Do You See What I See?

We are not told that the shepherds and the Magi saw the same thing. We know that the Magi saw the star: Matthew 2:1-2, 7, 9-10

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." ... Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ... After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

We are never told if the shepherds who saw Jesus in the manger saw the star or not. Luke 2:8-20

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." 

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Therefore, the star has been misnomered "the star of Bethlehem" since we know that the Magi followed the star, which had been in the sky about 2 years, to where the child and mother lived. Jesus was raised in Nazareth, but they first saw the star in the east.

So while the shepherds (and lambs) may have seen this star, there is no textual evidence that they did.

original image source

We Three Kings

We three kings of Orient are/bearing gifts we've traveled afar/field and fountain moor and mountain following yonder star

The Bible never tells us that kings visited Jesus.
Instead we are told in Matthew 2: 1-12:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." 

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:

" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" 

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." 

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Magi, "Wise Men," some have speculated from the region of Peria, but we have no indication that they were kings.

Notice also that the above passage does not specify how many Magi visited Jesus. They brought three kinds of gifts, but that does not necessitate only three visitors.

Note we are also not told what kind of animal they rode. They could have ridden on horseback instead of camelback (which would have be a faster means of transportation.) We can speculate, but we do not have definitive proof.

One thing we can know for certain is that the Magi were not present at or shortly after Christ's birth.

Again, the above passage states on coming to the house this does not indicate the place where Mary and Joseph stayed while in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7). We also find from Matthew 2:16-18:

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 

"A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more."

We can probably guess that it had been about two years since the Messiah was born given the above passage. Since Herod had found the exact time the star appeared from the Magi, Herod acted accordingly by killing all those that age and younger.

Thus, the Magi visited a house, not the manger, and saw Christ probably around two years after his birth, not at his birth. We have no indication that the Magi were kings, what beast of burden carried them, or how many of them there were.

original image source

Déjà Vu

I lived in Germany during the Nazi holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. I attended church since I was a small boy. We had heard the stories of what was happening to the Jews, but like most people today in this coutnry, we tried to distance ourselves from the reality of what was really taking place. What could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we would hear the whistle from a distance and then the clacking of the wheels moving over the track. We became disturbed when one Sunday we noticed cries coming from the train as it passed by. We grimly realized that the train was carrying Jews. They were like cattle in those cars!

Week after week that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those old wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed out church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly at what time that whistle would blow, and we decided the only way to keep from being so disturbed by the cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time that train came rumbling past the church yard, we were singing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we'd just sing a little louder until we could hear them no more. Years have passed and no one talks about it much anymore, but I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. I can still hear them crying our for help. God forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians, yet did nothing to intervene.

Now, so many years later, I see it happening all over again in America. God forgive you as Americans for you have blocked our the screams of millions of your own children. The holocaust is here. the response is the same as it was in my country -- Silence!

The story of an elderly gentleman he told to Penny Lea, as told in Alvin Reid's book Introduction to Evangelism, pg 339, quoting the brochure, "Sing a Little Louder," by Penny Lea.

I Want to Look Through a Waterfall

I want to be on the other side of a waterfall looking out at the world. OK, so I've been behind pool waterfalls. Those don't count. I want to go behind a natural waterfall, both small and great. And from there I want to view the world.

I want to do this because I think that we probably are viewing reality from behind a waterfall right now. We think we know how things look, but one day we'll step out and see the truth and realize reality was distorted more than it seemed. The writer of Corinthians put it this way "now we see as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know in full, even as I am fully known."

and, no, I didn't take the picture...if I remembered where I found it I would link to the original source