Reading: Proverbs 8:17 (NRSV)
Song: We Three Kings (lyrics here)
Reflection
For this week, we will be looking each day at a person or group that plays a key part in the Christmas story. Today we consider the magi of the east.
At one church Sharon and I served we heard a recurring story about one of the previous pastors. It turns out that when he would find himself invited to a church member’s house at Christmas time he would look to see if they had a nativity set, and if that nativity set had a set of three wise men he would pull a harmless, but instructional, prank: he’d take the wise men away from the manger scene and place them somewhere else in the house entirely. We’d hear stories of how the wise men were found in garages, bathrooms, and all sorts of interesting places, positioned as if on a journey to the room where the nativity set was placed.
The pastor, of course, was making a point: the magi of Matthew’s gospel weren’t present at the nativity scene. At the time Jesus was born they were not in Bethlehem. As it turns out, our picture of their role in the Christmas story has been informed more by works of art and pop culture (like “The Little Drummer Boy”) than by Scripture. For example, we assume there were three because three gifts are mentioned, but in reality we don’t know how many there were. And many church traditions (and songs) refer to them as “kings,” but that isn’t in the biblical record. They might indeed have been royalty, or at the very least had royal connections as astrologers, but in the end we just don’t know.
But here’s what we do know: they recognized the birth of a king, and they came to honor him with gifts—gifts which themselves carry deep meaning. That’s why, even with a minor “glitch” in the song’s title, I’ve always appreciated “We Three Kings.” It’s such a beautiful description of the gifts and what they represent for the one born in Bethlehem:
Gold, a gift signifying royalty
Frankincense, a gift signifying worship
Myrrh, a gift signifying burial
In those three gifts we have powerful declarations of who Jesus is, and the carol sums up those declarations with three simple words: “King…God…sacrifice.” Simple, yet within them profound truth: Jesus is the King to whom we bow our knee in service, the God to whom we ascribe all glory and honor, and the sacrifice to whom we owe our eternal destiny.
These are three words sitting with prayerfully today as part of our Advent journey.
Glorious now, behold Him, arise
King and God and sacrifice
Alleluia, alleluia
Sounds through the Earth and skies
Spend some time meditating on these words: King, God, and sacrifice. What does each say to you about the person of Jesus and your relationship with him? Does one stand out to you as you reflect on them. Why? How does that speak to your needs and longings right now?