Who Are They?

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 4, 2015

Who Are They?

Matthew 2:1-12

What is it about the Wise Men that so fascinates us?

They capture our imaginations,

as they ride into the Christmas story

swaying on the backs of camels,

a star guiding them on their journey

from the mysterious East.

We love the traditional Christmas story Luke gives us,

with the angel Gabriel;

Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem;

Jesus born in a stable,

wrapped in swaddling clothes

and laid in a manger;

welcomed so joyously by shepherds

urged on by the heavenly host.

Matthew tells us nothing of stables or shepherds,

giving us instead the Wise Men;

men mysterious and exotic,

men who came bearing gifts:

gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Over the centuries,

we have taken Matthew’s spare narrative

and embellished it considerably,

in the process turning the Wise Men

into almost mythological characters.

Our first step down this path

came when someone decided

that there must have been three Wise Men.

Matthew gives us no number;

we concluded that since there were three gifts,

there must have been three gift-givers.

But different traditions report as few as two,

and some traditions have as many as 12!

They were made into kings very early on,

even though the text is clear

that they were astrologers;

learned men, to be sure,

but there is nothing in Matthew’s gospel

to suggest that they were of royal lineage.

We’ve inferred their royalty

from Matthew’s use of Old Testament scripture.

The psalmist had written long before:

“May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles

render him tribute,

may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.

May all kings fall down before him,

all nations give him service.”

(Psalm 72:10-11)

From those words, astrologers became kings.

By the 5^th century, they’d been given names:

Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar.

A beautiful Byzantine mosaic

that dates to the late 6^th century,

found in a church in Ravenna Italy,

not only shows the three men bearing gifts,

but records their names in gilt stone.

Having given them names,

then they had to have stories,

or in today’s terminology,

each had to have a back story.

So Melchior was thought to hail from Persia,

while Gaspar’s home was somewhere in India.

Balthazar’s story started out on the Arabian peninsula,

but over time it morphed,

and by the 12^th century he was thought to be African,

coming perhaps from Ethiopia.

The suggestion that they came from different countries

does seem to conflict with the final verse

we heard in our text:

that they “left for their own country by another road.”

Matthew seems to suggest

that the three came from the same place.

Stories abound about what happened to them

after they returned home,

wherever their homes happened to be.

The Bible tells us nothing,

but for me, the most charming story

tells of the men living to the year 54,

a full half century after their journey to Bethlehem,

and 20 years after our Lord’s

crucifixion and resurrection,

all three dying in that year,

all within a few days of one another.

If you were to travel to Cologne Germany

and visit the magnificent cathedral there,

you’d find the “Shrine of the Three Kings,”

which claims to hold the bones

and other relics of the men.

Their bones and relics

were venerated for centuries,

a distinct contrast with the

long-forgotten shepherds of Luke’s gospel.

All of these are marvelous fables,

wonderful myths that embellish Matthew’s story.

But for all the mythology

what is it that we should learn from these men?

Surely we are called to learn more from them

than that we should celebrate Christmas with gifts.

These men were moved by the Spirit,

God’s Holy Spirit,

even if they weren’t aware of it.

They were moved to act in faith,

to take a long, arduous, dangerous journey on faith.

In putting their trust in the star to guide them,

they put their trust in God,

even if they didn’t think that,

even if they weren’t aware of it.

They knew something compelled them,

compelled them to go, to seek, to find.

And something compelled them to offer gifts,

gifts they gave with such generous hearts,

gifts offered to a child in a small house in Bethlehem,

gifts that would buy them no favor,

no prestige, no power.

They offered their gifts with no expectation

of anything in return.

Were they changed men for their journey?

Were they forever transformed

for having gone to Bethlehem,

for having followed the star to the young child?

In his story “The Other Wise Man”,

written more than one hundred years ago,

the Presbyterian minister Henry Van Dyke

wrote of a fourth wise man,

who had hoped to make the journey

with the other three,

but missed connecting with them

and was left behind.

The story tells of the fourth wise man’s

more direct encounter with Jesus,

something we are not aware

the other three ever had.

Did the three who made the journey conclude,

as Van Dyke tells us the Other Wise man did,

that the baby was born to rule

a kingdom of “unconquerable love”?

You and I have just encountered the baby Jesus,

and we’ve done him honor with our services

and our celebrations.

But are we changed for the experience?

Have we been transformed?

                                   

Are we more open to the call of the Spirit,

God’s Holy Spirit?

Will we be more open to being led to new places,

erhaps even unfamiliar places in the new year?

                                   

Will we journey through the year

faithfully,

prayerfully,

humbly?

                          

Will we live with generous hearts and minds?

        

Perhaps most important:

will we each do our part

to build a kingdom of unconquerable love

as we follow the one born for us,

the one the star leads us to:

our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN