It's a story that we all probably know by heart. This is the story of the wise men and their journey to find the newborn king. Here's what really hit home with me today in this passage.
1. The wise men had a priority of worship. The second part of verse 2 reads, "We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him." This wasn't a side trip that was attached to another mission for these men. This was an intentional pilgrimage to worship the newborn king. Finding the child and worshiping Him was the entire reason for their trip.
This made me think about our own 'pilgrimage of worship' that we make every Sunday morning. I had to ask myself a very hard question. Is my trip to church each week about worship or is it about something else? Inevitably there are multiple things we experience in a normal Sunday morning. We have fellowship with friends. We are taught from God's Word. We worship. At least we're supposed to worship. See where I'm going with this? Is worship the priority when we come together on Sunday morning? Ask yourself this: 'If I didn't get to fellowship with my friends on a Sunday morning, would I still get up and go to worship?' As someone who very much enjoys seeing friends and interacting with them, this is not always an easy question to answer. How much of my church experience is social and how much is worship (spiritual)?
2. The wise men experienced worship. Looking down to verses 10 and 11, you see this: "When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh."
Worship was a joyful experience for them. In some translations, verse 10 says they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Is my worship joyful? Does my excitement over who Jesus is cause me to worship with great joy?
The last part of verse 11 reminds us that giving is a part of our worship experience. The wise men had not realized the fulfillment of their mission until they had presented their gifts to Jesus. Largely thanks to high profile televangelists making a mockery of giving, many pastors are scared to even bring up giving in the course of a service. We almost try to find a way to hide the offering time in our services to avoid talking about it. Our giving to God shouldn't be something that is so taboo that our pastors are scared to mention it. I'm also not one for making a huge display of giving your offerings to the Lord, but we shouldn't knee jerk to awkwardness any time the subject is brought up. It truly is a part of our worship. It is a demonstration of Christ's lordship over one of the most difficult areas of our lives to give Him full access to. However, when you do give, there is a new depth of worship to be experienced.
I challenge you this week to look at the Christmas story with the intent to learn from God. Don't just treat Matthew 2 and Luke 2 as part of our mere traditions. Look at them as what they are, God's Word. Allow Him to speak to you even in these most familiar of passages.
Merry Christmas!
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