The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. ADVENT WEEK 2

THE WISEMEN

SCRIPTURE READING MATTHEW 2:1-12

In the Bible there are three books that are referred to as “wisdom literature”; Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes.

So who were these wise men? Where did they come from? In ancient times, the areas around the Mediterranean were circle of secular wisdom. In Egypt, look at the pyramids. It took some brilliant engineers to design and accomplish building those.  There were great philosophers in Greece; Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Then there was the study of the movement of planets and starts that originated in Mesopotamia, Babylon and Persia.

As people traveled they would read each other’s scrolls.  And thus a new religious philosophy formed in Greece and Persia called Gnosticism. Instead of worshiping many gods, these spiritual intellects believed in just two; the god of spiritual matters and the god of physical matters. The Wiseman in the Christmas story could have very well been Gnostics, (until they witnessed the birth of the Messiah)

All we know from the Bible is that these wise men were NOT Jews. They were foreigners. Perhaps from Persians. Some scholars think they may have been from India, where they studied stars.  Wherever they came from, they paid special attention to the movement of stars.

THE GIFTS

So how many wise men were there?  We really don’t know, but because of the three specific gifts, people assume it was just three. By the fourth centry they were given names. Gaspar who was said to have brought the gold, Balthazar gave the frankincense and Melchior the myrrh.

The gift symbolism is powerful even overwhelming. Gold for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Frankincense is use for prayer in the temple. Jesus prayed all night in the garden and taught us to pray “ Our Father who are in heaven…”  No Myrrh, was an embalming spice, to suggest Jesus’ death on the cross. Remember on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene hurried to the tomb with spices to anoint Jesus’ body.

These gifts were no ordinary gifts. In biblical times, frankincense came from the sap of the Boswellia sacra tree grown in southern Arabia. These precious aromatics were brought to the seaport at Gaza and shipped to Europe and Egypt. Frankincense was used everywhere in worshiping of different religions. Arabia produced the finest quality of frankincense and myrrh in the known world.

What about the gold? Joseph was a carpenter and they traveled a lot those early years. They needed some monies of sorts to support them during this time. Maybe this gold was what they used. What else could it had been for? Something to ponder.

Over the centuries the images of “The Magi” changed. Painting had them representing the Gentile world. They had Gaspar being an old man, Balthazar a middle aged man and Melchoir as a younger man. Then they had their images change to represent the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa (Portraying Balthazar as having dark skin).

The spiritual symbolism was that these wise men represented the non-Jews. Supposedly their remains are in a golden shrine in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

You all  know the Twelve Days of Christmas song. Do you know how it came about? Many Christian churches celebrate Epiphany or Feast of Epiphany, which occurs twelve days after Christmas. Epiphany literally means “showing forth” and it signifies that Light has come into the world.  Those that visited Jesus after his birth, more than likely occurred during this time.

We shouldn’t underestimate the Gentile symbolism. Jesus in his ministry reached out to Gentiles. There are several small stories where Jesus interacted with Gentiles. The demon-possessed in Luke 8:26-33, the poor widow in Luke 7:11-17, even the Roman soldier at the foot of the cross Matthew 27:54. And the most familiar parable of the good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37, honors a man whose people were viewed as being Gentile and despised.

The Wisemen have being men of wealth and prominence and came from afar, where more than likely had a herd of servants and animals with them.  As powerful intelligent scholar-kings, they were humble. Humbly they followed the star, found their way to the Christ Child; humbly they knelt before the child with a young peasant mother and a carpenter father. Humbly and prayerfully they gave the precious gifts they had carried for hundreds of miles.

We need to keep the Wisemen in Christmas because they represent the people of the entire world. Red, yellow, black and white like the song goes. They teach us that NO ONE is too far away that they cannot “travel to Bethlehem”. No matter how poor or how rich, we all need a Savior.