It stopped! Finally! It stopped! For the past few weeks a growing cloud of uncertainty hovered over their plodding group. What if the star wasn’t really leading them? What if the alleged movement was simply a desperate ploy by overactive imaginations? What if their fellow scientists, now hundreds of miles behind them, had been right all along? What if it really was just a star? An ordinary star. A star only recently visible due to newly understood planetary movements. A simple star with no great meaning, no significance, not a grand announcement of a miracle Child born to rescue mankind from its certain demise.
The questions had all been previously posed. They had ignored them. Under the luminous twinkling light of that special star, the wise men gathered camels and supplies, gifts and goods, waved farewell to family and friends, and set out to chase down the one thing they believed would change everything. Jesus. Messiah. Savior of the world. Regardless of how long it took. No matter the expense. In spite of all the naysayers and skeptics. These men devoted the rest of their lives to the journey, should that be the requirement. Not because the star itself was so special, but because the child it signaled was.
As the star finally glided to a halt above that humble little cottage, their hearts soared in anticipation. It had all been worth it. Every boring mile of dessert. Every monotonous meal of trail fare. Every village and town where their celestial questions were met with ignorance. Every city whose panels of intellect curled their lips in condescension at such an obvious fairytale, such an impossible star, such a magnificently wasted labor. Lesser men would have tucked tail and headed home under such scathing derision. Not these men. So deep was their faith, nothing could turn them around. The people might know nothing. The scholars might claim ignorance. The religious leaders might scorn. But they knew. They always knew. And right then, in that moment, their faith was about to be made sight.
The house and grounds were of little account. Sawdust littered the front yard. Irregular wood scraps were tossed in a haphazard heap as if a toddler had been attempting his own project. A pile of rough-hewn logs were stacked neatly to the side. There could be no mistake. This was clearly the home of a carpenter, not a king. Yet nothing in their souls doubted the guiding light that had brought them to this place. This was it. They had done it. They had found Him. Emmanuel. God in the flesh, living among His people. God with us.
Scrambling from the backs of their exhausted camels, the grown men nearly danced with excitement. Their beards split in blinding smiles. A nearly tangible river of relief and joy flowed around them. The star had stopped. This was it! He was here! Even though they hadn’t knocked. Even before Mary hesitantly opened the door. Prior to ever laying eyes on the Christ child Himself, these men burst out in unrestrained rejoicing. Why? Because their faith-full hearts knew, without sight or sound, that they had found Jesus, the King of the Jews. The Hope of the Nations. The Prince of Peace.
They were not disappointed. Their faith was not misplaced. Entering the house, they found Him. And they believed it was Him. Without fanfare. Without a grand introduction. Without requiring proof. The wise men believed that the Child before them, the Child dwelling under that stubbornly stalled star, was Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, the promised Messiah sent to save His people from their sins. The Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father the prophet Isaiah had told them was coming, had indeed come. So full was the measure of their faith that they rejoiced with incredible, overwhelming, exuberant joy. Their blind faith had truly become full sight. (Matthew 2:1-11)
It was this same faith that would become one of the basic tenets of Jesus’ teachings. Faith when you cannot see, cannot prove, cannot know in advance. Faith in the hand of Jesus Christ to heal and save, repair and restore. Faith exhibited time and again by people in desperate circumstances with no reason to hope, no promise of rescue, no earthly basis for believing. Men like the leper who approached Jesus in faith, asking to be made clean. And he was. Because he believed. Men like the blind ones following and crying out to Jesus for mercy, unwilling to miss the chance for their faith to become sight. Hearing their desperate cries, Jesus turned and asked them one question, “Do you believe I can heal you?” Their faith-full response echoed through the surrounding crowd, “We believe!” And He did, not because of their cries or the peer pressure of the crowd. He healed them because of their faith. (Matthew 8:1-4)
Crawling her way through the crowd, dodging sandals and sweeping aside voluminous robes, a suffering woman struggled to reach Him. Her 12-year illness had drained her spirit, body and bank account. The doctors were stymied. Options were gone. Except one. She needed to get to Jesus. He could heal her. She didn’t need to look in His eyes or speak directly to Him. She wasn’t asking for a healing hand on her head. She didn’t even need His attention at all. She had no intention of taking up a moment of His time. She didn’t need to. Her faith-full heart believed if she could just brush the hem of His garment, she would be healed. And she was. Not because she touched His garment, but because she had faith in God when the odds were stacked so strongly against her. (Matthew 9:20-22)
Perhaps one of the most moving examples of recorded faith was that of the Canaanite woman. Deeply distressed over the state of her demon-oppressed daughter, she came and begged Jesus to deliver her child. Unlike the other accounts we read, Jesus didn’t answer her. Didn’t acknowledge her presence. Appeared unmoved by her brokenness and pain. Still she continued to beg. Finally, annoyed at her continued petition, the disciples asked Jesus to send her away. In a shocking rebuff, Jesus responds to her wretched pleading with the statement that He came only for the lost house of Israel. The Jews. Not the Gentiles. Not her. Not her daughter.
Refusing to be dissuaded, the faith-full woman came and knelt before Him. Tears streaking unchecked down the lines of sadness etched in her face she quietly asked again, “Help me!” Again a negative answer came. He wasn’t here for this. He was here for the lost sheep of Israel. She wouldn’t be dissuaded. Her faith in Jesus wouldn’t allow her to walk away. In abject humility, she likened herself to a dog eating scraps from the rich man’s table. Surely some of His great mercy and grace and healing could fall to the place she and her daughter were being held captive. Surely there was a rescue for them. Surely Jesus could ransom them! Couldn’t He just let a little of the blessing fall on her child? Although her argument may have been sound, it wasn’t cunning or eloquence that won her child’s healing. No. It was faith alone. Desperate faith. Helpless faith. Faith that believes without sight, without promise, without signs and wonders. Immense faith that elicits great rewards. (Matthew 15:21-28)
Unfortunately, so many of us miss it. We look for a sign. We stand in skepticism. We embody the people in Jesus’ hometown, seeing what the wise men saw, hearing what the people in the surrounding villages said, but failing to believe. Their hearts were shadowed with doubt. They thought they knew what to expect from the coming Messiah. Grandeur. Royalty. Strength. Governmental overthrow. This Guy wasn’t Him. He was a carpenter’s son. Child of Mary. They knew His brothers. Some of their sons were betrothed to His sisters. They’d known Him since He was an infant. They were absolutely not buying it! He wasn’t the Messiah. It was all a hoax. A wild attempt to get attention. And because they were busy squeezing God into their box of means and methods, they missed it and it cost them.
Their lack of faith hindered the work that could have been done among them. Amazing things could have happened in their town, their homes, their lives, but they didn’t have faith. Their miracles hung suspended in time because they refused to believe what they couldn’t see or comprehend. Unbelief ran rampant and choked out the tiny seeds of faith that should have been nurtured and strengthened into great roots of unflappable faith. And it cost them. They gained nothing. Jesus left His hometown doing few, if any, miraculous works there because their unbelief scuttled their faith and cost them their miracles. (Matthew 13:53-58)
What if the wise men hadn’t believed enough to set out on that enormous journey? What if the blind and lame and leperous had hemmed and hawed instead of stalwartly stating their faith? What if the hopelessly ill women gave up at the sight of the crowd pressing around Him and the line waiting for His attention? What if the Canaanite woman had stifled her faith in the God of Israel, buried her hope, and walked away? What would they have missed? What would they have given up? What would they have lost due to insufficient faith?
What about you? As the carols of hope and life and rebirth echo around you, does your faith spring eternal or are you hesitant, reticent? Is your faith waiting for a sign, a signal that it is safe to believe? Are you waiting for God to fit nicely into your preset parameters, work in the way you have previously determined, act in a manner you attribute to the Almighty? Is your faith precariously teetering on the edge of unbelief? Are you willing to lose what you could gain because the security of unbelief is more comfortable than the freefall of faith? (Matthew 16:4; Isaiah 55:8-11)
It is of utmost importance that you recognize the desperate necessity of being faith-full. In a world and time when we are tempted to cast our hope, our allegiance in a thousand earthly, tangible things, it is imperative to place our faith in Jesus Christ. He is our hope, our peace, our help. He is our strength, our hiding place, our strong tower. And He rewards those who diligently seek Him. Wise men. Blind men. Ailing women and suffering children. Saints. Sinners. You. Me. Every soul who grasps the importance of being faith-full will find that great faith elicits great rewards. (Matthew 21:22; Hebrews 11:1, 6; Mark 11; 22-24; II Corinthians 5:7; Psalm 121:1; Psalm 46:1-3; Psalm 32:7; Psalm 62:5-6)
Amen, faith!!!!