The wise men from the East became the prototype of those seeking answers to the meaning of existence and their life stories when they set out to search for the newborn Jewish King. As the evangelist Matthew writes, they returned home by another ”way”—that is, they were internally transformed after meeting Mary and the Child.
We do not know whether the story of the wise men who set out to honor the newborn King really happened as the evangelist describes it. Many assume that it did. They even try to calculate the exact date of Jesus’ birth based on the star that the magi observed. Biblical scholars generally believe that this was not the case. They assume that Matthew included this story in the account of Jesus’ birth to make it clear from the very beginning who he intends to discuss in the Gospel.
The pagan wise men came first…
A star announces the birth of the child. Although his arrival seems insignificant, taking place on the periphery, hidden from the crowds’ interest, it is so significant that even celestial phenomena testify to it. Those who ask, think, and dig deep will learn, not those who already know everything. The gifts brought by the wise men confess who the born child actually is. The gold refers to his royal dignity, the frankincense worships him as the Son of God, and the myrrh points to his death, the meaning of which the reader learns only at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.
The pagan wise men came to worship Jesus, so he is not here only for the Jews but for all nations. Similarly, in the Gospel of Luke, shepherds, poor, outcast, and somewhat despised people, come to honor the born Messiah. In the Gospel of Matthew, these are the pagans who do not know the true God. So the first people to see the newborn Jesus are the blind and deaf, not who we would expect.
The situation should make us somewhat uneasy, after all. Those who thought they knew God believed they were his good servants and felt they belonged to him, but they failed to stand up to the story; the pagans, who knew nothing about him, did. Only those who sought him found God, not those who already had him. This process of searching should never end. No one will ever know him well enough, understand him well enough, and love him well enough. In the breviary, we pray: We ask you for those who seek you to locate you, and for those who have found you to seek you even more diligently.
The star led the wise men to recognize the birth of the King of the Jews. Therefore, quite logically, they arrived in the central Jewish city and entered the royal palace. Where else, after all, should they look for the King of the Jews? And they discover that Herod’s palace is empty; the newborn king is not there. Apparently, there is a reason to be concerned that something similar might happen to those who seek God today.
What if, after a long search for God, someone decided to peek into a Catholic Church with the hope of meeting God here, and where else but here? Wouldn’t they discover the palace empty? Wouldn’t they find, where they were looking for God, only a few surviving customs? When they look for answers to their life’s questions, will they only discover empty phrases? When they seek acceptance, they find only coldness and disinterest; when they seek the gospel, they find only a few rules into which we have fitted our own lives. Wouldn’t they uncover kitsch instead of beauty, banality instead of depth, and empty words instead of silence?
A restlessness that keeps us awake…
Those tasked with advising the wise had all the resources at their disposal. They knew what the prophet Micah wrote about Bethlehem, they could even quote it precisely: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will rule my people Israel” (Micah 5:1). Yet the word of Scripture did not lead them to the born Messiah. It reminds them of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who also knew everything. They learned about the women who were at the tomb and found it empty, about the angels who claimed that Jesus was alive, and about the additional witnesses who agreed to this (cf. Luke 24:22-24). And yet, instead of running to the tomb, they went to Emmaus—no one really knows why.
Faith in the resurrection of Jesus and faith in God’s coming into this world are apparently something else and something more than just knowing what the Scriptures and the tradition of the Church say about them. This faith is demonstrated through the search in Bethlehem and at the tomb, driven by a restlessness that compels a person to embark on a long journey and prevents them from resting until they have found the one they believe can provide meaning to everything.
Hello. And Bye.