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Writing in The Weekend Australian (01/4-5/25), Greg Craven, former vice-chancellor of The Australian Catholic University, observes that Christmas has not merely “become commercial … but that it has become materialist.
“All of which is odd,” he continues, “in a nation (Australia) that ostentatiously pines for the spiritual. Millions genuinely seek or claim to be seeking something beyond the commercial veil. But even this desire struggles in an age of mindless mercantile self-help …
“But however misdirected or amusing, all these desires go in a single direction: people long for a spiritual reality that transcends mere functional reality.”
The call for a reawakening of the meaning of the Christmas story that sits behind the Christmas Season is not unique. How important it is therefore that we consider afresh the various facets of the original records found in Matthew and Luke.
Furthermore, as we reflect on the Gospel narratives of Jesus’ birth for our own benefit, it is also worth considering ways we can weave the larger story of his birth into our conversation. It’s worth keeping in mind the surprising way God works and the diversity of people his plan includes – non-Jewish peoples as well as Jewish, in fact people from every race.
Consider, for example, Matthew’s account of the Magi who visited the baby Jesus from afar to bring him gifts and worship him. In Matthew chapter 1 we learn that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the town where Jacob had buried Rachel and where King David was born. And some 700 years before Jesus the prophet Micah spoke of Bethlehem as the place where God’s Messiah would be born (Micah 5:2).
The legends that have developed around the magi from the East following a star and visiting the baby Jesus in Bethlehem shroud the veracity and the surprise of Matthew’s account. There is no mention in Matthew of the number of the wise men who visited Jesus and we are not told whether they were kings. Furthermore, we are not told their names. Who then were these people who travelled so far?
The Magi were a tribe of priests in ancient Persia and were known for their study of astrology – making predictions from the stars. In the ancient world the movement of the stars and the planets was understood to frame the orderly pattern of the universe. Any interruption to this was seen to mark some new significant event that would impact the human story.
Piecing together astronomical studies of the past, it seems that the Magi observed a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter that occurred in 7BC around the time Jesus was born. In an age before telescopes, the conjunction would have given the appearance of a very bright star which some of them followed. Coming from Persia where the Jewish people had been in exile in the 6th century BC they would have known the Jewish Scriptures which include the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers chapter 24, verse 17: I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;…
The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter occurred three times in 7BC, suggesting that when it had first appeared the Magi travelled westward to Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. Given the distance, they would have arrived there about the time of the third planetary conjunction. It was when they were in Jerusalem that they learned of the baby’s birth in Bethlehem – as Micah had foretold.
Matthew records: Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (Matthew 2:11).
Their gifts were prophetic: gold, a gift for a king – the greatest king lay before them; frankincense, used by the priests – the greatest priest was the one they saw; myrrh, for the burial of the dead – this baby, born to be king would be crowned through his suffering on a cross. Significantly, and to us surprisingly these highly respected, wise, non-Jewish men fell on their knees and worshipped this baby.
At the time when Matthew wrote this Gospel account, non-Jewish peoples from across the known world were coming to the crucified and risen Jesus as their king and savior. Matthew here is highlighting yet another facet of the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning God’s King: Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn… (Isaiah 60:3).
A reawakening of interest in the transcendent, supernatural order and the mystery of the Christmas story is an illustration of the way Jesus Christ fulfills Isaiah’s words. His words give us the opportunity to take people back to the true Jesus story revealed in the Gospels.
Let me ask, are you praying for such opportunities and thinking about ways to use them?
Prayer. O God, who by the leading of a star manifested your beloved Son to the Gentiles: mercifully grant that we, who know you now by faith, may after this life enjoy the splendor of your glorious Godhead; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason