Christmas - Through the Eyes of the Three Wise Men

The three wise men is the part of the Christmas story that has always fascinated me.  Christians on the whole steer well clear of anything vaguely linked to the stars, horoscopes and their effect on people's lives.  Yet here we have three astronomers (not to be confused with astrologers who give us horoscopes).  They had studied the stars and believed that the position and relation of the stars and planets did indeed have some bearing on life on earth.  When they saw the particular configuration in the sky and saw the brightness it caused, they interpreted that as being the birth of a very important person, a king, who would have an enormous part to play for humanity.  They got together, packed up some belongings and set off on their journey to search for this special person, using the stars to guide them.  They may not have understood or studied the Jewish scriptures as they were from a completely different culture but they followed their beliefs to search for truth.

The obvious place it seemed would be to go to those in authority, the rulers of the place where they believed this new king had been born.  They were surprised to discover from Herod that the person they sought was not there but that didn't deter them.  Herod meanwhile consulted his own wise men who had studied the scriptures and was told of the Messiah who would be born in Bethlehem.  He told the travellers this and sent them on their way urging them to go back to him and tell him where the child was.  They kept on going, following the star and their convictions until they at last came to the stable in Bethlehem.  They understood the significance about this young child and so brought gifts to reflect their beliefs that he was king (gold), deity (frankincense) and sacrifice (myrrh).  God then told them in a dream to go back home by a different route and so avoid Herod who was just interested in eliminating any opposition to his rule or power.

What has always intrigued me is that although there were many among the Jews who studied the scriptures, none of them seemed aware of the importance of the birth of Jesus.  They totally missed the great event.  'He came unto his own and his own received him not'.  Yet here were people from a completely different culture who understood and God guided them and spoke to them through their own particular way of understanding life and through dreams.  They may not have known or understood all about Jewish history and their chosen status or their words of scripture but they did know how to read the signs of creation that was all around them.  It is good to remind ourselves that God doesn't just use his prophets and those who study his word but he does also quite clearly speak to those outside of his chosen people.  The wise men also learned that God, although so powerful does not always inhabit the grand places but encapsulated the emptying of himself and shows his loving humility in a tiny, helpless child.  Like the shepherds, (see last week's blog post) they learned that God does the unexpected.  We need to learn that we cannot tie God down to our expectations of Him or our way of thinking and understanding.  God will not be limited by our finite minds.

And so again I am reminded in the Christmas story that God is not just seen through the written word.  I need to read the signs, the things that are happening all around me.  God has ways of revealing his truth without all the study and religious observance or allegiance and we are seeing in our own day signs of God working for change in the world through people other than Christian - think of young Malala speaking out to allow education for girls.  We Christians don't have the monopoly of or exclusive access to truth nor are we the only ones through whom God chooses to work.  God uses whom He chooses.  I need to expect the unexpected.  I may need to change my views on things and learn to accept that which until now has been unacceptable to me - a renewing of my mind that God can and does work outside of my limited world of understanding.