Seeing
the Light
Keith
McFarren
January
4, 2026
Matthew
2:1-12
    You can tell it’s the first of the year
just by looking at the advertisements that appear on TV in January.  As the first of the year arrives, we see ads
on TV for physical fitness equipment and ads for gyms, like Planet Fitness, and
ads for ways to eat healthier.  There are
also the ads for losing weight – take some Wagovy or Ozempic or Monjaro…take this
pill or that pill or inject yourself with this drug or that drug.  
    The first of every year is the time to
make the resolution to get ourselves in shape, or so the ad makers think.  They think we all want to hear that we’re
“looking good.”  To “look good” is an
obsession for some and from a medical standpoint, it’s a necessity for
others.  Either way, to look good is something
that seems to be driving our culture more and more.
    Rev. Dr. Derek Weber remembers the time
his young son came to him and said, “I’m not a good looker, Dad.”  Derek said he was stunned and worried and
angry at a culture that focused so much on the physical appearance of a young
boy.  
    “Who says you’re not a good looker,” Derek
asked.  “I do,” the little boy replied.  “Because every time I lose something, I can
never find it!  That’s why I’m not a good
looker!”
    That’s an entirely different “good
looker,” than we’ve been talking about, isn’t it?  
    I’ve never been a good looker.  I would hate to think how many times I can’t
find something and have to ask, “Do we have any of this or that?”  
    “It’s in the middle bathroom closet,”
she’ll say.  Or it’s in the cabinet in
the laundry room or it’s here or it’s there.
I’ll stand there and look and look but I can’t find it.  “I don’t see it,” I’ll say.  “We must not have any or someone took it and
didn’t tell us.”
    And then I can hear her coming and I know
what’s going to happen next.  She’ll come
in, stop, and look for about five seconds and say, “It’s right here” and pick
it up and hand it to me.  Maybe it’s a
guy thing; I don’t know.  All I know is
that I am not a good looker.
    Our scripture reading this morning is full
of lookers too.  It’s a familiar text…a
text that we do every year to celebrate Epiphany.  First, we do Advent and then Christmas and
then we do the wise men.
    To make a nice story out of all of this, a
story that flows together, we’re going to compress the time factor here and put
all this into one manger scene so that everyone can see it.  We do this because of the differences in story
telling between Luke and Matthew.
    If we take a good look at this, we’ll see
that Luke never once mentions the wise men in his gospel, nor does Matthew ever
mention the shepherds or the manger in his.
It’s as though they are telling two different stories.  
    The differences in the stories of Matthew
and Luke then has caused many people, especially those questioning the
Christmas story and those questioning Christianity in general, to doubt the truthfulness
of the entire story and to say that it is nothing more than two different fictional
stories made up by two different writers.
    But we, as believers, hold a different
viewpoint and yet there is still a lot that we don’t know and a lot that we’ll
never understand.  
When we talk about the birth
of Jesus, we always seem to focus on the background and professions of the Wise
Men or the astrological meaning of the star that appeared out of nowhere.  
    What I want to focus on instead, is the
response of the Wise Men to all that happened to them.
    From our scripture reading we know that
these men from the east observed a star in the sky that signaled the birth of a
king, not just any king, but the King of the Jews.  The strange thing about all of this is that
we really don’t know how they knew this.

    We can read all sorts of speculation from
scholars and historians on the subject.
We can dig deep into the history of astrology or we could say that the
writer of Matthew’s gospel had some inside knowledge of it.  
    But the truth of the matter is we don’t
know the connection between the star and the Wise Men; we only know what the
Bible tells us.
    We also don’t know why the Wise Men
decided to make a detour so that they could tell Herod about what they were
doing.  All we know is that they stopped
by his palace and we’re told that the news of Jesus’ birth both frightened and
angered Herod.  Herod was so upset that
he called his staff together to find out who this child, this supposed King of
the Jews was and what it might mean for the future of his empire.
    He was called Herod the Great because
during the forty years that he had been in power he had done many good things; he
kept peace and order throughout Palestine, he built the temple in Jerusalem and
he was known for being a generous, compassionate man, who used his own personal
water reserves to help the Jewish people during a great famine.  
    But despite being a good man, Herod had a
terrible character flaw – he was suspicious of everyone…and the older he got
the more suspicious he became.  It got so
bad that if he suspected anyone to be a threat to his power – that person was
eliminated.  
    For reasons unknown, he became suspicious of
his wife and his mother in law…so he had them killed.  He also became suspicious of his three sons
and they all ended up dead…an act that led the Roman Emperor August to say that
“It was safer to be Herod’s pig than to
be Herod’s son.”
Knowing all this, we begin to
understand how such a hateful man would feel when news reached him that a child
was born who was destined to be King.
Herod was indeed upset but so were the people of Jerusalem because the
people of Jerusalem knew that Herod would go to any length to find the newborn
child, their newborn king and quickly eliminate him.
    As modern day readers we assume that after
finding Jesus, the Magi took a different route back to protect the child from
Herod, but once again, Matthew doesn’t really tell us that.  All he says is that they were warned in a
dream not to return to Herod.  And just
like Joseph, who was also the recipient of a dream a few chapters earlier, they
acted on the dream as if it were real.
    So, once again, that’s all we know.  We are given a few hints, a few clues, a
chance to make a few assumptions, and a few glimpses into the meaning of the
visit of the Magi from the east.  What
does all this say about who Jesus really is?
What is the big revelation and what effect does it have on the
Magi?    
    The wise me were Gentiles which means they
had a completely different religious belief system than Jesus and Joseph and
Mary.  Yet something happened to each of
them the day they found Jesus; something happened that compelled each of them
to set aside their pagan beliefs, their idols and their gods and respond to
this tiny child.
    Seeing Jesus for themselves not only
confirmed that he was the one the ancient prophets had spoken of, but that the
sign they saw in the sky (star) had led them to something very, very real and
very, very special.  
    Whatever it was that happened to them, and
perhaps it was the “warming of the heart” that John Wesley speaks of, they
personally experienced God’s divine presence and God’s power and it changed
their lives forever.
    It seems that no sooner was Jesus born
than we begin to see people grouping themselves into two distinct groups with
two different reactions to his birth…groups that still remain today.  First, there is the group with the same
reaction as Herod, the reaction of fear
and hatred and hostility and resentment toward Jesus…fear and hatred and
hostility and resentment because he was afraid that Jesus was going to change
things; that Jesus was going to interfere with his lifestyle, with his power
and with his influence.  Herod needed no
one but himself.  He liked being in
control his own life and doing things his way and didn’t want it to
change.  He wanted to be in control of
his own life and do things his way and not have to worry about some outsider changing
things.  
    And then there is the group of people with
the reaction of the wise men, the
reaction of complete acceptance, and complete submission and divine worship.  And like the Magi, when we become aware of
who Jesus really is, when we become aware of the love of God in Jesus Christ,
when we begin to trust in him and when we find ourselves full of the compassion
and mercy that accompanies God’s love, we know that we have discovered
something special.  
    And like the Magi, upon finding Jesus, we
too are willing to cast aside all our old beliefs, our old ways and our old
lifestyles and become devoted to the ways of this little child.
    Looking back on the birth of Jesus, we see
that there are so many questions…so many unknowns…and yet there are so many
truths that lie right there before us.
    But Matthews point in all of this is very,
very clear…we need to be good lookers.
Maybe we need to restate that and say that Matthew’s point in all of
this is very clear…we need to look where God is leading us.
    Do you see what Matthew is trying to tell
us here?  God leads.  There was a star for the shepherds to follow
and there was a star for the wise men to follow and no one was responsible for
that star other than God.  Period!  
   Matthew is telling us that no one needs to
create or follow their own star.  No one
has to try to lead themselves out of the darkness.  Over and over again, we’re told that there is
always light available to us and all we have to do to find our way out of the
darkness is to follow the light.
    But before we can find our way out of the
darkness there is a very important decision that has to be made.  God doesn’t send stars out to be like drones
and zero in on us and then come down and pick us up and set us on the right
path.  We have to open our eyes and look
for it and when we see it, , like the shepherds and like the wise men, we have
to make the decision to follow it.
    Once we decide to follow God will continue
to lead us.  God didn’t abandon the wise
men when they stopped in to ask Herod for directions.  It wasn’t Herod’s directions that got them
back on the right track, it was the star that continued to shine bright so that
the wise men could find their way to Jesus and find their way to a new way of
life.
  The prophet Isaiah says to look and see.  When you lift up your eyes and when you
gather yourselves together, then you shall see and [you shall] be radiant
(Isaiah 60:4-5 NRSV).  
    Look up to God’s light.  Look beyond yourself and your own desires and
efforts.  Look beyond your own abilities
and weaknesses.  Look up and look toward
the one who guides us and directs us.
Look up toward the one who inspires and teaches us.  Look up to the one who sustains us and keeps
us going.  Look up to God’s light…the
light that changes lives.