Rev. David Holwick Christmas Eve
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 24, 2014
Matthew 2:1-3,7-12
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I. Traditions old and new.
A. Our Tuesday night Bible study had its annual Christmas party.
1) We have done it for several years now and to keep an
authentic spirit we went to Don Jose's Mexican Restaurant.
2) Jenn Bostedo combined the traditional gift exchange with a
Christmas quiz.
3) Sample question: How many Wise Men were there?
a) Answer: no one knows.
b) Three gifts are mentioned (gold, frankincense, myrrh)
but not how many people brought them, though there
must have been at least two.
B. Tradition says there were three wise men, one per gift.
1) Matthew calls them Magi, which was used of members of a
caste of priests and wise men among the Medes, Persians
and Babylonians.
a) Their education focused on astrology and magic.
b) The book of Daniel says the young Hebrew prophet
was given this kind of education by the Babylonians.
2) In later years tradition transformed the Magi into kings.
a) Then they became kings of different races/nationalities.
b) They represented the entire world coming to honor the
Baby Jesus.
c) In the seventh century the wise men were given names:
Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.
3) Whoever they were, they were honored to be among the first
to see Jesus and have an inkling of who he was.
II. The Fourth Wise Man.
A. A Presbyterian pastor named Henry van Dyke did some research.
1) He was educated at Princeton Seminary so he must have been
pretty smart. #17513
2) He says he found the name of a fourth wise man, Artaban.
a) Artaban missed out on fame because he got waylaid.
b) He started OK - he sold everything he had to purchase
three precious jewels as gifts for the baby king:
a blue sapphire, a red ruby and a pearl.
c) He then rode his horse to Babylon to meet up with the
other wise men.
B. Life intervenes.
1) As he approached the walls of Babylon at night, he was
startled to see a form lying on the road.
a) Artaban dismounted and found the man was half-dead.
b) He gave him some water and bandaged his wounds.
c) The man thanked him and wished him success on
his journey.
1> But when Artaban arrived at the staging point,
the other wise men had already left.
2> So he sold his sapphire and bought a train of
camels to make it across the desert on his own.
2) After journeying 800 miles he reached Bethlehem.
a) He eagerly searched for the holy child, but the streets
were deserted.
b) A young mother told him that other wise men had visited
a short time before him and given gifts to the child
of Mary and Joseph.
1> Then the family had disappeared.
2> The wise men left, too.
c) As they spoke, there was a loud noise in the street.
1> Soldiers were descending on the village and killing
all the children.
2> Artaban put himself in the doorway as soldiers
approached.
3> He asked to see their commander, and when he came
to the door he handed him a red ruby, saying,
"Leave this house alone."
C. For over 30 years Artaban searched for the savior of the world.
1) He passed through many countries.
a) He found no one to worship, but many to help.
b) He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick.
2) Worn and weary, he finally arrived at Jerusalem.
a) It was the season of Passover.
b) It was always a busy holiday in the capital, but this
time it seemed particularly tumultuous.
c) He asked someone what was going on, and was told
everyone was going to Golgotha to see an execution.
1> A man named Jesus of Nazareth was being killed for
claiming to be the Messiah, the king of the Jews.
3) Artaban followed the crowd outside the city walls.
a) At the entrance of a guardhouse he saw a young girl
being dragged by soldiers.
b) She broke away from them and threw herself at Artaban's
feet, pleading with him to help her.
1> The soldiers had seized her to sell as a slave.
2> Artaban was the only one who could help her.
c) He took the pearl, his last jewel, and placed it in her
hand, saying, "This is your ransom. It is the last
of the treasures which I kept for the king."
4) As he spoke, the sky darkened and the ground shook.
a) Buildings began to sway and stones fell into the street.
b) A heavy tile, shaken from a roof, fell and struck
Artaban on the head.
c) The young girl held him in her arms and she thought
she heard a voice in the breeze but she couldn't
make out any of the words.
d) The old man's lips moved as if to answer.
"Not so, my Lord!
For when did I see you hungry and feed you?
Or thirsty and gave you a drink?
When did I see you a stranger and take you in?
When did I see you sick or in prison and come to you?
For 33 years I have looked for you, but I have never
seen your face or ministered to you, my good King."
Artaban stopped talking and the quiet voice came again.
And now the girl heard it say, "Truly I say to you,
whatever you did for the least of these, you did
for me."
With that, the Fourth Wise Man knew he had found his
King.
III. The least of these...
A. What it would have been like to be at the first Christmas?
1) I think most of us put ourselves in the story when we read
it.
a) Don't you usually see yourself being one of the heroes?
b) We like to think we would have "gotten it."
1> I know I do.
2) We would honor Jesus and give him gifts.
a) No way we would be evil like Herod.
b) Or would we?
c) The test is how we treat people today.
B. It is easy to miss Jesus all around us.
1) Rev. van Dyke makes a pretty shrewd assessment in his story.
a) The key is not getting to Jesus, but serving the
people he puts in our path every day.
2) The finale of the story mentions feeding the hungry and
giving the thirsty drink.
a) These are the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 25.
b) How well do you recognize human need?
C. Consider a social experiment done in October this year.
A group called OckTV specializes in prank videos on YouTube.
One of their pranks was actually very moving.
They wanted to see if random strangers would share some of
their food.
Their results went as they expected in the beginning, but
then they came across someone that shocked them.
With a companion with a secret video camera filming him, a
clean-looking 20-something actor walks up to a guy eating
a slice of pizza outside a pizzeria in New York.
"How are you doing, man?
Is it OK if you could spare that slice for me, please?"
"No, man, I worked for this."
Then he calls the actor white trash, which surprises him, so
he leaves.
Later the actor makes a second attempt at another pizzeria.
He walks up to a guy who is sitting down eating, points to the
pizza and asks the guy, "Can I please have a slice?
I am very hungry."
The man, whose face is obscured for YouTube, says, "Sorry, but
I can't help you."
The actor responds, "Sorry for asking.
Enjoy your slice," and walks away.
On a third attempt, a different actor approaches young men at
a pizzeria. [New Yorkers really like pizza]
"Excuse me, can I have an extra slice?
I am hungry."
The guy says no and then curses at him.
"Sorry for asking."
A few hours later, two members of OckTV approach a man who is
sitting on the sidewalk with his head hung low, holding out
a paper cup so people can put coins in.
They get his attention and hand him a pizza in a box.
They say, "We ate a lot of slices. Do you want the rest?"
He takes it and thanks them while they walk away.
Twenty minutes later a third participant walks up to the
homeless man and sits on the sidewalk next to him.
"I'm really hungry. It's hard out there, man.
Do you have an extra slice in there?"
The homeless man nods yes and hands him the box.
They chat while they each eat a slice.
When he is done, the actor shakes his hand, thanks him very
much, and takes a bill out of his wallet and puts it on
the sidewalk next to the man.
He tells him, "Being so generous to me, I want to give you a
nice little tip. God bless you."
The homeless man covers his eyes and starts to cry.
It makes you wonder who Jesus was in this episode, doesn't it?
#64670
IV. We can still search for Jesus.
A. Like Artaban, we will spend our whole lives looking.
1) God will reach out to us in many ways, if we are perceptive.
2) Sometimes it will be through people, or maybe through a
still, small voice.
B. You will not really find Jesus by loving.
1) Instead, you find him by realizing he has loved you.
2) Your need is as great as any of the characters in van Dyke's
story, but we often don't realize it.
a) We need to be forgiven.
b) We need to be changed from within.
c) And that is when you can truly learn to love.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#17513 “The Fourth Wise Man,” Rev. David Holwick, adapting material by
others which I can no longer locate. The original short story
by Henry van Dyke is called "The Story of the Other Wise Man"
and was initially published in 1895.
#64670 “Sharing a Slice of Pizza,” authors unknown, October 28, 2014,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPdqtktkZn0>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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