Inspired by an article by Dr. Walter Brueggemann in The Christian Century, December 19-26, 2001, p. 15.
Some wise men went on a
journey. They thought they knew where they were going. They had read the Hebrew
Scriptures, which speak about the city of
The wise men went because
they had seen a sign—a star which told them that a new King of Judea had been
born. People have speculated endlessly about what that star might have been,
and our astronomer friends can give us a number of possibilities, but it seems
to me that this question misses the point that it was God who led them on their
journey—using sign in the heavens which the Magi would understand.
The Magi, probably from the
land now known as
Herod was a Jew by birth
rather than ancestry. He was the child of converts to Judaism, a boy from the
wrong side of the Dead Sea who married into royalty, usurped the throne which
he then held only by being close ally of
Enter the Magi, who seem to
have been following Isaiah’s directions—go to
No royal baby had been born
in
Consulting the religious
sages gave an answer, not from Isaiah but from Micah, suggesting that the
Messiah was to be born in
But you, O
who are one of the
little clans of
from you shall come forth
for me
one who is to rule in
whose origin is from of old, from
ancient days. (Micah 5:2)
“Just eight miles more…” Sometimes we travel in the belief that we know where
we’re going and what we’re looking for. Then we find that it is not where we
expected it, and not what we had in mind. The Magi were looking for a royal
prince in a fancy palace in a great city. They had to go “Just eight miles more…” to find a humble child in a stable in a
hick town.
The star that God gave the
Magi as a sign led them away from Herod’s palace, away from the pomp and
splendour of the mighty king, away from what they expected. It led them to a place
the world disregarded, the simple dwelling where Jesus was found. They thought
they had the script for their journey, but they misunderstood it, until God led
them “Just eight miles more…” Only
then did they pay the homage they had come to give—precious gifts and
adoration.
God’s glory is not the
world’s glory. God did not choose to come among us as a royal prince, born amid
the pomp and splendour of a king’s palace, surrounded by the trappings of
power. Rather, he chose to enter this world as the humblest of the humble. He
first revealed his glory only to those whom he chose—shepherds straight from
the fields following the directions of a messenger from God; wise men from a
foreign land following the heavenly sign God had given them.
All too often people are
dazzled by the world’s riches, mistaking them for signs of God’s blessing. We
go to the most obvious place, thinking that we know God’s agenda. But God has a
surprise in store for us. His goal for us is always “Just eight miles more…”—not necessarily a long way in practical
terms, but spiritually sometimes a whole world removed. Not in
Let us recall other words from Isaiah:
Seek
the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he
is near; let the wicked forsake their
way, and the unrighteous
their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, nor are your ways my
ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than
your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)
God is always calling us to
meet him, where he chooses to reveal his glory. Every call leads us into new
vistas of the wonders and riches of his divine being, but every call asks us to
go “Just eight miles more…” to the
unexpected places where God is found anew.
God is often found where we
least expect him. May our hearts and minds and eyes be open to behold his glory
whenever and wherever he chooses to reveal himself to us,
“Just
eight miles more…”
