For those who have been brought up within a Church, the details of the Christmas story can often become so familiar that they some how lose their wonder. As a child I would often be involved in two Nativity plays each year and so the scenes of Angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, the lack of room in the inn, the announcement of Christ’s birth to the shepherds and the arrival of the Wise Men from the East were so committed to memory that the miracle of God dwelling amongst his creation was ultimately diluted. This was partly due to the way in which the Nativity story was handled, particularly by the school. Rather than being a portrayal of a historic event, it was a production of what was perceived as a fairy tale; A baby was born in a stable and was visited by shepherds and three Kings who came to give gifts.
Epiphany is the date in the church calendar that particularly focuses on the arrival of the Magi (it is only by church tradition they are often portrayed as Three Kings, the Gospel simply refers to them as Magi – wise men, philosophers and astrologers) and as we approach this date in the calendar, it seems appropriate to look at the account and its significance within the story of Jesus’ birth.
What was lacking from my school’s Nativity portrayal was the real intention of the Magi in coming to visit the baby Jesus; ‘ “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” ‘ (Matthew 2:2) So, if Jesus is King of the Jews, why had these Wise men, who weren’t Jews, travelled so far to worship him? For the answer we must go back to the birth of the Jewish nation and its father, Abraham.
In Genesis 12 we find the call of Abraham (then known as Abram); God calls Abraham to be the father of a nation and gives him the following promise “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Even in establishing Israel as his chosen people, God’s intention is for the whole of humanity. These promises can be seen in terms of Israel’s history but also with a more eternal perspective; God’s ultimate intention for mankind is for a return to the state of Eden, where God physically lived amongst his people in the perfection of his creation. After the Fall, in Genesis 3:15, God promises one from the offspring of mankind who would crush the serpent’s head, thus succeeding where Adam and Eve had failed. The Old Testament constitutes an account of God’s people, with the underlying plot of this search for the promised ‘Serpent crusher’ (ever wondered the reason for all those long genealogies?) Is it Noah? No, he gets drunk and dishonours himself (Genesis 9:18-29) Is it Moses? He fails to trust God at his word. (Numbers 20:1-13) Is it King David? He has an affair with Bathsheba and has her husband murdered (2 Samuel 11:1-27) Is it King Solomon? After a promising start, Solomon begins accumulating wives who manage to turn him away from God. (1 Kings 11:1-13)
By the time of Jesus birth, the level of messianic expectancy was at a great level, partly because of the hope that the Messiah would release Israel from the firm grip of the Romans. In God’s promise to David (2 Samuel 7:12-16) as well as the more immediate relevance to Solomon, one can see the relevance to Christ and the establishment of an eternal Kingdom, and the relationship of God the Father and his Son. The image of kingship is highlighted in Isaiah 9:7 “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever.” The Jews were expecting a King.
The Magi arrived in Jerusalem, assuming the capital of Judah was the best place to look for the new-born King and soon found themselves being questioned by a suspicious and threatened King Herod. This is a fascinating contrast; the man who would have been well aware of the prophecies of the promised Messiah, the Saviour of Israel, is the one who not only consciously rejects him but seeks to remove the perceived threat to his own authority. It is understandable; Herod was reliant on the Romans for his position and so even the misinformed idea of one who was to liberate the Jews from the Roman occupancy would have made him feel remarkably uncomfortable. The Magi, however, came to bring their worship and offerings to a foreign king, but one that they recognised as being someone special. Not even Caesar Augustus could claim the appearance of a star to signify his birth. The Magi travelled a significant distance to visit the Christ child and given the value of their gifts, the risk from bandits and outlaws on the journey would have been great. How ridiculous must it have felt, kneeling at an animal’s feeding trough in a smelly and dirty stable to pay respects to a small baby. Can this child really be a King? Yet the Magi worshipped him and gave their gifts. What the Magi demonstrated was great faith, in the same way that the many godly people who preceded Christ and the New Covenant had done, as Paul describes them in Hebrews 11.
If we jump forward 30 years, we see that Jesus’ followers are the most unlikely bunch of fishermen, ex-tax collectors, political revolutionaries and the ‘King of the Jews’ had a tendency to associate with some of societies’ less savoury characters. He was rejected, scorned and hated by the religious authorities. Why? Because he challenged their self-righteousness; Jesus looked through the exterior image to see the heart. He saw the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the faith of the widow who gave all she had. The religious authorities saw God’s salvation as being for the rich and powerful, the respectable members of society; Jesus came with a message of repentance and salvation for all those who would accept it; ‘sinners’, lepers, the Samaritan woman, the Roman centurion. There was a school of thought in Christian thinking (a view shared by Martin Luther) that the Jews were primarily responsible for crucifying Jesus, a view which lead to much anti-Semitic thinking and behaviour. In reality it was the sinfulness of all humanity, which was exemplified by the misplaced piety of the Jewish religious authorities. They rejected Christ because they thought they didn’t need him; they thought they were justified through their good deeds, their sacrifices, prayers, fasting and tithing.
For me, the account of the Magi highlights two things; the purpose of Christ’s coming and the challenge his coming presents to us. Christ came to fulfil God’s purposes for mankind – to reconcile man to God, restore the relationship and to signal the fulfilment of God’s promises to Abraham. Jesus’ death on the cross was for Jew and Gentile, thus all peoples on earth were blessed through his sacrifice and resurrection. This enables all of humanity to be able to come together in faith as the people of God (Ephesians 2:19-22), reversing the division of the Tower of Babel. Jesus then ascended to heaven to prepare the promised land for all of God’s people and one day he will return to take us to be there. Thus the promises made to Abraham of God’s people living under God’s rule in God’s place are fulfilled; we are Christians today because of the faithful witness of Peter, Paul and the other apostles who were all Jews. Truly, all nations have been blessed through God’s chosen people. It was significant that as Jesus sacrifice signified God’s salvation for all nations, that the two primary groups who came to worship Jesus, one group was Jewish (the shepherds) and the others were Gentiles. It is also a taster of what will happen when Jesus returns and all nations will see his glory and bow in worship. (Romans 14:9-12)
In the same way that Adam’s actions led to the separation of God and man, so Jesus’ actions has led to the reconciliation of God with his creation and the subsequent restoration of Eden. Christ was not just born King of the Jews, but as King of all creation. This was the King the Magi worshipped – he was not a foreign King, he was their King and is our King. Jesus’ coming also presents a challenge to us in that it demands a response; Like Herod, do we reject Jesus because he acts as a rival in that he demands Lordship of our lives? Like the Pharisees, do we reject him because we think we don’t need him – we’re alright really, we try to be good and we’re sincere so we’ll be ok before God? Or do we follow the example of the shepherds and the Magi in that we drop everything and come to bow in worship and submission before the Lord of creation, our Saviour and our King, Jesus Christ.