Gentile Sinners
The wise men are coming to him worship him, and they bring with them their best cultural products and practices and resources — gold, frankincense, and myrrh being just the beginning.
Revelation 21 picks up on Isaiah 60 and re-casts this prophetic vision of the future with Jesus at the center.
The apostle John writes:
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” Revelation 21:22–26.
The nations bring their gifts.
And the world’s kings gladly bow to the king of kings.
And not only will the glory of God light the whole kingdom, but the single lamp will be the Lamb — the Lamb who was slain for us.
The King of the Jews crucified for gentile sinners!
When the magi came to Jerusalem asking, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” little did they know that they were asking for him by the very title that would be written above his head as he hung on the cross dying for sins not his own: “the king of the Jews.” Matthew 27:37.
This true king of the Jews is not the usurping king, like Herod, abusing power, acting impulsively, employing deceit to bolster his crushing grip on the throats of his subjects.
Rather, this king of the Jews is the one true king, the one who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28), the one who doesn’t merely demand our homage but wins it in his shocking self-giving on our behalf — all the way to death, even death on a cross.
He is the king who demonstrates his love for his people in that while they are still sinners — while we are still stargazing in our astrology and wizardry — he dies for us.Romans 5:8.
This side of the cross we know more than the magi knew.
Not only would this God graciously draw gentile sinners and amazingly permit them to come near to his Son, but he would provide eternal salvation for astrologer-sinners like them, and like us, through the willing death of that very baby they came to honour.
(PR)