In the church year Epiphany marks the visit of the magi (wise men/three kings) who come and worship the infant Jesus.
As points out their visit implicitly demonstrates the fallacy of thinking that all you need is more knowledge to find the comfort of God’s salvation.
The scholars and people knew a king had been promised, they knew where he was to be born.
But the knowledge was useless because they never acted on it.
That was what made the wise men wise, and not just knowledgeable.
Tomorrow if you go to hear God’s Word read and taught, don’t assume that alone will be enough.
Go prepared to believe and act upon that which you hear. That’s what will make it good news.
Read David Mathis’ meditation The Irony Of The Epiphany at Desiring God.
So here we have the trained theologians of the day. They know all the biblical jargon. They’ve read and re-read and re-re-read the Scriptures—and memorized them. And it’s a piece-of-cake answer for them. “Where is the Messiah to be born?” Bethlehem. Check Micah.
A Strange Indifference
But here’s the tragic thing: They know the answer, but none of them acts on it. None of the trained theologians go to Bethlehem. Dirty shepherds leave their flocks and go to the manger. Pagan astrologers traverse far, hundreds of miles and months on the road. Meanwhile, the religious leaders, full of insider jargon and Bible knowledge and pat answers, don’t bother to make the relatively short five-mile journey to Bethlehem to actually see this baby that all their theological classes should have prepared them for.
Commentator David Turner calls it “the strange indifference” of these Bible-answer-guys who have amassed loads of scriptural knowledge but don’t act on it. Their heads are filled with verses, doctrines, and religious facts, but their hearts reject the very Messiah their training should have pointed them to.
Read the whole article.
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