“Where
is the child who has been born King of the Jews? For we observed his star at
its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” From the Gospel according to
Matthew, chapter 2, verse 2.
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Amen.
The more closely I read the story of the
wise men, the astrologers from the East, the more interesting it becomes. It is
worth careful study to bring out its meaning, below the surface, as it were, of
the narrative of the journey of the wise men. Who are they? We must answer this question to reveal the message which this story conveys.
Our translation says that they are “wise men from the East.” “Wise men” here
translate Magi, or Astrologers, men trained in the study of the stars and the
interpretation of dreams. The people of the time of the story believed that the
stars and planets influenced human affairs and earthly events, and they
believed that dreams had meanings that could be discerned. Many people today
believe these things, so the mentality of the astrologers from the East will not
be foreign to us.
The story doesn’t tell us where “East” is.
Tradition and legend tell us that they come from Persia, and legend, not
Scripture, has even given us their names: Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar. But
we can’t be sure that there were only three of them; Scripture doesn’t say so. Some
Christians believe that there were as many as twelve, but we assume that there
were three, because they gave three gifts.
A clue to whom they are comes from the
question they asked King Herod, “Where is the child who has been born king of
the Jews?” Why would astrologers from Persia be interested in the king of the
Jews? It is possible that they aren’t Persians at all, or Gentiles, or anyone
from very far east of Jerusalem. It seems to me that only Jews would be
interested in the prospective king of the Jews. But, people in bordering
countries would have an interest in the question, to be sure, so it is possible
that the wise men come from a neighboring territory. Neighboring countries
would naturally have an interest in political events in Judea, King Herod’s
kingdom. So the wise men could be Jewish astrologers, or astrologers from
nearby, not necessarily Persia, which is far away. Unless, of course, the King
of Persia has plans for Judea, and is scoping out the situation.
Now what “wise men” in their right minds
would walk up to a reigning king in his own country, and ask him in plain words
where a possible claimant to his throne might be, so that they could find this
claimant and acknowledge him as king? The question is absurdly naïve, at best,
not the least bit “wise” in a worldly, political sense, but there it is. There is
something very odd, innocent even, about the “wisdom” of these “wise men.” Herod,
if he had his wits about him, would have arrested them immediately. But no, instead,
“he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.” Frightened? Plainly, Herod,
and all Jerusalem with him, was intimidated by the reputation of the
astrologers, in whose powers of divination they believed. King Herod believed
the wise men without question. The king feared being supplanted by this
mysterious new king, and the people, Jerusalem that is, feared the disorder that
would result. This is a realistic fear, as we realize. Contemporary events, and
much of history, are full of examples of this kind of thing, rulers hanging on
to their power at any cost, fearful of potential rivals, and people fleeing in
fear from inevitable conflict. King Herod’s fear is
very typical, and shows up again and again in history.
The astrologers were wise enough, however,
not to be fooled by Herod’s purported devotion to the newborn child. They
managed to avoid revealing where the child was, and they found their way to him
themselves. It is interesting that the Gospel says that “they saw the child
with Mary his mother.” There is no mention of Joseph or anyone or anything else
in the scene. Joseph shows up in Luke’s version of the story. Our Nativity scene
combines Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of the birth of Jesus and the arrival of
the wise men.
So far I’ve presented a worldly,
political understanding of the story of Herod and the wise men. The wise men,
the astrologers, avoided telling the king too much, and were able to find Jesus,
the goal of their journey. The king, wily as he was, was not able to deceive the
wise men about his true intentions. And we can read the story on this level, and
not look any more deeply into it. But there is more going on here than that.
Two
realities are colliding here, the divine reality represented by the wise men,
and the all-too-human reality represented by King Herod. But, the “East,” that
mysterious location where the wise men come from, is not just a worldly
location, but is that place, that desire, in our nature that seeks to find its meaning,
and its goal. The wise men follow a star, a moving star, that is, a light,
which we may think of as a real, material star, and which we may also think of
as an interior light, the light of the soul, which guided the wise men to
the goal of their journey. Their journey was the same as our journey, the
journey of return to God. And they reached their goal.
The supposed naivete of the wise men, in
their direct approach to King Herod, asking him, of all people, where the child was, was really a sign of their confidence in their understanding of the
spiritual influences working in the world. Their understanding was justified,
since King Herod didn’t stop them right then and there in their quest. Their
journey continued, and they reach their goal. And their goal revealed the true
nature of the king they are seeking. It cannot be more unlike worldly kingship.
They found a little child with his mother, innocent, and inspiring overwhelming
joy. There is no wily king here, no scheming sneaky questions about where and
when. There was only joy, and devotion, and the giving of gifts.
“Then, opening their treasure chests, they
offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” These gifts represent the
true nature of the wise men. They represent the true nature of all of us. We
are, in our secret, innermost being, as wise as the wise men, even, especially,
when we don’t think so. Gold is imperishable; it is a symbol of that unshakeable core of
our being which is our real self, which we are unaware of most of the time. It represents ourselves as we are meant to be, as God made us to live in the world as he
means it to be. Frankincense and myrrh are, as it were, fragrances which
our true nature exudes in the presence of God. When we approach close to God,
we are enabled to reveal our true nature, to present it as a gift to Him. In the
presence of spiritual power, of divine innocence, so unlike worldly
power and inaccessible to it, so like the child that Herod cannot reach, the
best response, the only response, is to give Him the gift of ourselves, our
gold, our frankincense and myrrh.
Everyone possesses the true nature which
the gold of the story represents. Everyone is equally valuable in God’s sight. Everyone has
something to give to God. Everyone, therefore, is worthy of all the respect
that we can show them, that we can show each other. In our society, in which we value people according to what
they have, in which we sort people as more or less valuable according to their
possessions, status, “skill sets”, and so on and on, it is necessary to say this over and over. I know that in some people their true nature is well hidden. But we must believe that it is there, real and imperishable.
The story of the wise men shows us the nature of the journey that we are on,
all of us, and we must do our best to bring our fellow creatures along with us.
No matter what. King Herod does not get to have the last word. We have been
warned, as the wise men were, not to return to Herod. Not to return to a very
worldly way of thinking about each other. We are to leave for our own country,
our destiny in God, by another road.
“Where is the child who has been born King
of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him
homage.”
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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