Who were “the three kings” who came to worship Jesus? A few meditative reflections prompted by a comment in a sermon preached by Oliver O'Donovan and reprinted in The Word in Small Boats (Eerdmans, 2010), pages 16-18, on the wise men as intruders.
First, (verse 1) they seem to be the wrong people
from the wrong place.
Magi from the East = magicians / astrologers,
likely from Arabia or maybe Babylonia or Persia. The translation “wise men” may be an attempt
to make them more respectable than they would have been in the eyes of loyal Bible
readers at the time (Daniel 1:20; Isaiah 47:12-13). And note that the only other reference
in the NT to someone of that profession is in Acts 13 (verses 6 and 8) and it’s
not complimentary.
It is more than 1200 km from
Babylon to Jerusalem, and another 800 km, if you came from further
East, say Esfahan; in these cases it would have been a long, difficult, perilous and expensive
journey. Even from Arabia it is a major journey.
We, too, may consider some fellow
worshippers the wrong sort of people from the wrong place. This report
questions such an attitude and maybe encourages us to remember that for some
the journey to Christian worship has been a very difficult one.
Secondly, (verses 1-3) they seem to be asking questions in
the wrong place.
What are they doing in Jerusalem?
Maybe their reasoning got in the way (“surely a child born to be king of the
Jews must be in Jerusalem!”). Maybe the star had left them to their own devices
for a moment, or maybe the star first led them to Jerusalem in order to get
another part of the story going.
Certainly the confrontation with
Herod highlights some of the implications of the kingship of Jesus. A different
sort of king but one that does threaten (and frighten) the existing political
establishment.
We may be tempted to put Jesus in
a separate box, reserved for Sundays maybe. No, he must affect everything
everywhere, not only in Bethlehem but also in Jerusalem.
Thirdly, they arrive in Bethlehem in a roundabout way and
apparently at the wrong time.
If they had been truly wise, they
could have gone to the Jewish Scriptures in the first place to find out that
they had to go to Bethlehem. No need for a star, king Herod and chief priests and scribes. Ok, they did
need the star for the timing of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Except that they arrive not to
find a newborn but a “child” (verses 9 and 11) already one year or so old. Too
late to congratulate the parents on the birth of a child; too early to see the
child enthroned.
But then our own journey to
Christ was likely roundabout and in a sense we, too, arrive in the midst of
time. The decisive event has happened (not only the birth but for us also the
death, resurrection and ascension of Christ) but we do not see Jesus enthroned
yet. The magi did not come to
congratulate the parents but to offer homage to Jesus and it’s not too late for
that. They offer homage to one who does not yet command homage.
We are in a similar situation. We
have better reason, and maybe even a command, to pay homage to Jesus but he
does not yet command worship with force. He invites worship and like the magi
we need to trust the testimony before we see the full reality of his kingship
and indeed divinity.
Fourthly, they are apparently doing the wrong thing.
They bring gifts. They are the
only ones in the biblical nativity stories to bring gifts. And gifts which most
people consider to be not particularly practical. In other words, they are
responsible for the commercialisation of Christmas. All these gifts – all these
things we don’t truly need…
I’m of course not entirely
serious. Gifts that communicate joy are great, and the less they are needed the
more they speak of grace. But gifts can be problematic.
If you’ve seen the Christmas
Special of the BBC drama series Call the Midwife, you will have seen how
Cynthia struggles with her call to the religious life in Nonnatus House, a High
Anglican mission in the East End of London. She wants to become one of the
sisters, but simply can't understand why Christ would want her when, as she
admits, “I have nothing to give, nothing to sacrifice, nothing to offer up in
exchange for all his love for me.” But that is grace, and we are closer to
grasping it, if we realise that there is in reality nothing we can give Jesus
that is not already his.
He could just take all the gold,
frankincense and myrrh of the world, all the time and money we have, and he
would not even need to ask our permission, but he loves to receive them as a
gift because at its best giving and receiving presents is about relationships.
Finally, they are apparently still the wrong people on
the wrong track.
If Jesus is “born king of the Jew”
(verse 2), the Messiah (verse 4) “who is to shepherd my people Israel” (verse 6), what’s that got to do with people who are not Jews? What’s their relationship?
And if they have a relationship with this king, why go back to their own
country at all?
Matthew puts a lot of emphasis on
Jesus being the son of David, the son of Abraham. It’s because the promises
belong to the Jews but Gentiles can be fellow-heirs. And that is of course very
encouraging for us who are not Jews. We don’t have the first claim on Jesus but
we, too, have a claim. And we don’t have to become Jewish, we don’t have to be
in a particular place with a particular people to belong to king Jesus. From
now on every journey we make can be a route taken with Christ.
