THE EARLY YEARS

JUST HOW WISE WERE THE WISE MEN?


Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had 
appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. 
As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him" (Mt. 2:7-8).

Being a preacher, I have often had people try to convince me of just how "spiritual" they really were.  
My greatest laugh came from a college student who tried to sell me a Bible one summer.  First of all, 
never try to sell a Bible to a preacher.  It's not worth the pain of ridicule.  The clincher came when the 
young man tried to convince me to buy the Bible because of the many Biblical paintings depicted in 
the center of this edition.  As he pointed to one specific picture, he passionately announced, "Here's a 
picture of Jesus' dad taking him down from the cross."  "Really," I thought.  While both men were 
named Joseph, no one familiar with the text would ever confuse Joseph the carpenter with Joseph of 
Arimathea.  I finally decided that the young man needed that Bible more than I did.

Religious veneers come in all kinds of shades and colors.  For the Magi in Matthew 2, it came in 
shades of purple and gold, the colors of royalty.  King Herod—disturbed by the announcement of the 
birth of the Messiah—put on his best "devout" face and asked for a conference with the Magi who had 
arrived in Jerusalem in search of the one born "King of the Jews."

"Now just when did this star appear," he piously asked his guests.  With likely expressions of 
"Hallelujah!" and "Praise the Lord!" he slyly drew from the Magi the information he wanted to know.  
He concluded his meeting with the Magi by telling them, "Go and make a careful search for the 
child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."  

King Herod—worshipping the baby Jesus?  Get real!  Wasn't this the same man who had one of his 
wives murdered and who ordered the execution of two of his sons.  In fact, Emperor Augustus Caesar 
once said of King Herod, "It is better to be Herod's pig than his son."

Have you ever wondered if the Magi recognized the duplicity, the deceit?  Were the wise men wise 
enough to see through the religious veneers?  While proclaiming his desire to "worship" the Lord's 
Anointed One, he quietly was preparing to destroy him, along with others if necessary.

I have always found it amazing how extreme evil can hide itself in the camouflage of spirituality.  Was 
this story in the back of Jesus' mind when years later in the Sermon on the Mount he warned of 
"wolves in sheep's clothing"?  In the end, it took a dream to convince the Magi that Herod was not the 
spiritual zealot that he had made himself to be.

Times haven't changed much.  There are still religious charlatans all around us—"devout Christians" 
whose Christianity runs only skin deep.  How do we avoid being taken in by such as these?  Jesus 
provided the answer, "By their fruit you will recognize them" (Mt. 7:16).  Be a "wise man;" become 
a fruit inspector!  It'll help us avoid some of the schemes of Satan.

See you next week!