Advent Thoughts, #23
Christmas virtue: Reverence.
It seems strange to worship a baby. Not very many really did, and it's not even clear from the Bible that the shepherds and magi worshipped. They probably had little knowledge. In the Jewish mind, the Messiah was not necessarily to be worshipped; that was God's place, and many would not have understood the Trinity as we (think we) do. Bringing gifts, maybe involved worship. Coming to gawk because the angels scared them, maybe some worship came into it. Simeon and Anna, they understood, so maybe so (don't know why those two get left out of the Christmas story, since they were probably there before the Magi).
We have reverence at Christmas because we know the whole story, which those people in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-3 did not.
It seems strange to worship a baby. Not very many really did, and it's not even clear from the Bible that the shepherds and magi worshipped. They probably had little knowledge. In the Jewish mind, the Messiah was not necessarily to be worshipped; that was God's place, and many would not have understood the Trinity as we (think we) do. Bringing gifts, maybe involved worship. Coming to gawk because the angels scared them, maybe some worship came into it. Simeon and Anna, they understood, so maybe so (don't know why those two get left out of the Christmas story, since they were probably there before the Magi).
We have reverence at Christmas because we know the whole story, which those people in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-3 did not.
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