This week is the last of the “A Disciple Like…”  posts from Matthew 2:1-12. Beginning next week I will be expanding on a theme introduced this week, “What’s Next?” As the wise man says at the end of the post this week, if we come to Christmas, remember and recall the birth of the Babe, and then return to our daily lives unchanged, it is too bad.

It may be a good thing that I have come to visit you just after your Christmas holidays. In my day and time, most people never took a vacation. From the day you were old enough to work until the day you died, you worked. During a substantial part of your American history, it was true of your nation as well. People who are born on farms, and consume almost all of what they grow, work all their lives.

One reason I think you are such lucky people is that you have the freedom to travel. Many of you traveled during the Christmas holidays. You went to the beach or went on a cruise or went to New York City, or went to visit relatives. Hopefully, you had a good time. One reason people travel is to relax.

Some people travel because it’s their business to travel. Such people travel because they have to in order to make a living. This kind of travel is not relaxing. It’s also not very likely to make a big difference in your life. Your pastor, when he was in business, liked to tell his wife that conference rooms in Houston or Dallas, Texas, or New York all look exactly the same. The ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch taste exactly the same.

Finally, there are those who travel to broaden their horizons. In my day, very few people could travel just to learn something new. Fortunately, I was one of those people. My name is “Casper,” and I was one of the Wise Men. I’ve come to tell you about the most amazing journey of my life; and, I’ve had a number of amazing journeys.

In my day, we traveled by foot or by camel. This means that we saw from the ground every foot of ground and every city along our journey’s path. I sometimes think it’s too bad that you modern people can get up in the morning and fly in a day to someplace like the Grand Bahamas. We would have walked down to the Gulf Coast, traveled across the Gulf Coast to Florida, and then taken a boat to the Bahamas. My trip would have taken months or a year. By the time I had returned to Memphis, I would’ve seen and heard a lot more than you ever see or hear on a trip. We had more time to think than you do.

The Biblical Story

Here is my story the way it appears in your Bible:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “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 shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose 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, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route (Matt. 2:1-12).

Prayer: God of Wisdom, Come to us with your Holy Spirit so that we may become wise in the ways of Jesus, what Paul called “Wise unto salvation.” In. In Jesus name, Amen

 The Story of the Wise Men

As I mentioned a moment ago, my name is “Casper,” and I was one of the Wise Men. [1] Most people think we Wise Men came from the East, somewhere near modern Babylon or Persia. Many scholars believe we were Medes (what have become the modern “Kurds”), because the Medes were a warlike people who, after the Persians defeated them, became scholars and counselors to the Persian kings. They studied the stars just as we Wise Men did. The Greek term is “Magoi” or “Magi,” which has become “magic” in your language. We however were completely opposed to magic. We were mystics, scientists and mathematicians, we studied the stars, and we counseled kings and rulers in the ancient Middle East.

Your tradition holds that there were three of us, Melchior, our leader, who was Persian, Balthazar, who came from Babylon, and myself, Casper, who came from India.  [2] So you see, I came the greatest distance of all to see Jesus. I traveled from India, through what you call “Pakistan” and “Afghanistan,” into Iran (what we called “Persia”), on to Babylon (in what you know as “Iraq”), and then all the way to Jerusalem in Judea. Along the way, Melchior and Balthazar joined me in the journey, for they too had seen the unusual star in the East. [3] Our journey took a long, long time.

When we began our journey, we assumed it would end in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the capital city of Palestine, the seat of the Jewish King Herod, and the city founded by Israel’s greatest king, David. When we arrived in Jerusalem, we made inquiries concerning the birth of a prince to King Herod (Matt. 2:1). It turned out, however, that Herod had no new child.

When Herod heard that we were asking about a child king of the Jews, he summoned us! I can tell you we were very scared when this happened. Herod had a bad reputation for killing anyone who threatened him. We were afraid that he might even kill us. Nevertheless, he welcomed us as if he were glad to see us. He called a conference to which we were invited. His chief priests, the teachers of the Jewish law, who were expert Bible students, Herod, and the three of us all sat down to discuss our story and its meaning.

You might think everyone knew that the Messiah was going to be born in Bethlehem. Just ask yourself just how much knowledge do most of your presidents have about your Bible? Herod was a king not a scholar. In addition, in our day we didn’t have search engines on computers or libraries full of books indexed by chapter and verse. It took a while, but eventually Herod’s advisors determined that your Old Testament says that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem in Judea (Matt. 2:3-6; Micah 5:2).

That very evening, we received another request to come and see the King. He asked us when the star appeared, and then requested that we  go to Bethlehem and see if there was a child there meeting the requirements to be a Messiah (Matt. 2:7-8). Finally, he asked that we might report back to him if we found such a child, so that he could come and worship him as well (Matt. 2:8) Quite frankly, we didn’t believe that King Herod had any intention of worshiping anyone but himself.

After meeting with the king, we began our journey towards Bethlehem. The star seemed to move and guide us until it came to rest over a place where we found a woman and a small child (Matt. 2:9). [4] We met the child’s mother, Mary, and bent over looking at the child sitting in her lap. I cannot explain to you what we felt in that instant. We immediately bowed down and worshiped the child. Then, we gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

You Christians believe that these gifts were prophetic. Gold is a symbol of wealth and power, for the Messiah was to be a king. Incense is burned in some of your churches even today as a symbol of God. The Messiah was to be the Son of God. Finally, myrrh was a spice used in the ancient world for embalming. It is often a symbol of suffering and affliction. It turned out that the Messiah was a “man of sorrows, acquainted with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). It’s funny, we might have brought the first two gifts as a part of some kind of a plan; however, that final gift was such that we had no idea what we were doing. It was only years later, after Jesus died on the Cross, that people understood the significance of the myrrh. [5] Jesus we learned was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

We stayed in the little town for a few days. One night, we had a dream that we should not go back to Herod and tell him where the child was (Matt. 2:11). I’ve already told you that Herod had a bad reputation and we were afraid for the child. [6] We didn’t believe that a carpenter, his young wife, and a newborn baby were a big threat to Herod, but Herod might. Finally, our business was not to change the future but to observe, discern, and report. We had no interest in whether Herod the Great or Jesus bar Joseph was the king of Judah, though we hoped that this Jesus would be the long awaited Messiah and the Great King for whom many others and we longed. [7]

Therefore, when the time came for us to leave, we sent no message to Herod and returned home by a way that avoided Jerusalem (Matt. 2:12). I have sometimes regretted this, because Herod became worried about our failure to notify him of the whereabouts of the baby.  Therefore, Herod, because he did not know who the child was, ordered every young male child under two years old in the city of Bethlehem killed (vv. 13-18). [8] If we had just sent a message that the child was not in Bethlehem, we might have saved a few young lives.

What’s Next?

Well, that’s my story, or at least the part of the story that appears in your Bible. There are lots of traditions about we three wise men. One tradition holds that we became Christians, and our bones were eventually taken by Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, to Constantinople and from there our bones were taken to Milan, Italy, and then to a church in Cologne, Germany, where you can see them today. Another tradition reported by Marco Polo holds that we were buried in Persia. My favorite tradition, about me, is that I returned to India and became a king. I was visited there by Doubting Thomas, who founded the church of India. I was baptized and became a Christian. The question behind all of these legends is a question you need to ask yourselves: were we changed by our visit to see the baby Jesus? [9]

If you’ve traveled, I’m sure you know this: it is easy to go on a trip, see a strange and unusual site, feel that your life ought to be changed, but return home unchanged until the feeling is only a memory. I traveled throughout the ancient world. I saw great poverty and human suffering. But, when I got home, other business was pressing, and I did nothing. I’ve seen great palaces and temples like the palace of Herod and the Temple he built in Jerusalem. They were magnificent. But my life was not changed.

The journeys that really matter in life are not vacations. A week at the beach, a week in the mountains, or week in a cabin doing nothing, rarely fundamentally changes anyone’s life. When vacation is over, we go back to our daily life, doing what we normally do, and occasionally wish we were back at the beach, or in the mountains, or in our little cabin. But we do not really change. The journeys that matter are those that change our lives.

You’ve just finished your Christmas season. In your country, Christmas comes just before New Year’s, when you ponder resolutions about the year to come. I am sure that many of you have already made New Year’s resolutions. (Since ten days have past, I’m sure you’ve already broken some of them!) Your pastors told me that your theme for 2016 is “What is Next?” I can’t tell you what to do because of Christmas and your annual trip to the manger in Bethlehem, but if I were you I think I’d ask myself, “Should I really leave the manger in Bethlehem for another year and not be changed?” and “If I am going to change, how?”

[1] The Greek text uses the term “Magoi.” Historically, the Greek word “Magoi” referred to Median wise men. Although Magi became associated with Zorastrianism, they emerged before that religion was founded. In Latin, the word is “Magus,” from which the English word “Magic” comes. The wise men were not, however, astrologers. I am partially reliant upon William Barclay, “The Gospel of Matthew” in The Daily Bible Study Series, Rev. Ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1932, 1975) for this and other of the information contained herein.

[2] There is no assurance there were three wise men. The tradition that there were three relates to the three gifts (Matt. 2:11). In Eastern Orthodoxy, the number is twelve, and art has rendered three, four, eight and twelve. The Bible does not say. The names of the three are also not scriptural. There are variants of these names mentioned in ancient writings—and from the variants some have discerned nationalities. I have arbitrarily chosen a tradition that holds they came from Persia, India, and Babylon. However, because of the connection with the cult of the Magoi, it is likely that they were all Median (Kurds).

[3] The exact explanation for the star is impossible to determine. The best explanation may be that this was not a natural but a supernatural star. Some hold it was a comet, perhaps Halley’s comet. Others hold that it was a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. Finally, around 5-2 B.C. “Mesori,” Sirius, the Dog Star, rose with unusual brilliance. “Mesori” means, “Birth of a Prince.” In my view it is interesting to speculate concerning the identity of the star, but we can never really know for sure.

[4] The Bible does not say that Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem when the Wise Men found the child. It is inferred from the rest of the story. Other suggestions have been made as to where they may have been, but the story indicates Bethlehem, which makes the most sense.

[5] The Biblical text records that the gifts were gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matt 2:11). The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold (a symbol of wealth and kingship), frankincense (a symbol of the divine), and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=meaning%20of%20gold%20frankincense%20 and %20n myrrh&esth=1 (downloaded January 7, 2016)

[6] My use of the word “might” is probably an understatement. Herod was notoriously cruel and paranoid. He murdered even members of his own family out of the fear that they would supplant him. Although the “Murder of the Innocents” is not mentioned outside of Matthew, it is consistent with all that is known about Herod.

[7] In the ancient would at the time Jesus was born, there were many people who believed in the coming of a great king would bring a Kingdom of Peace in which war and other curses of the Roman world would disappear. It is likely that the Wise Men would have had such hopes. This explains their motivation to make the long trip. It was about more than a Jewish king, but about a universal, King of Kings, which Jesus was.

[8] See note 6 above. This is the slaying of the Innocents recorded in Matthew 2:13-18. Because of the small size of Bethlehem, and the fact that Herod only killed males two and under, it is no surprise that there is no secular record of this event. That Herod had already decided to kill the children of Bethlehem is indicated by his question concerning when the star appeared. He was trying to fix the approximate time of the child’s birth.

[9] Neither the Bible nor secular history contains any clear answer to the question of what happened to the Magi. We have only tradition to go by. One tradition holds that St. Thomas met, converted and baptized them and that they are buried in what is now Iran. I have adapted the ending to give a bit of this information to the congregation and reader.