Precious Gifts 🎁

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Top 3 surprising facts about the wise men…

1. The Christmas pageants are wrong. When the wise men arrived, the family was living in a “house,” and Jesus was likely one or possibly two years old.

2. No one knows how many wise men there were. There could have been 20. The Bible only mentions three gifts: gold, myrrh, and frankincense (or Frankenstein, as I interpreted it when I was 8). It’s possible that these valuable gifts are what financed the family’s escape from Herod to Egypt.

3. The wise men were likely astrologers or even “sorcerers” – surprising to many, since Christians condemn these practices. Matthew seems to be making a theological point – pagan Gentiles from far away recognized the true King, while the religious elite who held the Scriptures did not. Matthew signals to his Jewish audience from the very beginning that Jesus came to save all people, from all nations.

I love that the Magi (wise men), learned of Jesus by looking at the skies. And then followed a star to find him. God chose to communicate to them in a language they already understood. He meets people where they’re at, in their own cultural context, to draw them to the truth.

Matthew 2:11

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.