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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
After they had heard the king, they went on
their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it
stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were
overjoyed.
On coming to the house, they saw the child
with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened
their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to
their country by another route.
Matthew 2:9-12
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
It had been a quite a journey for the wise
men.
They started in a land somewhere to the
east of the holy city of Jerusalem. The scriptures really don’t tell us where
and perhaps that’s not what’s really important when we look at their story. For
the focal point need not be on where they came from but rather where they were
trying to go, something God’s word does spend a lot of time on, and rightfully
so since the Magi were trying to find Jesus, the newborn King.
The first stop in their quest was
Jerusalem. After all, if one was going to look for a Jewish king, there would
be no better place to begin looking because Israel’s throne was always seen as being
in the divine metropolis. But when the wise men arrived, they found that the
only king in Jerusalem was the appointed Roman ruler, Herod, who had his own
interest in the news that a child had been born who was considered the King of
the Jews. Unfortunately, Herod’s interest wasn’t to worship Jesus as he tried
to get the Magi to believe, but rather to eliminate him. And as we learned in
yesterday’s devotion, Herod had a murderous reputation, having even killed his
own family members. Killing a young child who he saw as a threat would not
trouble him at all.
And so Herod summoned his chief priests and
teachers of the law, consulting them as to what the prophecies of old had to
say about the Messiah, specifically where he would be born. Sharing the words
of the prophet Micah, Herod’s advisors shared that the Messiah was to be born
in the small town of Bethlehem, about six miles to the south of Jerusalem. With
that, the wise men set out from Jerusalem to finally find the child they had
traveled so far to worship and they were overjoyed when they looked into the
night sky and saw the same star they had followed to Jerusalem when they
traveled from the east.
But this time, the star’s path was
different because the scriptures tell us that it moved ahead of the Magi until
it was directly over the place where Jesus was. It was easy for them to find
them from there, not in a manger as so many nativity scenes get wrong, but in a
house as Jesus was no longer a baby and Joseph and Mary were no longer without
a place to stay. And when the wise men entered the house and saw Jesus with His
mother Mary, the scriptures say that they “bowed down and worshiped Him” before
presenting Him with treasures and “gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Note
they brought nothing but their best for Jesus because this Messiah, the Son of
God and Savior of the world, deserved nothing less than that.
Friends, as we get set to enter into a new
year, I pray that we take forward three main attitudes found in the Magi:
First, I pray we will never rest in our
efforts to seek and find Jesus, our Savior, the One we are to model our lives
after as Christians.
Second, I pray that we as we seek and find
Jesus, we may do so with the primary ambition to bow down and worship Him.
And finally, I pray that as we bow down and
worship Jesus, we’ll vow to bring Him our best time and talent and treasure, willing
to give everything up for Him just as He was willing to give up everything for
us.
Tomorrow, we look at a two part devotion on
ten New Year’s resolutions found in the scriptures.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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