We three kings

Photo by ENB Emilie

Even if you are only vaguely familiar with the traditional Christmas story, you have probably seen a depiction of or heard reference to the "three kings" who visit Jesus as a child. I mentioned this story briefly yesterday. If you're not familiar, you can find it toward the beginning of Matthew's gospel in the New Testament of the Bible.

The story goes that some "kings," or "wise men," known as "magi," came from the east, guided by a star in the sky, which they had ascertained announced the birth of a new king of Israel.

They go to Jerusalem, the major city in the region known as Judea, and naively ask the Roman-appointed king, Herod, where this new king is. Herod is threatened by this news, so he asks the Jewish religious leaders where the child would be, and they knew from their Scriptures to look in the neighboring town of Bethlehem, which, as it turns out, was where Jesus was recently born.

Herod deceitfully tells the wise men they should look in Bethlehem, and that when they find the new king, they should come back and tell Herod who it is so that he can go and worship him too.

They go to Bethlehem, and the star leads them to Jesus, but then an angel from God warns them to go home another way, not through Jerusalem. Herod is furious about this, and because he still doesn't know who the child is, he has all the youngest male children murdered in Bethlehem—something traditionally known as "the slaughter of the innocents." Right before this happens, though, an angel warns Jesus' parents, so they escape.

A few reflections on this passage:

First, we don't know whether there were three, fewer, or more kings/wise men. Traditionally, the story is told that there are specifically three men because they bring Jesus three types of gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Because there are three types of gifts, the historic assumption is that each brought one of these. But we don't know.

The gifts are interesting, though. Gold may symbolize Jesus' royal status as the rightful king of Israel. Frankincense was an incense used in Jewish worship as a "fragrant offering," connecting Jesus to the Jewish God. And myrrh was a type of incense used for embalming bodies at burial. So even while Jesus was a child, his death seems to have been anticipated.

We also know that these kings/wise men were "from the east," which was a gentile (non-Jewish) territory. So they were most likely not Jewish. They may even have been astrologers (people who study the stars), which is why they knew to follow this star to find Jesus. This is why they are often called "magi," a term similar to our word "magic," because they may have been practitioners of these pagan arts. They most likely weren't kings at all.

The fact that one of the first groups to come to worship Jesus was a group of strange, foreign men, rather than Jewish religious leaders, is very telling about the nature of what Jesus was going to do. As Jesus later explains in the most famous verse of the Bible: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." God sent Jesus not only to save and redeem Israel, but also because he loves the world, including Gentiles.

So, despite all the historical tradition, confusion, and mystery surrounding the wise men, it's a really hopeful story at its core. The story points to Jesus being the king who came to die. And although from birth some people were trying to kill him, God had an appointed time much later in life than childhood. Jesus came to grow up and then die at the appointed time that these men may have anticipated. Also, Jesus came into the world to die for the whole world, including strange, foreign people from the east (including someone like you).

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