REFORMED WITNESS
Volume V, January 1997, Number 1
The Visit of the Magi
by Rev. George Ophoff
Reprinted from the December 1, 1928 issue of The Standard Bearer
It is impossible to determine the date of the visit of the wise men. It must have occurred not long after the birth of Jesus, while Joseph and Mary still lingered in Bethlehem, and it is of little moment whether we place it before or after the presentation in the temple at Jerusalem. The epithet by which Matthew describes to us these Eastern strangers is not so vague and indefinite as it seems in our translation. He calls them Magi from the East. The birthplace and the natural home of the magian worship was in Persia. And there the Magi had a place and power such as the Chaldeans had in Babylon, the Hierophants in Egypt, the Druids in Gaul, and the Brahmans still have in India. They formed a tribe or caste, priestly in office, princely in rank. They were depositories of nearly all the knowledge or science existing in the country where they lived; there were the first professors and practicers of astrology, worshipers of the sun and the heavenly bodies, from whose appearance and movements they drew their divination as to earthly events -- all illustrious births below, being indicated as they deemed, by certain peculiar conjunctions of the stars above. Both as priests and diviners they had great power. They formed in fact the most influential section of the community. In political affairs their influence was predominant. The education of royalty was in their hands: they filled all the chief offices of the state: they constituted the supreme council of the realm. As originally applied to the Median priest-cast, the term Magi was one of dignity and honor. Afterwards, when transferred to other countries, and employed to designate not that peculiar sacerdotal order, but all persons of whatever description who were professors of astrology and practicers of divination, as those astrologers and diviners sunk in character, and had recourse to all kinds of mean imposture, the name Magi was turned into one of dishonor and reproach. There seems no reason, however, to doubt that it was in its earlier and honorable meaning that it is used in the Gospel narrative.
Remarkable passages from both Greek and Roman writers have been quoted to inform us that at the period of our Savior's birth there prevailed generally over the East, in regions far remote from Palestine, a vague but strong belief that one born in Judea was to arise and rule the world. Popularly this expectation was confined to the appearance of some warrior chief who, by the might of his victorious arms, was to subdue nations under him. But there were many then in every land, whose faith in their own hereditary religions had been undermined; who, from those Jews now scattered everywhere abroad, had learned some of the chief elements of the pure Israelitish faith; and half embracing it, had risen to a desire and hope which took a higher ground, and who, in this expected king that was to spring out of Judah, were ready to hail a spiritual guide and deliverer. Such, we believe, were the Magi of Matthew's narrative. Balaam, a man of their own kindred tribe, in their own or in a neighboring country, had centuries before foretold that a star should come out of Jacob, and a scepter rise out of Israel (Numbers 24:17). This and other of these old Jewish prophesies which pointed to the same event may in some form or other have reached their ears, preparing them for the birth of one who in the first instance was to be the king of the Jews, but whose kingdom was to connect itself with other than mere earthly interests, to have intimate relationships with man's highest hopes and his eternal destiny. Sharing the general hope, but with that hope purified and exalted, let us believe that these Magi were earnestly, devoutly, waiting the coming of this new king of the Jews and of mankind. Their office and occupation led them to the nightly study of the starry heavens; but still as they gazed and speculated and divined, they felt that it was not from that glittering broad-spread page of wonders hung above their heads that any clear or satisfying information as to the divine character and purpose was to be derived. Much as they fancied they could glean from them as to man's earthly fortunes, what could the bright mute stars tell them of the eternal destinies of those unnumbered human spirits which beneath their light were, generation after generation, passing away into the world beyond the grave? How often may the deep sigh of disappointment have arisen from the depths of their hearts, as not a word of distant response was given, and the heavens they gazed on kept the secret locked in their bosom. But the sigh of earnest seeking after truth, like the sigh of the lowly, penitent, and contrite heart, never arises to the throne of God in vain. God met in mercy the truth-seeking spirit in the midst of its errors, and made its very superstition pave the way to faith.
One night as those Magi stood watching their cloudless skies, their practiced eye detected a newcomer strange among the stars. The appearance of new stars is no novelty to the astronomer. We have authentic records of stars of the first magnitude, rivaling in their brilliance the brightest of our old familiar planets, shinning suddenly in places where no star had been seen before, and after a season vanishing away. Singular conjunctions of planets have also been occasionally observed, some of which are known to have occurred about the time of the Redeemer's birth. It may possibly have been some such strange appearance in the heavens that attracted the eyes of the wise men. It is said, however, in the narrative that the star went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. It went, lantern-like before them on their way, and indicated some way, as by a finger of pointing light, the very spot where they were to find the child. As no such function could be discharged by any of the ordinary inhabitants of the heavens, all about the appearance of this star must be taken as supernatural, and we must regard it as some star-like meteor shining in our atmosphere. But be it what it might, however kindled, whatever curiosity its strange appearance might excite -- though the Magi penetrated by the popular belief, might naturally have regarded it as an omen of the great expected birth -- the star could of itself tell nothing. However miraculous its appearance, if left without an interpreter, it was but a dumb witness after all. The conviction is almost forced upon us that, in addition to the external sign there was some divine communication made to these Magi, informing them of the errand which the star commissioned to discharge. But why the double indication of the birth -- the star without, the revelation within? Why but as an evidence and illustration of the care and gracious condescension added the eternal sign, to be a help to the weak, infant staggering faith, but Who, in the very shaping of that outward sign, was pleased to accommodate Himself to these men's earthly calling; and while Mary and the shepherds -- Jews living in the land where stories of angelic manifestation were current -- angels were sent to make announcements of the Redeemer's birth, to those astrologers of the East He sends a star meeting them in their own familiar walks, showing itself among the divinities of their erring worship, gently leading them into His presence Whom the world's true worship was given.
But when this star appeared, and after they understood what its presence betokened, was it a spontaneous impulse on their part to go and do homage to the new-born king, or did He who revealed the birth enjoin the journey? Whatever prompting on which they acted, it does not appear that in the first instance anything beyond the general information was communicated, that somewhere in Judea the birth had taken place. The star, it would appear, did not go before them all the way, for in that case they would not have needed to institute any further inquiry. Its first office discharged, the star disappeared, leaving them to have recourse to such common sources of information as lay open to them. It was at Jerusalem, in the capital of the country over which the new-born King was to reign; it was there, if anywhere, the needed intelligence was to be obtained. To Jerusalem, therefore they repair. Entering the holy city, they put eagerly and expectantly the question, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him."
The question takes the city by surprise. No one here has seen the star, no one here has heard about this king. The tidings of the arrival of those distinguished strangers, and of the question which they asked, are carried quickly to the palace, and circulated rapidly through the city. Herod is troubled. The usurper trembles on his throne. Has a new claimant with better title to the throne, indeed been born? Has treachery already been busy at work: have they been concealing from him this event? Have the enemies of himself and of his family been cloaking thus their projects, waiting only for the fit time to strike the blow, and hurl him from his seat? The blood he had already shed to reach that height begins to cry for vengeance, and specters of the slaughtered dead shake their terrors in his face. Herod's troubles at the tidings we can well understand, but why was it that all Jerusalem was troubled along with him? Was it the simple fear of change, the terror of another revolution; the knowledge of Herod's jealous temper and blood-thirsty disposition; the alarm that his vindictive spirit might prompt to some new deed of cruelty, in order to cut off this rival? If so, how low beneath the yoke of tyranny must the spirit of those citizens of Jerusalem have sunk; how completely for the time must the selfish have absorbed the patriotic sentiment in their breast.
But whatever alarm he felt, whatever dark purposes were brooding in his heart, Herod at first concealed them. He must know more about this affair, get some information before he acts. He calls together the chief priests and scribes, and at no loss, apparently to identify the King of the Jews that the Magi asked about, with the Christ the Messiah of ancient prophesy, he demands of them where Christ should be born. A little at a loss, they lay their hands at once on the prophesy of Micah, which pointed to Bethlehem as the birthplace. Furnished with this information, the king invites the Magi to a private interview, conveys to them the information he had himself received, and concealing his sinister designs, sends them off to Bethlehem to search diligently for the child, and when they had found him, to bring him word again, that he, too, as he falsely said, might go and worship him.
Let us pause a moment here to reflect upon the impression which this visit to Jerusalem, and the state of things discovered there, was fitted to make upon these Eastern visitors. It must surely have surprised them to come among the very people over whom the new-born King was to rule, to enter the capital of their country, the city of the chief priests and scribes by whom, if by any, an event so signal should have been shown, and to find there no notice, no knowledge of the birth; to find instead, that they, coming from a strange land, professors of another faith, are the first to tell the Jews of the event of the birth of their own king. It must have done more to surprise them; they, too, in their turn must have been troubled and perplexed, to see how the announcement, when it was made, was received; to see such jealousy, such alarm; and, at the least, so great credulity or indifference, that near as Bethlehem was, and interesting as was the object of their visit to it, there was none among those inhabitants of Jerusalem who cared to accompany them. Was there nothing here to awaken doubt, for such faith as theirs to stagger at? Might they not have been deceived? Perhaps it was a delusion they had listened to; a deceitful appearance they had seen in their own land. Had these Magi been men of a weak faith or an infirm purpose, they might, instead of going on to Bethlehem, have gone forth despondingly and distrustfully from Jerusalem, and taken their way back to their own homes.
But strange and perplexing as all this is, it neither shakes their faith nor effects their conduct. They had good reason to believe that the communication first made to them came to them from God, and once satisfied of this, no conduct on the part of others, however unaccountable or inconsistent, moves them away from the beginning of their confidence. Though all the dwellers in Jerusalem be troubled at the tidings which should have been to them tidings of great joy; though not a Jew ready to join them, or to bid them God-speed ere they leave the city's gates, to Bethlehem they go.
But a new perplexity arises. Somewhere in that village the birth has taken place, but who shall tell them where? If the inhabitants of the captital knew and cared so little about the matter, what help will they get from the villagers at Bethlehem? They may require to search diligently, as Herod bade them, and yet, after all, the search may be in vain. Just then, in the midst of their perplexity, the star which they had seen in the East once more shone out above their heads to go before them till it stood over where the young child lay. No wonder that when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. It dispelled all doubt, it relieved from all perplexity. When first they saw it in the East, it wore the face of a stranger among old friends; now it wears the face of an old friend among strangers, and they hail it as we hail a friend we thought was lost, but who comes to us the very time we need him most. The Magi knew that somewhere in Bethlehem the object of their search is to be found, and if they fail in finding him, it will be in Bethlehem that the failure shall take place. Nor is it till they are on their way to the village, that the star of heavenly guidance once more appears; but then it does appear, and sends gladness into their hearts.
And have we not all, as followers of the Crucified, another and higher journey to perform; a journey, not to the place of the Savior's earthly birth, but that of His heavenly dwelling? And if, on that journey, we act as those men did, God will deal with us as He dealt with them. The path before us may be often hidden in obscurity; our lights may go out by the way; we may know as little what the next stage is to reveal, as those men knew at Jerusalem what awaited them in their path to Bethlehem; but if like them, we hold on our course, unmoved by the example of others; if we follow the light given us to the farthest point to which that light can carry us, then on us too, when lights all fail, and we seem about to be left in utter darkness, some star of heavenly guidance will arise, at sight of which we shall rejoice with an exceeding great joy.
But look, now, at the Chief Priests and Scribes of the holy city, into whose hands the ancient oracles of God had been committed. They could tell at once, from the prophesies of Micah, the place of the Messiah's birth; and they could as readily and as accurately from the prophecy of Daniel have known the time of His advent. To them, as furnished already with sufficient means for information, no supernatural communication of any kind is made; to them no angel comes; no star appears, no sign is given. They should have been waiting for the coming of the Lord, with ears all open to catch the first rumors, which must have reached Jerusalem from a village not more than six miles off, of what the shepherds saw and heard; they should have been out to Bethlehem before these Magi came, ready to welcome visitors from a far county and to conduct them into the presence of the new-born King. But they neglected, they abused the privileges they possessed; and now as the proper fruit of their own doings, not only is the same kind of information supplied to others denied by them, but the very way in which they are first informed works disastrously, and excites hostile prejudices in their breast. "Where is he," these strangers say to them, "who is born king of the Jews?" Has an event like this occurred -- occurred within a few miles of the metropolis -- and they, the heads and rulers of the Jewish people, not known of it? For their own knowledge of it must they be indebted to these foreigners, men ignorant of Judea, unread in their sacred books? A star, forsooth, these men said had appeared to them in the East; was it to be believed that for them in their land of heathen darkness and superstition such a fresh light should be kindled in the heavens, whilst to God's own appointed priesthood, no discovery of any kind had been made? We discern thus in is very earliest stage, that antipathy of the Son of Mary which, beginning in incredulity, and fostered by pride, grew into malignant hatred, and issued in the nailing of Jesus to the cross. And even in the first stages of the course they followed they appeared before us, reaping the fruit of their former doings, and sowing the seeds of their after crimes. What a singular spectacle does the proud and jealous priesthood of Judea thus present, learned in the letter of their own scriptures but wholly ignorant of their Spirit; pointing the way to others, not taking a single step in it themselves; types of the nation they belonged to, of the function which the Jews have so largely since discharged -- the openers of the door to Gentile inquirers, that same door was closed upon themselves.
We rejoin the Magi at Bethlehem. They enter the indicated house, and stand before a mother and her child; a mother of very humble appearance; a child clad in simplest attire. Can this, they think, as they look around, be the roof beneath which infant royalty lies cradled? Can that be the child they have come so far to see and worship? Had they known all about that infant which they know now; had they known that an angelic choir had already sung his birth, lading the night breezes with a richer freight of melody than they had ever wafted through the skies; had they known that in that little hand which lay folded their in feebleness, in the gentle breath which was heaving in that infant bosom, the power of omnipotence lay slumbering -- that at the touch of the one, the blind eye was to open, and the tied tongue to be unloosed -- that at the bidding of the other, the wildest elements of nature in their stormiest march were to stand still, devils were to be be driven out of their usurped bodies, and the dead to come forth from the sepulcher; had they known that the death of this Son of Mary, the sun was to be darkened, the rocks were to be rent, the graves give up their inhabitants -- that He Himself was to burst the barriers of the tomb, and rise in triumph, attended by angel escort, to take His place at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens -- we should not have wondered at the ready homage which they rendered Him. But they knew nothing of all this. What they know, we cannot tell. We only know that instantly, in absence of all outward warrant for the act, in spite of most unpromising appearance, they bow the knee before the undistinguished infant, lower than it bent before the haughty Herod at Jerusalem; bow in adoration such as they never rendered to any earthly sovereign. And that act of worship over, they open their treasures and present to Him their gifts: the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh, the rarest products of the East. It was an offering such as any monarch might have had presented by the ambassadors from any foreign prince. When we take the whole course of these men's conduct into account; when we remember that none of the advantages of Jewish birth or education, of an early acquaintance with the Jewish scriptures; when we think of their starting on their long and perilous journey with no other object than making of this single obeisance to the infant Redeemer of mankind; when we look at them standing unmoved, amid all the discouragements of the Jewish metropolis; when we attend them on their solitary way to Bethlehem; when we stand by their side, as beneath that lowly roof they silently worship, and spread out their costly gifts -- we cannot but regard their faith as in many of its features unparalleled in the Gospel narratives; we cannot but place them in the front rank of that goodly company in whose acts the power and the triumph of a simple faith shine forth.
That single act of homage rendered, they return to their own country, and we hear of them no more. They come like spirits, casting no shadow before them; and like spirits they depart; passing away into that obscurity from which they had emerged. But our affection follows them to their native land -- would fain penetrate the secret of their afterlives and deaths. Did these men see, and hear and know more of Jesus? Were they living, when -- after thirty years of profoundest silence, not a rumor of His name going anywhere abroad -- tidings came at last of the words He spake, the deeds He did, the death He died? We would fain believe, so far, the quaint old legend of the middle ages, that connects itself with the fancied resting place of the relics in the Cathedral of Cologne; we would fain believe that they lived to converse with one of the apostles of the Lord, and to receive Christian baptism at his hands. However it may have been, we can scarcely believe that He whose star carried them from their eastern homes to Bethlehem, and whose Spirit prompted the worship they rendered, left them to die in heathen ignorance and unbelief. Let us cherish rather the belief that they who bowed so reverently before the earthly cradle, are now worshiping with a profounder reverence before the heavenly throne.
But what special significance has this incident in the early life of the Redeemer? Why were these men summoned from their distant homes to come so far, to pay that single act of homage to the infant Jesus, and then retire forever from our sight? Why, but that even with the first weak beginnings of the Savior's earthly life, there might be a foretokening of the wide embrace of that kingdom He came to establish; a first fulfilling of those ancient prophecies which had foretold that the Gentiles should come to this light, and kings to the brightness of its rising; that all they from Sheba should come, bringing gold and incense. These eastern Magi were earliest ambassadors from heathen lands, the first shadowy precursors of that great company to be gathered in from the east and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, to sit down with Abraham in the kingdom of the just. In these persons, and in their act, the Gentile world, of which they formed a part, gave an earthly welcome to the Redeemer, and hastened to lay its tribute at His feet. They were in fact -- and this should bind them the closer to our hearts -- they were our representatives at Bethlehem, making for us Gentiles the first expression of our faith, the first offer of our allegiance. Let us rightly follow what they did in our name. First they worshiped, and then they gave the best richest things they had. The gold, the frankincense, the myrrh, had been of little worth had the worship of their heart not gone before and sanctified the gift. But the gift most appropriately followed the worship. First, then let us give ourselves to the Lord, our heart the first oblation that we proffer; for the heart once given the hand will neither be empty nor idle, nor will it grudge the richest thing that it can hold, nor the best service it can render.
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