Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Matthew 2:1-12

What would Christmas be without wise men? They followed the star and found the baby Jesus lying in a manger and brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Most of us know the story. Now, there are Bible stories that tell us something about God, and stories that tell us something about human beings. Then there are stories that tell us something about the interaction between God and human beings. The story of the wise men is this last kind of story. It teaches two basic lessons about the way God and human beings interact. I can actually describe these lessons, not just from a Bible story but from a camping trip at Zion National Park.

This little kid was really starting to annoy me. I had gone to get water and had found an old fashioned hand pump which I thought was pretty cool. I put my bucket under the spigot and had just begun to pump when this little kid came up behind me and in a fairly annoying voice just said, “Push it up.” Yes, I politely replied, “up and down.” That’s what you do with a pump, which I continued to do, all the while having just a trickle start and stop. “Push it up.” The kid said again. I began to hope that if I ignored him, he might go away. I kept pumping and with one more enthusiastic, “push it up,” he scampered away, leaving me pumping and wondering if this thing was even working. Finally I stopped. I couldn’t get it to work. Beginning to feel self-conscious I looked around to see if anyone was watching me. Then it dawned on me, push it up. I lifted the handle up all the way and left it up, and water started pouring out. It wasn’t an old fashioned pump at all. It was a new fangled faucet made to look like a pump. That delightful young man had been trying to help me all along. All I had to do was “push it up.”

But, I dismissed him, that source of potential help; because he was the least likely person I was ever going to find to teach me about irrigation engineering technology. Wise men lesson number one – God uses the least likely people and circumstances to impact our lives. Have you found that to be true in your life? When we lose something, don’t we often say, “I found it in the last place I thought to look,” which is another way of saying, “in the least likely place.” Or we say, “You could have knocked me over with a feather.” Why? Because the surprising answer had come from the least likely place. The least likely. Hold on to that.

Back to camping and the wise men lesson number two about interaction between God and human beings. God’s resources are available for everyone but our own internal resistance causes us to miss it. Water was right there, available and ready for me but I couldn’t have it because something inside me caused me to resist seeing the truth. Push it up didn’t make sense because I already assumed the right answer was up and down. A higher power – the US Forest Service, had provided a water resource available to everyone but my internal resistance caused me to miss it. I don’t really like the phrase, “Internal Resistance.” It’s too vague. But the fact is, my resistance isn’t the same as yours. In my case, my internal resistance believed a false assumption. But, for someone else, in a different situation, it could be fear or ambition or almost anything. Each person has different internal resistance. The least likely and internal resistance are two lessons about the way God interacts with human beings that can make a difference in the challenges you and I face everyday.

It’s not the little challenges like a misunderstood water pump that worry us. It’s the big ones like broken relationships, hurting hearts, downsized jobs, and even economic downturns. And there are spiritual challenges like wanting to be closer to God, to be more like Christ, to have more love and understanding for and from others. I remember going to church every week and sitting in the pew hoping that God would speak to me in the service and the sermon and give me some direction for my challenges. I am hoping he does that today, so take a minute and think of a challenge you are facing in your life today or one you have faced in your past. A week before Christmas there is probably something. It may have to do with a family member or co-worker, credit cards or health issues. Think of a challenge you have faced in the past or one you face now. God can use these two lessons to give you the direction you need.

As I read the story of the wise men, listen for who is the least likely person in the story and who misses out on God’s resource because of their own internal resistance.

Read Matthew 2:1-12.

Who in this story do you think is the least likely character? Turn to the person next to you and tell them who you think is the least likely. Now, who was the person who missed out on receiving God’s resource because of his own internal resistance? How many of you would say that would be Herod? Ok. We will come back to him in a minute. Let’s start with the lesson of the least likely.

Jesus is the least likely.

Jesus is the least likely person to impact the world. He was a first century Jewish man in an occupied country. He was the least likely demographic, an infant, in a least likely geographic setting, the backwater town of Bethlehem, in the least likely place of significance, a stable, born to the least likely family, an unwed mother and her fiancé with the least likely witnesses of this amazing event, shepherds.

I think God is trying to make a point. God is going to use the least likely people and circumstances to influence us, to make a difference, to set us up for a chance at transformation. And, the more significant the impact, perhaps the less likely the source. God certainly set Jesus up to be the least, least, most least likely there ever was. That’s counter intuitive. We expect to find answers in the most likely places, to come from the brightest and most powerful people. That makes sense. That’s what the wise men thought. They went to the most likely person in the most likely place, King Herod in the king’s palace in the capital city of Jerusalem.

But, in God’s interactions with human beings, solutions to our problems will more likely be found in the least likely place. Our wounds will be healed by the least likely people. A job will come from the least likely source.

Accepting that God uses the least likely to make a difference in our lives requires a decision on our part. A decision of humility. Do I go with my wisdom and experience, and, for instance, keep pumping a pump that doesn’t seem to be working? Or, do I accept guidance from an unexpected source, trusting that God is more in charge than I give him credit for?

Think about your challenge. Would you like God’s direction? Look for the least likely options, the kind that require faith and obedience. Or look back on a challenge and see if God didn’t use the least likely to make a difference. He did for me. As a high school senior, I was asking the same question every senior asks, where should I go to college? I had my heart set on a Christian school. I had been growing in my faith throughout high school. My relationship with Christ, through my church and my youth group was my greatest source of joy. I wanted to pursue that faith in college. Who are some of the most likely people a high school senior might look to for advice about college?

I will admit that my father wasn’t in my top three or even top ten. Don’t get me wrong, my dad had a lot of experience in many things. He knew cars and woodworking and hard work and dedication to his principles. As a police officer, my dad could give me good advice about many things and he was a recognized expert in fingerprint analysis. In fact, after retiring from the LAPD, for decades he was called as an expert witness in criminal trials. But, when it came to questions of faith, my dad seldom offered advice and I didn’t seek it. I considered my college choice a question of faith and on that subject, my dad was the least likely person for me to consult. Nevertheless, one day he simply told me that I was not going to a private Christian school. Period. I don’t know what you think about that, but here is what I finally worked out. I don’t really trust my dad about a faith issue like this but I trust God who said “Honor your father and mother.” So, I did what my dad said and went to a Cal State. There I got the education I would need for my life and career. I also became deeply involved in Campus Crusade for Christ which discipled me in my faith for four years and I met my wife of 28 years. Hmm, the least likely.

Where is the least likely in your challenge? God isn’t so much interested in solving our challenges as in transforming us into people who truly trust in Christ, the author and finisher of our salvation. To become people who lean not on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge him, then he will direct our part. Once the wise men turned away from the most likely king they could find the least likely Christ child of Bethlehem.

That interaction, between King Herod and the wise men clarifies the second lesson of this advent story.

Jesus is available to everyone but is missed due to their internal resistance.

Jesus is available to everyone. The wise men weren’t Jewish. Our best understanding is that they were Persians from Iran. They probably practiced Zoroastrianism. In fact, six hundred years after these events, a Persian army was about to destroy the Church of the Nativity built over the manger in Bethlehem but stopped and preserved the church when they found a mosaic on the floor of the church. A mosaic of the wise men dressed in Persian magi cloths.

There is something about Jesus that can make sense to anyone when they aren’t stopped by their own internal resistance. Somehow, for Persian astronomers in Iran, the scientists of their day, something about a new star in the sky made enough sense to cause them to travel 1,000 miles one way to find Jesus. That’s all the way from here to Pecos, Texas and back. But, others will miss him completely because of their internal resistance. Herod could only think of Jesus as a threat to his own security and that resistance kept him from discovering God’s path for him. A blogger wrote that a star can’t hover over a stable and for him that was enough to prove that the whole Christmas story is false. Is he a genius who has discovered the fatal flaw or is his internal resistance getting in his way? What I know is that when the Church of the Nativity was built, Persian Astronomers made it into the mosaic on the floor. People are finding Jesus all the time and he is changing their lives in ways neither they, nor anyone else could ever have imagined. Jesus is for everyone.

But, all this, is not Jesus. What we know about being Christians may not be for everyone, but Jesus is. Back then it was livestock herders, Iranians, pregnant, unmarried teenagers, carpenters and even Zoroastrians all found what they were looking for in Jesus. Jesus is for every person at your dining room table this Christmas whether your table is in a mansion, or a rescue mission. Jesus is for everyone but King Herod was having no part of it. A new king in Bethlehem did not fit with his plans. Does Jesus fit into your plans? Some of us want to follow Jesus and try to follow Jesus but, practically speaking, on a day to day basis, our issues, our internal resistance, gets in our way. I know too many people, including myself, that have issues of pride, overconfidence, a sense of justice and fairness, a job that needs to be done, efficiency, a need to be respected, or fear of rejection, so many things that keep me, that keep us, from following Jesus.

Wouldn’t it seem like all that stuff, all that sin, all that resistance, disqualifies you from having a real impact? Who could ever expect the likes of us to really make a difference in someone else’s life, much less the world? Do you know what that makes us? The least likely. We are perfectly positioned to offer to others what Jesus has offered to us, grace. If we will get past our internal resistance, the power of God in us can be so great. Problems can be solved, and wounds can be healed by the least likely people.

I’d like to leave us with this encouragement as we head into Christmas Eve. Somewhere, sometime, between now and New Years, there is going to be someone who needs something and you may be the least likely person to offer it to them. That is a God moment for you. And somewhere, sometime you are going to need something. Look for Jesus in the least likely place. The least likely is not simply good advice. It’s holy ground. Don’t let your internal resistance stop you from finding Jesus this Christmas. The wise men had open hearts for Jesus. King Herod did not. Do we?