Calvary Lutheran Church

A Quest for God

Grace and peace are yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our blessed Lord and Savior. Amen.

Matthew 2:1-12

Dear Christian Friends:

            Do you ever take the time to just sit down and think about God—who he is, what he is like, what he thinks about us? Yes, we believe in God. We worship God. We pray to God. But how often do we just focus our thoughts on his actual being?

            Whenever I do that, I usually end up frustrated. I’ve never seen God, of course. I know that God is a spirit, but what is a spirit? It is a living being without a body. How can that be? And how can God be almighty, all-knowing, present everywhere, and especially eternal? I can understand God having no end, but how can he have no beginning? And don’t even get me going on the Trinity—three persons in one God. It is all so mindboggling.

            And then I read in the Bible that God is unsearchable, that his ways are past finding out. Job wrote, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” (Job 11:7). The answer is no, you can’t. 

            So what are we to do—give up? No! Isaiah wrote, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). Paul told the Athenians, “God did this (God created the universe and mankind) so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).

            The Epiphany season is a season of reaching out, of searching for God and not just searching, but finding. And the Gospel lesson for the beginning of the Epiphany season is always the account of the Magi, because the Magi were on

A QUEST FOR GOD

            Maybe you did not came here this morning on any great quest for God. Maybe you feel you know everything you need to know about him, and you are perfectly comfortable with that. And that’s fine. But maybe you know someone who isn’t so comfortable. Maybe you have a teenager or college student, maybe a friend or relative, who is struggling with believing, with accepting even the concept of God’s being. How can you help them? You can help by traveling with the Magi this morning and seeing where their quest for God started and ended. Are you ready for the journey?

            The Magi’s quest started somewhere in east of Jerusalem. “We saw his star in the east.” The word “Magi” in the original Greek is “Magoi” which is a transliteration of an Iranian word. So these Magi could have come from the regions once inhabited by the Medes and Persians, maybe even Babylonia. In either case, the Magi’s ancestors would have come into contact with the prophecies of God in the Old Testament, because remember the Israelites occupied those regions during their 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Could it be that God’s promise of a Savior-King, whom the Jews no doubt witnessed to the Babylonia captives in Daniel’s day, survived for 600 years down to these Magi in Jesus’ day?

          Obviously it did, and it is amazing how much these Magi knew. They knew that the messiah would start out as a child (Isaiah 9). They knew he was of Jewish descent (Genesis 49). They knew that he was a king (Jeremiah 23). And they knew that he was to be worshiped as God (Isaiah 7). And somehow, someway, they connected all of this knowledge with a misplaced star they happened to see in the sky.

          In other words the Magi’s quest for God started with a knowledge of the Word of God. And that is where any quest must start. I’m sorry that your quest for God does not begin with some miraculous sign or direct revelation from God, that only leads to cults. I’m sorry that it doesn’t start with some warm, cuddly feeling of his presence while walking in nature, that only leads to pantheism. I’m sorry that it doesn’t begin with thinking really, really hard about God, that only leads to mysticism. God doesn’t connect himself with mankind that way.

          Why not? Because they don’t work. Our sinful natures are so blind, so dead, so opposed to even the concept of God that even supernatural acts cannot shake us to believe in him. Remember, even after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Pharisees said, “Now we have to kill him, or he will become too popular, and we will lose our influence.” Even the raising of the dead did not cause them to put their faith in Jesus. No. Paul wrote to the Romans, “Faith comes from the hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

         This is why Paul could say to the idol-worshipping Athenians that the one true God was not far from each one of them, and Isaiah could say he is near to each of us. It is because his Word is near. Only the Gospel in Word and Sacrament has the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Without the Word you cannot even begin a quest for God.

         Secondly, having been versed in the Word, the Magi’s quest for God led them to look for a human being, a person, a child as the object of their faith. That seems like a contradiction—you look for God in a person? Yes. In God’s infinite wisdom and love he knew that we could never comprehend him. We could never go up to God to investigate him or question him first hand, so God came down to us as the God-man. John wrote in his Gospel, “The Word (that’s Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Philip said, “’Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, . . . anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’” (John 14:8,9).

          A human being, a person, a child is someone we can comprehend, because we are human. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For who has known the mind of the Lord? . . . But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). We know what the Father is thinking because we know what Christ was thinking. We know the Father’s power, because we have seen Christ’s power. We know the Father’s love, because we have seen Christ’s love. We know what the Father did to save us, because we have seen what Christ did to save us. That’s why Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

          So the Christian faith is centered on the person of Christ Jesus. You came here today to worship a person, to pray to a person, to hear the Word from a person, to bring your offering to a person, and twice a month to receive the body and blood of a person. Oh, you may know a great deal about the Bible, you may go to church every Sunday, you may preach from this pulpit, but if your faith is not centered on the person of Christ Jesus you are just wasting your time in your quest for God.

          Well, we better get going in the journey with the Magi. We have a long and dangerous trip ahead of us, at least 1,000 miles. The mode of transportation is probably camels and our two feet. It will take us over a year one way to reach Jerusalem. And as we travel with these Magi, we are impressed with their devotion, dedication, and personal sacrifice for this Christ-child. Imagine taking two years out of your life to attend one worship service.

          Sometimes I think our Christianity is too easy. I know mine is. I’ve been a Christian all my life. All of my relatives are Christians. I’ve never had any real pressure to leave my faith. I get to come here once a week with you to worship freely, without fear or danger. That is not the case in other parts of the world.

          Where is my sacrifice? Where is my hardship? Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Where is my cross that I bear for being a Christian? Jesus said, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). What have I given up?

          Maybe my more severe cross is still coming as this nation turns more hostile to Christianity, but for now my cross is putting Christ first no matter what the cost. My cross is giving of my time in regular worship, Bible study, and prayer. My cross is giving of my talents (whatever they might be) to promote the gospel in this place and throughout the world. My cross is giving generously of my earthly treasures in service to Christ and his church.

         Henry Drummond once said, “Do not touch Christianity unless you are willing to seek the kingdom of God first. I promise you a miserable existence if you seek it second.” Jesus told the congregation at Laodicea, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. . . . So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15,16)). So our quest for God involves a full, all-out, devotion to Christ like the Magi. Anything less is no quest at all.

          We have finally arrived with the Magi in Jerusalem, and we are a bit confused. Where is the Christ-Child, we are in the capital city where a king should be born. The Magi would have been unfamiliar with Micah’s prophesy that he would be born in Bethlehem, that prophesy came after the Babylonian captivity. However, we have received an unexpected invitation to appear before King Herod who seems interested in our mission, but, of course, not in the same way we are. Herod was fearful of the Christ-Child. After all, was not he the one and only “king of the Jews?” Would this rumor about another king of the Jews stir up freedom riots among fanatics who hated him and had already caused him so much trouble? So Herod became agitated and angry. He was convinced that unless radical measures be taken his worst fears will be realized.

          So also, in your quest for God, don’t be afraid of him. That may sound like a strange statement, but many today are paranoid when it comes to the church or to Christ himself. They say, “The church is too demanding of my time, my energy, my resources.” Or, “The church is all about politics.” Or, “I don’t want to be labeled ‘religious.” Or, “Christ wants to rule my life so that I have no freedom for myself.” Or, “I don’t want to become too close to Christ.” But Jesus said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find” (Matthew 10:39). Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

          Look, his only desire to bless us. He is the only one who can give us true peace from the guilt and burden of our sins. He is the only one who can give us true joy in knowing that we are redeemed children of God. He is the only one who can give us true hope through all the sorrows and tragedies of this life, and he is the only one who can give us true life in heaven. In your quest for God don’t fear him but embrace him.

          We have reached the end of our long journey. The star has led us to Bethlehem. The time has come to do what we came to do. It is now over a year after his birth, and Jesus is now in a house with his parents in Bethlehem. So we walk in with the Magi, and there he is. The first thing we do is get down on our knees, in other words, we recognize his majesty, his holiness, and our own sinfulness.

          So also, my friends, your quest for God leads you immediately to repentance. Isaiah wrote, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). If sin is what separates us from our God, then repentance is what reunites us with him. It was the tax-collector in Jesus’ parable who stood in the back of the temple, beating his chest, and saying, “God have mercy on me a sinner” (Luke 18:13). He went home that day justified, forgiven, rather than the proud Pharisee who showed no repentance. This was the very purpose for Jesus’ coming to earth—to take our place as true man, to pay our punishment, to forgive our sins, to unite us once again in righteousness with our heavenly Father.

          And having repented and received God’s forgiveness, the last step in our quest for God, of course, is to worship him. It just comes naturally. We don’t have to think about it. It is as natural as the air we breathe and the food we eat. And worship for us today means public worship. We find a church. We join the fellowship of believers. We become part of the body of Christ. And we place ourselves under the care of a shepherd of the Lord, a called pastor, whom the Holy Spirit has specifically chosen.

          And worship throughout the history of God’s people has always included the giving of earthly possession. The Magi gave Jesus three well-thought-out gifts. They first gave him gold, the most precious item they owned. It represented Jesus’ royalty as king. Then they gave him incense which represented the prayers offered to him. And finally, they gave him myrrh which was the most common spice used for embalming the dead. Yes, these Magi must have even known the prophecy in Isaiah about the suffering servant who would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquity.

          So the Magi’s quest for the incomprehensible God was over. They found him in the Christ-Child, whom they knew would fulfill his Father’s will someday on the cross.

          Some years ago I was wondering how others picture God. So I went to the experts in such matters—the first graders at the Christian day school of the church where I served. There were 25 or so in the class, and I simply walked into class on day and said “Draw me a picture of God.” You could tell that they struggled a bit with it, but eventually they all proceeded to draw.

          Some drew a picture of an old man in a white robe with a long beard. That is how some of the most famous artists in the world have painted him. Others simply drew a picture of light coming from the clouds of heaven. I thought that was rather clever. But there was one little girl who drew a picture of Jesus on the cross. And I thought to myself, “She must have misunderstood me. She thought I had asked to draw a picture of God the Son, and not God the Father.” But then I thought, “You know, she is absolutely right. Jesus on the cross is everything God the Father is and stands for: his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his salvation. Yes, there on the cross is God in all his incomprehensible glory. Amen.

Let us pray:

Dear blessed Lord Jesus: As you used a star to guide the Magi to you in Bethlehem, so guide us through this Epiphany season by your Word to know you better, and in so doing, to know our heavenly Father better. Help us to avoid the pitfalls of seeking you apart from your Word. Help us always to fix our eyes on you as a person, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before you, you endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. May we find equal joy in carrying our cross with patience and endurance, knowing that losing our life for your sake will mean that we truly find it. Like the Magi, keep us constant in repentance, regular in worship, and generous in giving, until our quest for God reaches its ultimate completion in heaven. In your name we pray. Amen.