There Weren’t Three, and They Weren’t Kings.
There Weren’t Three, and They Weren’t Kings.
There weren’t three and they weren’t kings
One of the most endearing stories of the New Testament is Matthew’s account of the Magi. In Greek, the text introduces them as “magoi apo anatolon”. The number of magi is not mentioned and the text explicitly identifies them as magi, not kings. They were “from the East of Jerusalem/Bethlehem. That could be Syria, Arabia or most likely Persia (modern day Iran). Magi were Persian priests expert in astronomy and the interpretations of dreams. Matthew attributes both these functions to the visitors. The word the sacred author uses for “from the East” is “anatolon”, an astronomical term meaning the rising of the stars and the rising of the sun.
(There are still today magi in Iran who practice the religion of Zoroastrianism, which pre-dates Christianity.)
Today is the Feast of Christmas in the Orthodox Church; for example in Greece and Russia. Since these places are often called “Eastern,” I want to speak briefly about the significance of the compass points in East and West.
The sun rises in the East, as almost everyone knows. Or should know, if they pay attention to the morning sky.
My nephew was once a Jesuit Volunteer in Peru. One day, a new group of college-age American students arrived at the mission in Tacna, on the Southern Pacific coast of Peru. Early the next morning, while it was still dark, the new volunteers went down to the beach to “watch the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean.” Apparently, they were unaware that the sun sets over the Pacific on the coast of Peru.
While the sun rises in the East, so do the stars. And this is what astonished the magi. They observed a star rising in the West. They were convinced this indicated a phenomenon of great importance. Jerusalem is West of Persia, so that’s where the magi headed. By paying attention to nature, they eventually discovered the new born Christ child. . . But not quite. They missed him by 5 miles- the distance between Jerusalem and the insignificant town of Bethlehem. They got to Bethlehem by consulting the Jewish priests who had consulted the Scriptures. After that, they saw the star that they had seen when they were in “the East”. The star now led them southeast to Bethlehem. It took both nature and revelation to find Christ.
Miracles happen all the time, everyday . But if one only pays attention to only nature or even only Scripture, one might not see the marvels of life.
The stars, the sun and the moon are all located in what we call “the heavens”. We know how relatively tiny our planet is in the great expanse of space. We are as insignificant a planet as Bethlehem was a town. But God became an inhabitant of earth, raising our status considerably.
With the eyesight of our natural vision, it is possible to see marvelous things. Add to that the vision of faith and we can see the divine.
