Wise Men Still Seek Him... Even At Easter

I have always held a secret grudge against the wise men from the Christmas story. What kind of idiots find the King of all creation, and then leave, and seemingly forget about Him. The Bible never records them returning to worship Jesus. The Bible never records them spreading the news of Christ’s birth. I suppose I viewed them much like we view the nine lepers who were healed by Jesus but never returned to thank him. Interesting how we condemn people who are probably more like us than we’d like to admit. We condemn the children of Israel for their murmuring, we condemn Lot’s wife for turning back, and I had subtly condemned the wise men for being what I considered fickle followers.
However, as I was reading the first chapter of Matthew this morning, in my mind's eye I watched as the wise men entered into Mary and Joseph’s humble home in Bethlehem. What faith these men must have had, to believe that the Messiah, whose coming had been prophesied for hundreds of years, was finally born, and believing that following a star would bring them to their long awaited Messiah.
Upon seeing the child, the wise men fell on their faces in awe, not because Jesus was a comely child, but because their faith had finally become sight. The Messiah had arrived!
Before him they laid gifts of great worth; their gifts honoring both his life and his sacrificial death. I can picture the child reaching to play with the gifts, and Mary taking them from him and placing them safely out of his grasp. The child, disappointed, did not cry or pout, but moved close to one of the wise men and stared in child like awe at his decorative robes.
When night fell Joseph begged the men to stay. They accepted the humble hospitality of their host, and that night they slept on mats in the small single roomed house. But their sleep was not sweet.
Each dreamed a vivid dream, and upon waking in a cold sweat and finding each other in the same state, they began to quietly confer with each other on what the dreams could mean. The consensus: Herod must not learn where the child was. The safest thing to do was to leave as quietly and soon as possible and follow another road home.
So that explains why they didn’t publish the birth of the Savior. But why didn’t they return when the danger was over? Well, it might have been the night after, when Joseph woke suddenly from a vivid and frightening dream. The message of the dream was clear. The family got up, packed their things, and quietly left Bethlehem for the country of Egypt, barely escaping the massacre of babies ordered by Herod, in an attempt to rid himself of the true King of the Jews. Any attempt the wise men may have made to visit the Savior in the next few years would have let to nothing. All Joseph and Mary’s neighbors knew was that they had disappeared.
When Herod finally graced the world with his death, the wise men may have again searched Bethlehem for Jesus, but their search was in vain. Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus had returned from Egypt, but were now safely hidden in the small, unimportant city of Nazareth.
The bottom line is this: God willed it that way. The wise men could have helped publish that the King of kings had finally come, but just as when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on what we now know as Palm Sunday, his Kingdom had not yet come.
Do you question the will and ways of God? I know I do. What we so often forget is that although God’s ways and thoughts are not like our own, God’s ways are always perfect. God had a purpose for the visit of the wise men, and God has a purpose for you. Will you question it, and despise His ways as He tries to mold you, or will you comply and let Him make you fit for His service. Will you look at the vessel beside you and wonder why the potter made him bigger than you, or more pleasing to the eye than you? Just as God had a particular purpose for the wise men, He has a purpose for you. Let Him fill you as He wills.