One of my clearest memories of Christmastime as a child was of setting up our nativity scene. Side note…when I was a kid, I had a tendency to be – well – difficult. “You need an attitude adjustment” was one of the most common disciplinary phrases I heard, and it was absolutely right. I did. And this sweet Christmas tradition was no exception.
My parents would notice that the wisemen were missing…sometimes replaced by an empty space…and other times replaced by a sticky note detailing the fact that the wisemen weren’t there yet. The wisemen themselves…they would be found in another room (east), in the microwave, or otherwise far off from the little plastic baby. For a while, I thought I was privy to the “secret” of the wisemen…that it probably was around Jesus’ second birthday before the wisemen arrived with their gifts. I was the smart one. The thoughtful one. Ha!
I was recalling this memory fondly today, and I had a realization. There were SO many questions I hadn’t asked about the wisemen – the Magi. Here is the short version of the story from the text:
“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” (Matthew 2:11-12)
So…the wisemen found Jesus because of a star…so God communicated to the Magi through stars…astrology…the system that they were already accustomed to faithfully following? So I wondered…what was the magi’s religious background. A VERY cursory study shows that they were most likely Zoroastrians. What? Why did the biblical author of Matthew chose to include this image of zoroastrians coming to worship Jesus? Why was this so important that they needed to write it down as part of the story to pass on?
Certainly…the story could go something like this. “The wisemen came and worshipped baby Jesus…and then they stayed and joined the temple and followed Jesus throughout his ministry. They accepted Jesus as their personal savior.” But that’s not what the story says. The story says that the wisemen (the zoroastrians) worshipped Jesus…and then they went home. They went back to their tribe. They (I assume) continued in their search for the Divine through the lens of Zoroastrianism… They were people who the Bible claims worshipped Jesus, but they stayed embedded in a different system of faith than the Jews…or the Christians… So…does this mean that we have Magi in our nativity scenes all over the world…fancy figures carrying ornate little boxes…all to memorialize people who are burning in Hell for eternity?… (this is certainly not what I believe…)
I am not making statements here…I am asking questions. How many times have you (or I) heard the story of the Magi and not asked these types of questions? Why don’t we ask these type of questions about the text? Isn’t there more that we could learn, more to be curious about, and more nuance to the story of our own faith that we might be missing by not asking?
I hope this got your wheels spinning this morning, friends. Don’t take my word for it. Lean into the mystery. Ask the questions. Live into the tension.
Photo by Inbal Malca on Unsplash
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