December 8, 2019 · Matthew 2:11

Advent: Peace of the Magi

“First, they illustrate peace with God. These adventurers come from a land that didn't know Yahweh. They didn't understand the promise to Abraham and yet they come and they say this, we come so we can worship him. This is the peace between humanity and divinity. They knew that this wasn't a normal human. He was worthy of worship, and so they come to find Jesus and I love that they find this peace, that they realize that this promise Jewish King, this young Jesus was actually the secret to peace. And so they look into the laws, they look into the scriptures, and what did they do? They bow down and they worship him. They open up their treasures, they present him with gifts of gold and frankincense and murder. See, peace with God involves giving God his due. In order to enjoy peace with our creator, we need to respond with praise as we raise, praise, peace increases. We realize that we need to give him peace offerings and we present our presence, not because we can end the entity with divinity but because God has bestowed us a special treat. The God of the universe gave us this gift and in reaction to his grace, just like the Magi, as they respond and praise and worship and gifting, we need to do this. The secret to peace with God is receiving the free gift of Jesus and responding with thanks and with worship. This is the secret to peace with God, and the funny thing is when we come to peace with God, it often brings peace with humans. One of the most powerful parts of the story, the Magi is the sense of multi-ethnicity and multi-nationality that it brought to the people of God.”