Matthew 2:1-2
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking,
‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’
A Guiding Star
This is a very familiar story, but at the same time there’s something mysterious about it. Who were these wise men? What was the star? And what is the point of it – what are we to learn from it? It’s difficult to answer any of these questions for certain. The Magi probably weren’t kings, nor were there necessarily three of them, and they probably came from what is now Iran. Perhaps they were astrologers: certainly they saw astronomical phenomena like this star as signs of important events. Then the star might have been a comet, or a supernova, or an unusual conjunction of the planets – but for the Magi it was a sign of the birth of a King of the Jews, and presumably no ordinary king, if they’ve come so far to worship him.
Herod saw something important about the news they brought – that a possible rival had appeared, and one with a better claim on his own title as the King of the Jews. And his fears were well founded: he would be dead within a few years and his kingdom divided between his sons and the Roman governor. But the most important thing we can learn is that this baby isn’t just any baby, and his birth is significant not just for the Jewish people, but for the whole world. And that includes the tyrants of today’s world as much as the tyrant Herod – but also, of course, it includes us.
Alister