Luke 2:8-18 and Matthew 2:1-12: What the Shepherds and Wise Men Teach Us

INTRODUCTION

Isn’t it curious that in the Christmas story as told in the gospels we read of only three groups of people who were witnesses to Jesus as an infant—shepherds, wise men from the East, and two old people who met the holy family in the Temple 33 days after Jesus’s birth?

In our grade school Christmas play we had a major part played by the innkeeper. We had a procession of townspeople who came to the manger, while the fifth grade sang, “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella.” But the innkeeper and the townspeople aren’t mentioned in the Bible.

I assume that the reason why the stories of the wise men and the shepherds have been preserved for us is because they have something special to teach us. Today I would like us to think about what their meaning might be.

I wonder why the wise men and shepherds were especially chosen to witness the birth of the Savior. They were not typical of most of the people in the world into which Christ was born.

I. First, let’s talk about the shepherds.

A. It may surprise you to know that shepherds were not highly respected in ancient Israel of the first century.

It is true that the Jews knew the 23rd Psalm in which they call the Lord their shepherd.

And later Jesus would call himself “the Good Shepherd.”

But real-life shepherds were not respected. They were dirty and smelly. Their occupation tied them down and prevented them from showing up at the Temple for the required rituals, or to the synagogue for instruction and prayer. They had a reputation for thievery.

They were poor, illiterate, marginalized people.

But Luke tells how they were honored above all others by being visited by the angels and being the first to see the Holy Child only hours after his birth.

The story of the shepherds is in keeping with Luke’s emphasis on Christ’s concern for the downtrodden and despised among the people. Luke likes to dwell on the reception Jesus received from Samaritans, prostitutes, tax collectors, the poor, and women.

God honored these lowly shepherds by letting them know before anyone else in the world that the baby lying in the manger was the Savior of the World.

B. Here’s the story from Luke:

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among all those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning the child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them (Luke 2:15-20).

II. Now we turn to Matthew’s gospel and the story of the wise men.

A. Tradition has it that the wise men arrived in Bethlehem the 13th day after the birth of Jesus. The 6th of January is celebrated in many churches as the Feast of the Epiphany—or manifestation of Christ. In many countries this is called “Three Kings Day,” and this is the day when the children unwrap their presents.

It may be that the wise men arrived only a few days after Jesus’s birth, or it could be that the wise men arrived any time up to two years after Christ’s birth.

When Herod had learned from the wise men when the star appeared, he killed all the boy babies in Bethlehem under two years old, so the wise men must have told him that the star must have appeared two years before they arrived in Jerusalem.

B. Let me tell you what we know about these “wise men.”

Our translations call them “wise men,” and they surely were wise men. But the word in the original is “magoi.” The word in English is “magi.”

Magi originally were priests of the Zoroastrian faith, an ancient religion of Persia, which dates from 600 years before Christ.

A magi was thought of as a combination of an astronomer, an astrologer, a priest, a philosopher, and a magician.

According to ancient people everything that happened on earth had its counterpart in the heavens—that is, the sky.

The various constellations represented the nations of the world. The new star would have appeared in Israel’s constellation.

The magi believed that what was happening on earth—and what was about to happen—would appear as a sign in the stars. So studying the stars was important to them.

We now know that this was bogus science. We know that stars are burning gases; they are not heavenly beings.

This story shows how God may use human errors and superstitions and weave them into a language that expresses eternal truths.

And this was the way that God spoke to these men outside of the faith of Israel in a way they could understand.

We read, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1-2).

And when they told their story in Jerusalem, we read that King Herod called together the priests and scribes, who told them the prophecy that the promised Messiah would be born in Bethlehem—about six miles from Jerusalem.

C. The star, which they had seen in the east, appeared again and in some way that I don’t understand, it led them to the house where Mary and Joseph and the child were living.

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (Matthew 2:11-12)

III. We can learn from these two stories that God speaks to different people in the language they can understand.

A. Jewish shepherds knew about angels. So God sent them an angel with the news.

They were poor people. They didn’t know much theology but they knew enough of their heritage to know what an angel was. And God sent them an angel to announce the Holy Child, the Savior of the World.

B. The wise men, being pagan astrologers, wouldn’t have had background in the Hebrew faith, so God spoke to them in a way that they could understand—through the stars.

Hundreds of years before Christ, Isaiah prophesied:

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

on them light has shined

(Isaiah 9:2).

The magi in Persia lived in darkness, but God sent them light, and they responded by making this long and arduous journey to Bethlehem.

The priests in Jerusalem had studied the scriptures and had inherited the promises of God. They thought they were living in the light—but they saw nothing.

The Magi’s religion was full of darkness and superstition. But their hearts were open to God, and God came to them in a way they could understand, and they found the Savior.

C. This is still going on. Wherever hearts are open, wherever people are hungry for God, God comes to them and brings them light and truth.

They may be ignorant about things every churchgoer knows, but God draws them and they respond.

In Matthew 25 we read about the last judgment. Here Jesus describes the judgment of the nations. All people come before Jesus the judge and he divides them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats of an evening.

And to some he says, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?”

And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers or sisters, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:31-40).

Jesus is not teaching that we are saved by our good deeds. He is telling us that loving actions reveal faith in the heart.

Everyone who comes to God, comes to God through Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.

Abraham and Joseph and David and Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the faithful believers we read of in the Old Testament were saved through Jesus, even though they never knew his name.

Just so, even today, God reaches out to hungry hearts that are open to him and draws them to himself, even those outside Christian circles.

CONCLUSION

I want us to think about some of the ways people come to Jesus.

Some of us have grown up in very formal churches, the rituals and liturgies have brought us into God’s presence. We have learned to know Christ and we love the settings in which we came to that knowledge.

Some of us have grown up in very informal churches, with not much ritual at all. I have been to many church services that consisted of two hymns, a prayer, a sermon, a prayer, and one more hymn.

In some churches the centerpiece of the service is the Lord’s Supper. In other churches, the centerpiece is the sermon. But God is not limited to one expression of faith.

I have known people who grew up in good churches, but faith took root when they visited a church from another tradition, and suddenly, in that different setting, the truth became clear, and they came to assurance that they had indeed found Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

Some come to Christ because of an overwhelming sense of their sinfulness.

Others are seeking meaning in their lives, and they are drawn to Christ because he gives purpose and meaning to their lives.

Some come to God because they are afraid of death, and they respond to Jesus’s promise of resurrection to eternal life.

Some come to Jesus because they see God’s love embodied in a friend who they admire. They want to have what she has.

I have some CDs of cantatas by J. S. Bach recorded in Japan. The conductor is a Christian man named Masaaki Suzuki. They are wonderful devotional music, intended to be played and sung in churches. As Maestro Suzuki rehearses his musicians he explains the meaning of the scripture. Some of the musicians come to faith as they sing this beautiful music.

I knew a woman once who came to Christ when a young woman came to the factory where she worked in Scotland and sang the hymn, “My Savior First of All.”

My grandfather from Russia found salvation when he read a story in a Sunday school paper.

Many, many people find salvation because they have believing friends. They begin to fellowship with believers, study the Bible with them, and finally, come to believe for themselves.

I have read accounts on the Internet of Muslims who had dreams in which they saw Jesus, clothed in a white robe, beckoning them to come to him. They then looked up Christians to learn more and come to faith.

I read a book by a woman named Frederica Matthewes-Green. In college, she decided to become a Buddhist. After she was married, she and her husband took a vacation trip to Ireland. They visited a church, and as she walked around the dimly-lit interior admiring the stained glass windows, she eventually came upon a small side altar. Above it there was a white marble statue of Jesus with his arms held low and open, and his heart exposed on his chest, twined with thorns and springing with flames. (You’ve probably seen pictures like this—especially if you’re Catholic.)

She describes her experience this way: “I was standing there looking at the statue, and then I discovered I was on my knees. I could hear a voice inside me. It said, ‘I am your life. You think that your life is your name, your personality, your history. But that is not your life. I am your life. …You think that your life is the fact that you are alive, that your breath goes in and out, that energy courses in your veins. But even that is not your life. I am your life. I am the foundation of everything else in your life.’”

Ms. Matthewes-Green continues, “I stood up feeling pretty shaky. It was like sitting quietly in your living room and having the roof blown off. I didn’t have any doubt who the ‘I’ was that was speaking to me, and it wasn’t someone I was eager to get to know. If someone had asked me a half hour earlier, I would have said I was not sure Jesus had ever lived. Yet here he was, and, though I didn’t know him, it seemed he already knew me, from the deepest inside out.”

In the rest of her book Ms. Matthewes-Green tells how she has lived out her faith since that time. (At the Corner of East and Now, pp2-5)

God called the shepherds to Jesus in one way, and he called the wise men to Jesus in another. He called me in one way and you in another. And he calls each of us to himself in the way that is most suited to our needs.

It is wonderful that God has so many ways to draw men and women to himself. It remains for us to open our hearts to Jesus, invite him into our lives, and let him change us into faithful people who live for God to the end.