"Now after
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold,
wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has
been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to
worship him." Matt 2:1-2 ESV
We are fairly
certain who the wise men were. They were
Persian priests of the Zoroastrian religion. Zoroastrianism began about the time the Persians took over
the Babylonian empire, which had taken the Jews into exile. The founder was
called Zoroaster, or Zarathustra.
Zoroastrianism shared some beliefs with Judaism, and appeared to be
influenced by the Jewish prophets.
Zoroastrians
believed that there were two God--a good god and an evil god. The
good god was supreme and would win in the end. The good god sends
messages to the earth through the stars, which were angels moving through the
heavens. The modern belief in astrology
came from these magi. They believed that by studying the movements
of stars and planets, they could tell what would happen on earth.
If all this sounds
like a crazy parody of Judaism, you would be right! There is some truth here, but it is mixed
with a heavy dose of superstition and imagination.
Even so, God really
did communicate with these pagan priests through the stars. They saw something in the heavens that told
them a king was born to the Jews who would be the ruler of the whole earth.
Why did God speak to
these men in such a way? Did it confirm their strange beliefs? Not at all!
God speaks to us in
ways that that we can understand. God recognized in these men a genuine desire
to seek the truth. So He used a star system of pagan astrology to call them to
Christ.
That star is a good
picture of the light of God. Starlight
comes from far away, from blazing suns of immeasurable power, yet appears to us
as dim and distant lights in the sky. God's truth is often the same with us. We may think we know understand His thoughts,
but all we really know of the infinite God is far away and distant, and is
surrounded by a sea of ignorance. Our knowledge of God, compared to His
infinity, is not much greater than that of the Magi.
The only way we know
God is through the Light that God permits us to see through a sea of
blackness. That light is Christ. We may
not understand the inner workings of the trinity, or how God became man, but we
can see Him. He is the only light of the
world. That light points to the manger,
and beyond the manger to the cross.
"Father, thank
you for leading me to you, using the light I understand. Help me to follow that light the way the magi
followed the star. In Jesus' name, Amen."
