The Gift of Salvation

Matthew 2:1-2, 9-12

Isaiah 60

It is the season of giving gifts to each other. I don’t know the origin of this custom, but most likely it started because the three wise men brought gifts to Baby Jesus.

Unfortunately, not many stores will remember this. Unfortunately, not many people will celebrate Christmas because of Christ. But today at CACC, we are here to celebrate the unique birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the King of Kings.

Talking about gifts, let’s think about the Wise Men who came to Jesus with their gifts. We don’t know whether they were three or more. We don’t know whether they came from Persia or further East. But what we do know according to the Word of God that these Wise men came from East looking for the newborn king of the Jews. Why did they consider this important? The text does not clarify that. One thing is clear that they came from the East. Where is the East? It depends on one’s location. If you are in SF or the Peninsula, East means East Bay. I remember for the people of Beirut during the Civil War, East and West meant the divided city of Beirut (East majority Christian section and West majority Muslim section). For Europe, after WWII the Eastern parts of Europe were behind the Iron Curtain.

In Jesus’ time East meant the desert, the deserts of Arabia. It also indicated something else. Please notice that the news of the birth of Jesus was given to two different groups. If shepherds represented the common Jewish people, the wise men represented the internationals, the non-Jews. The ones waiting for a new King’s arrival.

These wise people brought gold, incense and of myrrh. Gold can be found everywhere, but Arabian deserts were famous in providing incense and myrrh.

-One of the earliest commentaries written about the life of Jesus is by Justin Martyr in 150 AD. In his book “Dialogue with Trypho the Jew”, he says Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the Wise Men came from deserts of Arabia.

-We also find in the Middle East a Bedouin tribe called Alkoubabani, which means from the tribe of the planeteers. They are Muslims, but in their tradition they have a story that their ancestors from Arabia saw the star and they followed it until they found Issa, (Jesus in the Islam tradition).

If I do not convince you that the wise men are from the Arabian deserts, that is OK. But let me tell you that they represent the gentile world which is coming to greet this newborn King.

Who is this newborn King? What is the text saying about this King?

One of the revelations that Joseph received was this: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A SAVIOR.

If you read this in Hebrew, Jesus is Yashou, and he will save you Yasha. We lose in the translation that the root of Jesus’ name Yashou comes from Yasha. Imagine that every time they said “Jesus,” they were calling him SAVIOR.

How about Zachariah’s song of rejoicing written in Luke? He was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
      because he has come and has redeemed his people.
 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
      in the house of his servant David.”

Then the Zachariah speaks about salvation from enemies and at the end the text reads:

“…to give his people the knowledge of salvation
      through the forgiveness of their sins,” (Luke 1:67-77)

Although they were expecting a savior Yashou, who will save (Yasha) them from the Roman “enemies”, or any foreign invasion, yet, according to the text, this savior is not just a political savior; he will bring the knowledge of Salvation and the forgiveness of sins.

No wonder Jews crucified him when he preached that everyone needed a savior, and everyone needed to repent from their sins. They wanted a Messiah who would condemn the Romans, not the Jews. I think one of the problems of those days and even today is that people do not recognize their need for a savior: that they are sinners and they need repentance. Especially we do not talk about this during Christmas.

-Let me illustrate this point by another Old Testament prophecy.

Read Isaiah 60

1 "Arise, shine, for your light has come,
       and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

2 See, darkness covers the earth
       and thick darkness is over the peoples,
       but the LORD rises upon you
       and his glory appears over you.

3 Nations will come to your light,
       and kings to the brightness of your dawn…

6 Herds of camels will cover your land,
       young camels of Midian and Ephah.
       And all from Sheba will come,
       bearing gold and incense
       and proclaiming the praise of the LORD.

Please notice that the camels are from Midian, Ephah and Sheba. These are Arab tribes from southern Arabia. What are the gifts? Gold and incense?

All are coming to this city, to rebuild the temple and the wall, which will be open to all nations?

11 Your gates will always stand open,
       they will never be shut, day or night,
       so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations—
       their kings led in triumphal procession.

We need to understand that the prophecy indicates that something big is coming. A new wall, a new temple, all nations will come, camels and sheep. Of course someone is leading them, and they will bring gold and incense.

Jews were expecting something to happen to the temple in Jerusalem. For them God can dwell only in the temple.

Now here is the beauty of Christmas. With the birth of Jesus this prophecy is fulfilled with a different touch. We are not talking just about city or wall, or temple. We are talking about the presence of God in humanity in the form of a human being.

Khorourt medz yev eskancheli. God becoming human and dwelt among us, within us and like us. He does not need a temple. In fact, the “temple can be destroyed and rebuilt in three days.” Jesus is the new temple; He is Immanuel, God with us.

Let me go back the gift stories. You see these days we are confused what to buy as gift for each other. We have more, we spend more. Children have everything and we do not know what to buy anymore. But you see we have lost the touch of giving gifts which had a deeper meaning. When we were children we used to make small gifts and give to each other, especially to our mother or father. Although they were “poor” gifts, but meant a lot for them and for us. Our gifts were expressions of love towards each other; they were not fancy, but they were from the heart.

Here is the question: “Did we forget that a gift becomes greater when we put ourselves into it?”

The gift of Christmas is that God gave humanity the best solution: salvation, repentance, and grace. In fact one of the gifts of Wise Men was myrrh. It was used for to embalm or protect dead bodies. Even in the birth stories we see that Jesus was coming to die for our sins.

Go and celebrate the gift of Salvation. Go and tell nations the Good News.

Amen.