{"id":668,"date":"2010-12-22T14:26:18","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T21:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=668"},"modified":"2010-12-22T14:44:16","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T21:44:16","slug":"the-magis-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=668","title":{"rendered":"The Magi’s Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

“… magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.'”<\/span><\/strong> (Matthew 2:1b-2)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of my favorite Christmas carols ends with the exhortation: \u201cCome and worship, Come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King!\u201d\u00a0 Notice, however, who it was that came to worship the newborn King.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the religious scholars of Israel (vv.4-6), it was pagan, Gentile astronomers.\u00a0 Their worship of the Christ becomes a good model for ours.<\/p>\n

The worship of the magi was passionate<\/strong><\/span>\u2014pursuing Christ from as far as 1000 miles away (v.2).\u00a0 They had only seen His star in the sky, but they were hungry for a peek at this new King.\u00a0 What are you passionately pursuing this Christmas?\u00a0 The magi were in passionate pursuit of the most compelling Person ever to live.\u00a0 Are you?<\/p>\n

The worship of the magi was also joyful<\/strong><\/span>\u2014\u201cwhen they say the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy\u201d (v.10).\u00a0 Because they were seeking Jesus with such intense desire, anything that would point them toward Him was an object of joy to them.\u00a0 The phrase literally means \u201cthey rejoiced with a great joy exceedingly!\u201d\u00a0 These guys were beside themselves.\u00a0 Can I ask you, what brings that kind of joy to your life?\u00a0 Honestly, is it Christ?<\/p>\n

The worship of the magi was also wholehearted<\/strong><\/span>\u2014\u201cthey . . . saw the Child . . . and they fell down and worshiped Him\u201d (v.11).\u00a0 Literally its, \u201cFalling down they worshiped.\u201d\u00a0 His majesty was such that they were thrown upon their faces before Him.\u00a0 These men were religious leaders back home.\u00a0 They carried political clout in their homeland.\u00a0 They knew protocol in the presence of an earthly king, but what to do in the presence of the King of kings?\u00a0 No posture was appropriate before this King but to be on one\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

I also notice that the worship of the magi was sacrificial<\/strong><\/span>\u2014\u201cand opening their treasuries they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh\u201d (v.11b).\u00a0 These were no doubt men of means, but these gifts cost them something.\u00a0 Like David, they refused to offer to God worship that had cost them nothing (1 Chron. 21:24).<\/p>\n

A few questions for reflection: <\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How does the worship of the magi compare to the response of Herod and the Jewish religious leaders?<\/li>\n
  2. Why were some moved to worship and others to rebellion?<\/li>\n
  3. How and why is that true still today?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cO Come, All Ye Faithful\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    Lo, star-led chieftans, Wise men, Christ adoring,<\/p>\n

    Offer Him gold and frankincense and myrrh;<\/p>\n

    We to the Christ-child Bring our hearts\u2019 devotion.<\/p>\n

    O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him,<\/p>\n

    O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Make some time to sing and pray this week, making sure to worship Christ for who He is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “… magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.’” (Matthew 2:1b-2) One of my favorite Christmas carols ends with the exhortation: \u201cCome and worship, Come and worship, Worship Christ, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel-of-matthew","category-matthew","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-aM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}