Pagan Dreams
Christians love Epiphany. More than that, Christians love
the Three Kings.
The Biblical account seems remarkably sparse, yet has
captured our imagination for thousands of years. Basically, a Star in the
heavens informs Magi from the East that Christ has been born, the promised King
and Messiah of God’s people Israel. They come bearing gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh, and naturally they consult with Herod, an Edomite usurper
who has been appointed king over the Jews by decree of the Emperor in Rome.
Herod’s sages inform the Magi that prophecy singles out Bethlehem as the
birthplace of the promised Messiah, so to Bethlehem they go. There they find
Jesus and His mother Mary, before whom the Magi “rejoiced exceedingly with
great joy” before bowing down to worship the Christchild as a God.
An angel warns them, however, not to reveal the Child’s
identity to Herod, and so the Magi slip off into the night by another road.
Enraged, Herod orders his cutthroats to destroy all the boys of Bethlehem two
years of age or younger—but Joseph leads his family into Egypt, there to escape
the mad king’s wrath. And that, brothers and sisters, is the tale of Epiphany,
of the Adoration of the Magi. Since this tale was first told, it has raised as
many questions as answers. Who were these Magi? Whence did they come? What was
this Star they so diligently followed—a comet, a constellation? How old was Jesus
by the time they got there? And how did they know—these foreigners, these
pagans—that God had sent His Messiah, His Son, God-With-Us, down to dwell
amongst His people? What indeed did all this mean? So very many questions.
We can start with the term “Magi”, often translated as “wise
men”. A magus is what we might call a magician, a practitioner of secret arts.
It was the name given to the priestly caste of the Persian Empire—modern day
Iran—who gazed at the stars and by them hoped to discern the will of the gods. This
is an ancient idea, astrology, one practiced by every civilization yet
discovered. “As above, so below,” so the saying goes, this concept that the
stars reflect or perhaps even direct the destinies of men and of empires. Jews
and Christians have ever been uneasy with this notion, for while it is true
that Nature reflects her Maker’s glory and the Intelligence behind Creation,
nevertheless there is nothing in the stars that can deny the freedom of God and
the free will of mankind. God governs the stars; the stars do not govern us.
It would make sense that the Magi would be from Persia. It
was the Persians, after all, through whom God worked to free Israel from Exile
and return His people to the Promised Land. The new Persian religion,
Zoroastrianism, seems to have sprung up from close contact with the Jews. And
the Persians knew of the Messiah. There even appears to be some record of the
Star of Bethlehem in Persian coinage.
But the Bible uses the term “Magi” more broadly, to indicate
all manner of stargazer and spellcaster. Often magus is a derogatory term, a
cautionary title labeled upon those who would seek out unseen powers for greedy
gain. But at other times it refers to benevolent wise men from outside the
community of Israel. Christians looked to the ancient prophet Isaiah for
answers. Isaiah, after all, predicted the Nativity, Crucifixion, and Resurrection
of Jesus Christ half a thousand years before they occurred! He is the New Testament’s
favorite prophet, cited so many times in the Christian Scriptures that his book
has been called “the fifth Gospel.” What, Christians wondered, did Isaiah have
to say about Wise Men from the East?
“The camels of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba shall
come,” prophesies Isaiah. “They shall bring gold and incense. They shall
proclaim the praises of the Lord.” Why of course! Midian, Ephah, and Sheba were
all Arabic tribes with close ties to Israel. They knew the ancient prophecy
that a Star would arise from Judah. Midian and Ephah were descendants of Abraham,
just like the Israelites, and Sheba—well, we all remember the Queen of Sheba and
her visit to Solomon, don’t we? Ethiopia, a kingdom of African Jewish ancestry,
claims descent from the Queen of Sheba. And the Shebans were known for both
stargazing priests and frankincense.
It’s intriguing, isn’t it? But those who would claim the Magi
as their countrymen are not limited to Persians and Arabs. Modern Chinese
Christians insist that one of the Magi was surely Chinese. The faithful of
India stake a similar claim. In time, the Magi have come to represent not one
sort of people but all the nations and peoples of the earth. They brought three
gifts, and were prophesied to come from three nations. Beyond this, there were
three continents known in the Old World: Europe, Asia, and Africa. And so the
tradition became that there were three Magi. One was young, one was old, and
one was middle-aged. One was European, one was African, and one was from the
Middle East. In this way they came to represent the whole world and every stage
of life, all following the Star to worship and adore the little Child of
Bethlehem. They were the kings of all the nations, brought home to the one true
God of Israel.
That’s why we love them so, yes? That’s why the Magi, the
Three Kings, have always been so popular in Christian art and song. It’s
because, by and large, they represent us—God’s scattered children, the Gentiles
and pagans of this world. We were not born into the family of God, the long
line of Abraham and his children. We were adopted.
We have been gathered from the ends of the earth, ransomed by the Blood of
Christ Jesus, and all made new, made one, in Him. We are Germans and Finns and
Norwegians and Irish and Indians and God-only-knows what else, all brought into
one family, one Body, in Jesus Christ our Lord.
So much for the Magi’s identity. What then of the gifts they
bring? Ah, this is the question most easily answered from the earliest days of
our faith. The gifts themselves are prophecy! First we have gold, which
glitters and shines like the sun, neither rusting nor tarnishing: the perfect
king of all metals. Gold represents royalty, represents kingship. Gold proclaims
Christ as the true King of Kings, the throne of Judah forever restored. Next we
have frankincense, a fragrant pine resin used by Gentiles and Jews alike
exclusively for the worship of deity. You burn frankincense when you pray, when
you sacrifice, when you bow down before your God. Frankincense proclaims Christ
as God on earth, God in the flesh, God-With-Us.
Finally we have myrrh, another pine resin, another incense.
But this is far darker than the other gifts. Myrrh is a deep blood red, worth
seven times its weight in gold, and is used predominantly for funerary
practice. It is the undertaker’s gift. Israelites dissolve it in oil to anoint
bodies for burial; Romans throw it upon pyres to mask the scent of burning flesh.
Myrrh is the aroma of death, of the grave. Myrrh is the prophecy that this
Child’s fate will bring Him to the Cross. It is as the famous song proclaims: Glorious now, behold Him arise / King and
God and Sacrifice. These are the gifts of the Magi. These are the truths of
our faith.
And herein lies perhaps the greatest secret of the Magi.
Recall that these are men of foreign lands, of foreign faiths. They worship
strange gods, or perhaps the one God in strange ways. They are outsiders. They
are heathens. And yet the wisdom found in their traditions and lands is
sufficient for them to recognize a miracle when it occurs. The teachings of
strange religions contain enough spark, enough kernel of truth, that wise men
are led westward towards the Christ. They need God’s people to find Him, mind
you. They need the writings of Israel’s prophets and the guidance of Israel’s
sages. Otherwise the Magi would never have found the little town Bethlehem. And
finally, beyond this, they need the direct light of God’s own revelation,
guiding them to Mary and to her holy infant Son.
That’s the kicker: the fact that the Magi show us how God
uses other religions, and thus how the Church should view other religions—as containing
truth. Not a truth separate from
Jesus Christ, mind you, but seeds of truth pointing the whole world toward
Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises given unto the
family of Abraham, yes. We believe He is the culmination of the Jewish faith, the
opening of the family of Israel to all peoples, as prophesied unto Abraham. But
as the Savior of the entire world, Christ is also the fulfillment of all good
and true hopes, all genuine religious insights and longings. Buddhist
meditation, Hindu visions, pagan dreams, Classical philosophy, even the
mechanistic search for material truth pursued by atheists and agnostics—all of
this points us to Christ.
Even if we don’t know it, the subtle Star of truth is
drawing all peoples, inexorably, to Israel, and so to the Child born in her
midst. Christ is the Christ of us all. Having seen our hopes fulfilled, we are
now sent to help other wise men to complete their quests, to bring their gifts
and to find their King where they never expected to meet Him. Jesus is born for
the entire world. And all wise men who seek the light of truth shall someday
see His face.
Thanks be to Christ, the glory of Israel and Light of the
world. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
Comments
Post a Comment