The Magi

The Magi
AKA:
Caspar, Bathasar, Melchior
Gaspar, Bathasar, Melchior
The Three Kings
The Three Wise Men
The White One; The Asian One; and The Black One

Today is the feast of the Three Kings. It is the 12th day of Christmas so if you haven't gotten your true love the 12 drummers drumming yet your time is running out. It is the classic date for the Epiphany, The Whip’s Birthday, and time to take the tree down already, and re-discover how big your living room really is.

We celebrated the Epiphany this past Sunday. Everywhere in the world other than the US today is still the Epiphany and a Holy day of Obligation. Epiphany is defined as: a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. In this case an insight of Redemption to the whole world including the gentiles.

As you may know there is nowhere stated in the Bible actually how many Magi there were. We say three because of the three gifts they brought. They’re also not kings in the bible either; they’re simply “Wise Men”; Magi. They are depicted, classically as a White man, an Asian man, and a Black man, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar respectively, symbolizing all the races of the earth. Several churches claim to have the remains of one or more of the Three Kings. In the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas it is said Thomas the apostle baptized the three wise men while in India.

The Magi were probably Persian astrologers, who saw an unprecedented celestial event and attributed this to the birth of the King of Judah based on Hebrew Scripture. Perhaps our Magi were from a remnant of the Jewish population taken to Babylon (Persia) during the time of the prophet Daniel which would explain why they were concerned about the birth of the King of the Jews, and why they did not recognize Herod the Great as that King. Magi were common back then; there were many schools of them in Persia. They were learned men used as court philosophers, scientists and advisors. The root of our word “magic” comes from the word Magi.

Present day astronomers speculate as to what the celestial event the Magi saw actually was, or if it even really happened. There are a few theories; this year, the big hoopla was that it was a conjunction of the major planets Jupiter and Saturn that was happening again, in a once in a lifetime event this Christmas Folk were disappointed when all they saw were two relatively bright stars close together in the southeast. Another theory was it was a supernova in the Andromeda galaxy, which happened around the year 4 BC. Or a series of astronomical events only an astrologer would note.

I tend to believe that last one. What the Magi saw was the retrograde motion of the planet Jupiter (the King Planet to the ancients) around the star Regulus (the King star to the ancients) in the constellation Leo the lion constellation, lion is the symbol of the tribe of Judah. Jupiter circled Regulus three times in 2 BC, a pretty rare event. This was followed by a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus (the King and Queen planets) 9 months later. There’s more, but for a really fascinating analysis of the historical nature of the Bethlehem Star I refer you to: www.bethlehemstar.com.

In any event, the spiritual and theological take away for today is that the Magi and the Epiphany represents the fact that Jesus came for all mankind. God loves us all especially you. Remember, Wise men STILL seek Him...so Have yourself a Merry.........LITTLE CHRISTMAS now.....

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