Mt 2:1-12
Do you ever wonder what happened to the Magi? Our early Christian ancestors certainly did. By the end of the second century a whole mythology had been created from the very small amount of information available in the gospel of Matthew, which we just read. The Gospel doesn’t say who the visitors were, except that they were magi. We think that it referred to people of the Persian empire who advised the king -- maybe astrologers. But some people think the word refers to professional magicians. Yet somehow early Christians portrayed them as kings. And you can see why -- they saw a parallel between the coming of the magi and the predictions of Isaiah which we read in the first reading. Kings will walk by your shining radiance; camels will bring riches, including gold and frankincense. You can see how they were referred to as kings. As for the idea that there were three, that’s another interesting point. Most people think it has to do with the three gifts; if you had twenty magi, you would expect more gifts, I guess. You could fill a book with jokes about the magi. Since my birthday is three days before Christmas, I like the one where one of the magi is telling Mary and Joseph that his gift is meant to be both a birthday and Christmas present.
The early Christians gave the three magi names -- eventually the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar became accepted. Caspar means “keeper of the treasure”.. Melchior means “king of light”. Balthazar means “protector of the ruler”. They are all derived from the Persian language. In the sixth century someone wrote a biography of the three magi, declaring them to be royalty -- Caspar was young and from Europe; Melchior was old and from Asia. Balthazar was black and from Africa. Our three figures reflect this tradition.
Finally in the biography the three magi returned to their lands, preached about what they had seen and laid the groundwork for the later preaching of the apostles; and all three were martyred. In some of the ancient Christian churches like the Armenian church or Coptic church their feast is celebrated.
And of course our ancestors found significance in the gifts. Gold was because Jesus is the heir of David's throne, and kings should have gold. Frankincense is used by priests in worship ceremonies, and Jesus is the ultimate priest. And myrrh is used in embalming -- a reference to the death that Jesus will ultimately undergo. Isaiah didn’t predict myrrh, that was Matthew’s contribution.
And I could go on. There are astronomers who have advanced theories about the star that the magi followed -- maybe a comet, maybe two or three planets in alignment. Some have supported their idea by calculating where the likely culprits were in the sky back in the time of Christ’s birth.
But while all of this is interesting, it reminds me of the comment made about a person who had an opinion about everything -- “He knows a lot of things that just aren’t true.”
But we can take something away from this story of magi from the east. Herod’s reaction to the news was to try to find the child and kill him --- and he did kill the baby boys of Bethlehem -- because Herod wanted no rivals, no one who might displace him. Herod had executed two of his sons, and he killed a third son who was in line for the throne only seven days before he himself died. Herod was paranoid that someone might take his place as long as he was alive he would go to extremes to stay on his throne. The wise men, on the other hand, having traveled all those miles following a star, bearing gifts, finally reaching their goal, where they were permitted to look upon a baby, the child of a poor couple living in a one room shack. They rejoiced exceedingly because God had revealed to them who this child was; and then they went off into obscurity.
And that is our challenge. My six-month-old great granddaughter has not yet learned that other people have feelings and needs; she is concerned only about herself. That’s as it should be. As she grows she will learn that other people are also concerned about themselves. And as life goes on she may marry and have children of her own, in which case she will have to be more concerned about others than herself. And someday, as will be true of all of us, it will be time to gracefully retire from being the center of our lives to allowing the newborn king to be the center of our world. Will we be like the magi and withdraw from the spotlight in favor of the God-child who has taken on our humanity? Or will we refuse to give way so that he can be the center of our lives, our world, as Herod refused? On this feast of the Epiphany, how do we respond to the one who wants to be the center of our life?
