Reflections on the three wise men

Today is January 6, which is also known as the church holiday of Epiphany.  Epiphany, which occurs on the church calendar 12 days after Christmas, marks the visit of the three wise men to worship Jesus and present gifts to Him.  The Gospel of Matthew is the only gospel that contains the wise men’s story. It can be found in Matthew 2:1-12. 

Matthew states that the wise men were from the East.  He is not specific about the country that the wise men came from.  It was not important which country they were from, only the area of the world that they were from, to show that they were not Jewish. 

 How did the Gentile wise men know about the Star and that it would lead them to the King of the Jews?  Some of the Jews did not return to Israel from Persia after the Babylonian exile. The Jews may have told the wise men of the Persians about the coming of the Messiah.  They may have pointed out Numbers 24:7, which states: “There shall a Star come out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel,” along with other Old Testament Scriptures about the Messiah.  This information would have been passed down by the Persian wise men over the centuries until the Star of Bethlehem finally appeared, fulfilling the Messianic prophecies.

The Persian Jews must not have told the wise men where the King of the Jews was to be born, however, so the wise men went to Herod, the Roman leader in Jerusalem. The wise men must have thought that since Herod was the ruler of the Jews, he would know where the King of the Jews was to be born. Herod didn’t know the answer to their question, so he asked the priests and the scribes if they knew where the King of the Jews was to be born.  They told him in Micah 5:2, it stated that the King of the Jews was to be born in Bethlehem.  Herod told the wise men and they left to find Jesus.

Most people set up their Nativity scenes with the three wise men near the manger.  This is wrong, however, because Jesus was not a baby when the wise men visited Him.  Matthew refers to Jesus as a young Child – if He had been an infant when the wise men paid their visit, Matthew would have referred to Jesus as the Baby Jesus.  Herod also refers to Jesus as a young Child, according to the time he determined from the wise men. Matthew also states that Mary and Jesus were living in a house, which meant they had left the stable.  Interestingly, Joseph is not mentioned in the story of the wise men – perhaps he was out of the house when the wise men came to call.

Even if the wise men had seen the Star of Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’ birth, it would have taken them a while to travel by camel and/or by foot to Bethlehem, perhaps up to 2 years, depending on what part of the east they lived in.  There were no interstate freeways and modern forms of transportation to get the wise men to Bethlehem sooner. Since they were important wise men, they may have had a large entourage to attend to their needs.  This would make the travel time even longer since there were more people traveling in the group.  The song “We Three Kings” states that the wise men were from the Orient.  It would probably take more than 2 years to get to Bethlehem from the Orient since the designation “the Orient” usually refers to China and Japan.  

After the wise men went home by another way and Herod realized he had been tricked, he ordered the deaths of all boy children under the age of 2 according to the time that the wise men had told him they had first seen the Star. This is another indication that Jesus was around 2 years old when the wise men visited. 

Legend has it that there were three wise men because of the three gifts that were presented to Jesus.  However, Matthew does not state for certain that there were only three wise men, and indeed, there could have been more than three wise men in the entourage, but only three of them presented the gifts. 

The wise men have been given names over the years and even been promoted to kings, but Matthew does not call them by name nor does he call them kings.  Matthew does not say that the three wise men introduced themselves by name to Mary either. 

More important than the background of the givers were the gifts themselves and the meanings of the gifts.  Gold was very valuable and it was given to a king as a tribute.  Jesus is not only the King of the Jews, He is the King of Kings.  Myrrh was a bitter perfume used for medicine and anointing oil. Myrrh was offered to Jesus on the Cross, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’s body in a mixture of myrrh and aloe after He was taken down from the Cross.  Frankincense was a symbol of holiness and righteousness and was used as incense in the Temple.  It represents Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, as frankincense was burned with the sacrifices on the showbread altar in the Temple.  

I am going to try and write more this year.  I apologize for not posting very often.  Thanks as always for reading and see you next time!

Diane