A night like no other – Where the wise men went
The night that Jesus was born was a night like no other. This week, Salvos Online is running a series entitled ‘Key players tell their side of the Christmas story’. Our writers are playing the roles of Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, and the wise men, and imagining the Christmas story from their perspectives.
BY MAJOR PHIL INGLIS
Some might call us consultants, advisors or gurus but I prefer a more descriptive name – ‘wise men’.
Some 30 or so years ago, my friends and I noticed the appearance of a certain star in a certain place. it suggested a subtle but profound shift in reality – a movement of power and authority away from the Romans and towards the Middle East. In the ancient Hebrew stories, we identified prophecies of the birth of a king that would drive this power shift. The stories and the stars together pointed us to Jerusalem as the capital around which this new power would be born and made manifest.
LONG JOURNEY
This was a bit awkward as we were at war with the Roman Empire, and they were the current rulers of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, we felt that this was so important that we decided to go to Jerusalem. it was a long trip – made longer by the desert, military checkpoints and so on. The border crossing through no man’s land was particularly scary! It’s crazy how much war and violence regularly sweep across this land.
Finally, we arrived in Jerusalem and went directly to the palace. We told the king all about why we had come, and strangely enough, he had no idea what we were talking about. Frankly, he was a bit weird, paranoid and more than a little disturbed. He didn’t really believe us, and we feared for our lives, but he called in his own wise men who corroborated our story, and even better, they filled in some of the details we had missed.
They told us that, in fact, the place we were looking for was a few kilometres away, a town called Bethlehem, where the ancient King David was born.
We set off to Bethlehem, where we were pointed to the home of a family with a young toddler. We were welcomed into the home, and even though it was modest, the power of the place and the significance of the boy were unmistakable. We had travelled through warzones, deserts and all manner of difficulty, and now … completely unexpectedly, we were a little out of the way, in a little home with a little family looking at a little boy. The contrast was astounding and made my mind spin. Who would this boy be? What would he become? How will the world change?
GIFTS FOR A KING
It’s always wise to take gifts to those who are going to rise to power and significance. Of course, I brought some gold – that makes sense, right? I mean, I wasn’t sure what that little boy would do with gold, but I understand that his parents took him on a trip to Egypt.
My friends chose frankincense and myrrh to give. Frankincense is used a lot in the temples to anoint people as priests and religious leaders, and myrrh is used extensively in embalming the dead. These are fairly normal gifts for kings – but for this toddler?
But here we are 30 years later, and it turns out we were right. We’re hearing rumours of a man from Nazareth who was born in Bethlehem at that time, who has gained an incredible following. Frankincense would be totally appropriate now as he is a gifted speaker, a prophet or a priest, and his words are transforming the ancient Hebrew faith. The key to his teaching seems to be about a shift in wealth and authority – not a shift from Rome to Jerusalem, but a shift from the world to the heavens.
Even more incredibly, the myrrh would have been useful, too … I heard that he was crucified, buried in a tomb but then was alive again a few days later! It’s all crazy. He’s shifted all the value and authority by completely redefining death and life, hope and despair and hate and love.
For me and my friends, the problem is how to advise the rulers. How do we explain this new world to them? How do we use the stories and the stars to prove that God's power is revealed in this man, Jesus? How do we explain the message without seeming like we knew all along?
