The Voice of an Outsider
What exactly do the wise men bring to the Christmas story?
Besides the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and besides the inevitable confusion over their number, names, and identities, what do they add to the story? Why is it that Matthew records their visit?
Really, this story doesn’t make any sense. Think about it. No, really, think about it. You’ve all become so accustomed to the wise men being in the nativity that it has lost its absurdity. But if you really think about it, it doesn’t make any sense at all.
- Here we have a story of these magi, from a far-off nation, probably Babylon. Though Matthew wrote his gospel to Jews, these who came to admire the newborn King are not Jewish – they were likely Zoroastrian priests – noted monotheistic astrologers from Babylon. They probably traveled over nine hundred miles to get there. As a frame of reference, that would be like us making a trip from here to the Colorado/Nebraska border. Without the aid of vehicular travel, of course.
- These foreigners didn’t bring just anything – they brought extremely precious gifts, gifts not only worthy of royalty, but of priestly royalty. I say this because the only acceptable Jewish use of frankincense was in the Temple.
- King Herod, the Jewish king, had to inquire of the leading priests and religious scholars to figure out where the Messiah would be born. Meanwhile, these outsiders figured it out by watching the stars.
- It presumably took the wise men over a year to get there (you can forget the picture of them worshiping alongside the shepherds – scripture makes it clear that they visited Jesus in a house) – and the leading priests and religious scholars knew where the Messiah was to be born. Yet not once during that time period did they visit the newborn King.
None of this makes sense. Let’s tell the story over, having it make sense. When Jesus was born, the religious leaders celebrated the birth of the Messiah they had been awaiting for so many years. They traveled to Bethlehem themselves, praising and glorifying God. Herod had a change of heart and came and worshiped at Jesus’ feet.
And they all lived happily ever after.
But that’s not what happened. The ones who should have been anticipating Jesus’ birth most –they didn’t even notice it. The outsiders were those who noticed, celebrated, and brought appropriate gifts.
What does this mean?
One thing it means is that someone’s position in the church does not guarantee that they will meet Jesus. If even the leading priests and top religious scholars missed Jesus’ birth, what makes us think we’re immune?
It doesn’t matter if you’ve led committees for years or if you even founded the church or built it with your own hands. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been approved as a certified lay speaker or if you’ve even been ordained Elder. These things don’t matter a bit if you miss out on the new things that God is doing.
The voice of an outsider can be an important voice. It can be hard to listen to an outsider, especially in a town like New Knoxville, a town that doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet for new people.
I had an experience when I was in college – at church one Sunday, we had a missionary speaker. Now I was used to that – someone like Rick Haberkamp coming to tell us about what God is doing in far-flung places like Africa. Except this missionary was different.
First of all, he was from India. And secondly, his mission field was Chicago. My first response was that I was offended. Who does he think he is, telling us about Jesus Christ? Then I realized that his calling was legit – that we need missionaries, too. And he had a lot to tell us, if only we would listen. But it was hard listening to him because he was an outsider.
I don’t think we listen to the voice of the outsider.
If we did, what might we hear?
I don’t think any of us means to ignore any voice, but we get pretty complacent just doing what’s comfortable – what we’re used to doing, what we’ve done before. This was certainly the case for the leading priests and the religious scholars when Jesus was born. God was doing something new, and they missed it completely because they were focused on themselves and what they’d always done.
I know some of you are saying, "We shouldn’t listen to anyone else – the Bible is all we need." Sure, the Bible is what we need. But what happens if we don’t understand all of it? Or what happens if we haven’t even read it? Maybe we need to evaluate what we are doing, not just what they are doing.
A mark of spiritual maturity is being able to listen to the voice of an outsider and can evaluate what is true, what isn’t true, and (get this) where we need to change. For example, I am somewhat conservative theologically, and many of my colleagues at Annual Conference detest anyone who leans toward a liberal direction. While I don’t agree with their theology, through our relationships, I am always finding areas where I need growth.
How about you?
This is one of the reasons we practice an open Communion – we believe that God is calling, inviting all to participate: all who love Him and who earnestly repent of their sins and seek to live in peace with one another.
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