Fear, Opposition, and Worship

This pastor was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for Epiphany 2025, January 5, 2025.

Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

You know, it's really tempting as a pastor in the aftermath of Christmas to reuse your old material. It's even more tempting when you've got these stories that come up every single year. I'm going to avoid that temptation this year, but I want to point out something that I think is important for all of us to hold on to.

The Three Gifts of the Wise Men

I like to talk about how there are three gifts brought by the wise men. How many wise men were there, by the way? We don't know. Good. Okay, you guys have been paying attention. The gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, were brought by somewhere between two and a billion wise men. We don't know the number. We just know there was more than one.

Those gifts have significance. Gold is a gift fit for a king. Frankincense, a gift fit for the high priest to use in the worship in the temple. And myrrh, a gift fit for embalming a dead person. Charming gifts to give to an infant.

Three Kinds of People in the Story

But today I want to talk about another three things that come up in our story. Not quite as obvious, but very important to our understanding of this story of the wise men who come and seek the infant Jesus in his home. There are three kinds of people portrayed in our gospel lesson today.

The first group are the people who seek the Lord in the scriptures. They believe that the scriptures are telling them something true about God. Today we're talking about the scribes and the priests. They choose not to follow him in fear of what it is that they must give up.

Herod has these people come. Unexpected visitors. Unexpected gift bearers. They come to Jerusalem following a star somehow. They're practitioners of arts which the Jews themselves are forbidden by the Old Testament to do. Astrology is not allowed for Christians or Jews. And he knows that. Yet here they are, this caravan of wise men, and they have come to bring gifts to a newborn king.

What does Herod do? He first turns to his scribes and priests. They give him the answer that is found in the scriptures. They know where the Messiah is to be born. When Herod asks them, they know the answer. So they read and know the scriptures, but they don't come to the Lord.

They're exposed to the truth. These men have shown up. It's a surprise to them. But this great truth, they are seeking this newborn king of Judah, of Judea. They're exposed to the truth that a great king has been born among them. They're consulted about where this great king might be. Is he here in Jerusalem? But he's not. They're able to give the answer in accordance with the scripture. They know their Bible.

But instead of responding to the announcement of this newborn king, this Messiah, this Savior, with joy, their reaction is fear. Why? Because King Herod is a dangerous man. If they do what is necessary in order to honor this newborn king, they are putting themselves at risk. They are losing their positions in his court, or losing their very lives.

King Herod is a dangerous man. He executes people on a whim. He's the one who, shortly after this episode, when he gets fooled by the wise men and they go home by a different road, his solution to "I don't know which of the kids in Bethlehem is the newborn Messiah" is to kill everybody two years old and younger. Then we don't have a problem anymore. That's the kind of ruthless man we're dealing with. And they know it.

They know the scriptures. They seek the Lord. They're too fearful to give up that which they must let go of in order to follow God.

The Second Group: Those Who Oppose and Reject

The second group of people in this story are those who seek the Lord in the scriptures also, but then choose to oppose and reject him. Here in particular, we're talking about Herod himself. We know he's ruthless. We know he's dangerous. But he also searches the scriptures.

When the wise men show up on his doorstep saying, "We're looking for the newborn king. Where is he?" his reaction is, "Oh, they must be talking about the Messiah." They don't say Messiah. They don't know about Messiah. They're not educated in Jewish teachings about the coming king. They just show up and say, "Where is this newborn king?" And Herod immediately turns to the scribes and the priests and says, "What do the scriptures say about the Messiah?"

He knows. He knows. He knows. He also searches the scriptures. He also believes that they are the word of God. He also believes that God must fulfill what has been prophesied through his Christ. But as soon as he hears about that, he is going to use what he knows to destroy God's word, to oppose his work, and to eliminate the competition.

Don't misunderstand Herod. He's no atheist. He believes in God. He believes what the scriptures have said. But he puts himself directly in opposition to it for his own selfish purposes.

The Third Group: True Disciples

So, our first person: those who know the Lord but they're afraid. The second: those who know the Lord but they oppose him. And the third kind of people in our story are the true disciples who forsake all things to find and follow Christ and worship him.

The funny thing about these guys, the magi, is that they don't have the scriptures. All they have is their natural intellect, their wisdom about the world. They use astrology, which isn't even something that we're allowed to use profitably. But they are convinced by the observations that they make that they are to travel. And so they do.

They don't understand who it is that they're going to see besides a great king has arisen. But they still go. They risk the dangerous road. They travel the long distance to meet this newborn king. So they don't have the scriptures, but through God's will and their understanding of nature, they seek to come to Christ. And they do.

Application to Our World

I would put to you today that similarly, in our world, there are at least three different groups of people that match these categories very well. First, those who believe the scriptures but they're afraid to give up what is needed to follow Jesus Christ. Second, those who believe the scriptures but they reject Christ. And then third, those who are the true disciples who are willing to turn loose of all else in order to follow Christ.

Let's talk about our first category: those who believe the scriptures but fear to follow Christ. Today, these are those who know that God has given Jesus, but they're too prideful or afraid to give up that which must be surrendered in order to follow Christ. Too afraid or prideful to give up their sin or the identity that they've couched themselves in the world's categories in order to put themselves squarely in their baptism.

They are those who are too proud to admit that God is found outside of themselves and instead believe the sort of commonly bandied about tripe that if you want to find God, just look inside your heart. Good grief. If you're looking for God, that's the last place you should look. Your heart is full of sin and death. You are a whitewashed tomb. You might look pretty good on the outside, but inside, there's nothing good in you.

It is God who gives you your righteousness and goodness. So it's not inside you. Don't go looking inside yourself. The only thing you'll find in there is your sin and the need for salvation that Jesus brings you.

No, the Christian truth is this: that if you want to find God, you must find him outside yourself. A word that comes to you externally. The word read and preached and proclaimed to you, which gives you knowledge of yourself and of God that you couldn't find inside yourself. The word must come from outside you. It must give you your identity in holy baptism. The word must come and actually feed and fill you at the Lord's table. This is not something we find in ourselves but rather something which God gives to us from outside ourselves.

But it's hard to do that because we're so prideful and fearful to give up the control over ourselves and our own sense of identity in order to put ourselves squarely in the hands of Jesus.

Those who believe the scriptures but fear to follow Christ are those who think that church and worship are unimportant because they can find what they need in the Bible when they need it. It's the cafeteria of religion where you take a little of this and a little of that, and it makes you happy, or at least you think so, until you find out that you've been misled.

They're those who are offended when the teachings of the church on sin and grace get crosswise of their own sin, and they find themselves in the wrong. And instead of saying, "My God, I was wrong about something," they say, "No, how dare you say that I'm wrong." And they oppose the truth.

This is also those who bemoan the collapse of society. Oh, and I hear this all the time, "Pastor, don't you think society is just falling apart?" Yeah, I do. What are you doing about it? I haven't seen you in church in a while. Don't just bemoan the collapse of society. Be a builder. Show up and build society up.

And this is self-deception. It's this idea of, "Well, I can't do that because I fear of what I might have to give up for that." Something as subtle and stupid as, "I fear to get to give up my sleeping in on Sunday morning." But certainly, there are alternatives to that. It goes a lot deeper. Maybe I have to give up my addiction to alcohol or my addiction and my compulsion to pornography or my need to make everything about myself and my narcissism or whatever that might be.

Those who are afraid to let go and let God be in charge are self-deceived and far from God.

Similarly, that second category also applies because there are people in our world who believe the scriptures but just reject them. And it seems strange to think that way. But you know, you'll notice that we had the Satanists put up a display in the Minnesota State Capitol building with their phoenix display and all this sort of thing. And their whole purpose of that, all of their imagery, all of their ideas, are about making Christian ideas and subverting them. That's all they're about. They don't actually even believe in Satan. They just believe in subverting Christ.

But it's not just the people who are obviously evil like Herod, obviously evil, obviously self-centered, or the Satanists in the Capitol, obviously evil and self-centered, trying to oppose Christ just because, you know, God says this, I'm going to go the other direction. But there are many in our community, even, who hear of what God is doing in the world in Christ and immediately want to oppose it.

People who want to destroy family and the family unit, those who want to destroy children and their innocence, who want to give our society up to secularism and undermine common decency, and they do it in the name of the lofty goal of personal freedom, as if personal freedom comes ahead of faithfulness to God and his word. They know that there's a God in heaven, and they know what's contained in his word. They just don't like it. And so they seek to go the other direction.

These two are also self-deceived and far from God.

The Faith of the Magi

And then the third category: those who are willing to be led by God in Christ. These are the Magi, the wise men from the east, the astrologers who are coming to investigate this phenomenon. They see a star that they don't understand, and they have seen the star at its rising. They know it means some great king has been born. And so they take all of these wealth, all this wealth and all this possession, the gold and the frankincense and the myrrh, and they load up a caravan of camels and they take off after it. They pursue it because they need to go and see.

And therefore, their faith is not complicated. They don't know the Old Testament scriptures. They don't know what Messiah means. They just know that something remarkable has happened, and it is their job to go and worship. And so they load up and they take off and they travel. And their faith is simple and trusting. It's not about sophisticated understandings of crazy deep Bible truths. It's just about the simple reality of knowing that there is a great one who has been born, and I need to worship him in spite of the obstacles, in spite of the distances that must be traveled, in spite of the dangers on the road. I mean, there's no highway patrol, and so you could get waylaid pretty easily. They go.

And can you imagine then, that's just as simple as saying, "Well, I showed up. Where is he?" Can you imagine how disappointed those men must have been when they arrived in Jerusalem? It doesn't tell us this, but I imagine them to be tremendously disappointed because when they arrive at Herod's palace in Jerusalem, what do they find? They find no infant in the royal bed chambers. They hear no crying from Herod's palace of a newborn king, a prince of the people that they've come to pay homage to. They find Herod, which is about as big a letdown as I can imagine. They find Herod. We know him already, and he's not a good guy, and he's not worth all of these gifts.

Their faith is tested. They've come all this way. They've trusted this star. They've gone through all these dangers and difficulties. And then when they get to Jerusalem, they find Herod. And then when they ask of the new king, they say, "Hey, we follow the star here because we believe that the star is a sign that a great new king has been born among you." And they ask, "Hey, what about this new king and this star in the sky?" Immediately, Herod starts asking about a messiah, whatever that is. And the advisors and scribes and the religious leaders aren't excited like they are. They're afraid. They're worried. They're apprehensive because this is not good. Herod is going to be really mad.

But instead of being discouraged by this, instead of saying, "Well, I guess we followed the wrong star. I guess we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Let's go back home." Instead of being disheartened by the reaction when they reach the great city, the holy city, Jerusalem, they press on. The messiah was born in Bethlehem. Well, that's not too far. That's like less than a day's walk from here. We can go there.

And then as they set out on the road, the star leads them past Jerusalem. It doesn't stop there. They don't leave it behind. It doesn't vanish. But the star continues and goes right over the place where Jesus laid. And so they go to yet another small town instead of a grand city, and they're looking still for this king whom they trust they will find.

And coming to Bethlehem, what do they find? They find that the star was not an apparition. It was not a figment of their imagination. It was not something that they can look at and say, "Well, I guess I was wrong." But rather, they find that it's true and it was of God and it had enormous significance. But they discover that the king of the people was not born in some beautiful royal house but was born in a stable. He was not clothed in splendor but he was clothed in humble clothing.

And here, these men who have traveled so far, these men who are wealthy and powerful, have come to pay homage to this newborn king. And they find instead this child, this tiny child, in Bethlehem of all places. And he doesn't look like a king. Were they offended at him? Were they offended that such a lowly one could be great?

You see, people of God, even when you come to God with your humble faith, your simple faith simply trusts the promise of God and says, "God has promised to meet me here, and so I will come." We still face challenges to our faith in this life. We struggle because we look to find God in that which is beautiful and powerful and important. We look for God in great signs and great actions. But where Christ is found is not great. Where Christ is found is not in a place of strength but in a place of humility. Where Christ is found is not in a place of grandeur but a place of simplicity.

And now here is the child that they've traveled so far to see. And instead of being offended by finding him in a lowly place, they believe that the supernatural king's supernatural sign is real and it's him. And they give of their gold and their frankincense and myrrh. And in so doing, they proclaim a truth that he is king and priest and that he will die for his people.

God's Promise

People of God, this is God's promise to you and me today. That the simple faith of those who trust God's word is what he welcomes. That those who trust the word and do not doubt it, who instead of making themselves lord over the word and saying, "No, I will be the judge of true and false, of right and wrong, and will see what the scriptures say and whether they agree with me," but instead saying, "No, the scriptures stand over me as God's word to me, speaking truth to me, and I will believe what God's word says of me because I trust him," who are not magisterial, ruling over the scripture, but rather treat scripture as ministerial, ministering to our hearts, those who seek Christ in his humility will find him.

All of us who seek him in the small and the forgotten and the lowly things, the broken and forgotten about things, all of us who realize our smallness, our brokenness, our need for salvation, and who turn in true faith to Christ will find him. Those of us who wrestle with our own doubts, with our own fears, with our own rebellious hearts, and instead of accepting that that's who we are, instead give that over to God in Christ, will find themselves strengthened for faith and service to others.

And that promise is true for you and me today. That God has welcomed all people in his church in order to give them his word. That he desires all people to be saved, and he has given all people, not just Jews but Gentiles, not just me but you, all people have been given his word so that you may wrestle with yourself. That when looking into yourself and saying, "My God, how could I possibly be saved, knowing the darkness of our souls," can say, "But the darkness is not the final word because the darkness has been overcome by the light of Jesus Christ."

So that you might wrestle with yourself and, knowing your weakness, cling to the strength of Christ and of God's promise in him. So that trusting in God's word, you may be saved. May you take solace in God's promise. May you have the simple faith of the Magi who trust in this sign and travel to pay homage to Christ.

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus, our Lord, to life everlasting. Amen.