Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : January 9, 2005
Worship the King
Epiphany
There is a legend of an Arab who died and left his seventeen camels to be divided among his three sons. One was to receive one ninth; one was to get one half; and the third son was to inherit one third of the camels. Seventeen camels, however, aren't evenly divisible by three. Hence the three sons argued long and loud about what to do. In desperation they agreed to let a certain wise man decide for them. He was seated in front of his tent with his own camel staked out back. After hearing the case, the wise man took his own camel and added it to the other seventeen camels. He then took one ninth of the eighteen, or two camels, and gave them to one son. To another he gave one half, or nine camels. To the third he gave one third, or six camels. On top of it all, he still had his own camel left. So this wise man was known far and wide for his generosity in giving a gift and his wisdom not only by resolving the dispute but also by getting his camel back.
This story can teach us a thing or two as we look at the Wise Men of the Bible. They, too, were generous and wise, but what they received from Jesus was worth much more than a camel -- from Jesus they received eternal life. On this Epiphany Sunday we join the Magi to Worship the King. In doing so we Seek the King of the Jews and the Gentiles and Find the Savior of the World.
Wise men came to worship the baby Jesus. Whenever I read this account from Matthew, some questions always come into my mind. Who were these mysterious men called the "Magi"? Why did they follow the star? Why would they be looking for the King of the Jews? What were frankincense and myrrh?
Who were they? Contrary to popular belief, they were not kings, but they were Magi, probably members of a group of scientists or astrologers known as "wise men" from ancient Persia or Arabia. Also contrary to popular belief, there weren't necessarily three of them. This is only guessed at because they brought three gifts to give to Jesus. Why did they know to follow the star and why were they looking for the King of the Jews? Our best idea is that these wise men had been influenced by the prophet Daniel who was actually put in charge of the group of wise men when he was a captive in Babylon five hundred years earlier. Undoubtedly, he had told them about the coming Savior. In any case, God somehow let them know that this star would lead them to the King of the Jews. We know some things about the gifts they brought. Gold was obviously very precious, but frankincense and myrrh were often worth even more than gold. Both are really a dried sap from trees that grow in Africa and Arabia, were extremely rare and so very expensive, and were prized for their sweet smell when burned. Frankincense was burned as incense in worship ceremonies to various gods, so we can see that the Magi saw Jesus as the true God. Myrrh was used in embalming bodies for burial, so this would have pointed to the fact that Jesus was human and would die. Were the Magi shown ahead of time that Jesus would have to die? We don't know. The fact is, we just don't know that much about the Wise Men. The Bible doesn't tell us.
But the Bible is clear on what the visit of the Magi signifies. The Magi were Gentiles; but they sought the King of the Jews to worship him. Why would they want to find a king that was really not their king? That is what the story of the Magi reveals to us: that Jesus is the king of both Jews and Gentiles. Jesus is the king of all.
How can we be so sure that this small child in Bethlehem is the king of all people? We can be sure from the prophecies that were made about the child, the coming Messiah. The prophecy quoted in our text tells us the King of the Jews would be born in Bethlehem. This is just one of many prophecies made about this child. Not many of Jesus' own people of the Jews knew who Jesus was. Most of them would reject him as their king; in fact, that is why he was crucified.
The Magi are called "wise men" not just because they were learned and educated, but because they had true wisdom -- they knew Jesus was their Savior. As we join the Wise Men in coming to worship our Epiphany king, we will also find the Savior of the World.
Consider the picture that these Magi would have cut. Here are some well-respected men, men who would be the equivalent of today's scientists or leading citizens, men who would be admired for their wisdom and praised for their knowledge and understanding. But here, in a house in the small town of Bethlehem, these leading citizens got down on their knees and probably pressed their faces to the floor as they demonstrated their complete servitude to and humble honor of -- a baby! A small Jewish baby was being worshipped by grown, respected men! Such a scene would probably make us laugh out loud if we happened to be passing by and looked in to see what was going on.
We as Christians find ourselves in somewhat of a similar situation today. Unbelievers still look at the idea of Jesus being the Savior from sin as sheer nonsense. We can undergo intense ridicule from co-workers or friends by saying that this small child born in Bethlehem was God's own Son sent to redeem mankind from sin, death and hell. Satan would like nothing better than to make us feel ashamed at being a follower of Jesus and a worshiper of Jesus.
We aren't attacked for the fact that we worship Jesus, but also in how we do it. How is your worshiping of Jesus going? Have you left your worship of God at times and instead worshipped yourself and your own sinful pleasures? How easy it is for us to think we're going along just fine in our worship of God in our lives, but that worship becomes just a time of going through the motions. We might come to church, but we let our mind wander as God is telling us his word. Make no mistake -- God doesn't want that kind of half-hearted worship. He wants your heart and soul and body to serve him in everything. How about the gifts you give to your Savior? The wise men dropped everything to bring Jesus the most precious of gifts. Can we say the same of us, or do we have to admit that often our worship of Jesus and the gifts we bring him come up short of what he deserves?
Just think of the time you spend on different things in this life -- your schooling, your job, raising your kids, entertainment, getting to know others, etc. True, while you're doing that, you can still be serving your Savior. But if you would stack up all the time you've spent on yourself and things you want to do, and then compare that to all the time you've spent on God by learning his Word, by worshipping him in your life, how would those two stacks compare? How much have you worshipped yourself as opposed to worshipping your Savior? I don't know. And maybe you don't even know because you haven't thought about it much. But God knows. And if the truth be told about how many times we've missed opportunities in worshiping our Savior and spreading the message of his salvation to the world, I think we'd all be very embarrassed.
But that's why you're here this morning -- to hear once again what God wants you to know. God became a human being. Where we failed in our worship, Jesus worshiped God perfectly his entire life. God's Son Jesus would then bring you a gift beyond your wildest dreams. Instead of pointing you to your two stacks of worship to yourself and worship to God, he points you to another stack -- his pile of 100% worship to God, and he gives it to you as a gift. He did that when he suffered and died on the cross. When God raised him from the dead, it showed that now God looks at you as having not one single time when you worshiped yourself, but 100% of the time worshiping God because Jesus did it for you. That means heaven is yours.
That means we will want to live every minute of every day worshiping our God for his love and the salvation that is now ours through believing in Jesus. After what our Epiphany king has done for us, how can we be ashamed of worshipping him with our whole lives? Paul's words to the Romans echo this thought exactly: "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes -- first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."
With the Magi we will look for every opportunity to worship our Epiphany king with our whole lives because he is our Savior. Amen.
