Naive

Most recently we rejoiced at the birth of Jesus, and got to celebrate the gift of God that He is to you and me. This weekend we reflect on the men commonly known as the Wise Men. I remember being in seminary and being shaken from my traditional view of these wise kings who came to visit Jesus. The term Magi was the spoken word that brought more to my attention. After looking at Scripture I could see that Magi was the word commonly used. In some ways the traditions of everything I had grown up were shaken. But in another way a fact was revealed in a way that did not affect the Absolute Truth that Jesus is my saving grace. Whether Magi or Wise Men came to visit Him, it doesn’t matter.

            Over Christmas I got an email discussing potentially historical corrections in the birth of Jesus versus the traditional view. Thoughts were given that the meaning of the Greek word “inn” was more like “home.” There were points made that suggested that it was possible that the family member’s house was full, so they had to stay in the stable with the animals. The details went on and on about differences in how the story is portrayed. I won’t go on about all the details, but I will say this: often this uncertainty fires Christians up.

            We want to say, “Who are you to question the traditional view of how we celebrate Christmas? You think you can change my view of my Jesus lying wrapped in cloths in a manger? “ I have seen many people become defensive about topics like this. Growing up, I’ve watched my family debate issues like this one. Sometimes they wanted to make them theological when they were really just insignificant details.

            Remember a few weeks ago we talked about how details just help us to see the whole story. They help us refocus, and make the story new to us every year. That is the power of God’s Word. Hebrews calls it a Living Word. The details bring back the life of Scripture, but the whole point of details was to enrich and develop the story.

            When I get emails like this I first look at the content and evaluate what the person is saying. I check their information and see if it fits with Scripture. And most importantly I check it with 1 John 4. Does it speak about my Jesus and His death and resurrection? If all these things check out, it becomes just information for me to think about.

            Sometimes we are so worried about things like this, which allows the devil to do his work. Then the devil can get us all fired up about some point where someone has just looked deeper into something new about the history of Scripture. When you think about it, what harm comes from someone looking into the details of Scripture? Lee Strobel wrote A Case for Christ, in which he dug deeply into Scripture trying to disprove it, and became an advocate of the faith instead.

            Our naïve nature about our traditional view of how we celebrate Christmas or some other historical or detail point can distract us from seeing how the power of the true Message of Jesus impacts people. This weekend we will discuss why they were not Three Wise Men but Three Naïve Men who never should have ended up worshiping Jesus. But God showed in the power of that story that He could, in fact, use unusual ways to not only see Jesus, but believe Him so much they would listen to His angels. Because of that, I am willing to allow some of this naïve detail to be altered-like the story of Jonah being in a whale instead of a Big Fish; or the story of my Savior being born in a relative’s house instead of in an inn whose keeper said there was no room. I want to look deeper into a life-changing story for me and for this world.