Today I had a rare day alone in the house which means a day to clean, catch up on laundry, and take down Christmas decorations. As I stood in the kitchen drinking my first cup of coffee and contemplating all I wished to accomplish, I remembered I had not yet fulfilled my personal yearly Christmas tradition of watching The Fourth Wise Man. So I decided to put it on as a background inspiration for my housekeeping.
Which means an hour later I'm sitting on the floor surrounded by a million odd socks I'm trying to match and bawling my eyes out.
Every year I get more truth out of this simple film, or another application to something that happened to me in the previous year. This year it was pondering if I am continuing to give my all to seek the Savior, and remembering that success in His eyes does not look like success in the eyes of others.
I went and found the original blog I wrote on this film, back in 2009 and I'm re-posting it below. My personal take-away for 2019 is that I will not forget what a life following after Jesus looks like, as the Fourth Wise Man.
Happy 2019.
December 2009
I saw the film, "The Fourth Wise Man" when I was quite young, and it made a huge impression on me. I bought it a few years ago, and it is one of our family traditions to watch it every Christmas.
But this year, I finally understood it.
Do you know the story? It's the fictional account of a magi named Artaban. He is passionate about following the star he has seen to find the one true king. He sells everything he owns to buy three precious jewels to take as gifts to him, and sets off to meet his three friends who are also going.
But Artaban, because he stopped to do a good deed along the way, is late, and his friends start across the dessert without him. When he arrives at the meeting point, there is no one there.
He missed the opportunity. He was left behind. Instead of being able to go along with his friends in their caravan, he now has to do it all by himself, the hard way. He reluctantly gives up one of his jewels in order to buy all his own camels and supplies and continues his quest.
But Artaban always seems to be a step behind. He shows up in Bethlehem after Mary and Joseph have already left. He stands in the empty stable and looks at the empty manger with longing. As he gets ready to go to Egypt to look for them, the Roman soliders show up to kill the babies. Out of compassion he uses another jewel to bribe a Roman to save one child. And now he has only his most precious gem left- a pearl of great price.
He goes to Egypt and searches for years without results, and then returns to Israel. One day along the road, bandits attack him and his servant, and take his pearl. Following them to their hideout to get it back, he finds a colony of lepers. Moved with compassion, he decides to stay and use his skill as a healer to dress their wounds and help the sick.
The pearl is returned to Artaban, but he cannot bear to leave the needs of the desperate people unmet. The few days he meant to stay grow into months and then years. He teaches them how to irrigate and grow crops and be self sufficient so they don’t have to rob.
Other magi come, those who have success, and, looking down on the people and his work, suggest condescendingly that he go home. His own servant is thoroughly disgusted with him. In a letter he wrote he says, “It is not enough that my master has helped these people. He has become one of them.”
Artaban grows old, and his health fails; he knows he will die soon. Thirty-three years have passed since he saw the star. But one day, one of the blind men from the colony comes back from a trip into Jerusalem shouting that he has been healed. Hope is renewed in the feeble Artabon’s heart, and he takes the pearl that he has kept all this time and makes his way to Jerusalem to find his king and give him his gift at last.
He gets there in time to see Jesus crucified. Heartbroken, he feels like his entire life has been a total failure. With a last agonized look at the crosses on Golgotha, he uses the pearl to redeem a girl from slavery. A few days later he tries to make his faltering way back to the colony, but can’t make it. As he sits drawing his final breaths, Jesus appears to him.
Artaban’s first reaction is joy and amazement, followed quickly by embarrassment and regret at his condition and poverty. “Lord, once I had many gifts to give you, but now they are gone.”
Artaban is mystified when Jesus assures him that He has already received Artabon’s gifts. “For I was hungry and you gave me meat: I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me.” Then Jesus explains, “When you did these things to the least of my brothers, you were doing them for me.”
Artaban is ecstatic. He has found the king, and he has received all his gifts. His life wasn’t a wasted failure after all. He dies in peace.
How about you?
Did you start off young and full of zeal for God, or excitement about what you would do with your life, only to feel like you missed the caravan?
Yeah, me too.
I suspect there are lots of people who like me on their quest for following Jesus, ended up, not kneeling at His feet in our youth giving him our valuable and impressive gifts and talents, but off wandering around in Egypt or out in the leper colony feeling like we missed Plan A somewhere.
For some this could be ending up with an unrewarding job that wasn’t what we planned to do with our lives at all. For others, an emotionally unfulfilling marriage. Maybe we felt we had a “call” for full time ministry or missions that we didn’t get to experience. Maybe our book never got published. Maybe our business or ministry failed.
For others it might be trials like a rebellious child, a relative with an addiction, a life threatening disease or injury to ourselves or a loved one, chronic pain or health problems, a divorce, or the untimely death of a family member.
It could be any number of things that life throws at us on our way to being amazing and successful and impressive. Maybe our adult children are living at home, or we are unexpectedly raising our grandchildren. Maybe an aging parent needs full time care. Maybe we have a handicapped child that will always need us.
This message is for all of us in the leper colony of life who feel that although we may be doing some good where we are, it isn’t really what we were meant to do. It’s for those of us who struggle with feeling like our lives are a waste, and that we missed our opportunity to be truly successful.
We haven’t. God is not judging us the way people judge us, or even the way we judge ourselves.
He doesn’t measure us by our outward appearance: youth, beauty, right clothes, right hair, right weight, or generally coming across as if we “have it all together.” Our success as He sees it is not in our educational degrees, our income, our title at our job, the size of our business, or the number of people in the church we pastor.
He doesn’t love or value us more because of our beautiful house or the neighborhood we live in, the kind of car we drive, the perfect cleanliness or organization of our home, the number of times we cooked a real meal this week, the good behavior of our children, or the “intactness” of our family.
No matter where we find ourselves in life, no matter who we are, we can give our final gift. Yes, we do have something left. Like Artaban, we all still have a pearl of great price.
That pearl is love, the same unconditional love that God extends to us. If we love and accept whoever we find ourselves with, in whatever circumstances, we are not failures. Children, parents, siblings, co-workers, church members, people behind the counter at McDonald’s, the checkers at Wal-Mart- everyone needs love.
If we show God’s love to the least of these, in whatever verbal, practical and helpful ways we can no matter how small, our lives are not wasted. And at the end we may find out that we have done the greatest work after all. We may find that the reward is greater for doing unremarkable things with love, than doing remarkable things without love.
“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing…. Love never gives up, love cares more for others than for self, love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have, love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first", doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others….puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, keeps going to the end. Love never dies.” (Portions of 1Cor. 13 from the Message Bible)
I cried really hard this year when I watched this movie on Christmas Eve. Because I saw and felt it fully for the first time. I am not respected or successful in life. I have no position of honor. But He has received my gifts.
I am the fourth wise man.
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