Wise men from the East
- Jan 1, 2016
- 2 min read
Traditionally, this week will see many churches presenting sermons based around the account of the wise men from the east who travelled to Israel in search of the infant destined to become King. This visitation of wise men, probably Kings in their own right, makes a stark contrast with the peasant shepherds who had visited the baby Jesus earlier. What we see here is the availability of Jesus to all sorts of people. With the shepherds and wise men, we see Jesus available to Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles); peasants and nobility. Often it is those men and women we would consider to be at the low end of the social pecking order, who are more willing to give their attention to Jesus.
It is with some irony that Jesus would speak to the religious nobility of his day saying, ‘look, the tax collectors and prostitutes (a euphemism for those who were social outsiders) are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you.’
I believe that in 2016, we in Europe may well witness a similar irony. At a time when indigenous Europeans are, for the most part, indifferent to the availability of Jesus Christ, we have seen hundreds of thousands of ‘visitors’ coming from the east. Many of these migrants will hear, for the first time, of how Jesus can bring us to the one true God. Some are arriving as economic migrants with others being genuine refugees. Whichever they are, as both groups are currently unencumbered by the pitfalls and distractions we enjoy in the West, it may well prove easier for them than it is for us to welcome the new life with God that Jesus offers. I have in mind what Jesus said, ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God’. A hyperbole yes, but it is there to drive home a point.
If this talk of migrants and Jesus sounds a little fanciful let me refer to a Lebanese pastor currently working with Syrian refugees in Bourj Hammoud. He quotes refugees as saying, ‘We thank God that we lost our houses, we thank God that we left our country. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have heard about Jesus, and that God is our father and loves us.” This pastor says, ‘I have a word for Europe. They are going in millions to Germany, to Britain, to all Europe. You should now move quickly for them, show them love. Tell them about Jesus. If we don’t do it quickly, their hearts will become rocky…’
As these migrants welcome the Christian gospel perhaps they should be considered wise men and women from the east!