Matthew: We have Seen His Star in the East...

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.  On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.

Matthew 2:9-11a [NRSV]

Pageants and Christmas go together like the proverbial horse and carriage.  Little children can tell the Nativity story in ways that touch hearts – open hearts as well as stone-cold ones.  We had a pageant this year for our family Christmas Eve service.   The combination of Joseph, Mary and 6 little donkeys, an innkeeperess, two shepherds and four fine sheep, three kings with three small camels, and a very fine angel brought smiles to the faces and tears to the eyes. Interwoven with a great narrator and the singing of favorite carols,  it was an evening of warmth and joy.

There is one kink in the standard pageant story, however.  It is for sure and certain that the wise men from the East [the three kings; the magi] did not show up at the manger. The brilliant star broke forth in the night sky at the time of the Messiah’s birth.  The star was a signal to the magi that the baby King had been born.  Their journey on camels over hundreds of miles of desert terrain did not happen overnight.  Matthew indicates that they came into a house—not a stable, and found a child—not a baby.  When the kings do not return to Herod, he sends out his soldiers to “…Bethlehem and all the coast thereof” to slay all of the male children two years of age and under.  How did he arrive at the time-line of two years?  It was ..according to the time he [Herod] had learned from the wise men.

It was a wonderful/horrible time:  a brilliant star guided three kings to the toddler Jesus; an insanely jealous king ordered the slaughter of hundreds of possible messiahs.  The Magi found their Savior.  Herod lost his soul.

So bring Him incense, myrrh and gold

Come, peasant, king, to own Him,

The King of kings salvation brings

Let loving hearts enthrone Him.