I have just begun preaching through the gospel of Matthew on Sunday mornings. This Sunday's message was taken from Matthew 2 (the visit of the wise men to Jerusalem).
Matthew 2:1-2 [1] Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, [2] saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
There is a tragedy here in this Scripture and it is bound up in the little word "saying." These wise men had somehow been schooled in the Old Testament for they knew when and where Messiah would be born. Therefore, they came lookiing for the Christ. It's very possible that these wise men or magi first came into contact with the Holy Scripture some 540 years earlier when the Hebrew people were under the rule of the Babylonian empire. If you recall, Daniel was able to intepret King Nebchadnezzar's dream and was eventually put in charge of the magi (the wise men who advised the king).
Now when these wise men come looking for Christ they entered Jerusalem "saying." Simply put they kept asking and asking and asking and asking and asking and asking and asking! They kept saying "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." Apparently, the people who had first received the Scripture (the Israelites/Hebrew people) were oblivious to the fact that Christ had been born because nobody was able to give the wise men an answer. The wise men asked around so much that they created a buzz around town and word got back to Herod.
That is tragic. The Lord gives a people His Word. Those people pass it on so that Gentile nations so that people can be aware that the Lord incarnate is coming. Those Gentile people (however many they were) hold fast to the Word because it tells of the coming Living Word. At the same time, the Jewish people had forgot to pay attention to the Word and missed the coming of the Living Word. Sure they knew it, but they transformed in into principles for living rather than a testament of Christ. I'm not saying that there aren't principles for living in Scripture. There are. But the principles are there because they are reflections of the nature of Christ which we are saved to display.
Let us not forget that God gives us His Word (not as a manual for living) but as a light that shines in this dark world until the Morning Star arises in our hearts; meaning that Scriptures points us to Christ (O.T. & N.T.) until Christ comes. The Word written directs us always to the Living Word. That is why preaching must always be Christ-centered. Christ must be at the core (not a add-on) to the message for all Scripture directs us to Him somehow.
And what a tragedy it would be to have the Scriptures and miss out on Christ. I fear that many preachers today are nothing more than modern day Pharisees. They are directing people on how to live with all their "how-to-sermons" and failing to tell people about the One who came to earth, lived a sinless life, died for those who would repent and believe in Him, ascended into heaven, rules over His church and is coming a second time.
That little word "saying" gives us so much insight as to the spiritual condition of the people in those days. Lest we repeat history, pay attention to the Word of God.
