If you've ever wondered about the validity of the Bible, then you're in the perfect space. Come in with all your questions. Your girl is an investigator, and I don't just study the Bible-- I investigate it.
I want the correct details.
I want to know if the text is correct.
I want evidence—cold, hard evidence to back things up.
And so, I will admit, I was spun for a loop when I encountered the part of the Christmas story about the magi coming to visit Jesus with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
I believed the magi were a group of kings. That's how I saw them portrayed in all the nativities I've come across— robes of thick velvet and deep hues of purple and gold. Their heads topped with crowns and their faces adorned with thick, long beards.
The wise men were not kings. Not even close.
Soon after I figured that out, I realized the wise men also didn't show up right on time. It was roughly two years after the birth of Jesus that the magi made their appearance. And where it might be easy to think, "Great, all the magic of my childhood is being sucked out of the story as she writes this to me," I promise that's not true.
The story of the magi is more magical than you can ever imagine. The fact that these specific men showed up to worship Jesus is even more proof of our great and awesome God.
In Matthew 2, the story of the magi starts with a single word: Behold.
Because we've heard the word in telling after telling of the Christmas story, it's easy to become desensitized to it. But when Matthew writes "Behold," he says: Hey, listen up. Pay close attention. What I'm about to tell you is a big deal, and I need you to see this.
The magi coming was not extraordinary because they traveled far.
The magi coming was not impressive because they brought gifts.
The magi coming was notable, something to behold, because the magi were not kings— they were Pagan sorcerers.
Magi comes from the word "magic." Their visit is a big deal because they were a) not believers and b) not the people you would expect to bow down and worship Jesus. Imagine Harry Potter, Merlin, Dumbledore, and Gandalf showing up to see the baby. That's the picture we're painting with these fellows.
These magi specialized in dark arts (so maybe throw Voldemort in the lineup, too). They were astrologers who believed in pagan practices. You can find them in the book of Exodus, working in Pharoah's court to stand up against Moses with their magic tricks. They were the people who had violated the Old Testament, and the point of them being in this story is clear: though so many might write these magi off, God doesn't.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, “It was far-reaching mercy which gathered from lands which lay in darkness a company of men made wise unto salvation.”
Isaiah 60:3 reads as prophecy, "Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising."
These pagan astrologers from the East were proof of the nations' arrival to worship Jesus. They were gentiles. They were considered "unclean." And when they saw the child and his mother, the scripture says they fell and worshipped him at once.
God ushers them into the story.
God wants them at the forefront.
God is saying, "This is the new narrative. A narrative where the people who most need a savior can finally, finally find one."
As Christians, we easily forget that this story is not all about us as believers. It has never been, and it never will be. When God picks sorcerers to be the first to behold his bigger plan, he lets us know that the story of the gospel is a story for everyone. For anyone who needs hope. For anyone who feels lost and broken. For anyone who wishes to turn their back on things that never filled them so they could finally feel whole.
He wants us to know that by excluding people or discounting people, we miss the point of Jesus coming in the first place.
He came for the unlikely.
He came for the lowly.
He came for the ones we'd likely give up on.
He came for the ones who'd been kicked out and crushed.
The story of Jesus is first a "come and see" story meant to extend to all. Outwards and outwards to touch the nations. It is not a tale of exclusivity or an account to be wielded like a sword to cut others. It is an invitation, open to everyone, to come and see what's so different about a baby lying in a feeding trough.
