Strangers at the Door

We three kings of Orient are;

Bearing gifts, we traverse afar

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.

We sing that Christmas carol every year, and most of us believe it! Most people believe that three kings or wise men, riding on camels, came to the stable where Jesus was born and brought gifts. Unfortunately, most of what we believe about the wise men comes from the people who draw the pictures on Christmas cards, not from the Bible.

   Many of the legends about the wise men have their roots in the Middle Ages. According to medieval legend, there were three wise men who were eastern kings. These men supposedly represented the three main families of the human race, so one is usually pictured as a black man, one as an east Asian and one

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as a white European. They even have names — Casper, Balthasar, and Melchior. Several churches in Europe boast of having the bones or skull of one of the wise men.

   None of these legends is biblical. What we can know for sure about the wise men is just what Matthew tells us and what we can glean from other reliable historical sources. Matthew simply says: "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem" (Matthew 2:1). The magi (or wise men in the King James Version) were a class of priests in Persia. They were not kings, but they held incredible political power. The Roman Empire had extended itself completely around the Mediterranean Sea. Judea and Jerusalem were on the eastern edges of the realm. Farther east, outside of Roman control but in almost constant warfare with Rome, loomed the old Persian or Parthian Empire. The magi were pagan priests of Parthia who were highly respected for their wisdom and for their political clout. No king ruled over the Parthian Empire without cultivating the favor of the magi.

   The religion of the magi is pretty vague to us. The majority of the magi held to an early form of Zoroastrianism, a religion in which two gods, one good god and one evil god, constantly struggled for supremacy. Most of their theology was astrology. The magi believed that the stars and planets control our lives and the events of the world. They practiced fortunetelling, divining answers to difficult questions, and their greatest secret art, the interpretation of dreams. The name magi was later corrupted into the English word magic because of their preoccupation with weird, occult power.

   Six hundred years before Jesus' birth, someone had joined the ranks of the magi who brought dramatic change in some of their lives. The young Jewish man Daniel was taken to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar to be trained in the language and

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culture of Babylon. Daniel became one of the magi. Because of God's blessing on his life, Daniel rose to a place of prominence over all the magi and for at least forty years held a position of great respect and power. Daniel's influence continued even after the Babylonians were conquered by the rising Persian Empire. From his position of leadership Daniel had remarkable impact on the magi. I am convinced that Daniel led some of the magi to faith in the true and living God. I'm just as convinced that he taught them from the Scriptures. He taught them that a Messiah would come from Israel and that he would be God's anointed Deliverer for all believing humanity. These same magi would have read Daniel's own writings in which God predicted that 483 years after the Jewish people were released from captivity, the Messiah would come (Daniel 9:25-26).

   What we have in Matthew 2 are not pagan kings coming to find Jesus but believers in the true God seeking the promised Messiah. Some of the magi down through the six hundred years since Daniel had remained faithful to Daniel's God. Those magi who came to Jerusalem had waited and watched and prayed for the birth of the coming King, and now they were convinced that it had happened.

Herod's Trouble

When Herod looked out his window to see his newest guests gathered in the courtyard, he probably did not see three men climbing down from camels. The magi and the Parthian soldiers who accompanied them most likely rode magnificent Persian horses. Their arrival in Jerusalem sent shock waves through Herod. Three wars had already been fought between Rome and Parthia, and Judea had suffered the brunt of the battle. The Roman Empire was quiet at this time, but the emperor, Caesar Augustus, was old. Herod the Great had ruled Judea for almost forty years, but he was old too. The time seemed ripe for

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another Parthian invasion. What could be worse than to have powerful Parthian magi accompanied by a regiment of crack Parthian troops come to Jerusalem looking for a newborn king of the Jews!

   Agitation spread from Herod's palace to the whole city. As soon as the magi dismounted, they began to ask the question they thought anyone in the city could answer. "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" (Mathew 2:2).

   The "star" the magi saw has puzzled Bible students for two thousand years. Some say it was a new star that suddenly appeared; others say it was a comet or a rare alignment of planets. The word translated "star" is the Greek word astera, from which we get our English words asteroid and astronomy. It can refer to any cosmic body. I believe the biblical evidence points to a comet, because (as we will see) the "star" is not always in the sky but appears, then is gone and then reappears.

   The magi studied the skies constantly. One night as these men watched the heavens, longing in their hearts for Daniel's Messiah to be born, suddenly a new phenomenon appeared. Their own testimony is "we saw his star in the east." The star was a sign that the Messiah had been born.

   I wish a biblically aware CNN reporter had been on the scene asking questions, because what the magi don't tell us is how they connected the birth of the Messiah with the appearance of a new star in the heavens. Maybe they linked it to an ancient prophecy in Israel's Law:

I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not near.

A star will come out of Jacob;

a scepter will rise out of Israel . . . .

A ruler will come out of Jacob. (Numbers 24:17, 19)

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Somehow the Spirit of God revealed to these waiting hearts that the new king's birth was announced by that star.

   The star did not, however, lead them to Jerusalem. They saw the star while they were still "in the east." They came to Jerusalem thinking that certainly someone in the center of Jewish life and worship would know where the new king had been born. But when they began to ask, no one knew. Finally word got to Herod, and the murderous old man was troubled. The people knew what kind of persecution Herod could unleash when his power was threatened. They were troubled because Herod was troubled.

   Herod did know where to go for answers, however. He gathered the brain trust of Israel together and quickly got a response to his question. The Messiah, the anointed King of Israel, was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. These religious leaders even quoted chapter and verse of their authority.

   For this is what the prophet has written:

"But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of my people Israel."

(Matthew 2:5-6, quoting Micah 5:2)

Herod went back to the magi with good news. The king they were seeking would be born in Bethlehem, just a few miles from Jerusalem. Herod acted as excited as the magi, but with a totally different purpose. His plan was to see the child destroyed. Herod asked the magi exactly when the star had first appeared, and he asked them to let him know when they found the child so he could worship him too. What a liar — and what a coward! Herod didn't want to spark a conflict with the magi or the Parthians by telling them the truth of his intentions. He would just wait until they were headed back home to put the sword to any talk of a newborn king.

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When They Saw the Star

The magi had left Herod and began to move southeast toward Bethlehem when God intervened.

The star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. (Matthew 2:9-11)

If Herod was shocked to see magi in his courtyard, imagine how amazed Mary and Joseph must have been to open the door and find such startling visitors. Their humble dwelling was suddenly filled with richly dressed foreigners, bowing down in worship to a young child. I'm not sure what Mary expected to happen in the months following Jesus' dedication in the temple, but I think it's safe to say that a visit from Parthian priests was not part of her imagination.

   There are three hints in this passage that the magi did not come to the stable where Jesus was born. They were not at the manger. First, in verse 11 the text says that they came to the "house" where Jesus was. The stable would have been just a cave or at best a shed. Apparently Joseph and Mary stayed in Bethlehem for a while after Jesus was born. The second clue is that Matthew repeatedly refers to Jesus as the "child." He uses the Greek word paidion, which was used of a child after infancy. In contrast Luke says that the shepherds found Mary and the "baby" in the manger. Luke's word is brephos, meaning infant or newborn. The third reason I think this was several months after Jesus' birth is that later, when Herod tried to destroy Jesus, he killed all the male children in Bethlehem under two years old. Herod had asked the magi when the star had first appeared so he could calculate about how old the child would be. Just

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for good measure, he had every boy under two years old killed.

Making It Personal

I find three significant responses to Jesus in this account. The first response was hatred and hostility. That came from Herod. Herod was afraid that this king would intrude on his life. The Messiah would change things, and Herod didn't want that. So he tried to eliminate the Son of God. Herod was more interested in saving his throne than in saving his soul.

   Herod's response is still the response of a lot of people to Jesus, even a lot of "religious" people. The Jesus Seminar has received national and international media attention for their debates over what Jesus really said and did. Most of the record of the New Testament is simply written off as the additions of later writers who wanted to make Jesus out to be far more than he ever claimed to be. Any reference to his deity or lordship or unique relationship to the Father is simply penciled out of the Bible. The Jesus that is left is easy to accept. He makes no spiritual demands at all!

   Maybe Herod's response is your response to Jesus. You haven't tried to kill him, but you've refused to believe in him as your Savior and Lord. You refuse to accept him because he will make some changes in your life. You have tried to explain him away, but you know that he is the Savior and you know that you need saving.

   The second response to Jesus is almost worse than Herod's. The scribes and priests simply shrug their shoulders in cold indifference. These religious leaders were so engrossed in their theological debates and their lists of rules that it didn't even matter to them that Jesus was born. That's painful to think about! Some of us who are church leaders find ourselves cranking out the programs of worship with cold indifference to the very person we are seeking to please. We can tell you all the

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reasons why we are doctrinally correct, but we can't remember the last time we were brought low in humble confession or adoration before the One we claim to follow as Lord.

   It's not just church leaders who can be afflicted with hardening of the spiritual arteries. Many Christians simply nod a little approval to Jesus by going to church on Sunday, but the rest of the time Jesus has very little part in their lives. You may be so engrossed in your job and your life and your work that you just ignore the lordship of Christ over your life. I remind my congregation and myself often that we don't make Jesus Lord of our lives. He is Lord! We just live like he is Lord or we live like we are.

   The best response, of course, comes from the magi. They came into the house where Jesus and Mary lived, and they worshiped him — not her, Mary, or them, but Jesus alone. The word used in verse 11 of their worship is a word used in the New Testament to refer only to the worship of God. These magi knew that Jesus was more than a king; he was God with us. Their worship was expressed not only through adoration but also through sacrifice. They gave Jesus gifts of gold and valuable aromatic oils, gifts for a king, gifts for God.

   If you have never responded to Jesus with worship, or if it's been a long time since your heart was moved to adoration or sacrifice for him, you can't do anything more appropriate than to lay this book aside and bow before him. God doesn't want great political leaders like Herod to build his kingdom. God isn't even looking for people with great knowledge, like the scribes. What God seeks first are men and women who are willing to bend their knees and bow their hearts in faith and worship to his Son.

   I'm sure Mary had a response to all of this too. We have already seen that Mary was a person who treasured significant events in her heart and turned them over and over in an attempt

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to understand the meaning and personal implications of those events. Mary was also beginning to realize that the appearance of the angel so many months earlier had been just the first of God's surprises. Sometimes incredible blessings may come into our lives when we simply open the door to strangers.

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