Strangers from the East

Kenneth L. Gibble

As a youngster, I didn't pay much attention to the shepherds in the Christmas story. Oh, it was nice to hear about a little shepherd boy who carried his lamb to the stable. And the thought of an angel choir was kind of interesting. But I was far more taken by those mysterious strangers from the East, the wise men. Who were they? Where did they come from? And what magnificent gifts they brought!

Scholars tell us that Christians in the first few centuries of the church reacted much as I did as a child. Matthew's wise men (the Greek word is magi) caught Christians' fancy earlier than did Luke's shepherds. In the Roman catacombs, the wise men appeared as part of Christian art two centuries before the shepherds.

In fact, it wasn't long before Christians began adding details to fill out Matthew's brief account. One of the first such details was elevating the wise men to royal status. We sing the familiar carol "We Three Kings of Orient Are", but Matthew's Gospel gives no support at all to the idea that the wise men were royalty. Because of the gifts the wise men brought, their number was most often set at three, yet no number is given in Scripture. Later stories added names and personal descriptions of the wise men, but no such details are present in Scripture.

We may smile at these legends, and laugh at the foolish people who believed them, but that does not mean we should ignore the wise men themselves. I believe there is something important the biblical story of the strangers from the East has to give us, something similar to what I felt as a youngster.

The story of the wise men says something about the importance of awe, wonder and delight in our lives. We have been created with the need to know something greater than ourselves. Life consists of more than the measurable, the easily described.

Do you remember the last time you saw a beautiful sunrise? A mere description of it might go something like this: "The sky was a dark blue; the clouds on the horizon were coloured red, pink and orange." But such a description would in no way capture the beauty of that sunrise.

It's the same with the story of the wise men. There is always something hidden and mysterious about God's dealings with us. How appropriate it is that strange men from who-knows-where suddenly appear on the scene telling of a wondrous star and offering the Christ child exotic gifts. Can you see the contrast--costly treasures being laid at the feet of this child of peasant parents? In this we see that God uses the humblest of vessels to offer us heaven's richest treasures.

Another thing the story of the wise men tells us is that people often resist the gifts of God. When the magi announced that they had seen the star of the King of the Jews, the people of Jerusalem were upset. "Not now," they seem to have said. "We cannot handle such news right now. We're just barely coping with life as it is. We don't need someone to come along and stir things up, even if it is the Messiah. Sorry, but we can't be bothered."

In the same way, we sometimes resist God's gifts to us. We are fearful of the changes they might bring. "We're doing all right," we say. "Why risk upsetting things?"

We forget that rejection of God's gifts results in tragedy. This is another reason why the story of the wise men is important--it contains a dark side as well as the brightness of a star. Herod's fear and anger produced evil fruit, a bloody determination to destroy the new King. The Bible does not minimize the existence of evil in the world--and this, too, is part of the ongoing story of our relationship with God.

I urge you to tell the story of the magi. Tell it because it is part of God's story. Tell it to your children and your grandchildren during this season of wonder. We need times of celebration. We need songs, good food--and stories. We need ways of understanding life at its highest peaks and deepest depths. We need human ways of comprehending the awesome mystery of God's coming to us in love.

If someone asks you to describe fear or jealousy or hatred or love, you won't find a dictionary definition adequate. Inevitably, you will end up telling a story about an event in your own or someone else's experience. And when we Christians try to describe grace or glory or divine love, we end by telling a story.

So tell the story--because it needs to be told. Sing the carols. Draw the pictures. Set up the manger scenes. And through it all, proclaim the central truth of Christmas: God with us--in love.

Kenneth L. Gibble is a writer from Chambersburg, Pa.

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