Asking if the United States is a Christian nation is a tricky question to answer, isn’t it? One person might say, “No, the United States was designed to be religiously neutral. Freedom is built in.” Someone else might point out the faith of the founding fathers and how that influenced the establishment of our nation. Another might answer trying to gauge the percentage of Christian people in our country. Most probably think in those terms, and I’ve heard many Christians say that it was more so Christian in previous generations What would you say to a related thought if I were to say to you, “Jesus is important to most people in our country?” Would you agree with that?
At first blush, you might think that the importance of Jesus would apply only to those who know him as the Savior. But isn’t it true that Jesus is important to a whole lot of people who do not love him as their Savior? He is so important that many people made an intentional effort to keep Jesus out of Christmas celebrations again this year. He’s so important that some don’t want public places to display anything related to him commandments and crosses for instance so that he is out of the public eye Jesus is important enough that many schools and workplaces and clubs are fine with you being a Christian, but they don’t want you flaunting your faith. You may not even be allowed to display a cross or have a Bible sitting around.
Whether they love him or hate him, Jesus is important to many people! The words of Matthew’s gospel are typically read when Epiphany is celebrated. As we look at that recording of this historical event of the Wise Men worshiping Jesus, we’ll find that there were from the beginning, people who loved him and those who hated him and he was important to them all.
EPIPHANY REVEALS THE IMPORTANCE OF JESUS
1. IMPORTANT TO HEROD (3-8,12) 2. IMPORTANT TO THE WISE MEN (1-2,9-12) 3. IMPORTANT TO YOU AND ME (6) Jesus may have been as much as two years old when these events took place. Mary and Joseph were taking care of their infant or toddler in a house in Bethlehem, just a few miles outside of Jerusalem. Herod ruled this land as a vicious, paranoid king who actually killed family members whom he thought threatened his throne. When it says that all Jerusalem was disturbed with Herod when he was upset by the news of a Jewish king being born, it is not difficult to imagine! In addition to the fear which he spread with his rule, there was fear in his own heart. You can sense the fear when you recognize how important Jesus was to him! The Wise Men came from a distant land asking about the birth of a Jewish king. On the basis of that one inquiry, Herod’s head starts spinning. He doesn’t know Jesus at this point, but he recognizes his importance when Wise Men from an eastern land come to see a child king of the people he ruled over. So, Herod brought in the Jewish religious leaders and asked them about this newborn king. Sure enough, they knew! They quoted the Old Testament words of God which pinpointed the tiny city where this King would be born—the nearby village of Bethlehem.
Armed with that information, Herod called another meeting this one with those Wise Men who had just arrived in town. His scheming and deceitfulness are enough to make the average person sick. When the Wise Men told him just when that star had appeared, Herod instructed them “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I may also go and worship him.” When we realize that later Herod sent soldiers to kill every boy age 2 and under in and around Bethlehem, we’re disgusted by his deceit and his cruelty
Jesus was important to Herod for the same reason Jesus is important to those today who deny him as the world’s Savior. Jesus is threatening. Herod was worried only about himself. He wanted to rule. He had to control everything to feel secure. This Jesus, even as a baby, threatened all of that in his mind. Getting rid of this King was vitally important!
Those who reject Jesus today are no different. They want to rule their own lives. They want control over what they do or don’t do. If they want to invent their own moral values, who is Jesus to say differently? Avoiding worship in order to live for what they want seems awfully similar to Herod lying about worshiping Jesus while serving his own desires and interests.
It’s true: people who make themselves their own god still find Jesus important. He’s so important, in fact, that keeping him out of their life and getting rid of reminders of him makes them feel better. There is often fear that they will lose what they have and what they have built as a way of life. Like Herod, they are afraid of what they do not know or understand about the King of salvation, the Savior sent for the Jews, for the travelers from the East, for all people—even for Herod.
JESUS WAS ALSO IMPORTANT to the Wise Men, those learned men, perhaps astrologers, who came from the area east of Judea. This one born to be a King was important to them because they knew him to be the fulfillment of God’s prophecy concerning the Messiah. Somehow God had made it clear to them that he was sending the world’s Savior. Perhaps the promises of God had been shared in that area since the time of Daniel, a God-fearing government official in the Babylonian and Persian courts. Maybe those promises went back even farther. And maybe God just let them know personally—he did, after all, indicate to them that this special star—made just for the purpose of leading these men to the Christ child was from him, and he did later warn these scholars not to go back to Herod. However the Lord did it, these men knew why JESUS WAS IMPORTANT!
They went to worship him, and their hearts were filled with joy at seeing the star, knowing they hadn’t lost the trail, certain that they would soon see this Savior-King! They bowed down on their knees, foreheads to the ground to show without question that they considered Jesus to be greater than they were. They brought him gifts that revealed their willingness to spare no expense. Gold and incense and myrrh? Expensive stuff and useful riches! These were no $20 dollars a week in the offering plate on $50,000 of income offerings!
I can imagine the smiles on these men’s faces and the gifts in their saddlebags and their excited chatter as their eyes were drawn to the star above them in the sky and then to the road ahead of them, anxiously wondering just when that star would stop and they would see their Savior and King!
These Gentiles, non-Jews, were led to Jesus’ side, and they saw him as their Savior too. God the Father smiled down upon their worship of Jesus, and he spared them and Jesus by sending that dream to tell them to avoid Herod on their journey back home. Here we see God in action, bringing people from outside of his chosen people to know Jesus It causes us to think of how the Apostle John wrote in Revelation about the vision of those in heaven from every nation, tribe, language, and people. Jesus is the Savior born for all nations.
JESUS WAS DEFINITELY IMPORTANT TO HEROD. JESUS WAS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO THE WISE MEN. And JESUS IS IMPORTANT TO YOU AND ME. It is sad that it is not too much of a stretch for us to see ourselves a little bit when we look at King Herod. It doesn’t matter if we are infants, kids, teenagers, young adults, older adults or senior citizens, we can still be self-seeking at times wanting our way instead of our Savior’s. We like to rule over our own lives and we don’t like things or people that try to tell us what to do. We want to control things—and we’ll do it even when we know that God doesn’t approve, and we know that those sins are damnable! It’s that hard for us to fight the spirit of Herod in our hearts.
Those religious leaders told Herod what the Scripture said and he felt threatened and afraid of what that truth might cost him. We too can be threatened by what Jesus’ Word says. The pastor or a Christian friend or the Bible reading we hear in church may tell us we are wrong before God, but we don’t want to hear it. We don’t want to accept it, and we don’t want to change whatever we’ve got going on that is wrong. You think we’re not like that wicked king?
Seeing those Wise Men follow the star from the east helps us though. Their efforts to see the young Savior-King, their worship of him, their generous offerings, their listening to God and obeying him all of that helps us. It reminds us that Jesus came to be the Savior of the Nations and that means our Savior too. He grew to be the Savior the Father demanded the one who fulfilled his law with his sinless life and traded his perfection for the world’s sin—that means your sin and my sin too—even the Herodlike things. The Epiphany, the appearing of Jesus as the Savior of all people, celebrates his coming into the world to bring that forgiveness and salvation to all
This is important to us individually because he is our personal Savior as well as the world’s Savior. He has given us love and life when we, by nature, were totally corrupt and fearful of God and only found him important in that we wanted to avoid him at all costs. But God loved you so much that he picked you out and gave you faith to trust in Jesus like he did for those travelers from the East.
And so, we see ourselves in those Wise Men, as we respond to God’s love and salvation by joyfully coming to worship Jesus and gladly give him not only our hearts, but also our generous gifts so that he may be honored for who he is and so that the good news of love for all people can be shared with others.
JESUS IS SO IMPORTANT to us that we want to share with anyone and everyone that he is their Savior. It doesn’t matter whether we find them after they have journeyed here from Wisconsin or California or Mexico or China, or what color their skin is, or what language they speak, or what their unique customs are. Jesus is the Savior of the Nations. God proved it by bringing Wise Men from the East to see and worship Jesus. He proved it by bringing you to see him as the Savior too.
May God give us the love, the courage, the determination, the resources to spread the good news of Jesus, who has appeared as the Savior of the Nations. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.