I feel compelled to ask this question: “How many kings are mentioned in St. Matthew’s account of the nativity?” The answer is two. The Gospel account speaks of King Herod and of the new-born King of the Jews. The other main characters are identified as astrologers or sages depending upon your translation. However, we have come to refer to them as the three kings. We have even assigned them names (Casper, Melchior and Balthazar). However, there is no reference in the Gospel of how many astrologers came to Bethlehem. We are told that they brought three gifts.
If they were following a star to the birthplace of the new king, how did they end up in King Herod’s palace? Well, if you were looking for a king, wouldn’t you start your search in a royal palace?
When they find the child and his mother and father, they fall down in adoration before him. They recognize that this child is more than the son of a carpenter and his wife. Astrologers believed that the great events that took place in the heavens foretold great events in human life. When the star appeared in the heavens, it was a sure sign to them that something significant was about to happen in human history.
Much of what we have come to believe about these mysterious visitors from the East is the stuff of legends and myths. St. Matthew includes this episode to demonstrate that this newborn king came for Jews and for Gentiles. Remember that he is writing for a Jewish community and is using the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures to back up his story.
For me, one of the most significant lines in the story is toward the end when we are told that the sages returned to their homes by a different route. They avoided Herod and the plots of this wily fox. This little detail could mean nothing more than that. However, I have long felt that their encounter with the Christ Child was a life-altering experience, a conversion experience if you will. The difference was evident in more than the route they took. Their meeting with God made Flesh had changed them as well. Indeed, it is the same for all of us. When we meet God in prayer or in the Scriptures or in the Eucharist or in one another, the meeting is bound to change something in us as well.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator