church it’s still Christmas. For Christians, the Christmas season doesn’t end until tomorrow – January 6th, the Epiphany of our Lord. But because I think I would have a really hard time convincing you to come to church on a Monday night in January, we are going to celebrate Epiphany – the Christmas of the Gentiles – today. We’re going to apply the classic Lutheran question to the account of these mysterious wise men, asking: what does this mean?

The first thing (that should be obvious – but often isn’t) is that we can’t answer the question “what does this mean?” based on what we don’t know. And there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t know how many wise men there were. All we know is that there was more than one because the plural is used. Christian artists and hymn writers have generally settled on three because they presented three gifts – but we have no idea. Not only do we not know the number of wise men, we’re not even sure who they were. In OT times wise men (μάγοι) were experts in astrology, medicine, and dream interpretation. Daniel was a leader of such an order (Daniel 2:48). In later times, the word “wise men” was used of scientists in general. So we don’t know precisely who the wise men were nor do we know precisely where they were from. The text says they came from the east, but what does that mean? Some think they were from Arabia, others from Babylon, others still from Persia. Again, who knows? The Bible doesn’t say so it’s not worth the time it takes to speculate. So we don’t really know who the wise men were, how many of them there were, where they were from, or even what the star was that they followed. Some say it was a comet, others an exploding star, and still others a rare alignment of planets. All that we don’t know about the wise men is intriguing, it makes for interesting discussions and reading – not to mention many misleading songs and artwork – but in the end, none of it matters. It is a major and all-too-common mistake to focus on what the Bible doesn’t tell us. It can’t help us answer the question “what does this mean?” Instead, we should focus on what the Bible does tell us. So what does God tell us in Matthew 2?

The Bible tells us that wise men followed a star for roughly two years (Matthew 2:16) that led them from somewhere in the east to Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. What does this mean? It means that God leads his people by means of things that are often at odds with science and reason. The only thing that makes sense is that the star first led them to Jerusalem. Kings are found in capital cities, but the star apparently didn’t identify the precise location. So the wise men did the very unmanly thing and asked for directions. Which Herod’s advisors provided by quoting Micah 5:2, which they followed to Bethlehem. That’s amazing enough, but even more amazing is that the star reappeared, and went ahead of them, until it stood over the place where the child was.

These wise men were intelligent enough to know that stars don’t stop and go, they don’t go on ahead of you, and they certainly don’t stop and beam down like a spotlight on a single house. The movement of the star did not make scientific or astronomical sense, but they followed it any way. Neither was it wise to go to Jerusalem and ask the king where a potential rival to his throne was, but they did that too. What does this mean? Well, don’t we do the same thing? Don’t we cast aside what we think, what we know, what we feel, what science tells us and instead go where Scripture points us; following where God leads us? There are all sorts of issues where society and so-called experts point in one direction and yet, led by God, we go in the opposite direction. For example, gender identity, abortion, homosexuality, the roles of men and women, the discipline of children, the origins of the universe. No, he doesn’t put stars in the sky to lead us to Jesus today, but he does still show us where Jesus is. We call them the marks of the Church. Do you know what they are? The Gospel preached and taught in truth and purity and the Sacraments administered in line with Christ’s command.

These are foolish signs that many if not most people – even many who call themselves Christians – ignore. Many, supposedly wise people, today think that Jesus is to be found where the greatest number of people are gathered, where the gathering feels the most spiritual, where the pastor has published multiple books or at least has an active Twitter or YouTube account, where there are the most programs for youth, for singles, for elderly, for couples. To suggest that Jesus can be found in the simple preaching of forgiveness because he kept the law and died to pay for our sins is, to many, unimpressive and not worth their time. To find Jesus in the plain water of Baptism is weak. To find Jesus in the bread and wine of communion is not only weak but unreasonable. But these are the ways God has ordained to lead people to himself today. If only we would have the eagerness and tireless determination to see baby Jesus in these means, instead of making up excuses, like Herod and his advisors, to avoid him – then we would truly be wise men and women and children.

The wise men followed the star to Jesus. And what did they do when they got there? Our translation says they bowed down and worshipped him. The Greek isn’t nearly so elegant. The original has them falling on their faces before Jesus. Imagine that! Wise men from the east – probably pretty important men in their own right – are brought to their knees by a child, a toddler, who hadn’t yet cast out a single demon, preached a single sermon, healed anyone or raised anyone from the dead. They fell down and worshipped a child who may have had a stinky diaper, drool on his face and dirt under his fingernails. It had to appear extremely foolish for these fully grown men to be worshipping a child.

What does this mean? They worshiped Jesus not because he looked different than other children, not because a halo hung over his head, not because angels hovered over his house sweetly singing. They worshiped him because the Old Testament had predicted this child (Numbers 24:17; Micah 5:2), had promised that God would stoop down out of heaven, would become a man – all in order to save sinners from eternal damnation. It was the fulfillment of these inspired words that made them fall on their faces and worship – even when their eyes and their reason might have been saying “move along, there’s nothing to see here; it’s just a child.” The Word, not sight, not science, not reason makes wise men out of fools; believers out of unbelievers.

So it is with us today. We meet our Savior in the three holy means he has given us: Baptism, Absolution, and Communion. Though they look ordinary, plain and weak, though there appears to be no power in them at all, we treat them as the holiest things in the world – just because God says so in his Word. “Baptism is not just plain water,” the Catechism says, “it is water used by God’s command and connected with God’s Word.” That’s why we steadfastly confess that “Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare” (SC Baptism I, II).

The same is true of Absolution. It is holy and precious to us – even as it is mocked by and offensive to the world. It is the voice of God through the lips of a man. When your sins are forgiven here they are also forgiven in heaven (Matthew 18:18). And when your sins are sent away, you stand holy and righteous before God – whether you feel it or not. The Absolution is the pronouncement by the Judge of the universe that you are not guilty in his courtroom – the only courtroom that matters. Absolution is a holy work, a holy event, an awesome privilege and gift from God that should bring us to our knees in thanks and praise.

And what’s true of Baptism and Absolution is also tangibly and visibly evident in Holy Communion. Here is Jesus on earth for us. But, as with the wise men, he conceals, he hides his glory. We don’t see Jesus’ glory in Communion any more than the wise men saw it in that child, but it’s there. When we sing Glory, Glory, Glory and O Christ, Lamb of God we can’t hear the saints and angels in heaven echoing those songs of praise – but we know they are, because the Bible tells us (Revelation 4:8; 5:12-13). Just as the wise men saw nothing but a toddler, so we see nothing but bread and wine, but like them we fall down in worship because our faith is not based on what we see but what God said.

After the wise men had worshipped, they opened their treasures and offered him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What does this mean? The simplest interpretation is also the most profound. Gold was given to kings to acknowledge their rule and authority. Frankincense was offered to recognize the presence of God. And myrrh was used to embalm dead bodies. So by their gifts, the wise men confessed this child, Jesus, as their King, their God, and the Sacrifice for their sins. It doesn’t get more profound than that!

What does this mean for us? Is Jesus your King? Do you find relief and escape from the political madness in our country bringing your daily petitions to the King who ruled from a manger and bloody cross 2000 years ago and who rules today invisibly from heaven and visibly through Water, Words, Bread and Wine? Don’t we still bring him our gold? Do you realize how foolish that appears to the wise men of the world? What the rest of the world treasures as the most important thing, we freely give back to our King. By our offerings, faithfully and cheerfully given, we are giving the very public confession that He, not money, rules our lives.

The wise men confessed child Jesus as true God by their gift of incense. What does that mean for you and me? Is Jesus your God, above, besides, and beyond which there is no other? In our world today that’s quite a confession to make. It’s blasphemy to Jews and Muslims. It is considered hateful and intolerant in our pluralistic culture to insist that your religion is the only true religion because your God is the only true God. And yet it is our confession (John 14:6) – foolish though it may sound to the world. Jesus is our God even though he is rejected by every other religion in the world. We know of no God, we worship no God apart from the flesh and blood of Jesus.

Finally, what kind of a gift is myrrh for a child? It would be like giving your child a shiny little urn or a nice solid wood casket for Christmas. What does this mean? It means that above all else we must see Jesus, even the child Jesus – cradled in his mother’s arms – as the one who would bear our sins and the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). We don’t give him myrrh, but we do give him our sins by confessing them to him. We give them to him rather than try to justify them or make up for them. And when we believe that he has washed them away in Baptism, sent them away in the Absolution, carried them to the cross and paid for them with the very body and blood we are about to eat and drink – we are worshipping Jesus as Savior just as sincerely and truly as the wise men did at that house in Bethlehem.

And so, while the rest of the world has packed Christmas away until next December, our joy and our faith are burning as brightly as ever – because our faith and joy are not built on emotion or reason or speculation about what the Bible doesn’t say. They are firmly grounded on what the Bible does say – which we get to by asking that simple question: what does this mean? Epiphany means that once again we get to see the light of the Gospel reaching to the ends of the earth making wise men foolish and foolish men wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15). Amen.