I've
heard some people observe that the bringers of gifts to the baby
Jesus were not kings. But here's another thing they weren't: they
weren't wise men. The bumper sticker that says, “wise men still
seek him” may be a nice sentiment, but no wise men sought him in
the first place. Matthew calls them magi. Magi were Zoroastrian priests hailing from what is now Iran. They not
only served a pagan god, but practiced various forms of magic, most
especially astrology. These men were not so much like rulers or like
learned professors, but more like the proprietor of that kooky
crystal ball gazing and palm reading shop that I shake my head at on
my way to church.
That
didn't go down any better with devout first century Jews than it does
with us – in fact, probably worse. Leviticus 20:27 says, “A man
or woman that is a spiritist or soothsayer is to die: you will stone
them to death with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” Any
good Jew would be thinking: “if these guys were one of our people,
we would kill them.”
I
don't know what drew the Magi to Jesus, except for a star and the
call of God on their lives. Maybe they didn't know either. There has
been a lot of speculation, some of it appealing and plausible. But
perhaps the greater mystery is not that they came “at Christmas,”
but that Christmas came for them. God allowed his Son at his most
vulnerable to be seen, to be adored, by such as these. Was not the
manger humble enough? Were not the shepherds smelly enough? Was not
an unwed mother shameful enough? Was God's holy Son now to be looked
upon and cherished by the wicked?
In
this is the glory of Christmas: not that wise men sought the Son of
God, but that for some reason, sinful, wicked rebels sought the One
who had sought them from ages past. We do the same. Christmas came
for Leviticus 20:27, for sinful wicked rebels, people like the kooky
crystal ball gazers – and for people like you and me.
