Real message of Christmas: It is deliverance from a hopeless previous existence, to a new life, united with the One born on Christmas … the beginning of the final journey
Three wise men, kings from the east, journeyed to a distant land, found Jesus’ birthplace in Bethlehem by following a star, and laid precious gifts at His feet. Their names were Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar.
What prompted them to make such an arduous journey? In the Gospels, Matthew records that they stopped along the way and asked, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed His star … and have come to pay Him homage.”
Fearful that his throne might be usurped, King Herod tried to deceive the strangers who were seeking this “king of the Jews.” He consulted them and said, “When you find Him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay Him homage.”
In a dream, the magi were warned not to give Herod the information he so desperately sought. When he learned that they followed a different route homeward, Herod sought to eliminate this perceived usurper by having all babies in Bethlehem killed. His evil plan was foiled — Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had escaped to Egypt.
The divergent paths of the wise men to and from Bethlehem provide a clear message for those who joy in Jesus’ birth. The Son of God came to earth, took on human flesh, and by His love, and through terrible suffering on the cross, redeemed the sins of those who accept Him as Savior.
Like the wise men, Christians’ mortal journey consists of two paths: the sinful one prior to accepting the King Incarnate — a path to which they cannot return — and the path of discipleship, spreading the “good news” referred to by the angels upon Jesus’ birth.
In “Journey Of the Magi,” poet T. S. Eliot delineates these two paths. He tells us that the wise men were tempted to abandon the journey, to remain in their lives of sin: “There were times we regretted the summer palaces … the silken girls bringing sherbet.”
Those they questioned along the way had no interest in the world-changing event the wise men described. When they stopped at an inn, the poem clearly references mankind’s sinful nature: “Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver, and feet kicking the empty wine skins….”
So, they continued following the star. When they arrived, the poem’s narrator describes their death as sinners, and rebirth as followers of Jesus: “I had seen birth and death, but had thought they were different; this birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like death … our death.”
By a different way, they returned to their kingdoms, but as told in the poem’s closing lines, they could not meld back into the sinful society from which they journeyed: “But no longer at ease here … with an alien people clutching their gods.”
Eliot’s poem illustrates the real message of Christmas: It is deliverance from a hopeless previous existence, to a new life, united with the One born on Christmas … the beginning of the final journey.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
