The Adoration Of The Magi
THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
MATTHEW 2:1-12
Are we openhearted in wanting everyone to hear the good news of Jesus?
If Jesus was the fulfillment of the hope of Israel, he was also the answer to Gentile aspirations. The “wise men from the East” were Gentiles, whose journey the early Church saw foretold in Isaiah 60:3: “nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Hence the festival of their visit on January 6, which is more ancient than Christmas, is called the Epiphany (manifestation) of Christ to the Gentiles; hence, too, their traditional description as “kings of Orient”—“three kings” probably because of the three gifts they presented (2:11). But in fact they were magi—a term originally denoting a Median priestly caste but in this context referring to students of the stars. The orbits and conjunctions of planets could be calculated in advance by this time, and one explanation of the star whose rising they saw identifies it with the conjunction of the planets Jupiter (the star of the world ruler) and Saturn (the star of Palestine) in the constellation Pisces (the sign of the last days) in the summer and autumn of 7 BC. Whether this be so or not, their quest brought them (naturally) to Herod’s palace, where it caused great alarm. Herod’s reign (37–4 BC) was approaching its end, and with each succeeding year he grew more morbidly suspicious. A new king of the Jews was a threat to his throne and dynasty, and must be eliminated immediately. Ascertaining from the chief priests and scribes (interpreters of the sacred law) that, according to Micah 5:2, Bethlehem (David’s birthplace) was to be the birthplace of the Messiah (great David’s greater Son), he sent the strangers there to pay homage to the infant King. The reappearance of the star convinced them that they were on the right road; how it led them to the precise house can only be surmised—did they see its reflection in the well of the courtyard?
It is easy, with Origen and others, to read special significance into their respective gifts, “gold and frankincense and myrrh” (2:11), fitting donations to One who was both “King and God and Sacrifice”—but the evangelist leaves us to carry out such exercises ourselves. He contents himself with the statement that the magi, in response to a divine warning, “departed to their own country by another way” (2:12), thus denying Herod the information which would have enabled him also to pay homage to the new King, as he said (2:8)—or to take what alternative action he thought appropriate.
Note The mention of “two years” in 2:16, “according to the time which he (Herod) had ascertained from the wise men,” suggests that they arrived in Bethlehem a considerable time after the birth of Jesus; we may infer that their first sight of the star coincided with his birth, and that their journey was not a short one.