The Outsiders | Unexpected Guests

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the territory of Judea during the rule of King Herod, magi came from the east to Jerusalem. They asked, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We've seen his star in the east, and we've come to honor him."

When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, and everyone in Jerusalem was troubled with him. He gathered all the chief priests and the legal experts and asked them where the Christ was to be born. They said, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophet wrote:

You, Bethlehem, land of Judah, by no means are you least among the rulers of Judah, because from you will come one who governs, who will shepherd my people Israel." 

Matthew 2:1-6 (Common English Bible)

If you were throwing a party for the most important event in human history, who would you invite? You'd probably make a guest list of people who matter. People who are respected. People who are influential. 

That's exactly what makes the story of the wise men so shocking, they were unexpected guests.

The wise men weren't rabbis from Jerusalem. They weren't priests from the temple. They were astrologers from Persia who worshiped different gods and practiced a different religion. They represented everything the people of Israel were supposed to avoid. If the religious leaders in Jerusalem had been making the guest list for Jesus' birth, the wise men wouldn't have even made the cut.

But God wasn't using their guest list.

Here's what we need to understand about the wise men: they were outsiders in every possible way. They were geographically distant, living hundreds of miles away from Israel. They were religiously different, with their own scriptures, rituals, and understanding of the divine. They were ethnically foreign and came from an empire that had once ruled over Israel's ancestors. And they practiced astrology, something the Law of Moses explicitly forbade.

So when Matthew tells us that these Persian priests were among the first to come and worship Jesus, his original audience would have been scandalized. They would've thought, "What are they doing in this story?"

But that's exactly the point. God's first move after Jesus was born wasn't to alert the religious establishment in Jerusalem. God's first move was to invite outsiders.

Meanwhile, the insiders – like Herod, the chief priests, the legal experts – knew exactly where to find the Messiah. They could quote Micah 5 from memory. They were only six miles away from Bethlehem. But they never made the trip. The people who should have been first at Jesus' cradle were left on the sidelines while outsiders traveled months, possibly years, to get there.

And this reveals something fundamental about who God is. God doesn't wait for people to get their theology right before inviting them in. God doesn't require the right credentials or the right background. God invites people we would never think to include.

But here's where it gets uncomfortable. If God invited outsiders to be among the first to worship Jesus over 2,000 years ago, what does that mean for us today?

It means we need to examine who we've decided doesn't belong. Who have we written off because they don't believe exactly what we believe? Who have we excluded because they don't look like us or worship like us? Who have we dismissed because their lives are too messy or their past is too complicated?

Because if God chose Persian astrologers to be among the first to worship Jesus, then God is still choosing people we'd never expect. God is still inviting people we'd leave off our guest list because there really are no outsiders in God's kingdom.

Prayer:

God, we confess that we're good at creating categories and deciding who's in and who's out, who belongs and who doesn't. Help us see people the way you see them. Open our eyes to the outsiders you're already inviting into your kingdom. Give us the courage to welcome the people we'd rather avoid and the humility to learn from the people we've dismissed. Amen.