The Magi come to Jesus

It is well that during Advent we think deeply about the "coming" of Jesus. When Jesus was born the Magi had already set off from their homeland to locate a new king and worship him. They were astrologers and lived in an age when all people believed in astrology. It was believed the future could be foretold from the stars. Who these men really were we do not know. We do not know, for sure, how many of them travelled on that journey that ended in Bethlehem. Search your Bible and you will find no reference to three kings, only three gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Knowing that the stars appear to move in the sky we can see how, when they were in certain alignments, men noticed particular happenings took place. So an impressive bank of knowledge built up so that when the stars appeared to realign in the night sky the happenings that had occurred on the previous identical alignment would be predicted to happen again.

Many ideas have been advanced as to which star was the bright star that announced the birth of Jesus. Nothing has come up so far to satisfy the scientists so the name of the star remains unknown. But these wise men had been doing their astrological plots and decided which direction they should take to find this new king. It seems strange, when you think about it, that they should set out from the Far East looking for a king.

Yet it is true to say that in that part of the world there was a strange feeling of expectation, a waiting for the coming of a king. Even the Roman historians were aware of this. Suetonius wrote, "There had spread all over the Orient and old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judea to rule the world." Tacitus had it that "the Jews had the belief that about that time one from their country should become governor if the habitable earth."

We cannot attest to the truth of the story of the wise men but it is entirely possible that it happened as the story in the new Testament says. It was a time when men were waiting for a saviour. The desire for God was in the hearts of humankind. The people of the day discovered they could build the golden age without God. So Jesus came to a waiting world. We often bang on about him lying in a lowly stable and forget that the inn landlord actually provided Mary with the best possible place to have her child. It was a warm place that afforded privacy for a young woman experiencing her first labour. It was the right place for the Son of God to be born.

The kings came to worship and honour the new king and quietly slipped back home via a new route. The new parents were told to take Jesus out of the country because Herod's men were on the warpath, killing all infants they found to make sure Herod faced no threat.

As for the new king, it would be another 30 years before he set out to win hearts for God. Events had occurred which would see the world changed forever.