Behold Immanuel

Behold Immanuel

It’s a few days before Christmas and there is excitement in the air. My oldest is counting the days until Christmas in her excitement. We have been blessed with an abundance of friends, family, parties, and gifts. Truly Antioch has shown it’s love towards us this year in both word and deed and us here in the Newsome Family feel as loved and appreciated as any pastor at any church. As the song goes it’s the most wonderful time of the year. 

It’s also can be one of the worst. It’s easy in all the hustle and bustle of the season to lose track of honoring the Christ in Christmas. We start out at thanksgiving saying to ourselves we will keep the Christ in Christmas this year! We are going to say Merry CHRISTmas instead of Happy Holidays, we are going to be in church every chance we get, we are going to break out our CD of Handel’s Messiah and listen to it every day.  Yet by mid december things like this tend to happen. Every year we hear about the war on Christmas and it seems contradictory that there is so much conflict during the celebration of the birth of the prince of peace. 

Last year outside of a Phoenix Walmart, Kristina Vindiola wished shoppers “Happy Holidays” as she collected donations for the Salvation Army. An unidentified woman chastised her for not saying “Merry Christmas” Accused her of being an atheist and then physically assaulted her. I think we can admit that we’ve gone a little of the tracks of honoring the Christ in Christmas when we begin to insult and assault people in the name of Christ, which we claim to hold so dear.Yet, when we take time to study the gospels we shouldn’t be surprised about that at all. 

2:1-8 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

Who were the wise men? How many were there? What were their names? Were they really kings? Did they ride camels? What does any of this have to do with the war on Christmas?

There are many traditions and guesses concerning this men. The most popular ones are that they were said to be kings and three in number. They were said to be representatives of three families of Shem, Ham and Japeth so one of them is typically pictures as an ethiopian. Their names are given as Caspar, Belthizar and Melchoir and their three skulls, amazingly enough, are said to have been found. Yes, they were found in the twelfth century by Bishop Rinald of Cologne." The bishop dug those up and knew right off they were skulls, very clear. Their eyes were still in the sockets fixed toward Bethlehem. Today they are still on exhibit in a priceless casket in a great cathedral in Europe. It is unlikely that they majority of that is true. 

So what do we know about them? Well we know that it was more than 3 of them in  the party. In fact it was probably somewhere between 30-60 of them in the group that came to see Herod.  

We know they were wise men from the east. The greek here for Wise Men is sometimes translated Kings. However, the actual word is magos/magi and there’s nothing that compares to it in English so it’s a difficult thing to translate. These magi were from a very ancient priestly line of the Medes and the Persians likely go way to the time of Abraham in Genesis. They were highly involved in both Astronomy (study of the stars) & Astrology (horoscopes). They also had a lot of parallels in their worship system to Judaism. Rules, hereditary priesthood, and burnt offerings along with being monotheistic. 

During the Babylonian empire the Magi were very high ranking officials in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. You know who else was a high ranking official in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel, as in the book of Daniel and Daniel and the lion’s den. In fact in Daniel is made chief over all of these men and they had a great deal of respect for him. 

Daniel 5:11, "There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him:"

So they were made familiar with the Jewish prophecies of the messiah by Daniel and his friends. One of the specific prophecies made by Daniel was the time frame for the birth of the messiah. Keep this in mind. 

Not only were the Magi influential wise men/advisors during the Babylonian empire but also the Persian Empire, the Greek empire, and even the Roman Empire to a degree. They wielded tremendous political power and influence. In the book of Esther when you hear the phrase “The law of Medes and Persians” you know where that law likely originated from? The Magi. In fact, in Persia it was difficult if not impossible to become King without the support and approval of the Magi. They were known in some areas as “king makers.”

Whose in charge of Israel at this time? Herod. Herod, one of the worst people to ever exist. Herod was paranoid about losing his throne. He had killed of many of his friends & family because he viewed them as a threat to his throne. He was older and was only in power because Caesar Augustus had placed him there and Augustus was in very bad health on top of that Tiberius, commander in chief of the Roman army was retiring. This is important to note because Rome was a powerful nation that stretched out and took over as much as it possibly could but the one area they constantly had issues with was the Persians. They had become violent enemies and fought multiple times. They never felt like they had a secure grip on that particular area of their kingdom so they were always weary about threats coming from the east. 

So here’s the picture for Herod. He’s near the end of his life. The leader of his nation is hanging on by a thread, the army has no clear commander in chief. He has bribed, bullied and murdered to keep his throne and then all of sudden a large group of magi, king makers, from the east appear wanting to know where the new king of Jews was. 

Now Herod knew very well that he was sitting on a powder keg. In the first place he knew that the people of the city didn't like him, and they didn't like Roman rule, and they wanted their own independence and autonomy. And he knew that they had aspirations of overthrowing him, and overthrowing Rome, and he also knew that if the Persians got in on the act, and built this huge confederacy engulfing this individual called the King of the Jews he was really in trouble. His army was out of the country, temporarily. He knew that the eastern empire posed a constant threat to Rome and conflict was always brewing, and he knew his job and life were in the balance and even though he was seventy years old at least by this time, he  was determined to hold on to every single thing he had, so he was troubled. He was panicky.

So why was Jerusalem troubled? Because they knew how unstable and violent Herod was. They had a long sad history of the various wicked things he had one and knew that there were no limits to his wrath and quest for vengeance. They knew that Herod was upset and that when Herod got upset people died, lots of people died. 

All this really sets the stage to understand the circumstances around the birth of the king. Even the birth of Christ brought conflict and conviction. So it only stands to reason that the celebration of that birth will also bring about conflict and conviction. 

The question is how will we respond to this conflict? Do we respond to hate with hate? Violence with more violence? Intolerance with more Intolerance? Let’s say we win the culture war on Christmas and no one says Happy Holidays and every town hall has a manager scene. What have we accomplished? Will these things cause people to recognize their need for a savior? Will these things further the gospel? The gospel is not forcing the greeter at Walmart to say “Merry Christmas.” The Gospel is recognizing the incarnation, the birth of our savior, Immanuel, God with us!  

The Gospel is that same greeter seeing us living out our lives as if God is truly with us. It’s showing our friends and family the difference Christ makes us. How much more impactful would that be to our lost friends, family and neighbors? It is easy to be upset at a culture that no longer shares our values. It is much more difficult to consistently live out those values in the midst of it. We mustn’t let the real victim in our attempt to keep the Christ in Christmas be our gospel witness, our understanding of what Christmas is all about. The World knows we can be angry. Does it know we serve a risen savior who loves them? Does it know the gift of Christmas? Immanuel.