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Sermon by John Tucker
Where can we find
Jesus this Christmas?
Matthew 2:1-12
Milford Baptist Church, 22 December
2002
Too preposterous to
believe?
Matthew's account of the
Christmas story reminds me of the old saying: Guess
how different it would have been if the wise men had
instead been wise women? They would have asked
directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby,
cleaned the stable, made a casserole, brought
practical gifts, and there would be peace on earth.
What does summer mean to
you? What do you look forward to? Barbeques? Beaches?
Boating? I look forward to the cricket - not so much
watching it these days (as we don't have Sky) but
reading about it. Last weekend I read with interest
this article in the newspaper:
"New Zealand cricket
followers may be temporarily stumped when a television
commercial promoting next year's world cup in South
Africa is screened. The advertisement for exchange
specialist Travelex shows Australian cricketers Adam
Gilchrest and Matthew Hayden decked out in Black Cap's
gear. The commercial promotes the message: 'There are
some foreign exchanges we'll never make.' ...A
Travelex spokesmen said, 'We were looking for
something unique and it's hysterical seeing those two
in New Zealand colours."
On a surface level the
advertisement is innocuous enough - it's simply saying
that Australia would never want to see two of its star
batsmen playing for New Zealand. But beneath that I
think there's a more sinister, condescending note: The
thought that New Zealand could produce such
world-class cricket players is "hysterical,"
preposterous.
I've got a confession to
make. I'm one of those tormented souls that was born
in Australia but brought up in New Zealand. And every
summer - usually at about the time the Black Caps are
being beaten black and blue by the Aussies - I have an
overwhelming urge to claim my Australian roots and
start cheering for the winning team. Have you ever
done that? Don't. It's just not cricket. Your friends
turn on you with wide-eyed amazement and not a little
touch of hostility. But the brutal fact remains that
even though we drew a test series with them in
Australia last year, the Aussies are in another class
from us. The thought that we could match them player
for player is just too preposterous to believe. Now
hold that thought (unpleasant as it is!) Because it
strikes me that there's something of the Christmas
story in all of this...
The Christmas star
You might have seen in
the Listener this week a fascinating article about the
Christmas star that Matthew says guided the Magi or
wise men to Jesus. The article asked the question:
what was it that the wise men saw? It's quite possible
that it was a natural astronomical phenomenon. It
could have been a supernova - an exploding star. It
could have been a comet - Halley's comet was seen and
recorded in 11 BC. But the most likely suggestion is
that the star was actually a conjunction of two
planets. Three times in 7 BC, around the time Jesus
was born, Jupiter and Saturn came into line with each
other in the constellation of Pisces. Now Pisces was
believed by astronomers to mark the end of the sun's
old course and the beginning of the new. Jupiter was
regarded as the royal planet. And Saturn had long been
the symbol of Israel. So the conjunction of these
planets, giving the impression of one very bright
star, would have meant to the average astrologer that
a new age was beginning in which the world would be
ruled by a king from Israel or Judea.
It's interesting that
there was in fact a strong rumour going around in the
first century AD that a world ruler would come out of
Judea. Tacitus around 60 AD wrote: "There was a firm
persuasion that at this very time the east was to grow
powerful and rulers coming from Judea were to acquire
universal empire" (Histories, 5.13). So it's not
surprising that some magi or astrologers from the east
- possibly from modern day Iraq - would have wanted to
make the arduous journey to Judea in search of this
new king. And where do they go? Where do they search?
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem
I visited Jerusalem back
in 1997. I just loved it. For several days I wandered
dreamily through the labyrinth of narrow alleys,
clambered over the ruins of David's Citadel, touched
the Wailing Wall on the edge of the Temple Mount,
imagining what it was once like. There are so many
monuments to its former greatness. I recall thinking:
"Even now this city - swarming with soldiers, seething
with tension, always in the world news - feels like
the spiritual and political capital of the world."
Under King Herod
Jerusalem was a magnificent capital city. It was the
capital of Judea. Herod ruled there from 37BC to 4BC.
He ruled with an iron fist. If he suspected anyone as
a potential rival to his throne, they were promptly
eliminated. He even assassinated his own wife, his
mother in law, and three of his sons. The Roman
emperor, Augustus, joked grimly that it was safer to
be Herod's pig than his son. He was right. King
Herod's selfish, twisted nature was never as clearly
demonstrated as when he was about to die. He gave
orders that a collection of the most distinguished
citizens of Jerusalem should be arrested on trumped up
charges and imprisoned. The moment he died they were
all to be killed because he knew that no one would
mourn his death and he was determined that when he
died some tears should be shed.
But despite Herod's
twisted and murderous nature he was a great builder.
He brought the city of Jerusalem to the zenith of its
architectural beauty. He rebuilt the temple, the city
walls; he built a palace, a fortress, a theatre, a
stadium. So when the wise men came searching for the
new born king of the Jews, it was natural that they
should look for him first in Jerusalem, this
magnificent capital city. That's where you'd expect to
find a king.
Bethlehem
Certainly not in
Bethlehem. I've also been there. It's a dirty little
two-horse Palestinian town five miles south of
Jerusalem. The town is scarred by violence, blighted
by poverty, haunted by a sense of hopelessness. I
don't have great memories of Bethlehem. I recall being
chased out of town by a rather menacing, fraudulent
Greek Orthodox priest because I wouldn't reimburse him
sufficiently for what proved to be a very
unsatisfactory tour of what he alleged to be the
skeletal remains of the very children massacred by
King Herod's soldiers. That was Bethlehem.
Besides a rather sombre
looking church in the middle of town, there's really
nothing to write home about. And in Biblical times it
was no different. Bethlehem was widely regarded as
being "the least of all the villages in Judea" (2:6).
And, yet, the tradition still exists that in this
dusty little village, in fulfilment of a seven hundred
year old prophecy, Jesus was born. Jesus - the
promised deliverer or Christ, the Ruler and Saviour of
the World - was born as an illegitimate child, in a
cave where they sheltered animals, to a poor teenage
Jewish girl, in Bethlehem. That's where the wise men
eventually found the new born king. Not in Jerusalem.
But in Bethlehem.
Like New Zealand
producing world-class batsmen like Gilchrest and
Matthew Hayden, it seems too preposterous to believe.
But could it be true? Could it be that where we least
expect him, we find the King of kings? Not seated on a
throne, selfishly clinging to power, but nestled in a
cave - or nailed on a cross - selflessly giving his
life away. Not reigning by force and fear, but serving
others in love and self-sacrifice?
Unexpected, ordinary,
humble places
Maybe as we come to
Christmas again for the 16th or 37th or 78th time, we
need to ask the question: Where is Jesus to be found?
Maybe the question is
not so much whether he's to be found in some
extraordinary place like Australia, but whether we can
believe that Jesus is also to be found in unexpected,
ordinary, humble places - among Palestinian terrorists
as the tanks roll into Bethlehem; among the teenage
prostitutes with whom the Hiltons are working in
Calcutta; among some of the many struggling North
Shore families that will be receiving Christmas gifts
this week from the kids of this church.
Can we believe that this
Christmas, for some of us, Jesus is to be found in
some ordinary, unexpected place, like our garage or
garden, if we will just fall on our knees there and
offer him in faith the most precious gift we have?
Maybe the place to find
Jesus this Christmas is in an ordinary place, an
unexpected place, like our kitchen or dining room, if
we will just humble ourselves before one of our family
or friends and humbly ask from them, or give to them
in Jesus' name, the priceless and costly gift of
forgiveness - the very gift that Jesus came to give
us?
When you visit the
church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, you come to a
great wall and in the wall there's a door so low that
even a hobbit would have to stoop to enter. And
through the door, on the other side of the wall, there
is the old church that I think the emperor Constantine
built early in the fourth century. If you go down
beneath the altar you come to a little, dark, very
ordinary cave. On the floor there is a star and around
it the inscription: "Here Jesus Christ was born." That
cave might be the place where Jesus was born and it
might not be. But there's something profound in the
symbolism of that door being so low that all who would
visit the cave and find the stable must stoop to
enter. The place to find Jesus this Christmas is with
the wise men - in unexpected, ordinary, humble places
- on our knees.
Reflection Questions
1. What are you looking for this Christmas?
2. If you are looking for Jesus, do you think you'll
find him? Read Matthew 7:7.
3. If you had a friend who wanted to find Jesus this
Christmas, where would you tell him to look and what
would you tell him to do?
4. In this story the magi bring gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh (2:11). What is the symbolic
significance of each gift? What do they tell us about
who Jesus was, what he came to do, and how much it
would cost him?
5. This story is full off contrasts. There are two
towns - Jerusalem and Bethlehem. There are two kings -
Herod and Jesus. And there are two main responses to
the news that Jesus has been born - the Jewish
authorities respond with hostility or indifference
(refusing to travel barely five miles to find this
long-awaited Saviour) whereas the Gentile scholars
respond by searching for the baby with perseverance
and worshipping him with the very best that they had
to bring. How do you think we sometimes evince more of
the apathy of those Jewish priests and less of the
faith and commitment of the wise men?
6. In light of this story, what are you going to do
differently this Christmas, this summer, from last
year?
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