“We three kings of orient are bearing gifts, we traverse afar.” So goes the words of the famous song, and the song we’re going to sing after the sermon today. I think the gospel writer Matthew would take issue with it however. Most obviously is that they are not kings. They are of a foreign priestly class of diviners, astrologers. The idea that they were kings comes from a later application of Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60 to the birth story of Jesus. Second, Matthew never actually says how many of these wise men there were. The idea that there were three comes from the idea that each one was bearing a different gift, and there were three gifts.
The third issue is where these guys actually came from. Matthew just says from the East – not from the orient. It’s safe to say that the “East” Matthew had in mind was the immediate east – the Parthian Empire. We’ve talked about the importance of the Parthian Empire before and it is good to remember now. At the time of Jesus’ birth Parthia was declining a bit but it still covered about 1.1 million square miles of territory. In the first century it was about equal to Rome in power. I put a map in your bulletins that shows the Parthian and Roman Empires are side by side. Judea, where Jesus is born, is the eastern end of the Roman Empire. It was a bit of a buffer zone right up against the western end of Parthia. Neither empire could realistically conquer the other.
The distances between their power centers was just too great to muster the massive armies necessary. But Rome was an empire built around the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Controlling Judea was already a bit of a stretch, but it was strategically necessary. Otherwise they’d lose the land route to the southern end of empire. In other words, Rome needed Judea. Parthia would have liked to have had it, but did not need it.
The Herod family, of dubious Jewish descent, was sort of in power when the Romans came in and took control decades before. And the Romans found it beneficial to let the Herods stay and use them as puppet kings. Defending the eastern end of the empire against the Parthians was costly.
So, put yourself in Herod’s place. Some Parthian priestly officials come to you, you who have faked your family tree and are pretending to be the legitimate Jewish leader, and ask where was born the new king of the Jews? They say they want to pay him homage. But why pay him homage? Because these Parthian officials, your arch enemy, are nice guys? No! Of course not! For all appearances they have come to buy the favor of the newly born Jewish leader and swing Judea away from Roman allegiance and into the hands of the Parthians.
If you are Herod what are you going to do? You’re going to call in your equivalent of the CIA! You’re going to track these astrologers. You’re going to let them lead you to the target. And then you’re going to eliminate the target. The Herods may have been cruel, but they didn’t get to power by being stupid!
The story in Matthew is highly troublesome. The Parthian astrologers are warned by God in a dream. They give Herod the slip. Joseph is warned in a dream and he, Mary, and Jesus flee. When Herod realizes the treachery he has all the children in and around Bethlehem under the age of two killed.
How can God let that happen? Why should all those innocent families suffer like that? Indeed, if you ask those questions of Matthew’s gospel you get some very disturbing answers!
But Matthew isn’t interested in answering those questions. If it helps you feel better remember that Matthew is a theologian, not an historian. While some parts of Matthew’s gospel can be independently historically verified, what we read today cannot. There is no outside evidence of a star appearing, Herod killing the babies, or a trip by Parthian astrologers.
Matthew is, however, wanting to state some theological truths: Baby boy Jesus is bringing together two rival superpower empires. Foreigners – definitely non-Jews, come to pay homage to this savior of the world. Also, the Wise Men had good intentions. Their act of devotion was genuine. Even so, the powers that be weren’t happy. All too often in life innocent people suffer. Sometimes the saying, “Only the good die young,” is all too true. Innocent people suffer every day. We do well to keep that in mind. When we pray, when we buy things, when we vote, etc., keep in mind the full impact of your decisions. Power tends to protect itself. Innocent people often suffer as a result.
But the suffering of the innocents is not the end of the story is it? Will this baby boy Jesus grow up to become a hero whom all love as he rises to incredible power and stature, and live a long and happy and successful life? No. This baby boy Jesus will grow up. He will cause controversy. Though he doesn’t lift a finger to hurt, he himself will also be caught in the web of power and be an innocent sufferer.
That takes us to the three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Each one is symbolic. As We Three Kings gets right, gold is a royal gift fit for a king. While Jesus’ kingship will not be like any others, he will usher in the kingdom of God. Frankincense is a gift for a priest. Frankincense was used in temple worship as part of the sacrifices. Priests were the go-betweens between God and the people. Priests were the ones who pronounced forgiveness. Though Jesus never performed official service in the Jerusalem temple, he will fulfill all those roles.
Myrrh is the mysterious disturbing gift. The hymn says, “…its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom; sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb.” For myrrh was a burial spice. Its gift here at Jesus’ birth already anticipates the crucifixion.
If we put ourselves in Matthew’s story I wonder how Joseph and Mary felt about that gift? How would you feel you had a new baby and someone stopped by offering you a gift of embalming fluid for your newborn!?! Creepy!
And yet, this is perhaps a little joke in the Bible. These Parthian astrologers appear to be quite knowledgeable about what is going on. They have spotted what the Jewish leaders have not. They have recognized the birth of a new king. They have come to pay him homage. They have brought highly significant gifts. But this one they got wrong!
Jesus will die, yes. But do you need embalming spices for someone who will be dead only three days? Certainly not! The gospel of John makes a bit of a joke about that when the man Nicodemus brings a whopping 100 pounds of myrrh for Jesus’ burial! Jesus probably didn’t weigh a whole lot more than 100 pounds himself!
No, the resurrection is not anticipated in the three gifts. That will be the twist in the story that no one but Jesus himself predicts.
And for our lives today, some 20 centuries later, what does this text mean for our day to day lives?
Two things stand out to me. First is a challenge. The Parthians wise men were not citizens. They belonged to a rival enemy power. The Parthian wise men were also not Jewish. They were leaders of a pagan religion. Yet God chooses to connect with them in order to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
We cannot automatically dismiss those who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or any other religion. They are not unworthy of God’s notice. They are not unworthy of God’s love. While I will never teach something so foolish as, “all religions are just different branches of the same tree,” for that is utter nonsense, other religions are worthy of our respect, our notice, and our Christian love. We do not help ourselves, and we do not help the work of the gospel, if we fear them or attack them. Though we disagree about God in ways that are insurmountable, in Matthew’s gospel we see that God is quite capable of working remarkable things through them. All things are God’s. God will take care.
The second thing is to not underestimate the power of what God is doing. We hear this lesson over and over again, but we easily forget it. God comes to human form in Jesus. It will be God’s greatest and most significant act in the history of salvation. Yet Jesus is born in basically a military buffer zone to parents of no account. He will not be raised in a fine household. He will not have a fine expensive education. He will work with his hands, have dust on his feet from walking, and collect a group of followers; all of whom will betray him when he’s in trouble.
Yet no historian or religious skeptic can doubt that Jesus creates the largest and most significant organization in history – the Church. The movement Jesus founds will outlast the Parthian Empire. It will not only outlast, but help to bring down, the Roman Empire. It will go on to spread to every nation on earth.
Never ever underestimate how important or powerful a seemingly insignificant action can be. God works in unexpected ways. God has absolutely no respect for things that look powerful or important. Even the church itself cannot become cocky thinking itself grand and an end unto itself.
God works in powerful ways that the world misses utterly. Never dismiss an opportunity to share the love of Christ no matter how insignificant it looks. Never think anyone or any issue is too trivial to be important. None are.
God is working. God is working in hard and powerful ways all the time. Keep your eyes open. Be ready for the unexpected. And rejoice in the surety of God’s success.
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