It’s a familiar part of the Christmas story, but it shouldn’t be.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, “wise men from the East” arrive in Jerusalem asking, “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” (Matthew 2:2). This upsets King Herod greatly, as he sees it as a threat to his throne. Herod gathers the court intelligentsia to ascertain where the prophesied Messiah was to be born, and they tell him Bethlehem. Herod now has a where, but he needs a when. He asks the visiting wise men for the exact time when the star had appeared in the sky, so he could calculate the age of the child he will kill. Once he has this information, he sends them to Bethlehem asking them to find the child, and report back His location, ostensibly to “pay him homage” (vs 8).

The wise men travel from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, following the star to Jesus’ home.

When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. (vs 10-11)

But none of this is a part of the Christmas story.

As we (briefly) discussed in another Card Talk, the wise men did not appear at the Nativity scene, as a careful reading of Matthew chapter 2 reveals.

This is just one aspect among many to be re-examined below.  

 We three kings from Orient are

Bearing gifts, we’ve traveled afar…

According to most scholars, church historians, and Bible nerds of all stripes, these “wise men,” or magi, were most likely Persian magician-astrologers, not “kings.” The Jewish readers of the gospel would have seen them as learned, but mostly evil foreign mystics. But the inherent nationalism in that sentiment is part of the story: even god-less heathen gentiles from the East know the importance of Jesus’ birth, and are willing to make a long journey to seek Him out. To that end, technically, they did travel from the “Orient”— meaning “the east”—, but seriously, no one but your “he’s from another time,” semi-racist grandfather should be using that word (and you should really get him to stop too).

It is also good to note that the passage never specifies the number of magi present at the scene, only that they were bearing three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These specific gifts hearken back to Psalm 72 — a “royal psalm,” tradition would have us believe was written by King David to usher in the reign of his son, King Solomon. This Psalm is employed in the Revised Common Lectionary during Epiphany to speak of the advent of the Messiah, because its verses proclaim the adoration of one king by a group of other kings bearing-gifts. For example, verses 10-15 include

May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
    render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
    bring gifts.
May all kings fall down before him,
    all nations give him service.

For he delivers the needy when they call,
    the poor and those who have no helper.
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
    and saves the lives of the needy.
From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
    and precious is their blood in his sight.

Long may he live!
    May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
    and blessings invoked for him all day long.

Similarly, the gospel writer may have had Isaiah 60 in mind, which includes images such as:

Nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (vs 3)

A multitude of camels shall cover you,
    the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
    all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord. (vs 6)

Foreigners shall build up your walls,
    and their kings shall minister to you;
for in my wrath I struck you down,
    but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
Your gates shall always be open;
    day and night they shall not be shut,
so that nations shall bring you their wealth,
    with their kings led in procession. (vs 10-11)

And maybe all this travelling over various terrain is what made them so late to the party. That and they were following that wandering “star.” (Ooooh Ooooooohhhhhhh…)

Star of wonder, star of night,

Star with royal beauty bright…

There is a tradition that the “star” which guided the magi, was not a celestial body at all. Not a ball of gas gone supernova, a comet, or some planet in retrograde motion. Some argue it was an angel.

In Ancient Near East literature, including the Bible, angels and celestial bodies are sometimes interchangeable (c.f. Job 38:7 & Revelation 12:4). This could be such a time. Replace “star” with “angel” in the events surrounding tales of Jesus’ birth and childhood and see what happens.

An angel:

• Appears to announce the pregnancy of Elizabeth with John the Baptist (Luke 1)

• Appears to announce the pregnancy of Mary with Jesus (Luke 1)

• Appears in a dream to Joseph to not leave Mary (Matthew 1)

• Appears at the birth of Jesus (possible the same one the Shepherds saw in Luke 2:8-20?)

• Leads the magi from the East to Jesus (Matthew 2)

• Warns the magi, in a dream, not to return to Herod (Matthew 2:12)

• Warns Joseph in a dream to ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’” (Matthew 2:13).

In Matthew, a star or an angel (or group a of angels, maybe they have a union) led the magi to the home of the holy family, but not on the night of Jesus’ birth.

when The Magi arrive at the holy family’s house,they find A toddler, not a newborn.

Born a King on Bethlehem plain…

Years have passed since the nativity scene. The magi do not show up moments after the birth of little Yeshua; they do not find him "laying in a manger" like the shepherds in Luke chapter 2. There is simply no way and the text makes this clear.

First, look at the narrative itself. The chapter begins by saying that the magi arrive in Jerusalem “after Jesus was born in Bethlehem” (vs 1) because they “observed his star at its rising” (vs 2). Think about it: they saw the star on the day Jesus was born, while they were still in their home country. After this they began figuring out the significance of the astronomical anomaly, packed their things, and then made the voyage from modern day Iran to Israel, without motorized vehicles, and all the hassles associated with such a magnificent journey.

Now add to that Herod welcoming them to his court, with its fanfare and protocols, as well as their audience with Herod. Now add Herod “calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people” to figure out where Jesus was born (vs 3-6), a process which would have required the gathering, unfurling, and pouring over of scrolls, and complicated mystical, astrological, numerological computations— they didn’t already know the answer and were sitting on the information for giggles. Now add Herod’s next conversation with the magi about the matter. Now add the magi travelling the five miles between Bethlehem and Jerusalem following the star to Jesus’ home (vs 9-10). You’ve just added up quite a bit of time.

Second, look at the language employed in the passage. Jesus is repeatedly referred to as a "child" in the chapter (e.g. 9; 11;13-14), not a newborn. The Greek word employed in these verses is consistently used in Matthew’s gospel to refer to young children, not newborns. If the writer of Matthew meant “newborn,” he would have used the word for it.

Third, and the most telling, are the actions of Herod: ordering the Massacre of the Innocent. “[Herod] sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men” (vs 16). From the information he received from the magi, Herod believes that Jesus could be as old as two years old. But he’s not taking any chances: everyone two and under will die (talk about “the terrible twos,” right?).

And it is the very presence of the magi is what set Herod on his baby-killing mission.

…Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying…



No matter how late their arrival, without the appearance of the magi, the lives of the holy family would have been very different. Herod would not have been paranoid and sent out his death squad. There would have been no flight into Egypt which, as Matthew explains, was to manifest the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
    wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
    she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

(Matthew 2:18; c.f. Jeremiah 31:15)

It should be noted that, perhaps, the gifts of the magi were a part of God’s plan. Aside from the symbolic reasons related to His ministry, death, and Resurrection (we are not going to delve into), these expensive items, often bestowed on royalty, could have been sold for food, shelter, and basic stability for the holy family along the way, and in Egypt. But all of this begs the question of why Matthew recorded this narrative which is not included in the other three gospels.

Beyond arguing for historical accuracy, scholars wonder if there was a tradition of Jesus spending time in in Egypt that needed to be satisfied.

The Messiah, like the children of Israel before Him, arising from a stint in Egypt is powerful, but was that based on some other tradition about his childhood: fact over typology? (c.f. Hosea 11:1).

Of course there is the notion, repeated throughout the Gospels, of Jesus as the “new Moses” leading His people (all people) to salvation. To this point, Matthew’s gospel shows Jesus being saved in childhood from an oppressive king who wants him dead, who kills a host of infants and babies in the process, just like in Moses’ story. In both tales, the hero is saved by sheltering in Egypt, though in different ways.

But there is another element of this story that should not be overlooked.

This is the Season of Epiphany,

Broadly defined, an epiphany is a “sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something,” “an intuitive grasp of reality,” “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure,” and/or “a revealing scene or moment” (Merriam-Webster).

For theology nerds, it is the time when the Church commemorates the revelation of Jesus to the gentiles. It is the recognition of, the essential perception of, the fundamental nature of Christ’s message and mission: God became man, not solely for the Jews, but for all nations.

But not all epiphanies are welcomed revelations.

When Jesus was a child, Herod was not thrilled with the prospect of another king usurping his authority and power. As an adult, the religious leaders of His day were not pleased with Jesus’ message, and they completed the job that Herod couldn’t: they killed Him.

The Bible is filled with stories of prophets and priests, apostles and disciples, Godly women and men, whose lives were cut short because of the message they brought. History is equally filled with martyrs (real ones, not whinnying, American suburbanites who yearly complain about a “war on Christmas,” or the ever-present threats to their “Christian way of life” because someone too brown, too gay, or too “progressive” opened their mouths in public).

Perhaps this is the season to realize the suffering heralded by the magi’s recognition of Christ .

Perhaps this is among the revelations Christ wants us to apprehend: that to be seen standing (or kneeling) for something often means we will suffer.

Perhaps to be blessed with the kingdom of heaven, you must first be poor in spirit, and persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

Perhaps to be blessed with comfort, you must first mourn.

Perhaps to be blessed with the earth as an inheritance, you must first be meek, not responding in power when you have the will and ability to do so.

Perhaps to be blessed with fullness, you must first hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Perhaps to be blessed with mercy, you must first be merciful even to those who you feel don’t deserve it.

Perhaps to be blessed with visions of the divine, you must first be pure in heart.

Perhaps to be blessed with the name of God, you must first be a peacemaker in times of war.

Perhaps to be blessed with great rewards in heaven, you must first suffer scandalous people who will revile you, persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for Christ’s sake.

Perhaps with a smile on your face. (Matthew 5:1-11)

Perhaps this is the true gift of the magi.

But what do we know: we made this game and you probably think we’re going to Hell.