MYSTERY SHROUDS THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
by Rodolpho Carrasco
Saturday, December 25, 1999 in San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group
[Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center
in Pasadena, Calif. Check out more articles by Rodolpho Carrasco here.
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Imagine
the moment when King Herod tells the Magi that a guiding star and a newborn
king in Israel are mysteries to him. It's not the response the Magi expected
from the King of the Jews.
Standing there, eye to eye, both Herod and the Magi struggle to understand what has brought them together. On one side, a group of wise men, fresh off a journey of hundreds of miles, seeks the location of an infant destined to be a great king. An unusual star led them to the Jewish nation, so they presumed the Jewish king could direct them to the child. On the other side, Herod knows nothing about the propitious star, a royal infant, nor the apparent dawning of a new epoch for the Jews.
The arrival of the Magi, a newborn king, a wandering star - it was a mystery then to that august group, as it is somewhat of a mystery today.
The story of the Magi, from the Gospel of Matthew, and the Christmal carol which amplifies it, "We Three Kings," are a source of inspiration today for millions of Christians worldwide.
But
there are details about the carol that are misunderstood and aspects of the
story that baffle the mind, enough to cause the modern reader to join Herod
in questioning the meaning of the wise mens' visit.
A key misunderstanding comes directly from a line in the carol. "We three kings of Orient are" goes the song. Some traditions, and the writer of the carol, take the fact that three gifts were given to baby Jesus - gold, frankincense, and myrrh - to mean that the wise men numbered three. But the gospel text never says how many wise men there were. So much for the biblical allusion in the title of the blockbuster movie, Three Kings.
Another verse, "guide us to Thy perfect light," presumes that the Magi knew the child they sought to worship was the prophesied savior of mankind. But they did not know why the child was so special. They showed up at Herod's palace because they assumed an infant king would be found among existing royalty. They learn their correct destination only when when Herod and his priests inform them of Old Testament prophecies stating the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
The carol can lead one to think the Magi were believers seeking the Messiah. Not the case. We do not know which nation the Magi came from, but many scholars think Persia (modern-day Iran) is likely. Scholars also do not know which religion the Magi practiced (Zoroastrianism, with its emphasis on astrology, is a front-runner), but it is certain they did not practice Judaism.
Not only are the wise men not believers in the Judeo-Christian sense, they find the Messiah by means of astrology. Astrology is condemned throughout the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New, as a source of illumination. Yet the biblical story is clear: a few astrologers learn from a star about the arrival of the Messiah, then locate him by following the star, even though not one of the "chosen people," the Hebrews, knows of the star's existence.
The existence of the star, the so-called Star of Bethlehem, was not just a mystery to the Jews. Today it remains surrounded by mysteries.
One of the mysteries is that, apparently, only these wise men saw the star. Our culture's representation of the star of Bethlehem, disseminated most widely through Christmas cards, depicts a bright shining star hovering over a manger. On the cards that I saw this year, the star's light flares bright enough to write a column by. One would think that many others in the near East beheld such luminance. But neither Herod's people, nor historical analysis of the ancient near East night sky, can find the star.
The biblical text supports the idea that only the Magi saw the star. The star is not visible when the Magi meet Herod, so Herod asks for the exact time the star appeared. To find the location of the child, Herod turns not to the heavens, but to Hebrew holy books. The wise men leave the palace, guided by Herod's interpretation of prophecy, not the star. But on the way to Bethlehem, far from the Jewish King's learned men, the star re-appears. The text says the Magi were overjoyed to again see the star.
Reviewing the hypotheses of various astronomers since the time of Christ, each candidate for the Star of Bethlehem is scientifically problematic because it either does not explain how a star could guide the Magi, or it requires a healthy dose of faith.
Was it a supernova? A supernova is a star that, entering a new stage of its life, explodes and gives off enormous amounts of light. 17th Century astronomer Johaness Kepler, among many others, favored this theory. Was it a comet? Halley's Comet passed over Israel in 12 B.C. but estimates of Jesus' birth are somewhere between 4 and 7 B.C. Was it a planetary conjunction? Kepler proposed that the Star of Bethlehem could have been a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Such a rare conjunction took place in 7 B.C. in the constellation Pisces, a zodiacal sign sometimes connected to the Hebrews. The alignment of planets occurred three times that year, enough to send and sustain the Magi on their journey.
These theories may explain what the Magi originally saw, but they do not explain how the star served as a personal guide leading them to the child. Some posit a UFO. Says Stephen Wagner, a paranormal phenomenon guide at About.com, "As ludicrous as this idea is, it's the only one that explains how the object could have suddenly appeared, moved, and stopped for the apparent purpose of pinpointing Jesus' birthplace."
There is another explanation for the wandering star. The millenia-old Christian position is that the Star was a miraculous sign of the Savior's birth. It fits roughly in the category of the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and Jesus walking on the water. The fact that the sign was given to people who were outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and to no one else, may be taken to mean that the Hebrew deity is not exclusive in the giving of blessings and the sharing of joy.
To some Christmas is the most important day of the year, the birth of Jesus being "the reason for the season." For others it is a time to gather the family. Some choose not to celebrate it at all. However you spend Christmas day, we would all benefit to follow the example of the Magi.
They read in the night sky about a special person, and they went a long way to deliver precious gifts that signified how much they honored and, literally, treasured him. In each of our lives there are people we treasure. Make the long journey and lavish on them gifts - not just the material kind, but also the spiritual and emotional - that let them know exactly what you think of them.
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