Woody Allen once said, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” In other words, if you want to make a difference with your life, you can’t just sit around and think about something—you have to actually apply yourself and do something. The person who wants to lose weight and get in shape is 80% of the way to realizing a difference just by getting out of bed and going to the gym. The person who will discipline him or herself and take the first few steps in pursuit of a goal has a decided advantage over the person who engages in contemplative thought but does nothing.
Oddly enough, there’s a meaningful connection between this quote and the Christmas story—a story most of us know frontwards and backwards. We know the characters. We know the backstory of how Mary turned up pregnant. We know why she and Joseph had to make the trip to Bethlehem. But of all the extraordinary things God has ever done—and He’s done a bunch of ‘em … parting the water of the Red Sea … saving Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from a fiery furnace … causing the walls of Jericho to crash to the ground at the blast of a trumpet—the Christmas event overshadows them all. For what did God do? He showed up! Not that he’d been completely detached or absent from the world up until that time. But at Christmas, God stepped into and became a part of our world in a way that far exceeded anything He’d done previously.
The problem is the Christmas story has become so familiar to many of us that it’s lost much of its wonder. We’ve relegated it to the level of a classic children’s story—after all, it’s got most of the basic elements you need to hold kids’ attention—a baby, animals, presents, a sinister villain named Herod. Because it’s often seen in this light, it’s lost a great deal of its capacity to amaze.
But there’s something about the Christmas story that makes it stand out and delineates it from all these other stories—namely that while these other stories reveal the power of God, the Christmas story reveals the person of God. With the Incarnation God shows up in a way He’s never shown up before … which weaves an element of threat and danger into the Christmas story. When we come face to face with God—when we encounter Him firsthand—it can be dangerous!
Recall how Isaiah responded when he encountered the presence of God in the Temple in Isaiah 6. Think of what Moses did when God passed by as he was standing at the entrance to the cave in Exodus 33. Isaiah felt undone and said, “Woe is me!” Moses had to turn away because God’s glory was so intense. To think that the creator of universe—the One who breathed the galaxies into existence—wants to personally interact with us … that’s an unsettling, terrifying, and dangerous thought!
But there’s something about this that, at the same time, is tantalizing and mesmerizing. Just as the wise men were drawn to Bethlehem by the star, so we’re drawn to the Christmas story. In spite of the danger, we long for this story to be true … for God to have stepped into our world and shown up in an unmistakable way. I also believe that, by considering the journey of the wise men, we can identify some steps we can take that will help the truth of Christmas more fully lodge and take root in our lives. For in their journey, we uncover a process that enables us to personally experience wonder and truth of Christmas … that allows us to engage this story in all its danger and delight.
It begins by identifying ourselves with the wise men. This sounds easy enough to do, but it isn’t really. The difficulty stems out of our misunderstanding of who the wise men were. While we’ve typically pictured them as sophisticated, elite, privileged stargazers who, at prompting of an unusual celestial phenomenon initiated a lengthy trip, we also need to acknowledge that, for audience Matthew was intending to influence—a highly Jewish audience—their inclusion in the story was somewhat scandalous. The Jews saw the world in very black and white terms—“us” and “them”—and the wise men were part of “them.” As non-Jews, they’d have been viewed as outsiders … as barbarians. Their participation in the events surrounding the arrival of the Jewish Messiah wasn’t appreciated nor valued by your dyed-in-the-wool, hard-core Jew. They were unwelcome outcasts … uninvited intruders.
For us, then, to be identified with the wise men means we must identify with the people in our life we consider “them”—the stranger, the alien, the person who has a different cultural background or different political opinions, folks who have no faith orientation at all. And many of us aren’t real comfortable with that. For those of us that consider ourselves nice, upstanding, respectable church folks, it means being identified with the godless dimwits who dump beer cans in the parking lot and drop their cigarette butts on the sidewalk. It means being linked with the kind of folks that, in our self-righteous pride, we’re often judgmental of.
And many of us don’t want to be associated with that element. But here’s what I’ve learned: If we struggle in that regard, perhaps it’s an indicator we’ve forgotten the dread and horror of being lost. None of us comes to God because of our innate goodness or extraordinary decency. We come because we’ve messed up and believe that, somehow, He has it within Himself to do something in us that can get us back on track. At the end of the day, the only real difference between us and them is the grace of God.
Just as the wise men were searching for a king, most of the folks who do these annoying, obnoxious things are searching, too. A quick look at our world reveals numerous people who are trying to find meaning and purpose in all the wrong things—pleasure, material goods, fame, their career, you name it. They’re doing stuff that will take them down a long, lonely road that leads them to everything the world has to offer but nothing their heart really needs. The Christmas story becomes much more personal when we start by seeing the parallel between our journey and that of the wise men.
But this leads us to a second step, which is to let God use the ordinary things of our life to draw us to Him. To the wise men, this was a star. They studied the stars. They were fascinated by heavens and astronomy—it was a regular part of their lives. And in doing what they normally did, they saw something they’d never seen before … something which awakened in them a sense of curiosity and inquisitiveness about God. And they moved out in pursuit of it.
So—the question for us is: What ordinary thing is God using in your life right now to draw you to Him? Maybe it’s a relationship, or a difficulty you’re dealing with. Maybe it’s something going on at work or with your kids. Maybe it’s a book you read, or a recent conversation that ignited something in you. Regardless, I dare say there’s something in our lives that can do for us what the star did for those wise men—namely, can open us up more fully to the presence of God. The ups and downs of life … the uncertainty of marketplace … the realization we’re approaching a new stage of life that’s going to be different can expose a need and cause us to ask the right kind of questions.
God used the star in these men’s lives, and it continued to guide them. By same token, God can use the ordinary, common things in our lives to draw us to Him. It’s just a matter of whether we’re mindful and observant enough to see His hand at work in these situations and circumstances.
A related thought: When the wise men were engaged in their search for Jesus, they were on foreign turf. The ground was unfamiliar and unknown to them. By the same token, when we allow God to use the ordinary things in our lives to draw us close to Him, it will likely lead us across some difficult and uncomfortable terrain. We may have to face our pain and insecurity … confront some old wounds and come to grips w/ some character flaws. At times it’ll feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar to where we’ll want to say, “You know, God, this isn’t what I had in mind”. But not allowing Him to do so would mean missing out on what He has for us.
But this leads us to a final, all-important step in this journey which is to meet the baby. For us to personally experience the wonder and truth of Christmas, we must have a personal encounter with the babe of Bethlehem. And in many ways, this is the most difficult step. For it's easier to sing about the baby … to read stories about the baby … to put on plays about the baby than it is to meet the baby. And the reason goes back to the danger in this story. For we all know who the baby is—it’s God! Coming face to face with God is an unsettling thing.
In fact, this is one of the distinctives of Christianity. Every other world religion or belief system has a deity that remains distant and remote. But Christianity proclaims a God who has invaded our world—a God who, instead of directing the play from offstage, stepped into the scene. It proclaims a God who identified with us humans to the point that He became one of us. And this amazing fact had such power over the wise men that they responded by giving Jesus gifts … gifts that help us understand more fully who He is.
First, there’s gold—a gift for a king. Jesus wants to be our king … the sovereign in whom we place our trust … the one in control of our lives.
There’s also frankincense—a gift for a priest. Jesus wants to be our priest … the one who ministers to us, comforts us, and leads us into the Father’s presence.
And then there’s myrrh which was embalming oil—a gift for someone who will die. Jesus wants to be our substitute … the one who took our place, died on our behalf, and did for us what we could never do for ourselves. And Christmas says He traveled a long way—the span from heaven to earth—to make this possible!
People often talk about their quest for God as a journey. But as I think about Christmas, it seems God is the One who took the real journey. Not just the journey from heaven to earth but think about the nature of Jesus’ earthly journey. It ultimately led Him to a cross in hopes we might take a similar journey of discovery and faith and personally encounter Him.
It’s a journey that can be unsettling, because it will unmask those things within us we place our trust in and value more than Him. It’s a journey that will bring to light the lesser things that control us. It’s a journey that will force us to risk in ways we’ve never risked before. But it’s a journey that will bring about authentic, transformative change. Just as the wise men, after they left Jesus, went home a different way, so our journey to Jesus will leave us different. It will produce changes in us that are far-reaching and make life satisfying beyond our wildest expectation.
God has done some amazing things over the course of history. But the most amazing thing He did was the thing we celebrate at Christmas—the fact He showed up. What a perilous, precarious, and dangerous journey on His part! Lets continue to forge ahead in our own personal journeys so He can show up with fresh force and power in our lives. For what the world needs more than anything these days is to see people who claim allegiance to Jesus that truly reflect His nature, character, values, and priorities. What they need to see are professing Jesus followers who live a truly transformed life. When the church produces these kinds of people, we really become the hope of the world.