(Listen to this homily here).
This past summer I read my new favorite novel—Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace. It was a fascinating plot that
paralleled the life of the main character—Ben-Hur—with Jesus. The main questions of the book—who was
this Jesus from Nazareth? Was he
the Messiah? What did this mean?
The story begins in a desert as the
wise men were led by God to see the newborn King. Wallace portrayed in detail this journey, which captured my imagination
in picturing how the real wise men followed the star.
Towards the beginning of the novel,
the Jewish Sanhedrin was convoked due to the speculation about the arrival of
the Messiah. They diligent
searched the Scriptures to discern where the Messiah should have been
born. The answer? Bethlehem.
While
this book was fiction, we would agree that the Old Testament pointed to
Bethlehem as the place of Jesus’ birth.
The prophets especially nailed many features of Jesus’ life: he would be
born of a virgin, of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David and would
eventually suffer and die.
We
heard one of these remarkable foreshadows this morning from the mysterious
prophet Balaam: “A star shall advance from
Jacob, and
a staff shall rise from Israel.” Certainly the reference to a star makes sense when considering
the star over Bethlehem. Additionally,
the writers of the Old Testament saw such things as stars, the moon and sun as
heavenly beings. This star—a heavenly
being—would be coming to earth!
When
a Jewish reader read the second part of this line, they would immediately think
of Moses. Moses and Aaron used the
staff to do miraculous deeds and lead God’s people out of Egypt. It was a symbol for priesthood,
prophecy and leadership. Jesus
fulfilled all three.
As
Christmas approaches, the Church continues to give us Old Testament readings to
point to Jesus Christ. Soak them
in. Use them as fodder for
prayer. The man the Old Testament
pointed to is the same one that was born on Christmas.
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