Although the church celebrated it on Sunday, today is actually Epiphany, the celebration of the three kings who came to give honor to Jesus. We frequently see the kings represented in crèche scenes, but their arrival was actually much later in his life, somewhere around two years old. With this celebration, the Christmas season officially comes to a close, and the celebration of God’s revelation begins.

Their story begins when they come before King Herod to declare their intent. In Matthew, we read, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)

After some interplay between the magi and Herod, the story ends this way, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:9-12)

There are two significant insights in this story that should affect our relationship with Jesus. First, the magi responded to the revelation of God, by taking action to seek out the Christ Child. They saw the sign God gave of the birth of the Messiah, and they set out to find him, to worship him. They were so captivated by this vision from God that they traveled far just to meet Jesus, and clearly, they expected Herod to be as excited.

These men truly were wise, because they understood that worship of the Savior is costly. Not only did they bring valuable gifts, they gave themselves completely to the task of worship. It was an investment of time and energy, one that required much travel away from their homes and their lives. Yet, they knew that this Child was worth the investment.

Often, we who worship Jesus in our day want that worship to fit our plans. We want it to take place in the windows we have in our schedule. Even the Lord’s Day is often reduced to 60 to 90 minutes. I am very blessed to serve a church that is in no hurry to end worship, but I have been in many churches, and spoken to many Christians, who want worship to happen within the scheduled time so that they can get on with their lives.

The magi were not motivated out of convenience. Instead, their actions came from a recognition of the greatness of the Messiah, and from hearts willing to pour themselves out in worship. Honoring the revelation of God, and the Christ Child, was worth whatever personal investment it required. This attitude leads to the second important point in this story: the magi came to offer their gifts to Jesus, not to get something from him.

“I just didn’t get anything out of it,” people say about worship, as if that was the point. Sometimes, the words are even clearer, “What’s the point? God didn’t give me what I asked for, why should I waste my time?” If these comments were rare, they would be inconsequential, but they are much more common than we even imagine.

Worship is not built on of what we can get from God. Surely, we will be blessed by our worship, and God does answer prayer, but the motivation for worshiping the Savior is not what is in it for us. We worship Jesus because he is worthy of that worship. Even if we get nothing from the experience, Jesus still deserves our worship, for his worthiness is not based in what he does, but who he is.

As we celebrate this Epiphany, maybe we can take a lesson from these wise men. We can choose to worship God with a full investment of ourselves. We can affirm that real worship is costly, because Jesus is worthy of our sacrificial praise and worship. We can come to him in worship without looking for what we can get, but to offer him what we have. As we do, we will begin to experience the joy of living as a worshiper of Jesus Christ. It is a big challenge, but one worthy of our effort.