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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The stars really were out last night—in Hollywood, for the 77th Golden Globes ceremony, or so I read on the internet this morning. However, the star we hear about tonight in the Epiphany Gospel Reading is not a celebrity, of course, but a miraculous light that God repeatedly used in connection with His Word to guide the wise men from the east to where the Child Jesus was, in order for them to worship Him. While in some ways our experience is different, in other ways it is the same. God uses His Word and miraculous means to lead us to worship Him. Tonight we consider the Epiphany Gospel Reading under the theme “God leads us to worship Him”.
The Epiphany Gospel Reading takes us back in time a little from the events that we considered on both the First and Second Sundays after Christmas, to some time after Jesus was born, circumcised, and presented to the Lord and before His family fled to Egypt. As when Jesus was born, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were still in Bethlehem, but we usually understand Jesus to have been older and His family to have been living elsewhere in the city. As the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew uniquely narrates, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, apparently knowing from early Old Testament Scriptures to associate a star with the birth of a special King of the Jews (Numbers 24:17), but not knowing from later Old Testament Scriptures to expect the birth of that King in Bethlehem (Micah 5:1, 3). And, God’s leading the wise men to Jerusalem in order to worship Him troubled Herod the king and all Jerusalem with him.
There is a “highly dramatic and significant” contrast here: presumably Gentile (or, “non‑Jewish”) wise men come to worship the newly-born King of the Jews, while Herod and the Jewish capital are upset at the thought of such a King (Lenski, ad loc Matthew 2:3, p.61). And, what is more, this Gospel account apparently is being presented by a Jewish author, writing primarily to Jewish Christians, and this Gospel account ends with Jesus’s apostles’ worshipping Him and being told to make disciples of all nations (or, “Gentiles”) (Matthew 28:17, 19). The events of the Gospel Reading certainly seem to fulfill the prophecy of tonight’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 60:1‑6) and Psalm (Psalm 72:1-15; antiphon v.18), with those from another country coming to worship God, bringing gifts such as gold and frankincense, and the events of the Gospel Reading could be part of the basis for St. Paul’s writing in tonight’s Epistle Reading (Ephesians 3:1-12) that the Gentiles are fellow‑heirs with the Jews.
The kind of “worship” of prostrating or falling down before someone holy, that the wise men said they wanted to do to the newly‑born King, involves confessing both Who the King is as the Divine Ruler of the world (BAGD, 717; Greeven, TDNT 6:764) and who the wise men are as sinners seeking forgiveness from Him (Beckwith, CLD III:173-174 with n.7). We do not know to what extent these wise men were involved with sinful astrology, dream interpretation, or other secret arts (BAGD, 484), but whatever their sins might have been, they seem to have had the right understanding of who they were in relationship to God, specifically God in the flesh of the Child Jesus. You and I may not be involved in horoscopes, séances, or other satanic arts, but we may break the Second Commandment by cursing, swearing, lying, or deceiving by God’s Name. And, we certainly break the other Commandments, for we are sinful by nature. Because of our sinful nature and all of our sins, we deserve death here in time and torment in hell for eternity, apart from our worshiping Jesus, confessing both Who He is and who we are as sinners in relationship to Him, that is, apart from our turning in sorrow from our sin and trusting God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, to which repentance and faith God calls us and thereby brings forth from us.
Herod the king recognized from the wise men’s desire to worship the newly‑born King of the Jews that they were searching for the Christ, the long‑promised Messiah, God’s Son in human flesh, but, instead of humbling himself in repentance and faith unto salvation, Herod arrogantly tried to thwart God’s plan and unsuccessfully tried to kill the Child Jesus. Years later, of course, the Jews succeeded in having Jesus put to death, but, out of God’s great love, mercy, and grace, Jesus went to the cross in our place, to die the death that we deserved. Having foretold His death as the Prophet, Jesus offered Himself as the Greatest High Priest, and there He died as the King of the Jews. But, Jesus did not stay dead; He rose victorious from the grave, showing that God the Father had accepted His sacrifice on behalf of the sins of the world, including ours. As we sang in tonight’s Psalm, the Lord delivers the needy when they call and saves their lives. When we repent and believe, then God forgives our sin. God forgives us our sin against the Second Commandment and our sin against all of the other Commandments, too. God forgives us our sin the same way He leads us to worship Him with repentance and faith, namely, through His Word and miraculous means.
Jesus told His apostles to make disciples by baptizing the nations (or, “Gentiles”) in the Triune Name and by teaching them to observe (or, “treasure”) all that He had commanded them (Matthew 28:19-20), including their exercising the Office of the Keys by either binding sins in excommunication or loosing sins in private Holy Absolution (Matthew 16:19; 18:18-20), and including their eating and drinking His Body and Blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of the Altar (Matthew 26:26-28). We may think especially of Holy Baptism as our “enlightenment”, and we may think especially of the Sacrament of the Altar as connecting us to the same Body and Blood that the wise men, having fallen down before, worshipped, but through God’s Word and all of these miraculous means He leads us to worship Him with repentance and faith and forgives us our sin.
We do not know to what extent the wise men might have given up any sinful astrology, dream interpretation, or other secret arts, but we would expect that the confession and faith evident in their worship of the Child Jesus would bring forth from them the same kind of forgiveness and change of life that the confession and faith evident in our worship should bring forth from us. Rather than using horoscopes, séances, or other satanic arts, or cursing, swearing, lying, or deceiving by His Name, we call upon that Name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. We at least try to keep all of the Commandments, and, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness as we fail to keep them. When we see Christ, we fall down and worship Him. As the wise men did at the reappearance and miraculous guiding of the star, we rejoice exceedingly with great joy. And, we open our treasuries and offer God our gifts, not gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but gifts of ourselves and all that we are and have. The gold, frankincense, and myrrh likely supported Joseph’s taking Jesus and His mother and fleeing to Egypt, just as our time, talent, and treasures help support the work of God’s Kingdom in this place.
The Hollywood stars that turned out for the Golden Globes last night reportedly got a warning from five‑time host Ricky Gervais, not to lecture the public about anything, since, he said, they knew nothing about the real world. Of course, we do not need those celebrities or even Gervais to guide us through this life. As God led the wise men to worship Him by His Word and miraculous means, so also “God leads us to worship Him”. So led to seek and receive from Him the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we respond with thanks and praise, both now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +