God's Clearest Signs Point to Another Way

When God sends you a sign it will make sense to you. Now the Magi understood stars. Magi looked for and understood signs in the sky; a special star, or a super-nova, or a comet, made sense to them.

Matthew's second chapter tells us they came from the East and that they saw the star in the East (or at its rising). The sign came to them where they were. God got their attention in a way that they could understand and in the place they were at. The difference between these strange, gift-giving visitors and those folks in the palace - King Herod, the priests and scribes -wasn't so much the difference between believers and non-believers. The difference was in the attitudes and actions of Herod and his religious courtiers.

The complacent elites distrusted God's interest in doing anything new. So their murderous actions, and inaction, hindered God's work and strengthened the oppressive powers Jesus preached against. The Magi, on the other hand, these strangers to Israel's faith, are mobile. That is, they're not afraid to move out of their settled ways. So God's new creation expands through these folks who - with neither power, nor knowledge of all that God has done with Israel up to this point (see Micah 5:2; 2 Sam 5:2) - witness the dawning of God's new age.

That's what Matthew's been saying from the opening verses of his Gospel. To powerless women like Mary and marginal men like Joseph; now to Gentile star-chasers, God sends messengers, messages, dreams, and visions. And as these folks living on society's margins embrace God's purposes, God is able to do astounding things.

After their visit, and warned in a dream, the wise men "left for their own country by another road" (Matt 2:12). The Greek word hodos is often translated as, road. That's its primary meaning. But its secondary meaning is, course of conduct, or a way of thinking, feeling, deciding. It’s that secondary meaning is clearer in the King James Version which translates this verse, "they left for their own country by another way" (KJV).

Like as not Matthew is trying to convey a double-meaning here. It does mean that the Magi went home by another route and avoided seeing Herod again. But I also think Matthew wants us to understand that the Magi went home "another way." In the Book of Acts, Luke records that Jesus' earliest followers were called people of the Way (9:2; 18:23, 26; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14). After being with baby Jesus, the Magi were changed. They no longer acted the “way” they had before. They went home "another way."

Part of the new way they discovered is how God would be King, not through their previous understandings or assumptions - which had taken them to the palace in Jerusalem. They discovered the new King through God's revelations to them - both through the star and through scriptures (as proclaimed by the religious leaders loyal to Herod).

See, knowing the scripture isn’t enough. Those settled folks in the palace could, without doubt, beat anybody in town, especially these foreigners, at Bible Trivial Pursuit. But, as Matthew tells the story, it's only these foreign unbelievers who take the scripture to heart. And it changes their heart, gives them a new heart – repentant / turning hearts. They turn away from their old ways, embrace the new thing God is doing - travel home "another way."

What about you? Each week First Trinity becomes a Bethlehem - a House of Bread. That's what the Hebrew word Bethlehem means. Each week, in Holy Communion, we take in the very body and blood of the newborn King. We commune because Christ commanded as much. And we trust communing strengthens us to change the way we go home.

We hope communing will make us more mobile in our thinking, acting and deciding. It's a sign of God's love we understand because we taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

No, God doesn't need us to commune. We need it! We need frequent signs from God that speak of nourishment, growth, and providence - like the manna in the desert. Just as that everyday food freed Israel to go a new way, we already see and feel ourselves traveling by God's other way. There's plenty of God’s journey food to go around. Are you ready for "another way?" We'd love to share it with you, too!