The Cast of the Christmas Story: The Magi

Mark Holland:

The Cast of the Christmas Story series is sponsored by World Concern and the Global Gift Guide. Find out more at globalgiftguide.org.

Voiceover:

The Cast of the Christmas Story.

Mark Holland:

And another edition of our Cast of the Christmas story, different pastors talking about different people we hear about in the story of Jesus, his birth and what’s come to be called the Christmas story. In studio, this time we have a very special man that I have gotten to know through the years as I’ve had Japanese exchange students. We have the pastor of Japanese Family Church in Edmonds, Gordon Kaneda. Hi, Gordon.

Gordon Kaneda:

Hi, Mark.

Mark Holland:

Good to see you once again.

Gordon Kaneda:

Good to see you.

Mark Holland:

We had some students with us recently, and as usual, we always bring those exchange students to your church to check things out. I think I told you at that time, “Hey, I got a thing coming up here I want you to weigh in on”, and that was the Magi, and the story of these, We Three Kings of Orient Are, there’s even a song about it. So I thought of you and I thought of your perspectives on this story. But before we get into that story and the Magi, tell us a little bit about your ministry and Japanese Family Church. How long you been doing this church?

Gordon Kaneda:

It’s been 21 years this year. Yeah, 21 years ago I was right out of seminary and I started a Japanese [inaudible 00:01:31], it was a church plant, in Lynnwood. So yeah, and we’ve been ministering to Japanese people and their family. Lots of internationally married couple here, family here, so we do everything bilingually, try to do everything bilingually.

Mark Holland:

Yeah, you do. It’s always amazing that you’re able to conduct a service in bilingual.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, we tried so many things, but now I’m doing both Japanese and English, but yeah. It happened that God just drew us into the student ministry as well. So we minister to Japanese exchange students every year and share the gospel. Some of them become Christian and we send them back to Japan, so that becomes one of our ministries.

Mark Holland:

One of the goals. The Japanese culture has been historically very resistant to the gospel. China has had times of real, and I think there’s still a huge underground church in China or Korea, but Japan has been very talk to the hand as far as reception to the gospel.

Gordon Kaneda:

It’s a tough mission field. When I became a Christian 30, 40 years ago, Christian population was just below 1% of the whole population, and today it’s the same or even less. It seems like it dropped from 0.7% to 0.5%. Yeah, it’s been tough mission field.

Mark Holland:

Well, bless you for keeping at it and trying to find ways to minister to this culture. I mean, for you, what was the key for you to become a Christian? That was, again, you weren’t raised Christian, were you?

Gordon Kaneda:

No, no. We were a very non-religious home, and my dad was a businessman and when I was 10 he was transferred to Canada. So I lived in Toronto, Canada for two years, two and a half years, and learned some English there as a kid. Went back home to Japan and our parents didn’t want us to forget English, so we started looking for somebody who can speak English nearby in the neighborhood. One of my friends actually introduced me to this tall foreign person in the neighborhood. We knocked on the door one day and he was like seven foot.

Mark Holland:

Seven foot?

Gordon Kaneda:

I know, he was so tall, he came out and it turned out that they were the Canadian missionary. So they were from Canada, we could speak English, so they just started home meeting, at their home. It wasn’t about Christianity, it was just about speaking English.

Mark Holland:

Learning English.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, learning English.

Mark Holland:

That’s the inroad in a lot of times. I spent a year in Japan and I was teaching English too.

Gordon Kaneda:

Right.

Mark Holland:

Everybody wants to talk to you.

Gordon Kaneda:

So that was the beginning, yeah.

Mark Holland:

But then what happened?

Gordon Kaneda:

Then throughout course of one year or so, my mom, my sister came to know the Lord, and around there, I think I came to know the Lord too. It’s so vague, I was middle school then, so vague.

Mark Holland:

Pretty young.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, I was pretty young. Then my dad took a while. He was a stubborn businessman, a typical one.

Mark Holland:

A Japanese businessman.

Gordon Kaneda:

Very typical one, so it took a while, but after a year or so he became a Christian too. So we were baptized on the same day together, which is very rare in Japan. It was a miracle of God.

Mark Holland:

It is a miracle. Pray for the Japanese. I mentioned, I think I had the guy from Agape Hosting, who does the exchange student program here in our area, and I highly recommend having exchange students really of any nationality, but Japanese in particular, I think, they’re very polite. You always hear horror stories of exchange students who come in and just raise a ruckus and people go, “Never again.” But we’ve had really good luck with all of our Japanese exchange students, such a wonderful people.

That brings us though to the story of the Magi. You prepared some interesting notes here, and the first thing that really stood out to you about the story of the Magi was, again, that this group of priests or kings, We Three Kings, they weren’t Jewish, they were Gentiles, and that was very intriguing to you.

Gordon Kaneda:

Right. When you Google, some articles say they’re from Ethiopia, some from Persia, we just don’t know where they were from, but it’s clear that they were from the east, that’s what the Bible says. So they’re from the east, they’re outside Jews. So they were Gentiles, non-Jew, maybe scholar or doctors or whatever.

Mark Holland:

We always think of them as being three, but that was the three gifts they bring, that doesn’t mean that… It could have been a lot of people.

Gordon Kaneda:

That’s right. It could be like five people bringing three gifts or two people bringing three gifts. It’s the number of gifts, but instantly we think, “Three gifts, yeah, three magi.”

Mark Holland:

Well, I had the conjecture of wouldn’t it be interesting if one of the Magi was Japanese, or a Shinto priest, or Chinese, someone from the really far east.

Gordon Kaneda:

Really far, yeah.

Mark Holland:

I mean, I would think that’d be cool.

Gordon Kaneda:

That’d be cool.

Mark Holland:

I mean, it’s a total conjecture, but it’s possible. I know David Jeremiah did a dramatization of that, and he had an Asian priest of some kind in his version of the Magi, which I thought was, I thought, “Ah, now we’re thinking a little bit”, but we don’t know.

Gordon Kaneda:

We don’t know.

Mark Holland:

We don’t really know. So what else about this story of the Magi that really sticks out to you?

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, there are so many unknowns, but I try to understand from what we know. And as I said, they were the Gentiles, and coming to… They knew there was the baby, the King of Jews.

Mark Holland:

Somehow they knew.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, they somehow knew from-

Mark Holland:

God spoke to them in a language that they would understand.

Gordon Kaneda:

I think they were studying the stars, that’s what I get, stars. From there, somehow they knew that the King of Jews was born. I don’t know if they really understood that this was the son of God, because they went straight to King Herod. King of the Jews, it was born at the foot of King Herod. So they probably just understood that there was a King of Jews that was born. So they came and they found the baby and they worshiped the baby. Again, we don’t know if they understood that this was the son of God or they were just worshiping the King of the Jews.

Mark Holland:

But they must’ve known something special was happening.

Gordon Kaneda:

Maybe.

Mark Holland:

More than… I mean, [inaudible 00:07:53].

Gordon Kaneda:

Maybe because the stars. Stars were guiding them.

Mark Holland:

Somehow the stars spoke to them, that this was really a unique child.

Gordon Kaneda:

It must be something different, something special, not sure how.

Mark Holland:

Because kings come along all the time.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, right.

Mark Holland:

So they knew something was different about this one.

Gordon Kaneda:

That’s right, that’s right.

Mark Holland:

From their astrology.

Gordon Kaneda:

So they worship this king, the baby, and goes home. And there’s King Herod. It’s almost like we always think this is the story of Magi, but the center of the story was King Herod.

Mark Holland:

Why is that?

Gordon Kaneda:

Because when you read the story, the middle of the story is all about how King Herod reacted.

Mark Holland:

Very threatened.

Gordon Kaneda:

And Magi is not in the picture, only in the beginning and at the end. But then King Herod, of course, he didn’t know about the King of Jews being born, so he feels threatened and he want to kill this baby, because he might come and take over the throne. So this reaction, it’s a big contrast between how Magi responded to the baby and how King Herod reacted to the baby. And Herod is a Jew, he knew the Bible, he knew the prophecy and all, so that the King of the Jews will come, and yet he was so defensive about his throne, he was not ready to give up the throne for the baby. Whereas this totally Gentile magi came to worship the baby.

I’m a Gentile, but I’m a Christian now, so it makes me think, “Okay, the message of this story might be, are you ready to give up your throne?” We are Christian, I’m a Christian, I know the Bible, I know the promise of God, and yet sometimes I hold on to what I think is important, and I choose that over God. And God is telling me, “Okay, are you ready to give it up? Are you ready to let go, and God be your God?” That would be one of the main point that I might [inaudible 00:10:06].

Mark Holland:

That jumped out at you about the story.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, yeah.

Mark Holland:

Was the way Herod reacted to the Magi. Yeah, he must’ve thought, “Who are these Gentiles coming here to worship, that they think there’s another king besides me?” And yet he should have known though. Was that when he first found out about Jesus’ birth, was from the Magi, do you think?

Gordon Kaneda:

Looks like. Well, the magi came and he had to ask his people about it, so he didn’t really think about it. Understandably so, we hear lots of prophecies, we just don’t know when it’s going to happen, probably he didn’t think it was going to happen in his days. But yeah, so he had to ask around with his people, his scholars, and find out, “Wow, this might be it.” But still he didn’t want to accept.

Mark Holland:

Well, he was so threatened by this that he had the firstborn killed around the whole-

Gordon Kaneda:

Right.

Mark Holland:

Was that in response to this as well? Again, he was that threatened that he actually tried that.

Gordon Kaneda:

Right. He heard that this was prophesied baby, prophesied one, right? Still he went out to kill the baby, so I don’t know what he was thinking, but yeah.

Mark Holland:

The star, the aspect of the story of the star, following that star, I think it’s so interesting that God, I mean, most places in the Bible, he condemns astrology and looking to the stars, but he seemed to be okay, God did, in speaking to these people in a language that they understand. He’s, “I’ll show you a star, this is a real special star.” There have been studies that even have shown that there was, perhaps, they say maybe the star, that Jupiter maybe was really bright in the sky, or again, some explanation as to what was happening, maybe a comet or something like that. But whatever it was, it was a real astrological, not even astrological, astronomical, astronomy event going on. And the people back then knew something about these things. We think these people were uneducated or inferior, but they actually had a lot of information on what was going on.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah, it looks like. Yeah.

Mark Holland:

Well, as people are listening to this and the Cast of the Christmas Story, any other thoughts you want people to think of when they think of the Magi?

Gordon Kaneda:

Well, as I said, there’s so many unknowns and we assume a lot of things, like the number three of the kings. It’s in hymns, it’s in picture books, every nativity scene has three kings, three magi. And yeah, I always try to be careful what’s there and what’s not there. So with this story, we only know a little bit about the magi and where they’re from, what they actually do and stuff. But yeah, focused on what we know, what we do know is very important when it comes to this. Not only Christmas stories, but in the Bible too.

It’s not like something really stood out from this story, but when it comes to preaching Christmas in Christmas season, it’s a challenge for us pastors because we only have limited resource, limited passages to preach every single year. I usually start from the first week of December, I don’t know if it’s a good idea or bad idea, because I have to preach three, four times, Christmas story from limited [inaudible 00:13:27]. And I don’t know if people remember what I preached last year, but I-

Mark Holland:

Okay, so you’ve recycled a lot of stories or sermons?

Gordon Kaneda:

Well, I think about it but it bothers me because I remember preaching and I don’t want to preach the same old sermon. So this story of magi is a challenge, because there’s not much spiritual teaching to it that you can pick it up, because we don’t know much about it.

Mark Holland:

But I think the point that you made that these were definitely Gentiles.

Gordon Kaneda:

Gentiles.

Mark Holland:

These were not Jewish people.

Gordon Kaneda:

Right, and they were looking for the baby, they were seeking, they traveled so very from afar, and they spent so much time and money and effort to do that. That’s something we can think about too. How much are you willing to spend for the Lord? So that’s something I think that I preached once on that issue too. But yeah, those are the things that I can think of. They didn’t have a clear understanding, but they still sought the Lord, sought the baby.

Mark Holland:

In the best way they knew how.

Gordon Kaneda:

Yeah.

Mark Holland:

And that God works, and I think for us today too, it shows us that God will work with what you do know, and that’s encouraging. Particularly in what you do when you’re trying to reach the Japanese culture. People, you said less than 1% are Christian, they don’t even know who Jesus is, they don’t even know that he existed even historically. It’s a real challenge, we’re praying for you.

Gordon Kaneda:

Thank you.

Mark Holland:

As we wrap this up today, why don’t you pray for people who aren’t Christian, but they’re intrigued maybe this time of year. Again, like I said, I was in Japan for a while, a year, and it’s a time of year when people are the most receptive, I think, to Christianity, because they’ve borrowed so much Western stuff without any sense of the historicity, but they’re maybe more receptive. This time of year, people may be receptive to the Christian Christmas story. Why don’t you pray for people who are listening today?

Gordon Kaneda:

All right. All right, let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, the Bible, for the Christmas story, and for all the information you’ve given to us so that we can get to know you. But there are so many people who still don’t know you, and maybe they’re not even thinking about you or seeking you, but just like you did to these magi, we know that you can speak to people’s heart, you can draw people’s attention. And Father, on this Christmas season, it is the season where that is easier for us Christians to bring up the gospel story, the Christmas story with people. And Father, we pray that you will use us so that we can communicate the gospel, your love, what you’ve done for us in the language that they understand, just like you did with the Magi. And Father, we pray that you will draw more people to you so that more people will get to know you and experience the changed lives. Thank you, Father, in Jesus’ name.

Mark Holland:

Amen. And now in Japanese.

Gordon Kaneda:

All right.

[Prayer in Japanese 00:16:32].

Mark Holland:

The Cast of the Christmas Story series is sponsored by World Concern. You can give a gift with a lifetime of impact. Your gift will meet the critical need of a child or family living in poverty. You can give a goat, or one of 43 other life-changing gifts today, through the World Concern Global Gift Guide. Give life-changing gifts that work together to transform the lives of moms, dads, and children in the world’s poorest places. You can even select a meaningful gift in honor of a friend or loved one. Each gift transforms the life of someone in poverty. Go to globalgiftguide.org. Again, that’s globalgiftguide.org.

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Thank you so much for joining us for The Cast of the Christmas story, a series on Purposely Equipped. We’d love for you to take a moment and let us know what you think of this series by leaving us a review. For more podcasts to grow your faith, we invite you to visit onpurposely.com. Until next time.