Have you ever heard of the fourth wise man? You’re probably sitting there thinking, “uhh Emily, you need to go back and re-read the story because there are definitely only THREE wise men…” Yes, yes, in the story in Matthew there are indeed only three wise men. BUT, today I was reading through a study of the book of Mark and it referenced a story that was written in 1895 by a man named Henry Van Dyke Jr. that I had never heard before.
I looked into this Van Dyke character and wowie his reputation lives up to the awesomeness of his name. He wrote a book called The Other Wise Man (fun fact: it’s actually known as a Christmas story).
Just to preface this – it is a fictional story. This is not a story in the Bible. But I think it’s cool.
To set the scene let’s all remember the story told in Matthew. We all know the three wise men who followed the star in the sky that led them to baby Jesus, the king of the Jews. You know – gold, frankincense, and myrrh? Those dudes.
Van Dyke introduces a fourth wise man named Artaban. Artaban decides to follow the star with his three wise-man-pals and he takes a sapphire, a ruby, and a priceless pearl in hopes of giving his treasures to baby Jesus as a gift. However, on his way to meet his wise-man-pals, he sees a traveller that has fallen to the ground sick. He was in a tremendous hurry to catch his friends (gold, frankincense and myrrh) who were leaving, but he chose to stop and heal the man. Because he stopped, he missed his wise-man-pals and their caravan! Their caravan had all the supplies they needed to cross the desert, so he had to sell his sapphire to get what he needed to travel. At this moment he was disheartened because he wouldn’t be able to give the king his sapphire.
He made his way across the desert and finally arrived in Bethlehem, but he was again too late. Joseph and Mary had fled to Egypt with baby Jesus. While Artaban was in Bethlehem, he saves the life of a child by giving away another of his treasures, the ruby. Now, he wouldn’t be able to give the king his ruby either.
Then, Artaban wandered for years looking for the king with no luck. Over thirty years later, he came to Jerusalem and there happened to be a crucifixion that day (!!!). Artaban heard that it was Jesus, king of the Jews, and he hurried towards Calvary with his most precious pearl! But on his way he chose to sacrifice his pearl to save a girl from being ransomed into slavery. Now the king would never receive his precious pearl.
Artaban has now given away every gift that he had, and has nothing to give to the king. Then, a roof-tile suddenly fell and hit Artaban on the head. He fell to the ground and is about to die, thinking of all of the things he had done in his life. Then a voice whispers, “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” And Artaban smiled, because he knew that the king really had received his gifts.
I absolutely love this story. This month we are working at a conference center. Every day we are cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors, making beds, peeling apples, chopping potatoes, and everything in between. It doesn’t look like ministry. It definitely isn’t the most glorious job. Nonetheless, everything we do is for Jesus.
We mop so that someone might feel the love of Jesus here. With every bed we make we are hoping that the person who sleeps in it might meet their Savior for the first time. We clean dishes while praying that the people eating here would learn that their sins can be wiped clean.
So, I will take my precious ruby, my sapphire, and my priceless pearl, and give them to Jesus’ beloved children. And I will smile, knowing that the king received my gifts.
The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man. (Colossians 3:23)
Love y’all,
Em
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