Modern Day Magi

Christmas has always been special to me.  Like almost every other red blooded American, I spent my childhood wrapped up in the gleam of the Christmas lights and the sparkle of gift wrap.  However, I’ve made it a point in my adulthood, a true analytical soul, to set aside time each December to think on the Christmas story.   And every year, I’m drained of the sparkle that once carried me through the season.  I’m horrified.  (Last year I wrote about a tearful vision of the grungy manger with my first graders, you may remember.)  This year my pondering was provoked while the kids sang one of my favorite Christmas songs.  A line that for years seemed unimportant, stood out like never before.  “Gold for his honor, frankincense for his pleasure, and myrrh for the cross he’ll suffer.”

The magi.  I’ve not thought about the wise men much, apart from how inaccurate nativity scenes are.  The description of Jesus’s birth is surprisingly small in Scripture.  Every part of it must have significance.  And in that small story, the wise men are mentioned.  We don’t know how magi there were.  We don’t know whether they came from Babylon or Iran or Yemen or elsewhere.  We don’t know exactly what the scientific deal with the star was.  But the Bible lets us know… they came.  Why?  What was the significance in these wise men? 

The wise men were unlike the other characters in this story.  They were educated and smart.  They were foreigners.  They were pagan.  And something about their arrival brought glory to God.

So much of Jesus’s birth must have been surprising.  A baby in the midst of a green, dysfunctional marriage.  A king born in a dirty stable filled with the stench of livestock habitation.  The Emmanuel’s inconvenient arrival on Mary’s uncomfortable trip to Bethlehem.  This wasn’t how anyone was expecting God to break the long silence.  What a long journey the wise men made for such an underwhelming child… 

The magi traveled over 1000 miles via foot, camel, donkey… some form of slow transportation.  The months of anticipation, what did they expect to find?  The magi were studied scientists, more like wizards, studying stars to foretell the future.  Did they not know the long journey before them?  Did they not understand the strange family they would find?  Did no one tell them that they didn’t qualify to meet the Lord?  Or… did none of that matter?  The certainty of this new king drove them.  Jesus was already drawing people to himself.  

All the places they passed, to come to the humble home of a carpenter in Jerusalem.  Directed by sight of a star they were sure would lead them to a king, regardless of the glamour he lacked.  A child from a poor family and lineage of bad reputation.  They went anyway.

I think the fascinating part is that they carried with them three very specific gifts for Jesus.  This was far from a coincidence.  Gold, because he was king.  Frankincense, because he would be their High Priest.  And myrrh, because he must die.  Jesus didn’t need these gifts, you see, but they needed to bring them, because all of those things were true, and the truth of who this king was and is draws us all.  The Jew and the Gentile.  It draws sinners, like magi. 

I wonder if today we bring the same in our journey.  We are foreigners and sinners, drawn to the king, with small gifts to bring.  We bring a life of honor because he is king, a life of worship to the High Priest, and a life reflecting his ultimate sacrifice.

The most somber gift to consider is myrrh, because it was the most obvious.  Funeral preparation, brought to a toddler.  Everything about the Christmas story seems hard breaking.  (Until we get to Easter!) 

Perhaps God answers deep prayers (or long periods of silence) in a seemingly underwhelming, unexpected, and painful way.  And He asks us to leave our sin and bring our gifts anyway.

Even if the journey is long, led only by one star you know is true. 

Even if it means that you are a foreigner, a pagan, not like the Jews.  He calls you anyway.

Even if the gifts you bring are small for a king, Matthew called them treasures.

How many of us look at our lives and wonder where things went wrong?  We weren’t supposed to be single, poor, divorced, widowed, barren, unsuccessful, terminal, disowned… Surely this isn’t God.  Surely after hundreds of miles, this isn’t where God would lead us.  And yet, he leads us like he led the magi.  To himself.  To exactly where we need to be.

This Christmas, let us not forget that although we may feel confusion in God’s movement, there is also sovereignty and salvation in our circumstances and pain. Let us not forget that he calls everyone to the truth of who he is, and leads us all on unexpected journeys to himself.

And even in a cold stable, this gives us reason to celebrate.

Merry Christmas, friends!