Scripture References: Matthew 2:1-12

Guiding Light

Jesus Christ, to whom the star led, also leads us somewhere. He leads us in two directions, to God and to our brother. These are the two poles of great religion.

The God to whom Jesus leads us is no cosmic blur. You can almost say He is a God with a face. He is a God of truth, love, and justice, and He demands these of us. There is rigor in the demands of this kind of faith.

Jesus also leads us to our brother. He leads us across all kinds of barriers and all kinds of social proprieties to get to Him. He takes us to where men and women are lonely, rejected, poor, dehumanized, sick, and lost. Follow Him in any of the four Gospels of our New Testament, and He will take you to where people are hurting.

There are those who want Jesus to lead them to God but not to their brother. They want a religion that is essentially personal, spiritual, ethereal, and other-worldly. They want to be lifted above the loneliness, injustices, and brokenness of our world. Such a religion will allow us to live side by side with the inequalities, racism, and exploitations, and never lift a hand to change the situation. Indeed, it will allow us to profit from these inequalities and to share in these injustices in a most respectable sort of way. To those who are satisfied with this kind of religion Jesus says: “It is not enough. Come, let me take you by the hand and lead you to your brother. He is afraid and he is hurting. He needs you.”

On the other hand there are those of us who are willing to be led to our brother but not to God. Personal and spiritual religion turns us off. We had rather spend our time feeding the hungry, healing the sick, defending the weak, and championing the cause of justice in our world. If we are to believe in anything, let it be in humanity. Essentially they say, “our works are enough. Our works are our religion.” Jesus says to us: “It is not enough. Come, let me take you by the hand and lead you to God. You not only need to serve; you need to worship. You are too weak and frail to be the object of your ultimate trust. You are like a broken reed and cannot stand the weight of heavy faith. You must trust in something and somebody beyond yourself.”

Light in the Darkness

The light of the star that identified Jesus will never go out.

Someone has said that there is not enough darkness in the universe to put out the light of one small candle. It is true. If darkness cannot put out the light of a small candle, how helpless it is to put out the light of a star.

John in his Gospel speaks of the light in Jesus which the darkness has not put out. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). The New Living Translation (NLT) says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Where noted, Scripture taken the Holy Bible, New Living Translation®, NLT © 2015 by Tyndale House.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.