Day 21, The Christmas Story - Pagans

Good Christmas Eve morning! I know you all are ready for tonight and tomorrow (haha). This is the day you try to get all the little things pulled together. Maybe some of you are doing a lot of cooking today or tomorrow. I'm looking forward to my family being here tonight and tomorrow. We'll play games and eat and play some more and laugh a lot.

Well, today we are going to talk about the "wise men". Actually when the wise men came to Jesus “Christmas” was over. They didn’t come to the manger, but actually to Jerusalem, and then later to a house where they found Jesus with his mother. Sorry to burst your bubble at the outset, but here we go...

Matthew 2
1 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.”


We see three men (actually the Bible never says three, that part is legend - sorry to burst your bubble again) coming from distant lands, actually they were pagan astrologers, who traveled hundreds of miles to see this newborn “King of the Jews”. They showed up in Jerusalem after weeks or even months of travel, asking where they could find the newborn King of the Jews? All the people in Jerusalem became “deeply disturbed”. Knowing how religious the Jews were, and especially the spiritual leaders, they were probably quite taken aback by these pagans coming into their Holy City and asking where their newborn king was. In their arrogance, some of them probably thought “how dare a pagan Gentile come to us and tell us the king of the Jews is born! What do they know about our prophecies and about our God? We are God’s chosen people. Don’t they realize that we would have known it if our Messiah had been born?”

But these astrologers had obviously been watching the star as it arose and had been studying it and following it. Herod eventually caught wind of what was going on in the city and became very concerned, and called for a private meeting with these astrologers. I find it very interesting that they were knowledgeable enough about Jewish prophecy, that they came to seek and worship this king from hundreds of miles away, yet the king of the Jews didn’t even know his people’s own beliefs and prophecies? He had to consult the spiritual leaders. These unclean Gentiles knew of the prophecy and believed it and traveled that far to see this king and, not only to see him, but to worship him and bring him gifts.

7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”


In an act of strategy, he invited the wise men for a private meeting. Don’t you know he wined and dined them? He learned all about when the star first appeared, about their background as astrologers. He picked their brain for every bit of information he could get. He feigned interest in their astrology and hung on every word. Then he commissioned them to go search for this baby, and when he was found, he asked the men to please come back and tell him so he could go and worship him too. We all know Herod never intended to worship Jesus. He was gathering information. Herod was probably beside himself wanting to know where this supposed king was. He wanted nothing and no one to overthrow his rule. He had even had some of his own wives and children put to death if they dared cross him in any way. He was ruthless. He was a paranoid, power hungry man, and he had a plan.

Today what strikes me about this section of the story is that, in our arrogance, and in our “spiritual knowledge”, we as Christians can sometimes have an appearance of being “holier than”. We forget our holiness is in Christ alone, and that sometimes he speaks his truth even through unbelievers. He spoke through a donkey in the Old Testament, so I’m sure it’s not too hard for truth to come out of the mouth of even unbelievers. Truth is absolute and truth is His, no matter what mouth it comes out of. It is us Christians that are sometimes too proud, too knowledgeable, too spiritual, to admit that we totally lost focus of the main thing – finding Jesus and worshiping him. No wonder sometimes we are ridiculed by unbelievers. If we have any form of arrogance, we should be ridiculed. God himself hates our arrogance. And so will the people around you that are looking for Jesus. They won’t want any part of what you think you have to offer, that is, if you are willing to offer it at all.

As this Christmas Eve is upon us, I pray we would re-evaluate our “Christianity”. Is it truly a humble walk with the Lord? Or is it an “I’ve got it together”, “no pagan’s gonna tell me anything I don’t know”, “I’m God’s chosen, who are you?” attitude. If we do not approach this new year with absolute humility before God and before all those around us, we will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the coming year for Christ! I pray that the first thing on our list of New Year’s “resolutions” is humility before God, being open to being used by him in whatever way he wants to use us. Remember, the only knowledge we have, the only spirituality we have, the only salvation we have is because of that baby the pagans took months to travel to find, when nobody in Jerusalem bothered looking. We are no different than any unbeliever, because all we have is from God, and that same grace is available to them too. And some of them will be seeking him this coming year. The question is, will you help them to find him?

I pray this is your most blessed of Christmases. There will not be a post tomorrow, but there will be one on Saturday. I pray that quiet awe will begin to surround you as the darkness sets in tonight and that your heart will be silent before your King and that you will feel the quiet holiness of this season. Tonight, set aside some time just for him, just for the king. Give him the first gift of Christmas - yourself. Before you go to bed, go outside in the dark and look up into the sky. Look into the same stars that were in the sky 2000 years ago on the night Jesus came to us and realize he is still with us - Emmanuel.

Merry Christmas,
Teresa