Finding the Way

The gospel of Matthew tells us that when the Magi left the Christ child, they went home "by another way." Is this just a historical note, or does it have significance in our own lives?

Anyone who has traveled at all has learned a few things. He has learned that when your wife says that she’s hungry, you stop for lunch. She has learned that when the sign says “Last rest area for 100 miles,” it’s wise to stop and use the restroom. And certainly they have learned that the route they choose is very important to what their experience will be on the trip. If you want to get somewhere quickly and easily, for example, you will probably choose to take the freeway. It’s the easiest route to follow, and your only decision is which exit to take. The freeway can be boring, though, as you put mile after mile behind you while speeding along at 70 miles an hour.

Major side roads like the Dixie Highway or Rt. 40 are a little more difficult to follow. You have to keep your eyes open for signs at the side of the road that tell you to turn right or left at the next intersection. These routes are a lot more interesting, though. As you travel these roads, you might find a wonderful little ice cream parlor with vintage art deco trim; or a great mom and pop diner that serves homemade peanut butter pie! You’ll find everything that you need along the way of an old route – food, gas, and rest stops – but you’ll be able to see the sights up close and personal.

And then there are the back roads, the ones that don’t even have a route number. Back roads are the routes that offer a bit of a risk to travelers. They may not be marked well. You might even end up on a rutted dirt cow path, and you’ll need to turn around and retrace your route. You never know quite where you’ll end up when you take a back road. But those roads can lead you to completely unexpected experiences! You might run across a rustic country store, or an old barn that an artist has turned into a studio for stained glass. On a back road, you can experience the fullness that a journey might offer you.

When the wise men traveled to find the newborn king of the Jews, I imagine that they began by taking the easiest, fastest route available. They probably took the Ancient Middle Eastern equivalent of I-70 all the way from their homes to Jerusalem. There were plenty of places to rest their camels and to buy food along that road. When they got to Jerusalem, they took the exit marked “Herod’s Palace,” and they pulled into the parking lot to get directions. Herod sent them to Bethlehem; and although they may have begun that leg of their journey along a main road, they eventually had to find their way along the back roads. After all, they didn’t really know where they were going! There was no exit sign marked “Newborn king, next exit.” All they knew was that somewhere in Bethlehem was a very important baby; and they were determined to find him.

Find him they did; and he was one of the surprises that seem to be part and parcel of traveling along back roads. He wasn’t in a palace, or even in the mayor’s house; he was in a barn. And he certainly didn’t look like any other baby king that they had ever seen! His parents weren’t wealthy nobles wearing purple silk; they were peasants wearing clothing of coarsely woven fabric. But there was something about this child… When they offered him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, he looked into their eyes with a wisdom that babies don’t usually possess. This child made them feel unsettled and comforted, all at the same time!

Those wise men didn’t go back to their home the same way that they got there. Matthew tells us that they returned home “by another way.” They didn’t go back to Herod and report where he could find the child. No, they took the bypass, the outer belt all that went all the way around Jerusalem instead of the exit that led to Herod. When they left the manger, they went home by another way.

In this story, when Matthew says “by another way,” he means exactly that. The wise men used a different route out of Judea when they left the country. But it seems to me that there is another meaning, a deeper one, to saying that they went home “by another way.” A former pastor of mine is fond of saying, “No one who visits the manger returns home by the same way that he got there.” That pastor isn’t talking about physical roads, but about the spiritual changes that happen in our lives after we meet the Christ child.

Think about how you first came to the manger. Many roads lead there. Some people were born there. These folks are the lifelong church members. Of course, they’re at the manger. They’ve always been at the manger! Others got there through a revival meeting, or a Billy Graham crusade, or a preacher on TV. They realized one day that they weren’t at the manger; and they got off the couch, got in the car, and drove to the manger. Still others came with a friend; somebody else invited them to the manger. But the route we took to get here doesn’t really matter in the end. What matters is the route we take when we leave.

Taking a different road when we leave the manger presents a bit of a challenge, though. That’s because when we leave the manger, a GPS system won’t do us any good. GPS systems, after all, are centered on us. They take us the way that we want to go. If we’re in a hurry, they direct us to freeways. If we want to see the sights, they direct us to side roads. Some can even direct us around traffic jams! But when we leave the manger, we rely on God to show us where we should go; and God will take us in ways that we would never have taken if the choice were up to us. That’s because God doesn’t lead us to the freeway where the way is easy and the exits are clearly marked. No, God takes us on those back roads that are sometimes very difficult to follow. Sometimes we even wonder if we’re on the road at all! But all the while we are traveling, God is our back-seat driver.

In fact, God not only directs us from the back seat, God comments while we’re driving! When God takes us through a neighborhood where thin, ragged children play in the streets in front of run-down homes with broken windows and parking lots filled with broken glass, God whispers in our ears, “These are your brothers and sisters. How can you help them?” When God guides us to a road that goes past a nursing home, God taps us on the shoulder and suggests, “Let’s stop here for a little while. I’ll bet that someone in there would appreciate a visit.” And when we are tempted to get on a big, eight-lane highway that offers us easy traveling, God insists, “Don’t go that way. That way leads to Herod’s palace; and what you’ll find there is greed, oppression, and violence. You don’t belong on that road.” Oh, yes – our journeys away from the manger will be filled with discoveries and challenges if we allow God to guide us.

We are all headed away from the manger on one road or another. Now, I don’t know what road you are on this morning. I don’t know whether you are on an easy road, or a road that is difficult. I don’t know whether your road is filled with joy, or laden with sorrow. I don’t know if you’re having smooth sailing or running over potholes. And I don’t know how long you’ve been traveling on that road – a few days, a few years, or your entire life. But remember, as we leave the manger behind, we don’t leave the Christ child behind. As we search for the way that we should travel as Christians, Christ is traveling with us. Thanks be to God!