Lessons from the Magi

(CFRA broadcast date: December 4^th, 2011 - #655)

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Broadcast Notes:

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Lessons from the Magi

Theme from: Matthew2:1-12

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A survey a few years ago asked people if they were looking forward to Christmas.

While most answered "Yes," far too many said "No."

When asked why, they gave a variety of answers,

"Christmas reminds us of things that ought to be, but are not. Christmas is a time of love, but we feel very unloved."

"Christmas is a time of giving, but we don’t want to give, or can’t afford to give.

Christmas is a family time, but there is anger & hostility within our family circles."

You see, Christmas is a time of peace & good will, but too many are at war with themselves & with others.

This caused someone to rewrite the words of a familiar Christmas carol:

"O little town of heartaches,

how troubled we see thee lie.
Throughout thy deep & dream-tossed sleep

our fears go marching by.
And in thy dark thoughts dwelleth

our everlasting fright.
The dread & tears of all the years

are visiting tonight."

The Christmas Challenge

·         To impart not impress!

·         Give your treasure to God!

1   Three Reactions

·         The Reaction of Anger  

According to all the standards of the world, Herod was an

immensely successful king. (47 BC – 4 BC.

Born into a politically well-connected family, Herod

was destined for a life of hardball and power brokering.

He ruled for more than 40 years – until he clashed

with another King – one who was also called,

The King of the Jews.

          

Herod exhibited 4 classic characteristics:

1.    Preoccupation with Power.
Herod was addicted to power.

At 25 years old, he was named the governor of Galilee,

a high position for such a young man.

The Romans were hoping that Herod could control the Jews who lived in that area.

In 40 B .C. the Roman Senate named him “King of the Jews.”

It was a title the Jews hated because he was anything but religious.

2.    Preoccupation with Possessions.
Herod wanted it all.

He wanted everything a Roman Caesar had.

Herod built

·         7 palaces

·         7 theaters ­ one of which seated 9,500 people. 

·         stadiums for sporting events ­ the largest could

      seat 300,000 fans!

·         He even constructed a new temple for the Jews.

3.   Preoccupation with Prestige.
Herod loved to make an impression

·         He built entire cities with state of the art  architecture and

     amenities and named them after his superiors.

Several of his 10 marriages were prestige-oriented and

politically motivated. He once married the daughter of his leading

rival in order to gain prestige and power.

4.   Preoccupation with Paranoia.

Ever since an enemy poisoned Herod’s father, who was a king

himself, Herod was beset with paranoia.

He went to great lengths to make sure a secret ingredient

never ended up in his soup.

When he became king, he commissioned tens of thousands of slaves to build over

10 emergency fortresses, all heavily armed and well provisioned.

In addition, he established an elaborate network of spies.

Herod was insanely suspicious to defend his throne he had

his wife and two sons murdered

He eliminated any possible successors to the throne.

Caesar Augustus said of Herod 

‘It was safer to be his pig then his relative.’

He had all popular, prominent, talented, political and prestigious

People in Jerusalem imprisoned.

At his death he had them all Slaughtered…

He ordered that at the moment he died they were to die.

Thus there would be tears when he died one way or the other.

V 16-18 says he had all malechildren, living in Bethlehem

under the age of two years of age slaughtered…

·         The Reaction of Apathy

I can’t think of anything more insidious, or more destructive

than the spirit of Apathy.

·         It causes depression,

·         stifles our creativity,

·         stunts our spiritual growth

·         drains our energy.

It can take hold in every area of life where we allow it to grow,

and it can completely immobilize us.

God hates indifference the Religious Community

They were so engrossed

·         In Temple Worship

·         the beauty of the Temple

·         the power they had

·         that they missed the beauty of the birth the Lord of the Temple

·         The Reaction of Adoration

  the Magi

Historical Account

Herodotus says they were a Median tribe

Medes tried to defeat the Persian Empire

Their effort failed

However, they became in Persia exactly what the Levites were in Israel.

They became a tribe of priests.

The Median ‘Magi’ were the:

·         Instructors

·         Teachers

·         Holy men

·         Full of wisdom

2   Three Gifts

·         gold   for  a  king

·         incense for  a priest

·         myrrh for one who was born to die

In 1994, two Christian missionaries answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics in a large orphanage.

About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage.

It was nearing Christmas and they decided to tell them the story of Christmas. It would be the first time these children had heard the story of the birth of Christ. They told them about Mary and Joseph

arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.

Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.

When the story was finished, they gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger.

Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins that they had brought with them since no colored paper was available in the city.

Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw.

Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket.

A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt which the missionaries had also brought with them.

It was all going smoothly until one of the missionaries

sat down at a table to help a 6 year old boy named Misha.

He had finished his manger. When the missionary looked at the little boy’s manger, she was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger.

Quickly, she called for the translator to ask Misha why there were two babies in the manger.
Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, Misha began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending. He said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma

and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay.

Then Jesus told me I could stay with him.  But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did.

But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift.

I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift" And Jesus told me,

"If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him-for always."

Mishna means  ‘You Matter to me’

Ann Weems, wrote:

"It was a family treasure.

That golden vase, the priceless vase that had belonged to my great-grandmother & my grandmother & now to my mother.

The vase sat on the mantle, out of reach of little fingers. However, I managed to reach it. I climbed to reach it, &I broke it. I broke the family treasure.

"Then I began to cry in loud sobs that brought my mother running. I could hardly get it out. ’I broke the vase,’

I said. ’I broke the treasure.’

"A look of relief came over her face, & she said,

’Oh, I thought that you had been hurt.’ She hugged me, & made it very clear that I was her priceless treasure."

You see, the message of Christmas is that God is our Father, a forgiving Father who stands ready and anxious to take us to Himself because we are His treasures, created in His image, and loved by His Son.

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